Screw-ups on television

Actually, there was a flubb in the dialogue, according to the creators of the show. (I'm a regular reader/poster on the official website's forum.) When they were shopping the effects for the episode, the CGI fellows told them, "we could do F-16s if you want, but we already have F-18s ready to go". So the creators went with the F-18s and said they made changes in the script, but perhaps the changes didn't get to the actors on the set.

The CGI models were very good--better than the MiG-29s that I remember from an ALIAS episode a couple years ago.

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922 Pilot's Log:

"Old Timer" wrote

In this case, yes. Remember, this isn't a documentary, it's a drama. The exact shape or type of plane is irrelevant to the story. It's like seeing a convertible with the top down in the background of a scene supposedly in New York in mid-winter.

KL

Your mistake is to watch that crud. Go to the library and get a good WWII documentary instead. Jerry 47

Hey, I ~live~ in New York State and if the temperature gets over fifty and is sunny and clear, you sometimes see a top-down convertible. Heck I've even seen some motorcycles out in January, as long as there's no wind.

The CGI ~was~ exceptional in that episode. It held up to slo-mo and looked really clear.

The real bitch is the various news reporters getting the id of military machines wrong, we had one here a couple of years ago calling a slow flying F111 (wings fully extended) a Mirage. If you are going to give it a name do your homework and get it right, i reckon.

My point exactly. If the CGI artists changed the aircraft type, then script rewrite should have noted it and made the appropriate changes as well.

Nope, no need. It's only a very small minority who would notice, a lesser minority who would care, and most of the sheep just sit there, believing everything they're told. If it's on NBC tonight, it must be true.

RobG

I get the feeling a TV producer just wants a shot of any airplane when they are talking about any airplane story. TV producers think that if they themselves can't tell one airplane from another, then hey, the dumb viewers certainly can't. That is SUCH a common problem.

Also, it is getting to be that way about rockets. I was watching a program on space race history. They were talking about Saturn five, and illustrated the segment with a V-2 launch sequence!

Like watching SBDs divebomb the Arizona at Pearl?

Yeah, twice with people I have been disputing something in the news, and they said "it must be true, or the government wouldn't let them print it (or show it on TV news). Wow, I was completely unaware that we had so much government censorship! :-)

On RARE occassions, TV producers DO correct factual errors.

The first season of "JAG" featured all US Navy/Marine aircraft in the opening credits except for a shot of US Army AH-64 Apache helicopters flying in formation. I noticed that the second season featured essentially the same opening credit scenes except that the Apaches had been replaced by Marine AH-1 Cobras. Seems like someone pointed out the original error and it was actually corrected.

;^)

Martin

Those dolts must have been related to that thirty-something yuppie-ish woman, who while being interviewed on the news, regarding the privatization of Social Security...opined that she should not have to worry about planning and preparing for her *own* future, and that the Government should handle that responsibility. (...and these people celebrate "independence" every July 4th...lol).

There's some outfit that sells a noisy B-17 alarm clock & a noisy AH-64 Apache alarm clock. The B-17's OK, but the Apache clock has a nameplate saying something stupid like "snake driver", like it's supposed to have a Cobra on it.

I remember a local news report a few years ago about a small plane crash where the reporter called the a/c a "single-engined Piper Cessna".

I get a kick out of sound effects for helos. They nearly always idle the engine noise down when they land, & nearly all turbine helos sound just like Bell 47s! Of course, I remember an ep of "Magnum, PI" where the magneto failed on TC's Hughes 500 too.

Yes, and all passengers in choppers can talk to each other just like they are on the ground. No noise at all! Never happened in my 35 years of flying in Canadian Coast Guard choppers!

Bob Boudreau Canada

This is common to just about *any* scene in the air in movies, TV, etc., be it civil aviation, or military.

But...very few are as absurd as "Top Gun", when Tom Cruise, and Anthony Edwards; while in the throes of multi-G maneuvers against those dastardly "MiG-28's"; are carrying on a normal light-hearted, joking conversation; no shortage of breath, no grunting...etc.

"Old Timer" wrote

If it mattered one whit to the progress of the actual story they were trying to present on this fictionalized drama, they might have. . .

KL