Not as funny in the recycling

The show: Boston Legal
The episode: "Do Tell," the fourth episode of Season 4.
What happened: Miguel Obispo (Rolando Molina) wants to take his son to Mexico so that the child may participate in more bullfighting matches, but the mother refuses out of concern that their son could die in the arena, so Miguel goes to Crane, Poole & Schmidt for legal representation. Since Miguel can't speak English even though he understands it, a nun translates for him in court.
Meanwhile, Shirley represents General Mark Fitzgerald (Sam McMurray), a gay soldier, closeted for most of his career, who now wants to sue the Army over its "don't ask don't tell policy."
What doesn't quite make sense: The character of Miguel Obispo had been introduced in the previous episode, "The Chicken and the Leg," which established that Miguel understands English but can only speak Spanish. Even if we buy the idea that such people exist (most native Spanish speakers I know have made at least some effort to speak English), didn't it occur to the writers that the translating nun might be getting tiresome to the viewers? This time, we even see that Miguel realizes that the nun has gotten off track into sexual double entendre, and the joke is much less satisfying because the double entendre is at a somewhat farther remove from what Miguel said. Though I'm basing that assessment on my limited knowledge of Spanish; regardless, using the translating nun again is contrived and unfunny.
And another thing: Judge Brown's ruling at the end is a nice bit of fantasy. On the other hand, it does leave some bit of ambiguity for the Army: to leave that fine soldier "alone" could very well mean to punish him in other ways, like giving him some very crappy non-command duty.

Dead woman's dancer

The show: American Dad!
The episode: "Moon Over Isla Island"
What happened: Stan tricks Roger into impersonating the brutal dictator of a small island nation near Cuba. Before the citizens can fulfill their wish to assassinate their dictator, Roger and Stan escape, and a skilled dancer takes over as dictator. A title card at the end tells us that he became the country's most brutal dictator ever, known as "el bailarin de la muerta."
What's wrong with that: My Spanish is rusty, but I can tell there is something is off about that phrase "el bailarin de la muerta." I put that into Babelfish and it gave "the dancer of the dead." Hmm. Did the writers mean to translate "the dancer of Death" to Spanish? Turns out that they were off by one vowel: "el bailarin de la muerte." Put that into Babelfish and you will get "the dancer of the death." Not quite, but a little closer than before.

Spell check your English subtitles!

Most of JAG's viewers are not going to know both Spanish and Farsi in addition to English. But when your English subtitles contain spelling errors, you have to start wondering what else might be wrong language-wise with the show. That's what happens in the eighth season JAG episode "Pas de Deux." Around time index 16:40, the Arab terrorists in Paraguay are subtitled saying something about "missles" (I'm guessing that's how the subtitler pronounces the word "missiles"). They're speaking Farsi.

Just a tiny bit earlier, they speak Spanish with Gunny Galindez (Randy Vasquez). The conversation concerns some drugs he just delivered on behalf of a local bad guy. The terrorists don't want to pay Galindez just yet, and they reassure him "You'll be dealt with," according to the subtitles. Actually, that doesn't sound terribly reassuring. With my limited understanding of Spanish, what the terrorists actually tell Galindez is "Te vamos ha cuidar," which translates better to "We'll take care of you." I guess that with the budget the producers couldn't spring for a Spanish consultant. I have to wonder what mistakes there might be in the subtitles for the Farsi dialogue.