10 Notorious Anachronisms in Television Shows

Everyone makes mistakes, and TV shows are no exception. From an accidental coffee cup to an anachronistic Colonel Sanders, these errors often appear in places and times they clearly don’t belong.

1. Game of Thrones

The last season of Game of Thrones was bound to spark endless discussions. However, HBO likely didn’t anticipate that a significant portion of the online buzz would focus on a coffee cup mistakenly placed on a table in front of Daenerys during a banquet scene in the season 8 episode “The Last of the Starks.” After widespread ridicule, HBO removed the cup digitally. Apparently, they prefer juice.

2. and 3. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess

Fans of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spinoff Xena: Warrior Princess weren’t expecting strict historical accuracy. These 1990s action-packed shows embraced a playful approach, often blending characters from vastly different time periods. For instance, Hercules encounters baby Jesus in season 3's “A Star to Guide Them” and later befriends Vlad the Impaler, who lived centuries apart.

In one episode of Xena, the warrior princess hears the tale of Spartacus from the legendary poet Homer. While scholars debate whether Homer was a single person or a collective of writers, his/their works, the Iliad and Odyssey, are among the earliest Western literary texts, placing their creation long before Spartacus’s rebellion against Rome.

4. M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H, a series about a medical unit during the Korean War, is filled with historical inaccuracies. While the war occurred from 1950 to 1953, the show ran for 11 years, leading to several errors. For example, characters reference the movie Godzilla, which debuted in 1954. In season 4, Radar reads a 1970s issue of The Avengers, and in season 5’s “Movie Tonight,” his John Wayne impression references McLintock!, a film released in 1963.

5. Hogan’s Heroes

The WWII comedy Hogan’s Heroes, centered on POWs in a German camp, features Colonel Robert Hogan claiming to have worked at the Pentagon. However, the show begins in February 1942, when the Pentagon was still under construction and didn’t open until January 1943. While not as glaring as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, it’s still historically inaccurate.

6. Downton Abbey

Sharp-eyed viewers enjoyed spotting historical errors in the Masterpiece series Downton Abbey, which covers the period from 1912 to 1925. For instance, a television antenna appeared in one outdoor scene. More notably, a plastic water bottle was spotted in a 2014 promotional image. This mistake reportedly led Downton Abbey producers to prohibit modern items like water bottles, contemporary watches, jewelry, and even modern undergarments on set.

7. Mad Men

The creators of Mad Men were meticulous about maintaining its 1960s backdrop, but occasional mistakes still surfaced. For example, in the season 3 episode "The Color Blue," the set included the first three books of W.E.B. Griffin’s The Corps series, which were published in 1986, 1987, and 1990—decades after the show’s timeline.

8. Little House on the Prairie

Michael Landon’s 1970s hairstyle wasn’t the only anachronism in Little House on the Prairie. In season 7’s “Dearest Albert, I'll Miss You,” Albert, Laura Ingalls’s adoptive brother, corresponds with a girl who claims to be her school’s basketball team captain—a sport that hadn’t been invented at the time.

Season 8 took a humorous approach by including a cameo of a character resembling Colonel Sanders, who wouldn’t open his first restaurant until decades later, partly because he hadn’t even been born yet.

9. Carnivàle

The critically acclaimed historical drama Carnivàle, which aired for two seasons on HBO and won five Emmy Awards, is set during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression era of 1934 to 1935. The story revolves around Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), a farm boy with mysterious abilities who joins a traveling carnival. Ben is often seen with a Zippo lighter. While Zippo lighters were introduced in 1933, they didn’t gain widespread popularity until World War II, making its appearance somewhat anachronistic.

10. Better Call Saul

The Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul begins in 2002. However, in the season 2 episode “Inflatable,” a green Kia Soul—a model that debuted in 2008—appears in the background. The only plausible explanation? Time travel.