These 5 shows were very popular (But how did their bad continuity impact the series?)

Continuity can be one of the most important aspects of a television show. The foundation aspects of characters and world-building helps the characters understand each other, and the audience has a stronger grasp of what to anticipate from the show they have signed up for.

There are certainly times when the show's evolution has allowed the audience to track character development and the growth that has come from it. However, in other aspects, the series may imply something and then make massive changes because they came up with a new idea or wanted to find a way to keep a character on the show when they have outgrown the storyline.

Many popular shows have struggled with continuity issues because, for as much as their new idea might inspire a lot of new ground to uncover and offers new fun to be had, the audience can be left questioning if the writers understand their own show, given how such details were never revealed before, and it can also come across as if the characters themselves have lost track of their own history.

Fan favorite comedies and dramas have been guilty of this various times. How many times have you watched a show trying to unravel a plot hole that was created just because a show wanted to tell a joke or justify a reason that a fan-favorite character had yet to graduate from high school?

While many shows over the decades have fallen into these traps, there are times where these continuity issues have played into the shows and been used in significant matters to help tell a story, while others have been ignored and left behind in favor of pretending the original details presented never existed in the first place.