The movie is a COMEDY and comedies can have plot holes since the story is meant to be absurd and a joke.
Galaxy Quest is not a drama.

You are so spot on with this DJ!
Excellent points.
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Another brain dead retard.
They recognized cartoons as cartoons as we do. Knowing those were not real.
As for "behind the scenes" **** those are not part of the shows when they are on, you ****ing brain dead retard.
They are only on DVDs though I have never seen them on any of the TV DVDs that I own.
And the Thermites were only watching TV shows.
My god.
You are just so ****ing stupid to have brought up such a stupid point.

I'd say its a good thing they've only seen shows where actors wound up being stereotyped, cause I don't think they'd be able to handle an actor playing multiple parts (unless they just believed an actor's other roles were played by clones or something).
I don't want the world. I just want your half.

Not only that, but how did they fabricate the omega 13 without any idea of what it does? If they didn't understand it, what did they make it out of?
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It's more simple than that, I think. The Thermians possessed advanced technology, but lacked understanding of effective application to defend themselves. They were facing certain extinction at the hands of the villain, Sarris. Mathesar said himself, they had seen such evil deception used by Sarris against them, a concept which they "are only now beginning to learn at some great cost". Their extermination. Mathesar is told by Nesmith of the "deception" that is the TV show, which saddens him. Later, after they have destroyed the enemy ship, Mathesar "understands" the concept of deception Nesmith was referring was not the TV show, but the ruse Nesmith ran for Sarris' benefit, even acknowledging the reference to the tiny size of the actual/original ship used for the TV show was a deception for Sarris' benefit, finding the deception and outcome to be humorous. Being aware of a concept is far from understanding it. Sarris said it best, "explain, as you would a child."
This brings us to the Thermian's reason for recreating everything GQ. It is reasonable to believe they had access to everything "TV Land". They, of course, viewed all of it as a form of documentary. While they had no understanding of the concept of entertainment and acting, they were able to disregard anything that didn't make sense to them. They were facing impending doom. They were to become extinct, at the hands of Sarris. They saw, in the TV programming, a solution to defend themselves, in the GQ shows; A solution their technology could support, and appeared sufficient to defeat Sarris. It was their motive that drove them to believe so strongly in GQ, while disregarding anything remotely contrary. It is likely they studied and ingrained the shows for a very long time, at least to them (who knows what is their lifespan, or the lengths of their technology). GQ being "unreal", would simply mean their extinction, as that was the only solution they had. Not believing meant their extinction, therefore, not believing was not an option they were willing to entertain. The only times they seemed or said they were "confused", was when faced with the reality of GQ. They accepted not understanding some things, so everything did not require rationalization. Cartoons were probably a good example of "file that under not understood, and move on". Or, it may simply mean they couldn't find 'Marvin the Martian', or some other space-traveling force, but they could find the characters of GQ. We are unaware of what took place in any of the GQ episodes (except one part of #81). It is possible/probable The Protector was destroyed in the last episode. This could explain the Thermians recreating everything, instead of just showing up and saying, "We need you and your ship." Something made them believe they needed to recreate the ship, before recruiting the crew.
There are no "plot holes" in sci-fi. Only subsequent episodes, sequels, prequels and parallels.
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Well, first of all, that wouldnt be a plot hole either way. Its an error in the world setting, not an impossible inconsistency of the plot.
The Thermians did not even know the concept of lies. Thus everything that didnt make sense would be rationalized away. Thats perfectly common human behavior, too.
For example, we could move our muscles long before we could explain why we could move them. Which by the way didnt occur before the mid of the 1990s !
Likewise, if a Thermian would watch such a cartoon or behind-the-scenes, they would be confused. They would find a rationalization - though I cant think of one - or some error, or failing that they would treat it as a mystery and probably forget about it.
Just like nobody thought of our lack of knowledge how our muscles actually move as an important hole in our knowledge before we actually found out.
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They don't understand fiction. They probably didn't have context for cartoons or behind the scenes footage. They don't even understand lying, so the whole concept of fiction is WAY beyond them. That's why Jason has to break it down during the torture sequence. It's not that they "missed it" it's that they're missing the required knowledge to understand.
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The Kings in Fallout New Vegas do something similar.
"Listen, do you smell something? -Ray Stantz"

They probably thought those were some sort of extradimensional beings, or holographic life forms.
Maybe they recreated those, too.

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For the record, the "Aliens pickup TV/radio signals from the past" wasn't unique to the Galaxy Quest universe. Back in the 70's, a British sci-fi series called The Tomorrow People had a group of aliens who based their knowledge of Earth on watching westerns, hence the aliens dressed in cowboy/cowgirl duds and speak with bad accents in an attempt to behave like escapees from Gunsmoke or The Rifleman or whatever.
And in the 80's, I can't remember if it was an Amazing Stories or an episode of the revived Twilight Zone (the one with the Grateful Dead theme music), but there was one where teenagers manage to pick up transmissions from a planet where every TV show is a knock off a classic 50's sitcom. They even recreate the closing "epilogue" comedy bits that George Burns and Gracie Allen would tack onto the end of episodes of their show. They then find out that the aliens have sent emissaries to Earth to find some of the performers from the shows so they can provide them with new material.
And there's probably other examples besides that.
And as a side note, back around 1999-2000, there was a rock group called Star People, who presented themselves as extraterrestrials who came from a planet that worships The Rat Pack as gods. I think the explanation is that TV and radio broadcasts of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc had fallen into a black hole, which then redistributed them throughout time and space. Hence, on their planet, the transmissions were received centuries ago and thus a whole civilization was built on it. Interestingly, they were very much a progressive rock group, but the entire band appeared on stage looking like a wedding band, and the two singers would do the whole Sinatra/Rat Pack "swagger" routine, including making and drink cocktails onstage, etc. Unfortunately, the band eventually broke up for various reasons. I subsequently saw the bass player perform with another group, and he told me the whole story about how they actually had a third album recorded but the whole thing collapsed before they mix and release it.
At any rate, everyone seems to have made the same mistake: how could they isolate and only pick up one specific program or genre of programs? How do aliens only get 1950's sitcoms, and not, let's say any of the TV programs of the era? Or was it simply that they didn't find any of the westerns, sci-fi or anything else interesting enough to totally plagiarize?

Hahaha, you're like that teenager nerd guy . 'It's not real! It's just a TV show' . Try to find Tim Allen in Hollywood and ask him, I'm sure he'll be delighted to answer any questions you have.

You're right. One of them says at one point "This is an art, not a science".

The Thermians might have understood the concept of "art" even if they didn't understand "theater". Cartoons are drawn images, "art", and might have been interpreted differently from a sitcom with real actors involved. In other words, they might have easily realized that the animated images of a cartoon were not "real" even though they couldn't comprehend the humor. In fact, this possible lack of comprehension might have caused them to largely ignore cartoons, like us looking at ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Maybe the cable company cut them off after a month of re-runs because they didn't pay the bill.
My own bet is that the Thermians might have caught a GQ weekend, maybe a Gilligans Island weekend as well, that let them see them in a short period of time.
Or maybe they found a really good torrent and downloaded the whole lot

All these lines of speculation are really funny. Galaxy Quest is not only a comedy, it's pure fantasy. Just because it has some trappings of what we think of as Earth circa 1999 doesn't mean it is. What it is NOT is an Historical Document. And picking it apart destroys the fantasy. You want a logic hole? - an out of this world space ship crashes into a convention center in the LA area and NOBODY NOTICES???????? Except it's enough to give our 'stars' a chance at a TV sequel? We're talking permament containment in Area 51 along with Ginormica, LINK, and Bob. Fantasy,people!!!
Park the 'logic' part of your brain at the door and just sit back and enjoy the ride.

I always thought about that.. It never bothered me (didn't detract from my viewing pleasure), but I always wondered how does a race of seeming simpletons build an intergalactic starship patterned after a TV show model, and then get it to work with something that's the same in appearance as a ball of wires and plaster, but coincidentally happens to fulfill the same function as what they say on TV.
"You're going to need a bigger boat." - Chief Brody

I just have to wonder what they thought of the Tidy Bowl Man! lol

Yeah..did they think the commercials were real?

If you think too hard about this comedy you will go nuts. Just take it for what it is, laugh and enjoy laughing. It is good for you.

And they just happened to look like the plaster and wire models made for the show?
That's some coincidence.

The real Beryllium spheres weren't created by the Thermians, but was a real element in our galaxy that helps to produce or store the energy needed to power a ship like nthat, and the Thermians call it Beryllium because it essentially held the same properties.

I love this movie. Its one of my favorites. And I know its just comedy and not to be taken seriously, but one thing has always bothered me -
They learned all about the ship from the "historical documents" including the fuel source, which was the beryllium spheres. Taggart says in one part of the movie that the show's beryllium sphere is made of wire and plaster.
So, what are the odds that the Thermians can not only duplicate the entire ship including operation, but also locate real beryllium spheres that both look like the models AND can be used as a fuel source?
Just sayin'