60 Fun Facts About 70s Sitcoms

All in the Family was based on which British sitcom?

It topped the Nielsen ratings for five straight years, 1971 to 1976, the first series ever to do so.

In which New York City borough do Archie and Edith Bunker live?

Their neighbours the Jeffersons eventually 'move on up' from there to a Manhattan high-rise.

What disparaging nickname does Archie Bunker use for his wife Edith?

'Meathead' was reserved for his son-in-law Mike, played by Rob Reiner.

Which continuation series picked up where All in the Family left off in 1979?

It ran four more seasons, until 1983.

M*A*S*H's 4077th is stationed near which South Korean town?

The show ran 11 years, roughly four times longer than the Korean War it depicted.

Who developed M*A*S*H for television from the 1970 film?

It was made after an attempt to film the book's sequel, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, fell through.

Which actor replaced Henry Blake as commander of the 4077th, playing Colonel Sherman Potter?

Mike Farrell and David Ogden Stiers were the other big replacements, for Trapper John and Frank Burns.

What is the title of the M*A*S*H theme, heard as an instrumental over the opening credits?

The 1983 finale was the most-watched US broadcast of anything until the 2010 Super Bowl.

Happy Days is set in which Midwestern city?

Season one is pegged to about 1955 by its songs and references.

Happy Days began as an unsold pilot shown as a segment of which ABC anthology series?

George Lucas saw it and cast Ron Howard in American Graffiti, which revived ABC's interest.

What business does Richie Cunningham's father Howard own on Happy Days?

Richie's older brother Chuck simply vanished from the show after season two.

Which Happy Days character became the show's breakout star and one of the decade's most merchandised figures?

The show hit number one in 1976-77 after Garry Marshall retooled it around the leather-jacketed dropout.

Laverne and Shirley work as bottle-cappers at which fictional brewery?

From season six the show relocated them to mid-1960s Burbank, California.

Michael McKean and David Lander played which duo of Laverne & Shirley's oddball neighbours?

McKean went on to Spinal Tap and Better Call Saul.

Three's Company was adapted from which British sitcom?

Its spin-offs The Ropers and Three's a Crowd mirrored the British show's own spin-offs.

Why does landlord Stanley Roper allow Jack Tripper to live with Janet and Chrissy?

Mrs Roper figures out the truth quickly but keeps the secret.

In which California city is the Three's Company apartment building?

Jack was a culinary student who otherwise faced living at the YMCA.

Sanford and Son was adapted from which British sitcom about rag-and-bone men?

It was seen as NBC's answer to CBS's All in the Family and made the Nielsen top ten five times.

What is the first name of Fred Sanford's long-suffering son?

Grady, Rollo and Bubba were Fred's friends; Aunt Esther was his Bible-thumping nemesis.

George Jefferson made his money with a chain of what?

Jefferson Cleaners paid for the 'deluxe apartment in the sky' in Manhattan.

How did Sherman Hemsley say he learned The Jeffersons had been cancelled in 1985?

The show never got a proper finale; co-star Franklin Cover heard the news on Entertainment Tonight.

Good Times broke ground as television's first sitcom centred on what?

It ran six seasons on CBS and tackled gang warfare, evictions and drug addiction along the way.

Taxi's cabbies work the night shift at which fictional New York garage?

Its creators had all just come off The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ended in 1977.

Which future Back to the Future star played burnt-out hippie 'Reverend' Jim Ignatowski on Taxi?

The show won 18 of its 34 Emmy nominations, including three straight for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Andy Kaufman's Latka Gravas held what job at the garage on Taxi?

Danny DeVito's Louie De Palma was the tyrannical dispatcher.

Creator Hugh Wilson said he picked the call letters WKRP to stand for what?

He based the station on WQXI in Atlanta, where he had observed the staff.

Which WKRP in Cincinnati character was played by Howard Hesseman?

Loni Anderson's receptionist Jennifer Marlowe was the show's other breakout.

Barney Miller is set in the squad room of which fictional NYPD precinct?

Its detectives spawned the short-lived spin-off Fish, about Abe Vigoda's Philip K. Fish.

Mary Richards works at which fictional Minneapolis TV station?

She applied for a secretary's job and was offered associate producer of the six o'clock news instead.

How many Primetime Emmys did The Mary Tyler Moore Show win?

It won Outstanding Comedy Series three years running and spun off Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant.

Who played Ted Baxter, the buffoonish WJM anchorman?

Ed Asner's Lou Grant got a drama spin-off, a rare comedy-to-drama jump.

What is Bob Hartley's profession on The Bob Newhart Show?

Neighbour Howard Borden was the airline navigator; Jerry Robinson the orthodontist down the hall.

Which city is The Bob Newhart Show set in?

Suzanne Pleshette played wife Emily; her surprise cameo ended the later series Newhart in 1990.

What did the remedial students in Welcome Back, Kotter call themselves?

Kotter had been a founding Sweathog himself a decade earlier.

Which future movie star got his breakthrough role as a Sweathog on Welcome Back, Kotter?

He played Vinnie Barbarino before Saturday Night Fever and Grease made him a film star.

Kotter's fictional James Buchanan High is based on which real Brooklyn school that Gabe Kaplan attended?

The real school appears in the opening credits.

Mork first appeared in which Happy Days episode before getting his own show?

The producers wanted a spaceman to cash in on Star Wars; the title spoofed My Favorite Martian.

What did Robin Williams do at his audition that made Garry Marshall cast him as Mork on the spot?

Marshall later joked that Williams was the only alien who auditioned.

One Day at a Time, starring Bonnie Franklin as a divorced mother, is set in which city?

It was based on co-creator Whitney Blake's own life as a single mother, raising future actress Meredith Baxter.

Maude Findlay lives in which suburban New York town?

Bea Arthur's character was Edith Bunker's cousin; her 1972 abortion episodes remain the show's most debated storyline.

Walter is Maude's husband number what?

Bea Arthur won the Lead Actress Emmy for the role in 1977.

Who played the fussy Felix Unger in the 1970 TV version of The Odd Couple?

Jack Klugman was Oscar; it was the first sitcom Garry Marshall developed for Paramount.

Soap, the 1977 parody of daytime serials, was created and written by whom?

She later created The Golden Girls; Soap's storylines included alien abduction and demonic possession.

Linda Lavin's sitcom set at Mel's Diner in Phoenix was based on which Martin Scorsese film?

Alfred Lutter reprised his film role as son Tommy in the pilot only.

Which real-life family band was The Partridge Family loosely based on?

David Cassidy's Keith and Danny Bonaduce's Danny became teen idols; Dave Madden played manager Reuben Kincaid.

What is the name of the Brady family's live-in housekeeper?

Ann B. Davis played her; the show only became a hit in syndication after its 1974 cancellation.

Which Brady Bunch episode ranked number 37 on TV Guide's 1997 list of the 100 greatest episodes?

Marcia lands the Monkee for the school dance in season three.

Which Diff'rent Strokes housekeeper was spun off into her own show, The Facts of Life?

Charlotte Rae left in season two to become housemother at the Eastland School.

Chico and the Man was the first US series set in what kind of neighbourhood?

Comedy duo Cheech & Chong turned down the lead roles and later claimed the show borrowed their skits.

Rhoda Morgenstern's rarely seen doorman Carlton was voiced by which Mary Tyler Moore Show writer?

He later became the voice of Garfield.

What's Happening!! was loosely based on which 1975 coming-of-age film?

Its creator Eric Monte also co-created Good Times.

Which producer was behind All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times and The Jeffersons?

His Tandem Productions and later Diff'rent Strokes made him the decade's dominant sitcom force.

Fawlty Towers is set in a dysfunctional hotel in which English seaside town?

John Cleese modelled Basil on Donald Sinclair, the eccentric owner of the Gleneagles Hotel where the Pythons stayed in 1970.

How many episodes of Fawlty Towers were made in total across its 1975 and 1979 series?

Two series of six each, written by Cleese and Connie Booth, who also played the chambermaid Polly.

In Porridge, Fletcher and Godber serve their sentences at which fictional prison?

The title is 1950s slang for a jail term, taken from the breakfast once served in British prisons.

What was the 1992 spin-off that reunited the main cast of Are You Being Served?

The original department-store comedy ran for 69 episodes between 1972 and 1985 and also spawned a 1977 film.

In The Good Life, Tom and Barbara Good pursue self-sufficiency in which suburb?

Tom, a 40-year-old plastics designer, quits the rat race; the show aired in the US as Good Neighbors.

Eric Chappell adapted Rising Damp from which 1973 stage play of his own?

The Leonard Rossiter sitcom won the 1978 BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy and was ITV's top entry in the 2004 Best Sitcom poll.

In the 1975 spin-off Phyllis, Cloris Leachman's widowed Phyllis Lindstrom moves from Minneapolis to which city?

It was the second Mary Tyler Moore Show spin-off after Rhoda, and San Francisco was revealed as the Lindstroms' original hometown.

The Ropers (1979), a Three's Company spin-off, was loosely based on which British sitcom?

That show was itself a spin-off of Man About the House, the series Three's Company had adapted.