Goofs

Sue Ellen comes home from work and puts her purse on the kitchen island. In the next scene at the office, the secretary goes through Sue Ellen's things, finds her driver's license in her purse, and discovers that Sue Ellen is 17.

When Sue Ellen and Bryan talk after he gives her and the kids a ride home, Kenny yells that Zach and Melissa are fighting over the last snowball. He says it's the last food in the house. The next morning, Swell pours a huge bowl of Cap'n Crunch for the kids to share.

The film is set in summer 1990, but the Q.E.D. report on Sue Ellen's computer screen lists March 22,1989, as the date. The posters in the Clown Dog advertise a circus on Friday April 20th. In 1989, April 20th was not on a Friday.

When Sue Ellen and Bryan are talking on their beach date under the pier, the tide is out. Then when they kiss, they are standing in an inch of water.

When Kenny goes to the window after Walter falls from the roof, he clearly has two rips in the seat of his jeans, just below the pockets. Later, at the hospital, he only has one rip in his jeans, much lower on the left leg.

Sue Ellen's alarm clock goes off at 5:30am. When the scene goes wide, there is broad daylight with no sign of "morning pink" coming through the windows. Bright sun rays on various items in the bedroom indicate that the sun is considerably above the horizon. In Los Angeles, the sun never rises earlier than 5:40 am.At most, the sun would be just breaking the horizon.

When Brian and Sue Ellen are sitting on the beach waiting for the grunion run, Brian says that grunion fish males and females do not mate at the same time. In reality, the female grunion buries her eggs and waits for the male to wrap around her and release his sperm before abandoning the eggs.

When Sue Ellen arrives at the hospital after Walter breaks his leg, he has already been treated. When she arrives she tells them that she is his mother, and never does any paperwork. Outside of life-threatening situations, minors cannot get health care without parental permission.

All the kids in the house are under the age of 18. No service would be done unless there was someone 18 years or older present.

The film is set in 1990. At the office where Sue Ellen works, a calendar on the wall reads June, but the days don't correspond to actual dates in June 1990.

Kenny comments that Mrs. Sturak was a "great babysitter." Kenny was gone by the time Mrs. Sturak arrived and she died before he returned. Although, he had never met her, he was probably being sympathetic for her passing and providing support for Sue Ellen.

When Sue Ellen goes to send a fax, the fax machine only has a power cable connected. The empty phone jacks, where cables should go, are clearly visible.

After the babysitter arrives, Sue Ellen lies on her bed talking on the phone. The tip of a brown shoe appears in her doorway. It's Melissa, waiting for her cue to walk into the bedroom.

When Sue Ellen is on her bed talking to Nicole on the phone, she colors purple stripes on a shirt in a fashion ad. When the kids come in to complain about the babysitter, the stripes are not yet colored in.

In California, drivers under 21 have their picture on the right side of the license. Sue Ellen's picture is on the left.

An obvious stunt double is visible as Walter falls off the roof.

The calendar in Sue Ellen's office is from June 1989 not June 1990.

When the drag queens steal the Buick, and the shot cuts back to the kids, Kenny says "Liza?" while Sue Ellen's mouth clearly says "Shit." However, the audio has them both saying "Liza?"

When Sue Ellen asks Kenny to turn the music down, she says "When are you going to start helping me, you lazy little punk?", but mouths the word "prick". Director Stephen Herek wanted to avoid any chance of the movie getting an R rating, so he had the line dubbed.

When Kenny shoots the dishes with a BB gun, it makes the sound and causes the same amount of damage as a shotgun.

At the beginning of the movie, Kenny arrives home with a marijuana plant in a bag, which he puts on his window. The pot is clearly plastic. The plant falls down and makes the sound of a ceramic pot breaking.

When Melissa bats during Little League practice, her metal bat sounds like a wooden bat.

When Carolyn and Bruce are looking at Sue Ellen's driver's license, the street name on the address says Bent Road. The city of Los Angeles has no roads called Bent Road.

Several times, the children refer to being on summer vacation. However, the computer at the office reads March 22, 1989, and the tickets Sue Ellen gets as a gift read April 1st, 1990.

Numerous characters refer to Sue Ellen as a 17-year-old. The film is set during a 1990 Los Angeles summer, and the birth date printed on her driver's license is December 19, 1973, so Sue Ellen is actually 16.

It is not clear who wrote the names on the daily chore chart. But it makes no sense that Mrs. Sturak would call Sue Ellen "Swell".

Rose can't stand Carolyn yet she doesn't fire her despite being the VP.

It's very odd that Brian thinks nothing of it when Carolyn says Sue Ellen's name during the office scene.

Rose tells Sue Ellen that the restaurant's naked shrimp is "to die from" as if that would be a good thing (the usual expression one would use to recommend an item would of course be "to die for").