Goofs for
That Thing You Do! (1996) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: At the Play Tone reception, Lenny can be seen holding the record high after being seen lowering it.
  
  
• Continuity: The replacement bass player's right hand when he meets The Wonders.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The cymbals in the drumkit bear the name "Sabian," a brand that did not exist in the 1960s.
  
  

• Anachronisms: The video switcher master control panel seen in the Hollywood TV studio control room is an early Grass Valley model. The Grass Valley company did not make such equipment until 1968.
  
  
• Anachronisms: No Wisconsin police department had cars with red and blue lights until the mid 1980s.
  
  
• Continuity: At the talent show, during the performance by "The Legends of Brass", the guy in the gold turtleneck and the guy in the orange shirt keep switching positions.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The color cameras at the City of Broadcasting were Philips/Norelco Plumbicon units, model PC-60 or PC-70. The PC-60 was introduced in 1965; the more common PC-70 replaced it in 1967.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At least one color TV at the appliance store, seen showing a Cap'n Crunch commercial, was not made until the late 1960s. Some of the TV sets and appliances are much older than 1964, but appliance stores often sold trade-ins in that era.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The RCA transistor radio hanging from the mirror in the camper was made after 1968.
  
  
• Continuity: When Faye and Guy are kissing at the end of the movie, the weather changes from an overcast-type lighting to a bright sunshine each time they change camera angles.
  
  
• Continuity: At the Mercyhurst College Talent Show, right after the song when the emcee is saying "Oh, my goodness!", in the back you can see Skitch Patterson has stood up, but half a second later, you see him sitting when Jimmy tells him, "That was way too fast, man."
  
  
• Continuity: When Diane Dane is doing sound check in Wisconsin, her arm jumps about between shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: When leaving the Wisconsin State Fair and learning that their record has hit #7 on the charts, Lenny asks if they get a gold record. Guy tells him they need to sell 500,000 copies. In 1964, 500,000 copies was the sales plateau for an LP to go Gold, but the sales plateau for singles was 1,000,000 copies. It was not until 1989 that the sales plateau for singles was lowered to 500,000 copies.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the bass player visits Disneyland he rides in a Matterhorn car. The Matterhorn cars in the 1960s were single bobsleds, not two tandem bobsleds as shown in the film. They didn't run tandem until the ride was updated in 1978. The ones shown in the film are the current tandem bobsleds painted in the 1960s scheme. Also, when he poses for a photograph with Mickey Mouse, Mickey and Goofy are wearing 1990s costumes and definitely not 1960s-era costumes. Mickey in the '60s had a very different hairline with much fuzzier hair.
  
  
• Continuity: At the talent show, the girl who sells tickets (wearing a blue dress) can be seen dancing in front of Jimmy near the stage, but at the same time we can see her selling tickets near the entrance watching the band (with Chad) wearing a different dress. (Technically, she must be playing two different people.)
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: After they meet the head of PlayTone, you can clearly see the camera at the start of the following shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Villapiano pays Lennie for the night, the "bonus" (in $5 bills) disappears from the top of the bar on Lennie's close ups.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene in which The Wonders perform on a circular stage mocked up to look like the record of That Thing You Do, the "label" on the record has a copyright notice at the bottom. This notice has the C in a circle followed by the year and Playtone Records. The problems with this are (1) recordings could not be copyrighted in the U.S. until 1972, and (2) after they were made copyrightable, the correct mark for a "phonograph recording" copyright was a P (or more correctly, a record should bear both a P and a C). Prior to 1972, the label art was the only copyrightable portion of a record so the records (or should I specify... the 45rpm singles) bore either no notice at all or a notice bearing the words "All Rights Reserved." The same label is on the record held up by The Wonders in the photo shoot at Playtone Records.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Uncle Bob is recording the Wonders, the sound and the visual of the hand claps are out of sync.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the band's song comes on the radio the first time, Faye has modern "earbud" style headphones.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the photographer at Playtone says to Sol Syler "Saw you at Chasen's with Suzanne Pleshette," he raises the camera and takes a shot with it. His eye is nowhere near the viewfinder of the camera - it's behind the flashgun.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the montage of scenes from the state fair tour, we see an audience shot of the audience giving the Wonders a standing ovation. The lead singer for the Chantrellines is clearly visible in the middle of the shot. (The other acts would never be in the audience).
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The TV show which seems to be "Thunderbirds" (1965), is actually its predecessor "Fireball XL5" (1962), which had its American premiere in October 1963, and fits in the 1964 setting.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Lenny does not miss his cue at Villipiano's on "All My Dreams", he is making reference to the loud airplane flying over "the spaghetti place out by the airport" that they have gotten their first gig at.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Uncle Bob is recording the band, a soda cup from In-N-Out is visible on his console. The hamburger chain was around in the early sixties, but only in Southern California - not Erie, PA.
  
  
• Continuity: When Guy is playing his drum solo, "Spartacus" at the recording studio, when he is finished playing he holds the cymbals so as to quiet them and then he lets go of them. When the recording master asks Guy what he calls his solo, and the camera pans back to Guy, he is once again holding the cymbals.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the band is rehearsing in the garage, TB Player brings in a wooden case of Coca-Cola bottles with the "Dynamic Ribbon" logo, created in 1969.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After reading a Telemart ad, Guy's father says that he's not sure he wants to live in a country where you have to do business on Sunday. Pennsylvania "blue laws" in effect during the 1960s would have made it impossible for him or Telemart to do business on Sunday.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the extended version, the movie showing on the TV at Guy's apartment is not Spartacus (1960) as he claimed, but The Vikings (1958).
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the band is waiting to go on stage for Play-Tone for the first time in Ohio, Mr. White asks T.B. Player if he has his pick, which he happily shows to him. But nowhere in the entire movie, including when the band immediately takes the stage following this conversation, does T.B. Player use a pick.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the recording studio, after Guy plays his solo "I am Spartacus", Del comes in. He says, "Let's play that Spartacus number again". Guy goes on to play something that bears no musical resemblance to the solo.
  
  

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