88 Fun Facts About 2000s TV

Which band's song plays over the abrupt cut-to-black final scene of The Sopranos in 2007?

Journey. Singer Steve Perry withheld permission for 'Don't Stop Believin'' until three days before the finale, fearing it would play over Tony's death, and agreed once David Chase reassured him.

Tony Soprano runs a Mafia crew based in which US state?

New Jersey. Creator David Chase grew up there, and he partly modelled Tony's outfit on the state's real DeCavalcante crime family.

Which actor played mob boss Tony Soprano in The Sopranos?

James Gandolfini. He wasn't the only one to read for Tony: rock guitarist Steven Van Zandt, who had never acted, auditioned too, and David Chase then wrote the part of Silvio for him.

David Simon's HBO drama The Wire is set in which American city?

Baltimore. Real local figures took small parts: Ed Norris, once the city's police commissioner, played a homicide detective who shares his name.

Season two of The Wire shifted its focus to which part of the city?

The port and its dockworkers. The season was built around the decline of the American working class: union stevedores short of work are drawn into smuggling through the shipping containers.

Before creating The Wire, David Simon worked as what?

Police reporter. Simon covered crime for his city's daily paper for over a decade and spent 1988 shadowing its homicide unit, which produced the book behind NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street.

The survivors in Lost were passengers on Flight 815 of which fictional airline?

Oceanic. The invented carrier is older than Lost: one of its jets is hijacked in the 1996 thriller Executive Decision, and that film's footage was reused by later productions.

The doomed flight in Lost was travelling between which two cities?

Sydney and Los Angeles. The wreck was real: a retired Lockheed airliner was bought, cut up and shipped to Hawaii, helping make the pilot episode the costliest ABC had made.

Lost won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for which of its seasons?

Its first. ABC chief Lloyd Braun, who dreamed up the show, was fired before it aired, partly for approving so costly and risky a pilot; a year later it won television's top drama prize.

Who adapted Ricky Gervais's BBC sitcom The Office for NBC in 2005?

Greg Daniels. His pilot reworked the British first episode's script, and after a mixed first season his writers made boss Michael Scott more optimistic and likable.

The Dunder Mifflin branch in The Office is located in which Pennsylvania city?

Scranton. After he was cast as Jim, John Krasinski travelled there to interview workers at real paper companies, and footage he shot on the trip is in the opening credits.

Jack Bauer works for which fictional Los Angeles agency in 24?

Counter Terrorist Unit. Co-creator Joel Surnow built the series on one idea: each episode is a single hour played in real time, so a 24-episode season covers exactly one day.

Which actor played federal agent Jack Bauer in the real-time thriller 24?

Kiefer Sutherland. The series went into production before the September 11 attacks, which then pushed its premiere back a week to November 6, 2001.

What was the original name of the hospital in Grey's Anatomy?

Seattle Grace. After two renamings it became Grey Sloan Memorial, in memory of doctors Lexie Grey and Mark Sloan, who died after a plane crash at the end of season eight.

The title Grey's Anatomy is a pun on Meredith Grey's surname and what?

A classic medical textbook. Henry Gray's Anatomy first appeared in 1858; its author died three years later at 34, having caught smallpox while treating his nephew, who survived.

Dr. Gregory House leads his diagnostic team at which fictional hospital?

Princeton–Plainsboro. Bryan Singer, the film director among the show's executive producers, chose the university town because it sits next to West Windsor, where he grew up.

The character of Gregory House was loosely modelled on which fictional detective?

Sherlock Holmes. The debt runs both ways: Conan Doyle modelled Holmes on a real doctor, the Edinburgh surgeon Joseph Bell, and House lives at 221B with a best friend named Wilson.

Who created the medical drama House?

David Shore. A former lawyer from Canada, he pitched the show to Fox as a hospital whodunit in the style of CSI, in which, as he put it, the suspects were the germs.

Lorelai and Rory Gilmore live in which fictional Connecticut town?

Stars Hollow. Amy Sherman-Palladino invented it after a trip to the village of Washington, Connecticut, where she stayed at the Mayflower Inn; the town on screen was a set on a studio backlot in California.

In Gilmore Girls, Rory chooses which university, her grandfather's alma mater?

Yale. Rory had wanted Harvard her entire life, and only after weighing the two did she decide that the benefits of her grandfather's old college outweighed the dream.

Gilmore Girls premiered in October 2000 on which network?

It finished its run in 2007 on The CW, the network formed when The WB and UPN merged.

The O.C. is set in which wealthy Orange County community?

Newport Beach. Little of it was shot there: penalties for filming outside Hollywood's studio zone meant the show was made mostly around Manhattan Beach, in Los Angeles County.

What is the name of the hybrid holiday Seth Cohen celebrates in The O.C.?

Chrismukkah. Seth says he created it at the age of six to merge the faiths of his Jewish father and Protestant mother, and the show carried the word into wider use.

Who narrates Arrested Development?

Ron Howard. The show grew from his idea for a comedy shot like reality TV, with handheld cameras; he narrated it unseen and later appeared on screen as a fictionalised version of himself.

Which streaming service revived Arrested Development after Fox cancelled it in 2006?

Netflix. Its 2013 revival released all 15 episodes at the same time, each one built around a single character because the busy cast could rarely be filmed together.

Who won the first season of Survivor in 2000?

Richard Hatch. The $1 million prize later put him in prison: he was found guilty in 2006 of failing to report his winnings to the tax authorities and served more than four years.

The American Survivor was derived from a reality show originally made in which country?

Sweden. British producer Charlie Parsons couldn't sell his castaway format at home or in America, so it first reached the screen on Swedish television in 1997, as Expedition Robinson.

Who co-hosted the first season of American Idol alongside Ryan Seacrest?

Brian Dunkleman. A stand-up comic, he quit once the first season ended, leaving Ryan Seacrest as sole host, and later admitted that walking away had been a mistake.

Kelly Clarkson beat which runner-up in the first American Idol finale in September 2002?

Justin Guarini. The pair were then put in a 2003 beach musical, From Justin to Kelly, which failed at the box office; Clarkson has said she made it only because her contract obliged her to.

Simon Fuller's American singing contest on Fox was based on which British series?

Pop Idol. It lasted only two series at home: judge Simon Cowell launched The X Factor in its place, and Simon Fuller took him to court over how alike the two shows were.

Which sitcom's May 2004 finale drew 52.5 million US viewers, the decade's most-watched episode?

Friends. By then its six leads, who had bargained as a group since the third season, were each paid $1 million an episode.

Malcolm in the Middle's Hal and Breaking Bad's Walter White were both played by which actor?

Bryan Cranston. AMC's executives knew him only as the sitcom dad and approached other actors first; they came round after seeing his guest turn in an X-Files episode written by Vince Gilligan.

Breaking Bad, which debuted in January 2008, is set in which city?

Albuquerque. Early scripts were set in Riverside, California; the studio suggested moving the production for the favourable financial terms offered by the state of New Mexico.

"Boss of Me", the theme song of Malcolm in the Middle, was performed by which band?

They Might Be Giants. Asked for a theme for the sitcom's pilot, John Flansburgh reworked a half-finished demo first used for a radio station's contest, and it won the band their first Grammy.

Which show became the first basic-cable series to win the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, in 2008?

Mad Men. Matthew Weiner wrote its pilot around 2000 as a sample script; it won him a writing job on The Sopranos, and the show itself was made only years later, once AMC picked it up.

Desperate Housewives is set on which street in the fictional town of Fairview?

Wisteria Lane. It is really Colonial Street on the Universal Studios lot, once home to Leave It to Beaver; in 2005 a church facade seen in Murder, She Wrote was removed to make room for Edie Britt's house.

Which dead neighbour narrates Desperate Housewives from beyond the grave?

Mary Alice Young. Her suicide opens the pilot, and Brenda Strong was a late replacement: Sheryl Lee played the part in the original pilot before the producers decided to recast it.

Scrubs is set at which fictional teaching hospital?

Sacred Heart. Its wards were real: the first eight seasons were filmed inside the North Hollywood Medical Center, a closed-down hospital that was demolished after the show moved out.

Which actress played double agent Sydney Bristow in the spy drama Alias?

Jennifer Garner. J.J. Abrams dreamed up the show while writing his college drama Felicity, on which Garner had a guest role, wondering what would happen if its heroine were recruited by the CIA.

Ian McShane played which real-life saloon owner in HBO's Deadwood?

Al Swearengen. Creator David Milch first pitched HBO a drama set in Nero's Rome; told the network already had a Rome series in the works, he moved his story west to the real Swearengen's Gem saloon.

Which actor played Commander William Adama in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica?

Edward James Olmos. His Galactica is the fleet's relic, an ageing warship about to be retired and turned into a museum when the attack comes; it survives to lead the refugee fleet.

Alongside the Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, what is the fourth nation in Avatar: The Last Airbender?

Air Nomads. Aang is their last survivor: he lay frozen in an iceberg for a century while his people were destroyed.

In Hannah Montana, the Stewart family moved to Malibu from which state?

Tennessee. Miley Cyrus is from there herself, born in Franklin, and her real father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, was asked to audition as her on-screen dad only after she had won the lead.

Entourage was loosely based on the early Hollywood career of which star?

Mark Wahlberg. By his account it began when an assistant asked to film him and his buddies for being so funny; super-agent Ari Gold is based partly on his own real agent, Ari Emanuel.

Rob Thomas's teen detective series Veronica Mars is set in which fictional California town?

Neptune. Rob Thomas first wrote the story as a young-adult novel with a boy as its detective, and made the lead a girl when he reworked it for television, thinking the noir would feel fresher.

Fans funded the 2014 Veronica Mars film through which crowdfunding site?

Kickstarter. Warner Bros. had declined to pay for the film, so its makers asked fans for $2 million, reached that goal in under eleven hours and finished with more than $5.7 million.

One Tree Hill was filmed mostly in and around which North Carolina city?

Wilmington. Dawson's Creek had been made in the same city, and creator Mark Schwahn first conceived One Tree Hill as a feature film called Ravens before reworking it as a series.

Prison Break's Fox River State Penitentiary was filmed at which real prison, closed in 2002?

Joliet. The Illinois prison is also where Jake Blues is released at the start of The Blues Brothers, which is why he is known as 'Joliet Jake'; it had been closed for three years when the series moved in.

The 2006 tagline for the NBC series Heroes urged viewers to save which character?

The cheerleader. She is Claire Bennet, a teenager who heals from any wound; a visitor from the future tells Peter Petrelli that saving her will save the world, and NBC made the line its tagline.

Dexter Morgan's day job at Miami Metro is what?

Bloodstain pattern analyst. Dexter gave up a career in medicine for the work, which doubles as cover: in secret he hunts murderers the justice system has failed to punish.

Liz Lemon in 30 Rock is head writer of which fictional sketch show?

TGS with Tracy Jordan. It began as The Girlie Show, until network boss Jack Donaghy pushed Liz to hire film star Tracy Jordan and the show was renamed around him.

Ugly Betty was adapted from a telenovela made in which country?

Colombia. Yo soy Betty, la fea was created there by Fernando Gaitán; its American remake was first planned as a half-hour comedy for NBC, and reached the air only after ABC reworked it as an hour-long show.

Which actress's production company produced Ugly Betty?

Salma Hayek. She adapted the telenovela for American television with producer Ben Silverman, then took a guest role in it herself that earned her an Emmy nomination.

In Pushing Daisies, what is the job of Ned, who can revive the dead with a touch?

Pie-maker. Ned's gift has a catch: a second touch kills for good, so he can never again touch Chuck, the childhood sweetheart he brought back to life.

Which actor won three Emmys as the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk?

Tony Shalhoub. ABC first pictured Monk as a bumbling Inspector Clouseau type and wanted Seinfeld's Michael Richards, who turned it down; the show moved to USA Network before Shalhoub was cast.

Dave Chappelle walked away from a Comedy Central contract reportedly worth how much?

$50 million. In spring 2005, with the third season in production, he abruptly left the set and flew to South Africa, leaving the season unfinished.

Who co-created Chappelle's Show with Dave Chappelle?

Neal Brennan. He was the doorman at a New York comedy club where Chappelle performed, and began pitching him jokes; the pair went on to write the 1998 film Half Baked together.

Which pay-TV provider co-produced Friday Night Lights' last three seasons with NBC?

DirecTV. Low ratings had the drama facing cancellation after two seasons, so NBC shared the cost with the satellite firm, which in return showed each new season first on its own channel.

Which cable channel aired The Shield from 2002 to 2008?

FX. The series was nearly called Rampart, after the real Los Angeles police scandal that inspired its corrupt Strike Team, and some early adverts even used that title.

The Fisher family in Six Feet Under run what kind of business?

A funeral home. Almost every episode starts with a death, which gives the Fishers their next funeral to arrange and sets the theme for the hour.

Which comedian stars as a fictional version of himself in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm?

Larry David. He writes only a story outline a few pages long for each episode, and the cast improvise their lines from it, a method known as retroscripting.

Which drama series won a record nine Emmys for its debut season in 2000?

The West Wing. President Bartlet was planned as an occasional presence, with Martin Sheen signed for just four episodes, until his performance made him the centre of the show.

CSI's Gil Grissom is a criminalist whose scientific specialty is what?

Insects. Grissom is a forensic entomologist, and the show's creator loosely based him on a real Las Vegas criminalist, Daniel Holstein, who kept maggots in his refrigerator.

Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan is originally from which country?

New Zealand. At 19, Keoghan got lost deep inside a shipwreck while filming a dive and thought he would die; the scare made him write a list of things to do first, the seed of his book No Opportunity Wasted.

Which Fox space western was cancelled in 2002 with three of its fourteen episodes still unaired?

Firefly. Fox executives disliked the two-hour pilot, ordered a new opening episode and ended up showing the original last; the story was finished in 2005 in the film Serenity.

Which word completes the Smallville producers' famous rule, 'No tights, no ___'?

Flights. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar set the rule when they developed the show, and Clark does not put on the suit until the 2011 finale, though he had flown before it, reprogrammed as Kal-El in the season-four premiere.

Which comedian narrates How I Met Your Mother as the older Ted Mosby?

Bob Saget. He voices the older Ted telling the story in 2030; his teenage listeners' reaction to the ending was secretly filmed back in 2006, before the young actors could outgrow their parts.

Leonard and Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory are physicists at which institution?

Caltech. The science was real: UCLA physicist David Saltzberg checked the scripts, supplied dialogue and filled the whiteboards on set with genuine equations.

Which actress provided the uncredited voice of the anonymous narrator on Gossip Girl?

Kristen Bell. She was heard in every episode and seen in none until the 2012 finale, where she turns up for a surprise cameo as herself.

Which word, popularised on the first Colbert Report in 2005, became the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year?

Truthiness. Colbert meant a truth felt in the gut rather than found in facts; the word itself was not new, having been recorded in the early nineteenth century simply meaning truthfulness.

How many consecutive Jeopardy! games did Ken Jennings win in 2004?

74. The run was possible only because the show had scrapped its five-win limit in 2003; before Jennings, the longest streak under the new rule was seven games.

Ken Jennings's Jeopardy! streak ended on a clue about which firm, whose white-collar staff mostly work four months a year?

H&R Block. Jennings wrote down FedEx while challenger Nancy Zerg named the tax firm, which then offered him free tax planning for life.

Which Survivor producer created The Apprentice, launched on NBC in January 2004?

Mark Burnett. He approached Donald Trump with the idea himself, and the boardroom show, with its catchphrase 'You're fired!', turned the property developer into a television star.

The Osbournes premiered in March 2002 on which channel, becoming its most-viewed series yet?

MTV. The cameras moved in with Ozzy Osbourne's family, though not all of it: daughter Aimee declined to take part, feeling the show would typecast her.

The 2005 revival of Doctor Who opened with an episode named after which companion?

Rose. An early cut of the episode leaked onto the internet about three weeks before its premiere, and the BBC said the leak appeared to trace back to its Canadian broadcast partner.

Danny DeVito joined It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Frank, introduced as the father of which twins?

Dennis and Dee. The network worried that nobody was watching and asked for a famous face, so DeVito arrived in season two; the twins soon learn that Frank is not their biological father after all.

Fox revived the cancelled Family Guy in 2004 on the strength of what?

DVD sales. Fox had dropped the cartoon twice, in 2000 and again in 2002; brisk DVD sales and strong ratings for its late-night reruns then persuaded the network to order new episodes.

HBO's Band of Brothers (2001) followed "Easy" Company of which US Army division?

101st Airborne. Each episode opens with the real Easy Company veterans recalling the events on camera, before the actors replay them.

Sex and the City grew out of a newspaper column written by which author?

Candace Bushnell. Her mid-1990s column for The New York Observer was based on her own dating experiences and those of her circle, and became a book before HBO turned it into a series.

Which CBS sitcom about a Long Island sportswriter ended in May 2005 after nine seasons?

Everybody Loves Raymond. It grew out of five minutes of stand-up: Ray Romano's 1995 set on David Letterman's Late Show so impressed the host's producers that they signed him up to develop a sitcom.

What was Charlie Harper's profession in Two and a Half Men (2003)?

Jingle writer. Charlie Sheen was dismissed in 2011 after public attacks on the show's creator, Chuck Lorre; his character was killed off, and a billionaire played by Ashton Kutcher bought the house.

NCIS was introduced through two 2003 episodes of which existing CBS series?

JAG. The Navy legal drama was itself a survivor: NBC cancelled it after one low-rated season in 1996, and CBS picked it up and kept it going for nine more.

Supernatural (2005) starred Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as which monster-hunting brothers?

The Winchesters. Eric Kripke first pitched a series about a tabloid reporter chasing the paranormal; it sold only when he rebuilt it as two brothers on a cross-country road trip.

Which folk song mocking look-alike suburban houses plays over the titles of the Showtime series Weeds?

Little Boxes. Malvina Reynolds wrote it in 1962 about the tract housing of Daly City, California; in the show's second and third seasons a different artist covered it for each episode.

Glee, whose pilot aired in May 2009, is set at William McKinley High School in which Ohio city?

Lima. Co-creator Ian Brennan drew on his own unhappy years in an Illinois high-school show choir, and first wrote Glee as a film script with the help of Screenwriting for Dummies.

Modern Family, which premiered on ABC in September 2009, was co-created by Steven Levitan and whom?

Christopher Lloyd. Not the Back to the Future actor but a veteran Frasier writer; he and Levitan hit on the show while swapping stories about their own families.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy premiered in July 2003 on which cable network?

Bravo. The makeover show was a surprise hit, soon franchised abroad and given a spin-off, Queer Eye for the Straight Girl.

HBO's Rome (2005-07) centred on two soldiers named Titus Pullo and whom?

Lucius Vorenus. He and Pullo were real: Julius Caesar's own account of the Gallic War mentions two centurions of those names, and the series spun its heroes out of that passage.