Minor mistakes

Rockstar2005

Project QL Intern
Dec 9, 2012
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You guys catch, during "Mirror Image", when Sam asked Al how he looked when he was leaping and Al said he didn't know? Then how is it in "Good Morning Peoria" that Al thinks he's leaping b/c he's standing too close to the power line or antenna? How would he even know how it looks? And no, swiss-cheese memory doesn't work here. Even though Al had leaped once after the Peoria episode, Sam clearly explained that your pre-leap memory would return in time.

There's at least 1-3 mistakes in the Dr. Ruth episode. The one scene where Al and Sam are first talking in the hallway. Al states the wrong year (1984, not 1985 which was right). Also, Sam getting mad at Al b/c he wasn't present when Annie first called and not knowing who she was. But Al had already clearly left Sam and Sam seemed pretty aware of it when he left (I believe using the imaging chamber door). Yet when Al comes back a little later, Sam seems to not remember Al leaving only a few minutes earlier. These were clearly writing errors, but the editor should've caught them.

Name some other ones you guys may have caught. I think there were maybe more, but I can't remember them right now.
 
You guys catch, during "Mirror Image", when Sam asked Al how he looked when he was leaping and Al said he didn't know? Then how is it in "Good Morning Peoria" that Al thinks he's leaping b/c he's standing too close to the power line or antenna? How would he even know how it looks? And no, swiss-cheese memory doesn't work here. Even though Al had leaped once after the Peoria episode, Sam clearly explained that your pre-leap memory would return in time.

There's at least 1-3 mistakes in the Dr. Ruth episode. The one scene where Al and Sam are first talking in the hallway. Al states the wrong year (1984, not 1985 which was right). Also, Sam getting mad at Al b/c he wasn't present when Annie first called and not knowing who she was. But Al had already clearly left Sam and Sam seemed pretty aware of it when he left (I believe using the imaging chamber door). Yet when Al comes back a little later, Sam seems to not remember Al leaving only a few minutes earlier. These were clearly writing errors, but the editor should've caught them.

Name some other ones you guys may have caught. I think there were maybe more, but I can't remember them right now.

I expect when Al said he thought he was going to leap, that he wasn't sure what was actually happening and was simply joking with Sam. It was mere coincidence that it actually looked very similar to leaping.

As for the Dr Ruth mistakes, Al didn't say the wrong year, he stated that in 1984 there were however many thousand Annies living in that area. I expect that's the year that the census was taken.
 
As for the Dr Ruth mistakes, Al didn't say the wrong year, he stated that in 1984 there were however many thousand Annies living in that area. I expect that's the year that the census was taken.

The census is taken every 10 years in US...in years ending in 0 so the last census at that point had been in 1980. It was, most likely, simply an error that made it through.
 
You guys catch, during "Mirror Image", when Sam asked Al how he looked when he was leaping and Al said he didn't know? Then how is it in "Good Morning Peoria" that Al thinks he's leaping b/c he's standing too close to the power line or antenna? How would he even know how it looks? And no, swiss-cheese memory doesn't work here. Even though Al had leaped once after the Peoria episode, Sam clearly explained that your pre-leap memory would return in time.
Didn't Bellisario personally write Mirror Image? He may not have been fully aware of the canon of past episodes.
 
Minor Mistakes

I thank everyone who gave input on this topic! :)

Yeah, but I thought most or all shows kept a "bible" that is regularly updated with certain facts, events, etc. One would have to go back and watch all the episodes prior to "Peoria" and see if maybe Sam had described what happens during a leap. Or maybe had done so before first leaping? I don't know. It's not a big deal, but I just think it makes more confusing for the viewer when there's an inconsistency like this, or something that doesn't necessarily add up.



Didn't Bellisario personally write Mirror Image? He may not have been fully aware of the canon of past episodes.
 
We have to remember something that a lot of people don't seem to like to admit.
Sometimes Al doesn't tell the truth!
There are times when he omits things to spare Sam. There are times when he exaggerates. There are times he makes up stories. There are times when he outright lies. For whatever reason. I'm not saying he does it maliciously, it is usually from the best of motives, or at worst for mischief. The only time he does it selfishly is when he tries to get Sam to get Beth back for him.
So when he tells Sam he doesn't know what leaping looks like, he may just be not admitting that he knows.
Just my two cents.
 
All shows do keep a bible with regards to the major characters within the series. It details specific things about their lives, which the writers need to know when they create their scripts. Major things . . . like Sam having a brother in Vietnam that was originally killed, and then later saved through a Leap, etc.

It doesn't cover minor things, like what happens to Al when Sam Leaps, which is when a lot of minor inconsistencies could happen that both writers and producers don't catch (but fans do).

If you really watch the series, Al is standing next to Sam usually whenever he starts to Leap, so he may see the start of what happens to him, but he could be sent into the Imaging Chamber during that process so he never sees it to completion when the Leapee returns. So Al may have some idea, but since he doesn't see the full thing, he may not be able to fully describe it for Sam in Mirror Image.

As for the Annie thing . . . yes, the census is taken every ten years, on a year that ends with a 0. But, even in between those years, Ziggy would have access to birth records, etc, and could easily extrapolate how many babies were named Annie from the time of the 1980 census to that year, and add that number to the census.
 
We have to remember something that a lot of people don't seem to like to admit.
Sometimes Al doesn't tell the truth!
There are times when he omits things to spare Sam. There are times when he exaggerates. There are times he makes up stories. There are times when he outright lies. For whatever reason. I'm not saying he does it maliciously, it is usually from the best of motives, or at worst for mischief. The only time he does it selfishly is when he tries to get Sam to get Beth back for him.
So when he tells Sam he doesn't know what leaping looks like, he may just be not admitting that he knows.
Just my two cents.

Yeah, this is my take on it, too. And I actually do think, based on the Good Morning, Peoria episode, that Al does know what leaping looks, but he's withholding that information from Sam in 'Mirror Image'. By the time Al finally locks onto him in the episode Sam is agitated to the point of being hysterical. So I think maybe Al wants to either shift Sam off the subject or something so as not to exacerbate that.

The same thing comes up with the simo-leaping question. In 'Dreams' Sam says at one point 'remember when we simo-leaped' and Al says no, yet in other episodes Al brings up the simo-leaping. But 'Dreams' is another one where Sam is really in a bad place psychologically so I think Al just doesn't want to reveal information that he thinks might upset Sam even more.
 
Minor Mistakes

Yeah Al does mention the simo-leap at one point, and then at another point he seems to pretend he doesn't know what Sam's talking about. Or maybe he's not pretending? Recall that when Sam leaped back home (The Leap Home), he stated during narration that his "pre-leap memory" was coming back to him, and his memory of his time spent leaping was fading away. So it's likely then that Al really DOESN'T remember leaping into 1945, but only knows it ever happened b/c Gooshie, Tina, Donna, etc had talked to him about it after he and Sam switched back (when Sam leaped into him).

About the leaping thing, Al stated in one episode that when Sam leaps, the imaging chamber just goes blank or the image "shuts off". I dunno. That whole thing is just confusing to me. lol
 
Minor Mistakes

From the FAQ........ still doesn't help. lol But oh well:

19. How come in "Mirror Image," Al states that he has never seen Sam leap out?

This does appear to conflict with Al's statements in at least two other episodes. In "Animal Frat," Al describes a leap-out, complete with sound effects. In "Good Morning Peoria," when Al steps too close to the antenna, his image begins to glow blue--causing him to exclaim, "I'm gonna leap!" Apparently Al has both seen and heard the leap effect before. Why he says he hasn't in "MI" is anyone's guess (there is a theory this is a tip-off that perhaps the events of "MI" only existed in Sam's mind).


RockStar2005
 
From the FAQ........ still doesn't help. lol But oh well:

19. How come in "Mirror Image," Al states that he has never seen Sam leap out?

This does appear to conflict with Al's statements in at least two other episodes. In "Animal Frat," Al describes a leap-out, complete with sound effects. In "Good Morning Peoria," when Al steps too close to the antenna, his image begins to glow blue--causing him to exclaim, "I'm gonna leap!" Apparently Al has both seen and heard the leap effect before. Why he says he hasn't in "MI" is anyone's guess (there is a theory this is a tip-off that perhaps the events of "MI" only existed in Sam's mind).


RockStar2005

Excellent thread! Proof that Al goes "back into the Imaging Chamber" can be seen directly at the end of "M.I.A.," which is the only time in the series (aside from the end of "Dr. Ruth") we don't see Sam directly leaping out. (As far as I remember, anyway.) Al disappears instantly once Sam is gone, because he no longer has a link to that particular year since Sam has left.

We also get to see things from Al's perspective in "Mirror Image" when he walks into the Imaging Chamber to search for Sam without a hologram already established, since Ziggy didn't know Sam's whereabouts. (And if you want to talk about mistakes, Al should never have been looking at himself disappearing in "Shock Theatre" since only the entire hologram around him was disappearing :).)

Of course that doesn't answer the question of whether or not Al actually "sees" the leaping effect or not. I would have to watch "Animal Frat" again, but I can say that my impression from "Good Morning, Peoria" was always that Al saw a cool effect and was so excited about it that he assumed he was leaping.

Perhaps it's a combination of both? In the second season Al was still unable to see through the aura of the leapee that surrounds Sam (which covers when "Animal Frat" aired). And since obviously no one around Sam can see or hear the leaping effect because of the aura's illusion, at the time of the second season when "Good Morning, Peoria" aired, neither would Al. However, at some point Al was able to see Sam for who he was (I think Season 3) and I believe only at that point would he then be able to see and hear the leaping effect.

So, my theory is that in "Good Morning, Peoria," Al was just excited, and in "Mirror Image" he was only being facetious since his character usually acts careless with such details.

In addition, it's always been my impression that we the audience see the leaping effect in slow motion. A good example to back this up is in "Revenge" when Alia leaps out and it takes a few seconds for the whole process, yet the shotgun shell is still able to pass through the empty space between the switch of Alia and Angel, which should be instantaneous.
 
Speaking of minor mistakes,there are often anachronisms in the props used on the sets,for example in "Genesis" the clock radio is from the mid to late 60's,the tv set showing "Howdy Doody" is even later, and at the bar when Sam goes over to talk with Al while Pat Boones "Friendly Persuasion" is playing,you can see Seeburg D-3WA 200 seletion wall boxes when the jukebox the bar is using (a 1953 Seeburg W) is only a 100 selection model.

I guess they figured most folks wouldnt notice.