198 Fun Facts About TV Shows

Which sitcom's six Manhattan twenty-somethings spend their days on an orange couch at the Central Perk coffee shop?

Friends kept its six leads on equal pay: they bargained as a group from Season 3, and by the last two seasons each of them earned $1 million an episode.

In Breaking Bad, what alias does the chemistry teacher at its centre adopt as his drug-lord persona?

Heisenberg comes from Werner Heisenberg, the German physicist of the uncertainty principle; he first gives the name to a dealer whose office he then wrecks with a bag of explosive crystals.

In the US version of The Office, Michael Scott manages the Scranton branch of which fictional paper company?

Dunder Mifflin became a real brand in 2011, when the online arm of Staples licensed the fictional company's name from NBCUniversal and began selling actual Dunder Mifflin copy paper.

Which animated series features the town of Springfield?

The Simpsons keeps Springfield's state a running joke; Matt Groening chose one of America's most common town names so that everyone would think it was their Springfield.

What HBO series follows the Roy family and their media conglomerate Waystar Royco?

Succession grew out of an unmade film script about Rupert Murdoch's family; its writer then invented the Roys instead, drawing on several real media dynasties.

In Stranger Things, what is the name of the alternate dimension that threatens Hawkins, Indiana?

The Upside Down mirrors the real world in rot and darkness, home to the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer; the kids' Dungeons & Dragons games gave the monsters their names.

Teams of two circle the globe chasing US$1 million on which CBS show, hosted by Phil Keoghan since 2001?

The Amazing Race once had to free its own host: Keoghan says he was detained in Ukraine for two days during the tenth season until the US ambassador, a fan of the show, stepped in.

Sons of Anarchy, in which Jax Teller's stepfather runs the biker club his late father started, echoes which Shakespeare play?

Hamlet shaped the show, its creator has said: the father who started the club is the ghost, and the stepfather who took over both the club and Jax's mother stands in for Claudius.

Which character says "I am the one who knocks" in Breaking Bad?

Walter White says it to his wife Skyler, who fears he is in danger; 'I am the danger,' he tells her, and she answers by taking their baby and driving away from the house.

In Game of Thrones, which structure do the men of the Night's Watch swear to guard for life?

The Wall, 700 feet of ice along the realm's northern border, came to George R. R. Martin in 1981 as he stood on Hadrian's Wall and imagined a Roman soldier staring into the unknown.

Which sitcom gave the world the catchphrase 'No soup for you'?

Seinfeld based the Soup Nazi on Manhattan soup seller Al Yeganeh, who called the episode an unfair character assassination and dismissed its star as 'an idiot clown'.

What is the name of the dragon ridden by Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones?

Drogon, named for Daenerys's late husband Khal Drogo, is the only one of her three dragons to outlive her; in the finale he melts the Iron Throne and carries her body away.

Which sitcom's stars took a pay cut to film it?

I Love Lucy's Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz accepted lower pay to cover the cost of film and kept the rights to the episodes in return, so their own company reaped the profits when the shows were rerun.

What is the name of the high school in Saved by the Bell?

Bayside High replaced an Indianapolis junior high: the show began on the Disney Channel as Good Morning, Miss Bliss until NBC retooled it and moved its students to California.

Which actress plays Eleven in Stranger Things?

Millie Bobby Brown shaved her head to play Eleven; her parents were more against it than she was, until the show's creators pointed to Charlize Theron's Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road.

In The Bear, what is the name of the restaurant that Carmy inherits from his brother?

The Original Beef of Chicagoland, which regulars call The Beef, is the sandwich shop Carmy takes over after his brother Mikey's death; he later reopens it as the fine-dining restaurant The Bear.

Which NBC mockumentary follows Leslie Knope and her fellow bureaucrats in fictional Pawnee, Indiana?

Parks and Recreation began when NBC asked for a spin-off of The Office; its creators spent months on the idea, dropped it for a stand-alone show and kept the mockumentary cameras.

"How you doin'?" is the signature pickup line of which sitcom character?

Joey Tribbiani, Matt LeBlanc's struggling actor, was first planned as Monica's big love interest; the creators gave that story to Ross and Rachel instead.

Which medical drama, created by Shonda Rhimes and premiering in 2005, is set at Seattle Grace Hospital?

Grey's Anatomy renamed its hospital twice: Seattle Grace Mercy West after a Season 6 merger, then Grey Sloan Memorial for Lexie Grey and Mark Sloan, both killed by the Season 8 plane crash.

In The Sopranos, what type of business does Tony Soprano use as his legitimate front?

Waste management company: in the pilot Tony Soprano tells his psychiatrist he is a 'waste management consultant', the title he holds on paper at Barone Sanitation.

How did the final shot of The Sopranos' 2007 series finale 'Made in America' end?

An abrupt cut to black, then about ten seconds of silence: many viewers thought their cable had failed, and creator David Chase declined to say whether it meant Tony had been killed.

In Schitt's Creek, why did Johnny Rose originally buy the town?

As a joke gift for his son David's birthday in 1991; the premise came from real life, after the show's writers read that Kim Basinger had bought a small Georgia town in 1989.

Jack, Kate and Sawyer were stranded on the island after the crash of which numbered Oceanic Airlines flight?

Flight 815 broke apart in mid-air because Desmond failed to enter the numbers into a hatch computer in time, releasing a burst of electromagnetism that dragged the Sydney to Los Angeles jet down.

Which animated show features characters named Bender, Leela, and Fry?

Futurama starts when pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry is frozen by accident as 1999 ends and thawed a thousand years later, where he becomes a delivery boy again for the Planet Express company.

What is the name of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer's regular coffee-shop hangout?

Monk's Cafe is only half real: the exterior is Tom's Restaurant at Broadway and 112th Street in Manhattan, but the scenes inside were shot on a studio set across the country in Los Angeles.

In Downton Abbey, what is the title held by Robert Crawley?

Earl of Grantham is a title only a male heir can inherit, so when Robert's heirs go down with the Titanic the estate is set to pass to a distant cousin, a Manchester lawyer, and not to his daughters.

How many players are recruited into Squid Game's deadly contest?

456 players, all drowning in debt, compete for a pot of 45.6 billion won, 100 million per eliminated player; creator Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote the script in 2009 and could not get it funded for a decade.

At the start of Suits, what is the name of the New York law firm where Harvey Specter works?

Pearson Hardman hires only Harvard law graduates, yet Harvey takes on Mike Ross as his associate, and the two spend years hiding that Mike never went to law school at all.

Which TV show is set in the fictional Dillon, Texas and follows a high school football team?

Friday Night Lights faced cancellation after two low-rated seasons; NBC saved it with a deal that had DirecTV share the cost and show each of the last three seasons first.

In The Wire, which Baltimore institution is the main focus of Season 4?

The schools: the season follows four boys through eighth grade, drawing on writing partner Ed Burns, who had been both a Baltimore homicide detective and a public school teacher.

Which actor played the lead role of Don Draper in Mad Men?

Jon Hamm was nominated for the lead-actor Emmy year after year as Don Draper and was beaten every time, until he finally won in 2015 for the show's final season.

What NBC show featured the Huxtable family?

The Cosby Show nearly had a different family: its star first pitched a limousine driver with a blue-collar wife, but his own wife, Camille, urged him to make the Huxtables a doctor and a lawyer.

What affectionate nickname does Logan Roy use for his daughter Shiv?

Pinky is the childhood pet name Logan still uses for Shiv, even in Season 2 as he privately offers her the job of running the company and then never follows through.

Which TV show takes place aboard a spaceship called Serenity?

Firefly, named for the class of ship Serenity belongs to, was cancelled after 11 of its 14 episodes had aired, but strong DVD sales followed and its crew returned in the 2005 film Serenity.

Which Breaking Bad episode won Moira Walley-Beckett the 2014 Emmy for drama writing?

Ozymandias is named for Shelley's poem about a fallen king's ruined statue, fitting the hour in which the drug empire collapses; Rian Johnson directed Walley-Beckett's Emmy-winning script.

Which reality competition show did Jeff Probst begin hosting at its premiere in 2000?

Survivor made Richard Hatch its first winner in 2000; he was later indicted for evading tax on the $1 million prize, convicted and sent to prison.

In The Good Place's first-season finale, what does Eleanor realize about her neighborhood?

It is the Bad Place: the supposed heaven is a torture experiment designed by Michael, a twist its creator planned from the start and told only Kristen Bell and Ted Danson in advance.

What is the name of the struggling Irish dive bar run by the Gang in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

Paddy's Pub nearly shut after one low-rated season: FX told the creators to add a star name or the show was over, so Danny DeVito joined in Season 2 as Frank Reynolds.

'Where Everybody Knows Your Name' is the theme song of which sitcom?

Cheers turned down the first attempts by writers Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo, after the producers' original choice proved legally tied to the pair's stage musical, before this song was accepted.

In Arrested Development, George Bluth Sr. keeps telling his son 'there's always money in' what?

The banana stand: he meant it literally, with about $250,000 in cash lining its walls, which Michael learns only after he and his son have burned the stand to the ground.

Rebecca Welton hires Ted Lasso to manage A.F.C. Richmond secretly hoping he will do what?

Run the club into the ground: Rebecca won the team in her divorce and wants to wreck what her unfaithful ex-husband Rupert loved most, so she hires a coach who has never worked in soccer.

In season 6 of The Office (US), what is Jo Bennett's Florida printer company called?

Sabre takes over in Season 6, and staff who assume the name is pronounced 'sah-bray' greet its envoy with a song; by the season finale the press has learned that its printers catch fire.

Which AMC series follows a group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse?

The Walking Dead made so much money that Frank Darabont, who developed it and departed in 2011, sued AMC over his share of the profits; the network settled the case for $200 million in 2021.

In Twin Peaks, who is revealed as Laura's murderer, possessed by the entity BOB?

Leland Palmer, Laura's own father, did it while possessed by BOB; the creators had meant the murder mystery to fade into the background as viewers got to know the rest of the town.

In The Americans, spy couple Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are secretly working for which country?

The Soviet Union's KGB planted them near Washington as a married pair of travel agents; creator Joe Weisberg, a former CIA officer, was partly inspired by the 2010 exposure of real Russian sleeper agents.

Which show's 2004 pilot, then the costliest in ABC's history, had a real jetliner cut up and shipped to Hawaii?

Lost spent an estimated $10-14 million on its two-part pilot, with a retired Lockheed L-1011 playing the wreck; the ABC chairman who approved it was forced out soon afterwards.

In Fleabag, who does Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character fall in love with in Season 2?

A priest, played by Andrew Scott: he is the one character who notices when Fleabag breaks off to speak to the camera, the asides to the audience she makes throughout the show.

Which sitcom won Outstanding Comedy Series five years running from 1994 to 1998?

Frasier grew out of a psychiatrist written for only a few episodes of Cheers; its five straight comedy-series Emmys were later matched by Modern Family, and its 37 wins set a record for a scripted series.

How does Six Feet Under's 2005 series finale end?

With every main character's death: a show that began most episodes with a stranger dying closed by flashing forward, to Sia's 'Breathe Me', through its own leads' final moments as Claire drives away.

Cheers bar owner Sam Malone was a former relief pitcher for which baseball team?

Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Sam 'Mayday' Malone bought the bar while he was still drinking; by the time the series begins he is a recovering alcoholic who pours for everyone but himself.

Which series ended in 1983 with 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen', the most-watched US broadcast until a 2010 Super Bowl?

M*A*S*H drew about 106 million viewers for its two-and-a-half-hour farewell; a brush fire destroyed the outdoor set during the shoot, so the writers worked a fire into the story.

Which city do Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia share a house in on The Golden Girls?

Miami is home to all four; Estelle Getty, aged with wigs and heavy makeup to play Sophia, was in fact a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter Dorothy.

Gunsmoke, which ran 20 seasons on CBS, is set in which frontier town?

Dodge City, Kansas, got its marshal with John Wayne's help: he urged his friend James Arness to take the role of Matt Dillon and introduced the first episode on camera himself.

Who created and hosted the original 1959 anthology series The Twilight Zone?

Rod Serling had watched sponsors cut lines from his dramas and strip a script based on the Emmett Till murder of its setting; science fiction, he reckoned, would let him say the same things with less interference.

Who was revealed as J.R. Ewing's shooter in Dallas's 1980 episode 'Who Done It'?

Kristin Shepard, J.R.'s sister-in-law and mistress, was kept secret even on set: every actor, Larry Hagman included, was filmed firing the shot, and J.R. never pressed charges once she said she was carrying his child.

On Miami Vice, what kind of animal is Sonny Crockett's pet, Elvis?

An alligator: Elvis shares the sailboat Crockett lives on, and the show hired a real gator to play him from a wildlife attraction in nearby Davie, Florida.

Which Fresh Prince of Bel-Air character is famous for dancing to Tom Jones's 'It's Not Unusual'?

Carlton Banks's arm-swinging routine became known as 'The Carlton'; actor Alfonso Ribeiro sued the makers of Fortnite in 2018 for selling it as a dance move, but the US Copyright Office refused to register it.

At the end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show's opening credits, what does Mary Richards toss into the air?

Her hat, a knitted tam: the puzzled woman behind her was a real shopper who wandered into the shot, and a bronze statue of the toss now stands near the spot where it was filmed.

What was the name of the boys' dog in the early episodes of The Brady Bunch?

Tiger all but vanished after the first season: the original dog died early in filming, hit by a florist's truck by one cast member's account, and its replacement proved too unruly to use.

"Jumping the shark" comes from a 1977 episode of which sitcom, in which Fonzie literally does so?

Happy Days sent Fonzie water-skiing over a shark in September 1977; two college roommates later coined the phrase for the moment a show runs out of ideas, though this one stayed on air until 1984.

George Jefferson of The Jeffersons made his money in what kind of business?

Dry-cleaning stores: the chain, Jefferson Cleaners, did well enough to move the Bunkers' old neighbors from Queens to a Manhattan high-rise, in a spin-off that ran longer than All in the Family itself.

Which 1977 miniseries did ABC air on eight consecutive nights?

Roots proved its network wrong: executives feared a saga about slavery would be a ratings disaster, yet the final night became one of the highest-rated broadcasts in American television history.

What was the title of the first Star Trek pilot, which NBC turned down before ordering another?

'The Cage' was reportedly judged 'too cerebral' by NBC, which took the unusual step of ordering a second pilot; its footage was later reused in the two-part episode 'The Menagerie'.

Which actress played the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of The Crown?

Claire Foy played the Queen for two seasons before the roles passed to older actors; the producers later apologised after revealing that her co-star Matt Smith had been paid more than she was.

Which actress narrates Bridgerton as the voice of Lady Whistledown?

Julie Andrews voices Lady Whistledown, but the voice is a disguise: the first season's final scene shows viewers that the gossip writer is really young Penelope Featherington.

The Mandalorian begins five years after what?

Return of the Jedi: with the Empire fallen, the series follows a bounty hunter and Grogu, the 'Baby Yoda' kept out of all advance marketing and toys so that his reveal would stay a surprise.

In Severance, employees of which sinister company undergo the memory-splitting procedure?

Lumon Industries grew out of its creator's own boredom: Dan Erickson, stuck in an office job at a door factory, wished he could skip the eight hours of the workday and just get it over with.

Which actor plays ranch patriarch John Dutton in Yellowstone?

Kevin Costner led the show into its fifth season; after a reported row with co-creator Taylor Sheridan over shooting dates, Paramount announced in 2023 that it would be the last.

In Ozark, Marty Byrde moves his family from Chicago to a lake resort in which state?

Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks is where Marty promises a drug cartel he can launder its money; the series itself was shot around lakes near Atlanta, drawn by Georgia's tax breaks.

Better Call Saul finished its Emmy run in January 2024 holding which record?

Most-nominated show never to win: it went 0 for 53 at the Primetime Emmys across six seasons, while its parent show, Breaking Bad, had collected 16.

In The Boys, the corrupt superhero team The Seven is run by which corporation?

Vought International presents its heroes' powers as God-given, but the first season reveals that the company manufactures them by dosing infants with a drug called Compound V.

HBO's Euphoria, starring Zendaya, is based on a miniseries from which country?

Israel's original Euphoria aired in 2012; for the HBO version, Sam Levinson reworked it around his own teenage struggles with anxiety, depression and drug addiction.

What is the name of the Upper West Side building in Only Murders in the Building?

The Arconia's exterior is the Belnord, a real apartment house filling a whole block of West 86th Street; inside, three neighbours who barely know each other start a podcast about a death in the building.

Abbott Elementary is set in an underfunded public school in which city?

Philadelphia is creator Quinta Brunson's hometown; she named the school after Joyce Abbott, one of her own favourite teachers, and based a lead character on her mother, a teacher for 40 years.

Which two actors play Joel and Ellie in HBO's The Last of Us?

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey took over roles voiced in the video games by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who both appear in the series; Johnson, the games' Ellie, plays Ellie's mother.

The first three seasons of The White Lotus were set in Hawaii, Sicily and where?

Thailand hosted the third season; the series itself began in 2020, when HBO asked Mike White for a show that could be filmed in a sealed-off bubble and a Hawaiian resort agreed to be taken over.

Peaky Blinders is set in which English city after the First World War?

Birmingham is where Tommy Shelby, home from the First World War as a decorated sergeant major, turns his family's street gang into a criminal empire; a real gang of that name once operated in the city.

Which actor plays Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's modern-day series Sherlock?

Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes lives at 221B Baker Street, but the door on screen is in North Gower Street; the real Baker Street had too much traffic and too many Sherlock Holmes signs to hide.

Which actor was the first to play the Doctor when Doctor Who began in 1963?

William Hartnell's failing health forced him out of the role in 1966, so the show invented regeneration, letting Patrick Troughton take over as the same character with a new face.

Dr. Gregory House leads a team of diagnosticians at which fictional teaching hospital?

Princeton–Plainsboro. Its star doctor was built as a medical Sherlock Holmes: the surname plays on 'Holmes', his best friend is Dr. Wilson and his flat is number 221B.

Which best-selling novelist created the medical drama ER?

Michael Crichton. He wrote the script in 1974 from his own days as a medical student in an emergency room; nobody wanted it, and the pilot was finally filmed, almost unchanged, 20 years later.

Law & Order's narration pairs police with which group?

District attorneys. Splitting each episode between investigation and trial echoes a 1963 drama, Arrest and Trial, which lasted a single season; Dick Wolf's version has run for more than twenty.

Which actor led the original CSI cast as Gil Grissom?

William Petersen. His forensic drama drew such audiences that lawyers and judges began to speak of a 'CSI effect': jurors who supposedly expect DNA and fingerprint evidence in every trial.

NCIS was introduced as a spin-off of which CBS drama?

JAG. Its first network cancelled the navy-lawyer drama after a single season; CBS rescued it, kept it for nine more and used two 2003 episodes to launch NCIS.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved from The WB to which network for its final two seasons?

UPN. Renewal talks with The WB broke down in 2001, so UPN signed the show for two seasons; the spin-off Angel stayed behind, leaving the two series on rival networks.

Which series is behind the 'Scully effect', said to draw women into science?

The X-Files. In a Geena Davis Institute survey, most women who knew Gillian Anderson's sceptical FBI doctor said she had raised their confidence that they could excel in a male-dominated profession.

Star Trek: The Next Generation aired from 1987 to 1994 by what means?

First-run syndication. Paramount bypassed the networks and sold the series straight to local stations, so it never had one national slot: each station chose its own day and time.

In the 2004 Battlestar Galactica, humanity lives on which group of planets?

Humanity's Twelve Colonies of Kobol, including Caprica, are destroyed by the Cylons, the androids they built, in the 2003 miniseries that launched the show.

What is Dexter Morgan's day job with the police department?

Bloodstain pattern analyst. The forensics job keeps Dexter close to crime scenes, which suits a man who spends his nights as a vigilante serial killer.

Homeland was adapted from which overseas drama series?

Prisoners of War. Gideon Raff's 2010 drama, Hatufim in the original, follows soldiers coming home after 17 years in captivity; Raff then crossed over to Homeland as an executive producer.

Which showrunner created the FX anthology Fargo, based on the Coen brothers' film?

Noah Hawley created the series, which premiered in April 2014 with Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman; the Coens joined as executive producers after reading his script.

Season 1 of True Detective follows two state police detectives in which state?

Louisiana. The season was filmed there as well as set there, partly because the state's tax incentives for film crews helped pay for the shoot.

In Westworld, who plays Dolores Abernathy, the oldest of the android hosts?

Evan Rachel Wood. Her Dolores is kept on a loop as a rancher's daughter for the guests' amusement, and the first season follows her slow discovery that her whole life is a scripted lie.

What does the title of Charlie Brooker's anthology Black Mirror refer to?

A switched-off screen. Brooker called it the one found 'on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand', and each story asks what side-effects those gadgets are having on us.

How is most of the dialogue in Curb Your Enthusiasm produced?

Improvised by the cast. Larry David writes only an outline of each episode's plot, and the actors make up their lines once the cameras are rolling.

Which former Saturday Night Live head writer created 30 Rock and stars as Liz Lemon?

Tina Fey. She gave up the sketch show's fake-news desk in 2006 to make the sitcom, joking that she was 'out of the fake news business'.

Community's sixth and final season aired on which platform?

Yahoo Screen. It rescued the cancelled sitcom hours before the cast's contracts ran out, but the gamble did not pay: Yahoo wrote off $42 million on its video shows and closed the service in January 2016.

Which actor played the deadpan Captain Raymond Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Andre Braugher. He won an Emmy as the fiery Detective Pembleton in the grim drama Homicide: Life on the Street, then played a police captain for laughs by almost never changing expression.

Which actor plays patriarch Jay Pritchett in Modern Family?

Ed O'Neill. Already the best paid of the cast, he still stood with his adult co-stars when they went to court seeking raises in 2012, reportedly out of solidarity.

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

Caltech. The science on screen was real: David Saltzberg, a working physicist from across town at UCLA, checked the scripts and supplied the equations on the whiteboards.

Which comedian is the unseen voice of the older Ted, narrating How I Met Your Mother?

Bob Saget. He is never seen or credited: director Pamela Fryman recruited him as the Ted of 2030, pitching the show as The Wonder Years 'kind of into the future'.

Ray Barone of Everybody Loves Raymond writes for which real newspaper?

Newsday. It is Long Island's daily paper, and the Barones live on Long Island, in Lynbrook, where Ray's parents and brother keep dropping in from across the street.

Married... with Children was the first primetime series on which new network in 1987?

Fox. The young network opened its prime time on 5 April 1987 with the bickering Bundys, a pointed break from the wholesome sitcom families of the day.

Roseanne is set in which fictional Illinois town?

Lanford. The 2018 revival was cancelled over a racist tweet by its star, Roseanne Barr, so the fictional family carried on without her in a spin-off, The Conners.

Full House's widowed father Danny Tanner raises his daughters in which city?

San Francisco. The city is seen mostly in the opening credits, with their row of Victorian 'Painted Ladies'; the show itself was taped on soundstages around Los Angeles.

Family Matters was a spin-off of which sitcom?

Harriette Winslow, the elevator operator at the Chicago Chronicle on Perfect Strangers, got her own family sitcom in 1989; Steve Urkel was originally written as a one-time character.

Which actor played teacher and neighbour George Feeny on Boy Meets World?

William Daniels. Viewers had heard him for years without seeing him: he was the uncredited voice of KITT, the talking car in Knight Rider.

Scrubs is set at which fictional teaching hospital?

Sacred Heart. The wards were real: the first eight seasons were shot inside a closed-down hospital in North Hollywood, which was demolished in 2011.

Which fictional Democratic president does Martin Sheen play in The West Wing?

Josiah Bartlet. The show makes him a descendant of a real New Hampshire signer of the Declaration of Independence, Josiah Bartlett, who spelt the family name with a double t.

Which actress played lifeguard CJ Parker in Baywatch?

Pamela Anderson. She joined a show that had already been cancelled once: dropped by its network after a single season, Baywatch survived by being sold directly to local stations.

Knight Rider's talking car KITT was a modified version of which vehicle?

Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. The talking car's partner, Michael Knight, is a detective left for dead who is given a new face and a new identity to fight crime from behind its wheel.

Which A-Team member, the team's pilot, was played by Dwight Schultz?

H.M. Murdock, the team's pilot, was played by Dwight Schultz as a patient who kept slipping out of a VA psychiatric hospital for missions; the NBC series ran from 1983 to 1987.

MacGyver works as a troubleshooter for which fictional organization?

The Phoenix Foundation. Its troubleshooter got out of trouble with a pocket knife and whatever was lying around, and dictionaries now list his name as a verb: to MacGyver is to improvise a fix.

Which Magnum, P.I. star had to turn down the role of Indiana Jones?

Tom Selleck. His Magnum contract would not release him; a Hollywood strike then delayed the series, so he could have made the film after all, and he has said he is proud he honoured it.

Which battered car did Lieutenant Columbo drive?

A Peugeot 403. The shabby French convertible suited a show that turned the mystery inside out: each case opens by showing the murderer, who then underestimates the scruffy lieutenant.

Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote lives in which fictional Maine town?

Cabot Cove, Maine, is Jessica Fletcher's home, with exteriors shot in Mendocino, California; Angela Lansbury starred in 264 episodes over 12 seasons.

Bonanza's Cartwright family lives near which Nevada town, close to Lake Tahoe?

Virginia City. The show's title is miners' slang for a rich body of ore, a nod to the Comstock Lode, the great silver strike of 1859 beneath the real Nevada town.

Which family drama ended its episodes with voices calling 'Goodnight, John-Boy'?

The Waltons. Creator Earl Hamner Jr. drew the stories from his own Depression childhood in Schuyler, Virginia, and spoke the opening narration of most episodes himself.

All in the Family was based on which British sitcom?

Till Death Us Do Part. Norman Lear's American version took three tries: one network paid for two pilots and rejected both before a rival finally put Archie Bunker on air in 1971.

Which comedian starred as junk dealer Fred Sanford in Sanford and Son?

Redd Foxx. He was born John Elroy Sanford, so the junk dealer in this American remake of the BBC's Steptoe and Son went by the star's own family name.

The sitcom Taxi is set at the garage of which fictional New York cab firm?

Sunshine Cab. Its drivers answer to Danny DeVito's bullying dispatcher, Louie De Palma, who rules the garage from a wire cage; cancelled after four seasons, the show was rescued by a rival network for a fifth.

Which show's eight Emmys in 1981 stood as a debut-season record until The West Wing?

Hill Street Blues. The winner was a ratings flop: the police drama had finished its first season near the bottom of the Nielsen rankings, yet was renewed.

Moonlighting's Maddie Hayes and David Addison run which detective agency?

Blue Moon. Maddie, a former model, was famous as the face of Blue Moon shampoo; when her manager ran off with her fortune, the failing detective agency she was left with took the name.

Dynasty's wealthy Carrington family lives in which city?

Denver. The oil-rich Carringtons were created as one network's answer to a rival's hit about Texas oilmen, Dallas, and the show's working title was simply Oil.

What does the number in the title of Beverly Hills, 90210 refer to?

The area's ZIP code. 90210 is one of several postal codes covering Beverly Hills; the show was shot as Doing Time in Beverly Hills, then Class of Beverly Hills, before the number took over the title.

Dawson's Creek is set in which fictional town?

Capeside. The Massachusetts coastal town existed only on screen: most of the series was filmed far to the south, in and around Wilmington, North Carolina.

Gilmore Girls' Lorelai and Rory live in which fictional Connecticut town?

Stars Hollow. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino invented the town after a stay at an inn in Washington Depot, Connecticut, and based it loosely on that village and its neighbours.

In The O.C., troubled teen Ryan Atwood is taken in by which wealthy couple?

Sandy and Kirsten Cohen. He is Jewish and she is Protestant, so their son Seth celebrates a holiday of his own invention, Chrismukkah, a word the show popularised.

Glee's show choir New Directions competes from a high school in which Ohio town?

Lima. Co-creator Ian Brennan drew the show from his own years in a high-school show choir in suburban Illinois, which he did not much enjoy.

Which British satirist created Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer?

Armando Iannucci. A first American remake of his Westminster satire The Thick of It died at the pilot stage, so for HBO he started again with a vice president and ran the show for four seasons.

Richard Hendricks's start-up in Silicon Valley is called what?

Pied Piper began as a music-copyright search tool before its compression algorithm became the prize; Mike Judge co-created the HBO comedy, which ran 53 episodes from 2014 to 2019.

Which actor plays the rapper Paper Boi in Donald Glover's Atlanta?

Brian Tyree Henry. The man who plays the rapper came from musical theatre: he made his Broadway debut in the original cast of The Book of Mormon.

In HBO's Barry, Bill Hader plays a hitman who joins what?

Barry stumbles into Gene Cousineau's acting class while tailing a target in Los Angeles and decides to stay; Henry Winkler won a 2018 Emmy as the teacher.

The 2024 series Shōgun is based on a 1975 novel by which author?

James Clavell. His shipwrecked pilot is modelled on William Adams, a real English navigator who reached Japan in 1600 and rose to the rank of samurai.

Netflix's Beef begins with what encounter between Danny Cho and Amy Lau?

A road rage confrontation in a Los Angeles parking lot sets Danny and Amy on a spiral of revenge; Steven Yeun and Ali Wong star in Lee Sung Jin's series, which premiered in April 2023.

In Money Heist, the robbers' code names are all taken from what?

World cities. The Professor's recruits take the names for anonymity, so the crew that storms the Royal Mint of Spain answers to Tokyo, Berlin, Nairobi and Rio.

Netflix's German time-travel series Dark is set in which fictional town?

Winden. When children vanish, the town's four families find a wormhole in the caves beneath its nuclear power plant, a passage that leads them back to 1986 and 1953.

After Escobar's fall, season 3 of Narcos follows the DEA's pursuit of which crime group?

The Cali Cartel. Its bosses were known as the 'Gentlemen of Cali' and hid their cocaine fortune behind legitimate businesses, where Escobar had chosen open war with the state.

Superintendent Ted Hastings leads which police unit in Line of Duty?

AC-12. The drama about officers who police the police was turned down by BBC One and sent to BBC Two, then proved such a hit there that BBC One took it after all from its fourth series.

Broadchurch is set on the coast of which English county?

Dorset. Writer Chris Chibnall lived on the county's Jurassic Coast, and setting his murder mystery there meant he did not have to spend time away from his home and family.

Call the Midwife is based on the memoirs of which former nurse?

Jennifer Worth. Her memoirs of nursing in post-war Poplar were adapted by Heidi Thomas, but she never saw the result: she died in 2011, months before the first series reached the screen.

Coronation Street's fictional Weatherfield is based on which real place?

Weatherfield is modelled on Salford, where creator Tony Warren grew up; the show premiered on Granada in December 1960 and became the world's longest-running TV soap.

Which pub stands on Albert Square in EastEnders?

The Queen Vic. When the show moved to high definition and its sets had to be rebuilt, the writers burnt the pub down in the story, and the old set really did go up in flames.

Only Fools and Horses is set in which part of south-east London?

Peckham. The cameras were rarely there: the tower block in the titles, the Trotters' Nelson Mandela House, stood in Acton in west London, and filming later moved to Bristol.

Fawlty Towers was inspired by which real establishment where the Pythons stayed in 1970?

The Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, run by the rude Donald Sinclair, hosted the Pythons in 1970; John Cleese and Connie Booth wrote all 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers.

Who wrote the first series of Blackadder with Rowan Atkinson?

Richard Curtis. The first series was lavish, shot around Alnwick Castle with horses and crowds of extras; the BBC renewed it only on a drastically cut budget, and Ben Elton joined to co-write the rest.

Which actor played Gareth Keenan in the British version of The Office?

Mackenzie Crook. His Gareth, a part-time soldier who insists he is assistant regional manager and not assistant to one, is the character Dwight Schrute of the American remake was based on.

Which American-born Python created the cut-out animations in Monty Python's Flying Circus?

Terry Gilliam. He pieced his cartoons together from old pictures, and the giant foot that squashes the opening titles is Cupid's, cut out of a Bronzino painting in London's National Gallery.

Which NBC Sunday program, first aired in 1947, is America's longest-running?

Meet the Press. It began on radio in 1945 as a promotion for a magazine, The American Mercury, before co-creator Martha Rountree took it to television as its first moderator.

Which soap opera ran on radio from 1937 and on television from 1952 to 2009?

Guiding Light. The title was a real lamp: Irna Phillips built the first radio episodes around a minister who kept a light burning in his study as a sign that anyone could come to him for help.

Sesame Street was created by Lloyd Morrisett and which television producer?

Joan Ganz Cooney. The show grew out of a dinner party she gave in 1966, where she and Lloyd Morrisett of the Carnegie Corporation got talking about whether television could teach small children.

Which producer created both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune?

Merv Griffin. By his own account the answers-first idea for Jeopardy! came from his wife, Julann, on a flight home to New York, and he composed the ticking 'Think!' music for the final round himself.

Who hosted the very first episode of The Tonight Show in 1954?

Steve Allen. He helped to invent the show as well as hosting it, and by his last season he was sharing the desk: Ernie Kovacs took over two nights a week in 1956 and 1957.

Who hosted the premiere of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975?

George Carlin. The show went out that night as NBC's Saturday Night, because a rival network already had a Saturday Night Live, hosted by Howard Cosell; the famous name was free only after that show was cancelled.

Which two journalists hosted 60 Minutes when it began as a bi-weekly show in 1968?

Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner. Reasoner introduced the first edition as 'a kind of a magazine for television'; it began as a Tuesday show in alternate weeks and only later became a Sunday fixture.

Who took over hosting The Price Is Right when Bob Barker retired in 2007?

Drew Carey. He had just taped the pilot of another game show, Power of 10, when the network asked him to succeed Bob Barker, who had held the job since 1972.

Matt Groening's cartoon family began in 1987 as shorts on which comedian's variety series?

Tracey Ullman. Groening was asked to animate his comic strip Life in Hell for her show; unwilling to sign away its rights, he offered a brand-new cartoon family for the slots around the ad breaks instead.

Which actor played M*A*S*H's Hawkeye Pierce?

Alan Alda. His Hawkeye began as a hard-drinking womaniser, but Alda campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, and over the years the surgeon grew into a man who shared his views.

Which daytime talk show host handed every audience member a brand-new car in a 2004 giveaway?

Oprah Winfrey gave away sedans donated by General Motors, a stunt worth about $8 million in total.

Which Nickelodeon cartoon's theme song asks who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

SpongeBob SquarePants was created by Stephen Hillenburg, who taught marine biology at California's Ocean Institute before he turned to animation.

Which giant dog breed is Scooby-Doo, the cowardly cartoon sleuth of the Mystery Machine van?

Great Dane Scooby-Doo owes his name to Frank Sinatra: a CBS executive took it from the 'doo-be-doo-be-doo' scat in 'Strangers in the Night'.

Which Star Trek character pairs a split-fingered hand salute with the words 'Live long and prosper'?

Spock's salute was devised by actor Leonard Nimoy, who based it on a Jewish blessing gesture he described in his autobiography I Am Not Spock.

Which 1960s sitcom's theme song tells of a 'three-hour tour' that ends in a shipwreck?

Gilligan's Island sent the charter boat SS Minnow out of Honolulu into a storm. In the original pilot's calypso theme, the voyage was 'a six-hour ride'.

Which South Park character, muffled by an orange parka hood, died in almost every early episode?

Kenny McCormick was based on a childhood friend of co-creator Trey Parker, also named Kenny, whose own orange parka muffled his voice.

In Game of Thrones, which great family of the North lives by the words 'Winter Is Coming'?

House Stark carries a grey direwolf on a white field as its coat of arms and rules from Winterfell, one of the oldest castles in the Seven Kingdoms.

Which 1960s sitcom about a macabre household has a theme song punctuated by double finger snaps?

The Addams Family owes its snaps to composer Vic Mizzy, who improvised them while presenting the tune for approval. They worked so well that they stayed in.

Which talk show veteran was the original American host of the quiz Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Regis Philbin made the host's check 'Is that your final answer?' a catchphrase, and the quiz became the most-watched prime-time series of the 1999–2000 season.

Which Sesame Street Muppet was orange in his earliest episodes before changing to a famous green?

Oscar the Grouch says he would still be orange if he bathed: he told interviewer Anderson Cooper that his green exterior is moss.

Which beet-farming salesman in The Office (US) keeps styling himself 'Assistant Regional Manager'?

Dwight Schrute shares the farm with his cousin Mose, who is played by Michael Schur, one of the sitcom's own writers and producers.

Which British comedy character did Rowan Atkinson describe as 'a child in a grown man's body'?

Mr. Bean uses very little intelligible dialogue, which helped the sitcom travel to hundreds of territories where viewers know little or no English.

Which HBO series follows newspaper columnist Carrie Bradshaw and three other New York women?

Sex and the City grew from Candace Bushnell's own column. She invented Carrie so her parents would not realise they were reading about her sex life.

Which Canadian-born presenter hosted Jeopardy! for 37 seasons after its revival in 1984?

Alex Trebek was hired after original host Art Fleming declined to return, and Lucille Ball was the one who urged that he get the job.

Which agent, played by Kiefer Sutherland, races an on-screen clock in the real-time thriller 24?

Jack Bauer starts out at the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles. Each of the first eight seasons covers 24 consecutive hours, one hour per episode.

In the 1980s sitcom ALF, which pets does the furry alien from Melmac keep trying to catch and eat?

Cats were never safe around ALF, who kept chasing the Tanner family's pet, Lucky. When he adopted one planning to make a meal of it, he grew fond of it instead.

In which 1960s sitcom does suburban housewife Samantha work magic by twitching her nose?

Bewitched kept the nose twitch but changed husbands: Dick York played the mortal Darrin until 1969, when Dick Sargent took over the part.

Which Tim Allen sitcom about a suburban Detroit dad features a show-within-a-show called Tool Time?

Home Improvement opened each Tool Time with a 'Tool Time girl', a part first played by Pamela Anderson, asking 'Does everybody know what time it is?'

Which prime-time cartoon of the 1960s was inspired by the live-action sitcom The Honeymooners?

The Flintstones nearly drew a lawsuit: Jackie Gleason said he considered suing Hanna-Barbera for copying his sitcom but decided to let it pass.

Which Canadian band wrote and recorded the theme song of The Big Bang Theory?

Barenaked Ladies wrote a theme that races through the history of the universe and the Earth. The original pilot had used Thomas Dolby's 'She Blinded Me with Science'.

Which reggae song by the group Inner Circle plays over the opening of the reality show Cops?

Bad Boys stands out because Cops otherwise does without narration, scripted dialogue or incidental music, leaving the officers to do the talking.

Which 1960s spy series has a Lalo Schifrin theme written in an unusual five-beat time signature?

Mission: Impossible has a theme in quintuple meter, which Schifrin jokingly explained as being for mutant people with five legs.

Which drama is narrated by the late Mary Alice Young, once a resident of suburban Wisteria Lane?

Desperate Housewives is voiced by Brenda Strong as Mary Alice, whose death in the pilot episode sets up the central mystery of the first season.

In which drama does Michael Scofield stage an armed robbery to join his condemned brother inside?

Prison Break gave star Wentworth Miller a tattoo that took around five hours to apply; when he wore a T-shirt, only the forearm pieces went on.

Which pair of elderly hecklers on The Muppet Show are named after two landmark New York hotels?

Statler and Waldorf are always criticising Fozzie Bear's humour, except on the one occasion when Fozzie heckled them back.

In Doctor Who, a faulty chameleon circuit leaves the Doctor's TARDIS stuck in the shape of what?

A police box was a common sight in 1960s Britain, but the shape has since become more strongly associated with the TARDIS than with its real-world inspiration.

Which 1960s sitcom's opening sequence shows Jed Clampett discovering oil while shooting at a rabbit?

The Beverly Hillbillies contradicts its own opening: in the first episode, the oil is found by a surveyor for the OK Oil Company.

The Great British Bake Off recreates an English village fête by filming its bakers inside what?

A large tent has stayed in one place for each series since the second. In the first, the cast and crew moved from town to town each week.

Which Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks miniseries follows Easy Company's paratroopers after D-Day?

Band of Brothers borrowed many of its visual cues and crew members from Saving Private Ryan, the 1998 film on which the two producers had worked together.

Which drama based on a Margaret Atwood novel is set in the totalitarian Republic of Gilead?

The Handmaid's Tale imagines laws under which Gilead's women may not own property, have careers, handle money or, with few exceptions, read and write.

Which sitcom about a child prodigy uses the They Might Be Giants song 'Boss of Me' as its theme?

Malcolm in the Middle was shot with a single camera and no laugh track or studio audience, and 'Boss of Me' won They Might Be Giants their first Grammy.

Which BBC America thriller has Sandra Oh's investigator pursuing the assassin Villanelle?

Killing Eve handed each series to a different female head writer, starting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and then Emerald Fennell.

Which composer, told to avoid flutes and solo vocals, led the Game of Thrones theme with a cello?

Ramin Djawadi chose the cello because he thought its darker sound suited the fantasy drama. He was shown an early version of the title sequence before composing.

Which HBO Western casts Ian McShane as saloon owner Al Swearengen in an 1870s gold-mining camp?

Deadwood charts the growth of a real South Dakota camp into a town, and both Swearengen and Timothy Olyphant's Seth Bullock were real-life residents.

Which HBO drama opens three years after the 'Sudden Departure' of 2% of the world's population?

The Leftovers moves in its second season to Jarden, Texas, a fictional town where not a single citizen disappeared.

Which 1960s British series has a former agent called Number Six living in a mysterious coastal village?

The Prisoner was created by its star, Patrick McGoohan, and its exteriors were filmed mainly in the Welsh seaside village of Portmeirion.

Which James Garner detective drama opened each episode with a message on an answering machine?

The Rockford Files rarely tied those messages to the plot. Its private eye, Jim Rockford, lived and worked out of a trailer at Paradise Cove in Malibu.

Which 1980s sitcom about a Vermont innkeeper ended by revealing its whole run as a dream?

Newhart closed with Bob waking beside Suzanne Pleshette, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show, in a scene kept secret from the cast and most of the crew.

Which crime drama's Joe Friday is remembered for the catchphrase 'Just the facts, ma'am'?

Dragnet's Joe Friday usually said 'All we want are the facts, ma'am'. The shorter version spread from Stan Freberg's chart-topping 1953 parody record of the show.

Which 1960s drama follows physician Richard Kimble's hunt for a one-armed man who killed his wife?

The Fugitive ended with a two-part finale whose second half was the most-watched television series episode up to that time.