34 Massive TV Show Errors, Plot Holes, And Inconsistencies

Ajani Bazile-DutesSun, October 18, 2026 at 12:31 AM UTC

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We asked people of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what mistakes they noticed on TV shows. Here are some of their eye-opening responses:1. In the pilot of The Nanny, the Sheffields' home is slightly different than from the rest of the show. For example, the stairs and front door switched sides.

—rlstahr

2. In Season 1 of The King of Queens, Carrie mentions that she and Doug knew each other in junior high. But a flashback in Season 2 shows them meeting for the first time at a nightclub when Doug was a bouncer.

—goddess1000

3. In Pretty Little Liars, Season 3, Episode 13, takes place during Halloween of the liars' senior year of high school. Season 5, Episode 12, is revealed to be during Thanksgiving of the liars' senior year. This means there are 48 episodes, spanning two seasons, that took place between Halloween and Thanksgiving of the same year. This has become known among the PLL fandom as the "Never-Ending November." Obviously, there were tons of timeline inconsistencies because of this, the biggest one being that there are more episodes during this month-long timeline than there are days in a month.

Freeform

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

4. In the first episode of Living Single, Khadjiah, Régine, and Synclaire's brownstone apartment is totally different from the one they live in for the rest of the series.

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

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5. In Desperate Housewives, there are contradicting flashbacks in Season 2 and Season 8 about the timeline of Tom and Lynette moving onto Wisteria Lane. In Season 2's flashback, Lynette is early in her first pregnancy on the day she and Tom move into their house. She's not showing yet, and they've just learned they're having twins. In Season 8's flashback, which takes place BEFORE they move into the house, Lynette is obviously much further along in her pregnancy, and they already know they are having twins.

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

6. In the Gossip Girl pilot episode, Chuck said something about taking his mom's pills, but later in the show it’s revealed that she died during childbirth.

The CW

—eval49fbf33ef

7. Jessie had a stepbrother, Eric, on Saved by the Bell, who disappeared after a two-part episode called "Wicked Stepbrother."

—t49e12a934

8. In Friends, when Monica was picking out her wedding dress, she tried on one dress, and then when she found it again on the rack, it was clearly a completely different dress.

—haleyw4ae66dcb9

9. Carrie had a sister named Sara in the early episodes of The King of Queens. She disappeared sometime in the first season and was never mentioned again.

"She was part of the main cast and lived in the house with them. It was also a double meaning for the show’s title, as Doug was the 'king' and Carrie and Sara were the 'queens.'"

—joaqamole

10. In Season 8 of Desperate Housewives, Detective Chuch Vance tells Gaby that her missing stepfather now has two other young stepdaughters. But when Susan meets the family a few episodes later, there only appears to be one daughter.

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

11. In the pilot episode of Riverdale, Betty tells Veronica that Riverdale High opened in 1941 and in the season finale, the town celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding. This means the latest year it could be in Season 1 is 2016. Season 1 starts at the beginning of their sophomore year, which means they'd be in the graduating class of 2019.

The CW

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

12. But after all the characters graduate in Season 5, there's a 7-year time jump that starts in 2021. This would mean that seasons 1–4 actually took place between the 2011–2014 school years, and that they graduated in 2014.

The CW

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

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13. Family Matters, the youngest daughter Judy Winslow was last seen as the flower girl at her grandmother's wedding in Season 4. For the rest of the show, the Winslows acted as if they only had ever had two children instead of three.

ABC / CBS

—jmc289

14. The story of how Susan found evidence of Karl cheating on Desperate Housewives changes briefly in Season 5. In multiple episodes, it's stated that Susan discovered lipstick on Karl's shirt. However, in the episode after Edie Britt's death, Susan says that after Edie warned her about Karl's infidelities, she found his secretary's bra in his car.

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

15. In Desperate Housewives, Susan's house was burned down at the end of Season 2 and then was rebuilt as the exact same house.

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

16. Also, years after that fire on Desperate Housewives, Susan points out a stick she used to measure Julie's height as a kid, which realistically wouldn't have survived the fire.

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

17. In an episode of Pretty Little Liars, Aria answered her phone and it was clearly upside down.

Freeform

—madisong43ff5927f

18. The main characters on The O.C. did their junior year of high school twice (seasons 1 and 2) and it was never acknowledged.

Fox

—shannona4f5e1d132

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19. On That '70s Show, Donna had a younger sister, Tina, that made an appearance once in the first season. Later in the show, Donna was referred to as an only child.

Fox

—fritzmariak

20. The timeline of That '70s show is from May 17, 1976 to December 31, 1979. However, all eight seasons had a holiday episode which implied another year had passed.

Fox

—echam4

Fox21. In Riverdale. Polly's twins, Juniper and Dagwood, were infants for, like, three years.

The CW

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

22. In the last season of Jane the Virgin, Petra’s mother was in the hospital wearing a breathing mask in one shot and then it was gone in the next.

The CW

—jamayap

23. In Season 1, Episode 6 of The Good Place, there was a scene where Janet was visibly being handed a stack of papers by a crew member.

—smackiegirl

24. In Season 2 of Desperate Housewives, Susan meets her biological dad, who tells her that once his wife is okay with it, he and Susan can have a relationship. However, he is never seen or mentioned again.

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

25. Riverdale has an unclear timeline, but Season 3, Episode 15, where FP celebrates his 50th birthday, takes place at some point in the 2010s. But based on a flashback episode earlier that season, he was a high school junior in the early '90s. So basically, it's impossible for him to be 50 at any point in the 2010s.

The CW

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

26. In the Vitamin D episode of Glee, the girls from the New Directions had to compete through song against the boys. When the girls were getting the vitamins from Terri there were two extra girls standing with them who were not in the New Directions or in their performance.

Fox

—haylimarie1229

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27. In Season 4 of Glee, Joe and Sugar were inexplicably no longer members of glee club. They come back in the Season 4 finale to perform with them at Regionals, but then they are gone again in Season 5.

Fox

—lizzieannl

28. Topanga had a sister named Nebula in Season 1 of Boy Meets World, but she was never mentioned again, and later on Topanga was referred to as an only child.

—Zarina Tolagayeva

29. When Brittany and Santana were talking by the lockers in Season 2, Episode 22 of Glee, Brittany’s bangs would constantly switch from being clipped back to flowing loose.

Fox

—marthareubendt

30. In Season 4 of Saved by the Bell, Jessie and Kelly were missing without explanation for half the season. During those episodes, a new character named Tori befriended the other characters and dated Zack. In the graduation episode, Jessie and Kelly returned, but Tori was gone.

—jenniferk55

31. In Season 1, Episode 7 of Riverdale, Fred and FP talk about being in a band together during their senior year of high school. However, in Season 3, Alice states that members of the Midnight Club were no longer friends after playing Gryphons and Gargoyles their junior year.

The CW

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

32. Also, in Season 1 of Riverdale, FP says that Fred started the band in senior year, but Alice also states in Season 3 that Fred gave up music in junior year after the events of the Midnight Club.

The CW

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

33. ALSO in Season 1 of Riverdale, Fred says that the band he started his Senior Year was called The Fred Heads, but in Season 3, we see that during Fred's junior year, the Fred Heads had already been formed.

The CW

—Ajani Bazile-Dutes

34. And finally, Sabrina the Teenage Witch started when Sabrina turned 16, yet there are four seasons of her in high school, with each season having a Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day episode implying that another year had passed. She doesn’t start college until Season 5, which would mean she was in high school as a 20-year-old.

ABC / The WB

—fivecardcharlie

What are some other TV show errors, plot holes, or inconsistencies? Tell us in the comments or use the anonymous form below:

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