"The Big Bash", a Fairly OddParents episode featuring Remy Buxaplenty...
...was mistakenly aired before his actual reintroduction, "Remy Rides Again".
Many television shows, including those produced by Nickelodeon, often have episodes airing in a different order than they were originally produced. While this is not always a problem, since children's television shows do not usually have serialized storytelling (with the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise being one of the notable exceptions), there have been instances where an episode was mistakenly aired before one that was supposed to have come earlier, which resulted in a continuity error that would not have been there had the earlier-produced episode aired first. This page is a list of instances in Nickelodeon shows where episodes were mistakenly aired or even produced in the wrong order, creating plot holes. This also includes instances where the episodes are shown in an incorrect order on the DVD sets.
Nicktoons[]
- "Doug Bags a Neematoad", the intended first episode, premiered as the second episode on August 18, 1991, with the intended second episode, "Doug Can't Dance" / "Doug Gets Busted", instead airing first a week earlier.
- "Pre-School Daze", the first episode in production order for Rugrats' eighth season (aired on April 10, 2004), is about Angelica and Susie's first day of preschool. However, it ended up airing over two years after "Hello Dilly", a later-produced episode set at the preschool (aired on March 9th).
- Another Season 8 episode, "Sweet Dreams" (aired on September 13, 2003), has Chas and Kira announce that they're going into the coffee-shop business, complete with a look at the Java Lava before its remodeling. However, a later episode set at the Java Lava, "The Fun Way Day", aired over a year earlier on February 23, 2002. Even worse, "Sweet Dreams", despite obviously taking place earlier chronologically, was placed after "The Fun Way Day" in production order.
- The Season 1 DVD set uses an incorrect order that does not match the season's production order or the order the episodes actually aired. In the order used by the DVD set, "Canned", the episode in which Rocko starts working at Kind of a Lot o' Comics at the end (and was actually aired as the series premiere along with its partner episode, "A Sucker For the Suck-O-Matic", on September 18, 1993), is shown after the later episode "Power Trip" (which premiered on October 10th). Also, "Bedfellows", an episode in which Heffer Wolfe's family appears, is placed before their actual introductory episode, "Who's for Dinner?", on the DVD set. (Contrary to popular belief, these episodes actually did premiere in the correct order when the season was originally airing.)
- Mr. Simmons becomes the kids' teacher, replacing Miss Slovak, in the aptly-named "New Teacher", aired on September 22, 1997. However, an earlier episode with Miss Slovak, "Arnold Saves Sid", aired less than a month later on October 13th.
- Lorenzo's introductory episode, "Rich Kid" (aired on December 28, 1998), was aired after his only other speaking role, "Arnold's Room" (aired on September 9th of the same year).
- Lola Caricola is introduced in the episode "Sweet and Lola" (aired on October 23, 1999). However, she made a brief appearance in "Gorilla My Dreams", which did air later (May 14, 2001), but immediately precedes her introductory episode in production order. As a result, the show's rerun rotation on The '90s Are All That (seen from 2012 to 2015) and the Season 3 DVD set mistakenly placed this episode in which Lola briefly appears before her actual introduction.
- Although "The Big Day", in which Ray marries Noelani Makani, was the series' final episode in both production and airing order, the episodes that immediately preceded it, "New Girl in Town" and "After Shocked", feature Noelani as Otto and Reggie's new stepmother, thereby placing them after "The Big Day" chronologically.
- In the fifth season, Remy Buxaplenty is officially reintroduced in the episode "Remy Rides Again", aired on May 12, 2005. Additionally, the episode ends with Juandissimo Magnifico, who had made several solo appearances after their debut episode from three seasons earlier, being reinstated as Remy's godparent. However, Remy and Juandissimo's next appearance, "The Big Bash", was aired three months earlier (February 18, 2005). As a result, not only did Remy's return come out of nowhere for the viewers, but there initially seemed to be no explanation for why he and Juandissimo were back together.
- The episode "Tak: The Hideous New Girl" was intended to be the season finale of the first season; instead, the preceding episode, "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff" / "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom" ended up airing after it.
- "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever" was the last episode produced for the second season, but it ended up airing as the season premiere, with the season's other episodes not being seen until their inclusion on the Horrible Holiday Cheer DVD.
- The show's second episode, "Snapmobile" / "Rudy's Date" / "Future Zone", premiered as the show's fourth episode, despite the second segment being the first time Rudy brings Penny into ChalkZone. (To be fair, this was not the case on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, where "Rudy's Date" was the third ChalkZone short to be produced and aired.)
- In the episode "Beach Party Mummy" (aired on September 19, 2003), Libby Folfax changes her hairstyle and decides to keep it that way for the rest of the series. However, two episodes featuring Libby's new look, "A Beautiful Mine" and "Sorry, Wrong Era", were aired earlier (on August 1st and September 5th, respectively). Further adding to the confusion, those two episodes, along with three later-aired episodes, "Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion", "Holly Jolly Jimmy" and "Love Potion #976/J", all come immediately before "Beach Party Mummy" in production order.
- "The League of Villains" (aired on June 18, 2005) features Baby Eddie and Grandma Taters, whose respective introductory episodes, "Clash of the Cousins" and "One of Us", were not aired until June 20, 2005, and January 24, 2006, respectively.
- Furthermore, the special ends with the titular League of Villains, which includes Eustace Strych, Professor Calamitous, and Beautiful Gorgeous, being stranded in the Mesozoic Era. However, Eustace appears in "King of Mars", and the latter two characters appear in "My Big Fat Spy Wedding"; not only were both episodes also aired later (on November 25, 2006, and July 22, 2005, respectively), but they also both come after "The League of Villains" in production order.
- "Memory Blank" is meant to be the first episode of the second season, with it being the episode where Danny officially gets the emblem on his costume, and was aired as such. However, both versions of the Season 2 DVD set mistakenly place it in the middle of the season.
- "Urban Jungle", the sixth episode produced for the third season, was the first one to air, on October 9, 2006, with the rest of the season not airing until July 2007. As a result, viewers learned that Vlad Plasmius becomes mayor of Amity Park (thanks to a billboard mentioning him as such in "Urban Jungle") months before seeing the intended season premiere, "Eye for an Eye", in which Vlad was elected at the end.
- "A Better Marf Trap" is meant to be the introduction episode of Marf, as shown by the fact that it is the second segment of the first episode in production order. Confusingly, it didn't even air on television at all, instead only being released on DVD and later on Noggin and Paramount+.
- In the episode "How to Train Your Marf", Robot and Monster are shown driving a blimp, despite the fact that the episode where they first buy the blimp, "The Blimp", was aired the very next day.
- Harvey's little sister, Michelle, is born in the episode "The New Bugaboo", which premiered on June 13, 2016. However, the two-part episode "Steampunks", which immediately precedes "The New Bugaboo" in production order, was aired over a week later, on the 23rd and the 24th.
- The episode "Potty Mouth" (aired on June 14, 2017) reveals that Lisa Loud is actually bald (due to an experiment gone wrong) and wears a wig, a fact that comes as a surprise to her siblings. However, a later-produced episode, "Room with a Feud", which again shows that Lisa wears a wig, was aired almost a month earlier (May 17th).
- "Driver's Dread" (aired on June 17, 2022) ends with Leni Loud finally learning to drive and getting her driver's license. However, the very next episodes, "Bummer Camp" and "Sleepstakes", both of which show Leni driving Vanzilla, were mistakenly aired a week earlier.
- "Bee in a Jar" ends with Brian's sister Chris getting a job with Pickleton's local wrecking crew. In the later episode "Space Shippers", she is shown driving a bulldozer when she comes to pick up Brian and Clara, saying she came straight from work. However, "Bee in a Jar" was ultimately the last episode to air, on May 26, 2022, with "Space Shippers" airing over a month earlier (April 21st)
Nick Jr. shows[]
- "The Sweetest Thing", the third episode produced for the first season, was the first one to air, on August 24, 2015, with the intended first episode not airing until May of 2016.
- The episode "The Pirate Genie" was originally intended to be the season finale of the second season; instead, the episode before it, "Bungle in the Jungle" / "The Mysterious Tower" ended up airing after it.
- "Sir Clod" / "Up All Knight", the second episode produced for the first season, was the first one to air, on February 6, 2017, with the intended first episode not airing until June that same year.