70s TV Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
This 70s TV trivia quiz has 120 free questions with answers and covers the decade when television grew up and got weird at the same time. There are questions on Norman Lear's empire (All in the Family and every show that spun out of it), the MTM shows, M*A*S*H and its record-breaking finale, Happy Days and its spin-offs, and the Aaron Spelling hits: Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island. The cop and detective shows get their due too, from Kojak's lollipops and Columbo's Peugeot to Starsky, Rockford and CHiPs, along with the sci-fi (Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, Battlestar Galactica), the family dramas (The Waltons, Little House), the miniseries Roots, the first night of Saturday Night Live, The Muppet Show's British backer, Soap, Taxi, Dallas and the Dukes. Easy questions suit anyone who remembers the theme tunes; the hard ones ask which brewery Laverne worked at and which precinct Barney Miller ran. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 120 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01All in the Family, which premiered on CBS in January 1971, was based on which British sitcom?
Till Death Us Do Part
Till Death Us Do Part, Johnny Speight's BBC sitcom about bigoted Alf Garnett, was Norman Lear's model; he moved the patriarch from London's East End to Queens.
Q 02All in the Family became the first series to top the yearly Nielsen ratings for how many consecutive years?
Five
Five: All in the Family was the top-rated series for five straight seasons, 1971-72 through 1975-76, a streak no earlier show had managed.
Q 03What was the Bunkers' address in Astoria, Queens?
704 Hauser Street
704 Hauser Street was the Bunkers' Astoria address; Norman Lear's 1994 spin-off 704 Hauser took its title from it, with a new family in the house.
Q 04Which 1972 NBC sitcom about a Watts junk dealer was adapted from a British series?
Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son transplanted the BBC's Steptoe and Son to Watts, with Redd Foxx as junk dealer Fred Sanford, forever faking heart attacks for his late wife Elizabeth.
Q 05The Jeffersons, who moved 'on up' to Manhattan, made their money from what business?
A chain of dry cleaners
A chain of dry cleaners: George Jefferson's Jefferson Cleaners stores funded the move from Queens to a deluxe Manhattan apartment; the show ran eleven seasons, 1975-85.
Q 06Good Times was a spin-off of which show, itself a spin-off of All in the Family?
Maude
Maude: Florida Evans, played by Esther Rolle, had been Maude Findlay's housekeeper before Good Times gave the Evans family its own show in 1974.
Q 07The Evans family in Good Times lived in a project implied to be which Chicago development?
Cabrini-Green
Cabrini-Green was never named on air, but the opening titles showed its Near North Side high-rises, placing the Evans family in Chicago's best-known project.
Q 08Bea Arthur's 1972-78 CBS sitcom was set in which New York suburb?
Tuckahoe
Tuckahoe, a village in Westchester County, was the show's setting; across six seasons it tackled abortion, alcoholism and domestic violence, and one episode had Arthur alone on screen.
Q 09The final episode of M*A*S*H aired in February of which year?
1983
1983: 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen' aired on 28 February 1983, closing eleven seasons of a Korean War that in reality lasted about three years.
Q 10How much did CBS charge for a 30-second ad during the M*A*S*H finale, more than that year's Super Bowl?
$450,000
$450,000 per 30 seconds, against about $400,000 for Super Bowl XVII a month earlier; roughly 106 million viewers watched, a record for any US broadcast until 2010.
Q 11Which four M*A*S*H characters appeared in all eleven seasons?
Hawkeye, Mulcahy, Houlihan, Klinger
Hawkeye, Mulcahy, Houlihan and Klinger were there for all eleven seasons; Trapper, Henry Blake, Frank Burns and Radar left along the way, while Potter, B.J. and Winchester arrived later.
Q 12The instrumental theme of M*A*S*H is a version of which song from the 1970 film?
Suicide Is Painless
Suicide Is Painless, written by Johnny Mandel with lyrics by 14-year-old Mike Altman, the director's son, plays instrumentally over the TV titles; the film version had the words.
Q 13Mary Richards worked as an associate producer at which fictional Minneapolis TV station?
WJM
Q 21Robin Williams first appeared as Mork in a 1978 episode of Happy Days that riffed on which 1960s sitcom?
My Favorite Martian
My Favorite Martian: the episode was titled 'My Favorite Orkan'; Mork tries to take Richie to Ork as a specimen and is foiled by Fonzie.
Q 22Which producer created both The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island?
Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Schwartz created both shows; The Brady Bunch was never a ratings hit in its 1969-74 run, and it never said whether Carol was divorced or widowed.
Q 23What was the name of the Brady boys' dog?
Tiger
Tiger, the Bradys' shaggy dog, was quietly written out after the first season, though his doghouse stayed on the set; Fluffy the cat appeared only in the pilot.
WJM-TV was the perennial last-place Minneapolis station where Mary worked under gruff news director Lou Grant, beside vain anchorman Ted Baxter.
Q 14How many Primetime Emmy Awards did The Mary Tyler Moore Show win?
29
29 Primetime Emmys, a comedy record that stood until Frasier passed it; the show took Outstanding Comedy Series three years running, 1975-77.
Q 15Rhoda Morgenstern's rarely seen doorman Carlton was voiced by which Mary Tyler Moore Show writer?
Lorenzo Music
Julie Kavner, later the voice of Marge Simpson, played Rhoda's sister Brenda.
Q 16Bob Newhart's character in The Bob Newhart Show had what profession?
Psychologist
Psychologist: Dr. Robert Hartley ran a Chicago group-therapy practice; Suzanne Pleshette played his wife Emily, and neighbour Howard Borden was an airline navigator.
Q 17Happy Days began life as an unsold pilot shown on which ABC anthology series in 1972?
Love, American Style
Love, American Style aired the segment 'Love and the Television Set' in February 1972, with Ron Howard already playing Richie Cunningham; ABC ordered the series after American Graffiti hit.
Q 18In which city was Happy Days set?
Milwaukee
Milwaukee: the Cunninghams' house stood at 565 North Clinton Drive, and Arnold's drive-in was modelled on the Milky Way in suburban Glendale, Wisconsin.
Q 19Little House on the Prairie was set in which Minnesota town?
Walnut Grove
Walnut Grove, Minnesota, was the Ingalls' hometown on Little House on the Prairie, which ran nine seasons from 1974 with Michael Landon as Charles Ingalls.
Q 20Laverne and Shirley capped bottles at which brewery?
Shotz
Shotz Brewery employed Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney on its bottling line; Penny Marshall's brother Garry created the show, which premiered in January 1976 and topped the Nielsen ratings in 1977-78.
Q 24The Partridge Family was loosely based on which real-life family band?
The Cowsills
The Cowsills, a Rhode Island family of singing siblings and their mother, inspired the show; the Partridges' tour bus was a 1957 Chevrolet school bus painted in Mondrian-style blocks.
Q 25Who provided the voice of the never-seen Charlie Townsend on Charlie's Angels?
John Forsythe
John Forsythe, later Blake Carrington on Dynasty, voiced Charlie over a speakerphone and was never seen; David Doyle's Bosley did the legwork.
Q 26Who replaced Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels after she left at the end of season one?
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd joined as Kris Munroe, Jill's younger sister, for season two; Shelley Hack later replaced Kate Jackson and Tanya Roberts replaced Hack.
Q 27Three's Company was adapted from which British sitcom?
Man About the House
Its spin-offs The Ropers and Three's a Crowd mirrored the British George and Mildred and Robin's Nest.
Q 28Which former Andy Griffith Show star joined Three's Company in 1979 as building manager Ralph Furley?
Don Knotts
Don Knotts, Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, arrived as Ralph Furley when the Ropers left for their own spin-off; he stayed until the series ended in 1984.
Q 29The Six Million Dollar Man was based on the 1972 novel Cyborg by which author?
Martin Caidin
Martin Caidin, an aviation writer, published Cyborg in 1972; its astronaut Steve Austin, rebuilt with bionic implants after a test-flight crash, became the TV hero in 1973.
Q 30Before her skydiving accident, what was Jaime Sommers' profession in The Bionic Woman?
Tennis player
Tennis player: Jaime Sommers was a professional tennis pro and Steve Austin's childhood sweetheart; Lindsay Wagner's spin-off ran on ABC and then NBC from 1976 to 1978.