Goofs for
Pleasantville (1998) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: In the final scenes with the '90's mother crying in the kitchen her eye make-up goes from messy to less messy and then back to the previous level of messy.
  
  
• Continuity: The flag outside the school has 48 stars, the correct number for 1958. The one atop the fire truck has 50 stars. By 1958, it was well known that the 50-star flag would be introduced soon, and 50-star flags were available, but it still seems unlikely that an official vehicle would be flying an unofficial flag (especially since the official flag in 1959 had 48 stars until July 3rd, and 49 stars from July 4th until the end of the year).
  
  
• Continuity: When Jennifer and David are fighting over the remote control before the Pleasantville Marathon starts at 6:30, they momentarily go to the Prevue Channel. The time shown on that channel is 1:16, not 6:30.
  
  

• Continuity: When a rock is thrown through the window of the soda shop, it goes through the face of the woman in the painting. A moment later, another item is thrown, also breaking the window in a different place, but the woman's face is intact again.
  
  
• Continuity: At the end of the film when David/Bud returns to his own world, his hair changes from when he is in the living room to when he is in the kitchen with his mom.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Various inconsistencies and plot holes (stopped clocks, phantom opposing basketball teams) with the real world are consistent with Pleasantville being a TV world, and hence consistent with the movie.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The people of Pleasantville know the names of colors, just as a colorblind person would; they see them all in black-and-white, and don't really understand the concept.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the TV repairman talks to David and Jennifer from the television after they've just been transported to Pleasantville, behind him, the test pattern's position on the screen is slightly different in the close-ups. This was done deliberately "to indicate Knott's changing attitudes towards Bud and Mary Sue".
  
  
• Continuity: On their way to school on the first day, Jennifer/Mary Sue gets angry and pulls her hair clips out - just before Skip pulls up in his car. After Skip drives away her hair is suddenly clipped back again.
  
  
• Factual errors: The closing credits end with "Dedicated to: J.T. Walsh 1943-1997". However, J.T. Walsh died in 1998.
  
  
• Continuity: While Mary Sue is explaining sex to her mother, her hair changes between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: The announcer in the beginning states that the Pleasantville marathon was 24 hours long, starting at 6:30 PM. The announcer at the end states that the marathon will end at noon tomorrow.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Bud pulls up in the fire truck to put out the tree fire, he pulls a charged hose from the back of the truck. Hoses in the back of an engine are not connected to the engine's pump, and water would not flow until the pump was engaged.
  
  
• Continuity: When Bud is about to go to work for the first time, Mary Sue complains to him about having to wear falsies on her date. When she's talking to her date at the restaurant, the falsies are gone. She's wearing them again right after her date is over and she walks into the house.
  
  
• Continuity: When David looks through the window down at his mother loading her car there is one shutter half down. Seen from outside all shutters are up.
  
  
• Continuity: After arriving in Pleasantville, Jennifer looks over at a calendar on a desk. When they are called to breakfast there is a wide shot of the room and the desk does not have the calendar on it.
  
  
• Continuity: In the bowling alley sequence, the scene begins with two or three 7-10 splits being picked up. Later in the same scene when the mayor is speaking with the scores behind him there are no 8 pin spares listed, only 9 pin spares.
  
  
• Continuity: When Bud goes back to the real world at the end of the movie he fades out of the TV screen, the reflection of the room is visible, but his girlfriend and mother are not.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the very end of the movie, George Parker and Betty Parker are sitting on a bench. The camera pans from George to Betty, then back to where George was sitting, and he "turns into" Mr. Johnson. If you look at Betty before the camera goes back to Mr. Johnson, you can see her bounce. This is from Mr. Johnson sitting down in George's place.
  
  
• Continuity: When Mary Sue is with her date at the restaurant and she leaves to go to the ladies room, her hair is styled differently than when she is inside the ladies room.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The year is 1958. When Bud and his girlfriend are driving down to lover's lane, she turns on the radio. The song that comes on is Etta James' "At Last". That song wasn't released until 1961.
  
  
• Continuity: When the soda shop is wrecked and it is discovered that the juke box still works one of the boys unplugs it after Buddy Holly's "Rave On" starts. When Bud says it's okay and plugs the juke box back in the song starts again, which would not have happened with a circa 1958 juke box. It would have started up where the needle was left by the unplugging.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Dave Brubeck Quartet track, Take 5, (which is played during the diner scene where Bud is asked how he knew about fire) was released in 1959. The next track that is played is Miles Davis's So What was recorded in 1959 a year after the action is meant to be taking place.
  
  

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