Bloopers are always fun to observe, and every series has them at some point. Below is a list of errors I have discovered on Bordertown. If you notice any other mistakes on the series, please let me know. I'd love to add them.
In "Hunter's Moon", Jack and Clive are saddling their horses to go after Bat Masterson. Clive comments that his cinch has been cut. Jack says his has been cut, too. Jack's cinch is dangling from his saddle in plain sight -- intact and undamaged!
In "White Feather", Jack is buttoning his shirt while talking to Marie about the Blackfoot warrior he has in jail. Notice that Jack's buttons are not lined up with the button holes.
In "The Bounty Hunter", Marie asks Jack if he has a picture of his wife and daughter. He answers no, that he lost everything when Don Carlos burned down his house. The following season, in "The Last Shot", Jack gives Marie a locket worn by his wife, and later, in "In Cold Blood", Jack is seen holding a photograph of his wife and daughter.
Regarding the same two episodes, Jack initially claims that his wife and daughter were kidnapped and murdered, but later states that he came home to find their dead bodies in their beds after being shot.
In "Blood Fury", a guest refers to Mrs. MacWherter as being a good cook. However, two seasons later in "A Small Kindness", Mrs. MacWherter apparently no longer exists (no explanation given), for Wendell MacWherter is now courting Sally Duffield.
In "Field of Honor", Jack implies that North Carolina joined the Union in the Civil War. In fact, North Carolina fought for the Confederacy.
*My inclusion of this item as a blooper has unintentionally generated some controversy. The
way the phrase was presented in the show, it is my opinion that because the word "North" is
in North Carolina, the Canadian writers assumed it to be a northern state. It is true that some
southerners fought for the Union, but because the writers did not specify that the Union prisoner
in question was a Southerner fighting for the North, my assessment stands. I still believe this to
be an error in the script.*
In "Runners", the second episode of the first season, Jack reads aloud a portion of a letter to Clive. Later in the same season, in "Craddock vs Bennett", it is revealed that Jack is illiterate, and he enlists Marie's help to teach him to read.
In "Tall in the Saddle", Willie and his father are on their way to the steamer to go to France when Jack comes across them. Willie says to Jack, "I know you wouldn't leave without saying goodbye." Willie is the one who is leaving, not Jack
In Wild Horses, Couteau and Clive backtrack the horse trader's route. Couteau indicates at one point that "four horses (were) tied together. One of them is a gelding". I've been around horses most of my life, and it is impossible to determine the sex of a horse by the hoof prints.
In Last of the James Gang, near the end of the episode when Jack makes his horse rear to unsettle the Pinkerton agent, he is wearing handcuffs. The handcuffs disappear when he jumps onto the Pinkerton's horse, and then reappear when both men are wrestling on the ground.
Also in Last of the James Gang, in a scene that was edited out of the Family Channel version, two men are seen loading the caskets of the two Pinkerton agents into a wagon. They are exhibiting no effort whatsoever in picking up the caskets, making it very apparent to the viewers that the boxes are empty.
In Keenan's Raiders, Jack and Clive discuss 300 pounds of gold that had been stolen and buried near Bordertown. When the gold is actually found by MacGraw, it is coins in two small saddlebags, which he lifts out of the hole with no effort. And that is 300 pounds of gold?
CONTINUITY ERRORS:
This type of error is usually caused by episodes that are brought to the screen out of sequence from the original production order, but in some cases it may be that different writers were used.
In the episode The Bounty Hunter, Jack makes out his will with the help of Wendell MacWherter. As he takes up the pen to sign the document, he says, "Thanks to Marie, I can do this now." -- At this point, Jack's illiteracy had not been established. That occurrs three episodes later, in Craddock vs Bennett, and in that episode Marie begins teaching him to read.
In The Last Fenian Raid, Jack is shown at the beginning wearing black arm bands to acknowledge the assassination of President Garfield, and verbal mention is made of this. Then, seven episodes later, in Killer With A Smile, President Garfield, alive and well, passess through Bordertown!
In Keenan's Raiders, Jake tells Jack he recognizes the dead man in the stagecoach as someone who had tried to steal horses from him and Jack's father 25 yeras earlier. Jack would have been 15 years old at the time. It is revealed in a later episode that Jack's father abandoned him when he was 10 years old.