60s TV Trivia
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130 free 60s TV trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
67 free 60s TV trivia questions with answers. 60s TV trivia from the decade television grew up: the years when Mayberry, the Ponderosa, Gotham City and the starship Enterprise all shared the dial. These 130 questions cover the sitcoms (The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan's Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes), the dramas and westerns (Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, Hawaii Five-O, The Wild Wild West), the sci-fi and fantasy (The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Lost in Space, Doctor Who, The Prisoner), the cartoons (The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Scooby-Doo) and the variety shows that shaped the era, from the Beatles on Ed Sullivan to Laugh-In and the Smothers Brothers. The easy ones ask who played Barney Fife or what Maxwell Smart hid in his shoe. The hard ones want the episode count of Gunsmoke, the year Star Trek was cancelled, or which show ended its run at number one. Every answer has been checked against a documented source, so you can settle the argument about whether Ginger or Mary Ann was on the Minnow with confidence. Play it as a nostalgia round for parents and grandparents, or as the tie-breaker at trivia night.
30 of 130 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Andy Griffith Show is set in Mayberry, a fictional small town in which state?
North Carolina
Griffith himself was from Mount Airy, North Carolina, and the show ended its eight-season run at number one in the ratings.
Q 02Which actor played Deputy Barney Fife, winning multiple Emmys for the role?
Don Knotts
Knotts and Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) won six Emmys between them; Griffith and the show itself never won one.
Q 03Which two series, besides The Andy Griffith Show, ended their runs ranked number one before 2000?
I Love Lucy and Seinfeld
I Love Lucy finished its final 1956-57 season ranked first, as did Seinfeld in 1997-98; The Andy Griffith Show did the same in 1967-68, never ranking below seventh in eight seasons.
Q 04Bonanza's Cartwright family lived on the Ponderosa ranch near which Nevada mining town?
Virginia City
The Ponderosa sat on the shore of Lake Tahoe near Virginia City, home of the Comstock Lode silver boom; Ben Cartwright's sons Adam, Hoss and Little Joe each had a different mother.
Q 05Which Bonanza son, played by Dan Blocker, was nicknamed 'Hoss'?
Eric
Eric Cartwright, the big-hearted middle son, got the 'Hoss' nickname from his Swedish mother's family; Adam (Pernell Roberts) was the architect and Michael Landon's Joseph was 'Little Joe'.
Q 06How many episodes of Gunsmoke aired over its 20-year run, a scripted primetime record until The Simpsons?
635
Its 635 episodes ran from 1955 to 1975; James Arness played Marshal Matt Dillon on television, while William Conrad had voiced him on the radio version.
Q 07Rod Serling wrote or co-wrote how many of The Twilight Zone's 156 episodes?
92
Serling wrote 92 of the 156 episodes, more than half; he also hosted and narrated, though in the first season he was heard but rarely seen on camera.
Q 08NBC cancelled the original Star Trek in 1969 after how many episodes?
79
NBC ended the series after 79 episodes; a fan letter-writing campaign, quietly backed by creator Gene Roddenberry, had won it a final season.
Q 09Which 1968 Star Trek episode featured Kirk and Uhura's kiss, one of the first interracial kisses on US TV?
Plato's Stepchildren
'Plato's Stepchildren', aired 22 November 1968, has the Platonians force Kirk and Uhura together by telekinesis, a framing that helped the scene get past NBC.
Q 10The Beverly Hillbillies' Clampett family struck oil and moved to California from which mountain range?
The Ozarks
The Clampetts came from the Ozarks; the show topped the Nielsen ratings in its first two seasons, 1962-63 and 1963-64, and the January 1964 episode 'The Giant Jackrabbit' drew a 44.0 rating.
Q 11The Beverly Hillbillies theme, 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett', was performed by which bluegrass duo?
Flatt and Scruggs
Flatt and Scruggs' single of 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' reached number one on Billboard's country chart in early 1963; Jerry Scoggins sang the version heard on the show while the duo played.
Q 12The castaways of Gilligan's Island were shipwrecked after setting out from Honolulu on what kind of trip?
A three-hour tour
The S.S. Minnow set out from Honolulu on 'a three-hour tour', as the theme song says, before a storm wrecked it on the uncharted island; the boat was named after FCC chairman Newton Minow.
Q 13Which producer created both Gilligan's Island and, at the end of the decade, The Brady Bunch?
Q 21The Addams Family TV series was based on single-panel cartoons from which magazine?
The New Yorker
Charles Addams drew the family for The New Yorker from 1938; the characters had no names until the 1964 series, and Vic Mizzy wrote and sang the finger-snapping theme.
Q 22On The Munsters, the family pet Spot was what kind of creature?
A fire-breathing dragon
Spot was a fire-breathing dragon who lived under the stairs at 1313 Mockingbird Lane; the show ran two seasons, from 1964 to 1966, as a rival to The Addams Family.
Q 23Get Smart was created by Mel Brooks and which other writer?
Buck Henry
Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Schwartz created Gilligan's Island in 1964 and The Brady Bunch five years later; the latter was never a ratings hit in its original five-season run but thrived in syndication.
Q 14On Bewitched, which actor replaced the ailing original Darrin Stephens for the final three seasons?
Dick Sargent
Dick Sargent took over as Darrin from the sixth season; Dick York left because of chronic back pain from an old film-set injury, and the show had been the Nielsen runner-up in its 1964-65 debut season.
Q 15I Dream of Jeannie was created by which novelist, later famous for The Other Side of Midnight?
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon created the series in 1965 and wrote most of its episodes; his first novel, The Naked Face, came in 1970, followed by The Other Side of Midnight in 1973.
Q 16Rob Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke, was head writer for which fictional variety programme?
The Alan Brady Show
Rob Petrie wrote for The Alan Brady Show alongside Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers; the set-up drew on the creator's own years writing for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.
Q 17The 1966 Batman series aired how many times a week during its first two seasons?
Twice
It aired twice a week, Wednesday and Thursday, with a cliffhanger ending the first episode; the show ran 120 episodes on ABC with Neal Hefti's theme.
Q 18The Flintstones was inspired in part by which earlier live-action sitcom, whose star considered suing?
The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners' Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton were the models for Fred and Barney; Jackie Gleason's lawyers said he could probably get the cartoon pulled, but he did not want to be the man who did that.
Q 19The Flintstones was the first animated series to do what on American television?
Air in prime time
The Flintstones became the first animated series to air in prime time when it debuted on ABC on 30 September 1960; it ran six seasons, with Mel Blanc voicing Barney Rubble.
Q 20The Jetsons holds what distinction in ABC's broadcasting history?
Its first programme broadcast in colour
Only 24 episodes were made in 1962–63; new ones were not produced until 1985.
Buck Henry co-created the series with Mel Brooks for producers Talent Associates; they pitched it as James Bond crossed with Inspector Clouseau, and Henry later wrote the screenplay for The Graduate.
Q 24Hogan's Heroes was set in which fictional German prisoner-of-war camp?
Stalag 13
Stalag 13, near Hammelburg, was run by the oblivious Colonel Klink (Werner Klemperer) and guarded by Sergeant Schultz (John Banner); the show ran 168 episodes from 1965 to 1971.
Q 25In The Fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble spent four seasons hunting his wife's real killer, described as what?
A one-armed man
The one-armed man, played by Bill Raisch, was finally cornered in the August 1967 finale, which drew a 72 percent audience share, a record until Dallas revealed who shot J.R. in 1980.
Q 26The 1967 series finale of The Fugitive was watched by roughly how many people, a US record at the time?
More than 78 million
That is 25.7 million households, a 45.9 rating and a 72 share; it beat the Beatles' 1964 Ed Sullivan appearance.
Q 27Who composed the theme music for Mission: Impossible, first heard on CBS in 1966?
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin, the Argentine jazz pianist and composer, wrote the 5/4-time Mission: Impossible theme, which won him two Grammys in 1968; he also scored Bullitt and Dirty Harry.
Q 28Which series won the 1967 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series?
The Monkees
The Monkees, built around the made-for-TV band of Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, took the 1967 Emmy over Bewitched, Get Smart and Hogan's Heroes, and lasted just two seasons.
Q 29Which Laugh-In cast member was regularly tricked into saying 'Sock it to me' and then doused?
Judy Carne
Judy Carne, the show's 'Sock It to Me' girl, was drenched, dropped through trapdoors or otherwise ambushed after saying the line; Richard Nixon said it as a 1968 cameo guest without getting wet.
Q 30Laugh-In began as a 1967 special and then took over the Monday 8 pm slot of which cancelled spy series?
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was cancelled midway through its fourth season in January 1968, and its replacement in the Monday 8 pm slot went on to top the Nielsens for two seasons and run until 1973.