80s TV Trivia
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129 free 80s TV trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
80 free 80s TV trivia questions with answers. Eighties television is the decade of the must-see sitcom and the cliffhanger everybody talked about, and this 80's TV trivia covers both. The sitcom half runs through Cheers, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, Night Court, ALF, Growing Pains, Who's the Boss?, Full House, Married... with Children, Newhart, Perfect Strangers and Roseanne. The drama half takes in Dallas and Dynasty, Miami Vice, Knight Rider, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., Hill Street Blues, MacGyver, Moonlighting, St. Elsewhere and Murder, She Wrote, with Saturday-morning cartoons, Letterman and a game-show scandal for good measure. Expect the famous moments - who shot J.R., the Moldavian Massacre, the Newhart dream, the St. Elsewhere snow globe - alongside details only a real couch veteran remembers, like why Uncle Jesse's surname changed or where Cheers ranked in its first season. Difficulty starts easy and climbs. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and carries its source, so the ratings figures, character names and air dates are real rather than recycled from a listicle. Play solo, or lift the whole set for an 80s-themed quiz night.
30 of 129 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Sam Malone, the Cheers bar owner played by Ted Danson, was a former relief pitcher for which team?
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox; Sam 'Mayday' Malone's drinking ended his relief-pitching career before he bought the bar, and his sobriety was a recurring thread across the show's eleven seasons.
Q 02Which city do Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia share a house in on The Golden Girls?
Miami
Miami; the girls' address was 6151 Richmond Street, though the exterior shots came from a real house in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Q 03KITT, the talking car on Knight Rider, was a heavily modified version of which production car?
Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
A Pontiac Firebird Trans Am; the car's cool, dry voice belonged to William Daniels, who later played Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World.
Q 04Who was revealed in November 1980 to have shot J.R. Ewing on Dallas?
Kristin Shepard
Kristin Shepard, Sue Ellen's scheming sister played by Mary Crosby, was unmasked in 'Who Done It' on 21 November 1980, one of the most-watched episodes in US television history.
Q 05On Miami Vice, what kind of animal is Sonny Crockett's pet, Elvis?
An alligator
An alligator; Elvis lived aboard Crockett's sailboat, the St. Vitus Dance, and Jan Hammer's instrumental theme hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1985.
Q 06Which actor played Hannibal Smith, the cigar-chomping leader of The A-Team?
George Peppard
George Peppard, the Breakfast at Tiffany's star, played Colonel John 'Hannibal' Smith, whose catchphrase was 'I love it when a plan comes together'.
Q 07Michael J. Fox's Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties embarrassed his ex-hippie parents by being what?
A Young Republican
A Young Republican; Alex idolised Richard Nixon and carried a briefcase to school, and Michael J. Fox won three straight Emmys for the role in 1986, 1987 and 1988.
Q 08Cliff Huxtable, the father on The Cosby Show, worked in which profession?
Obstetrician
Obstetrician; Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable delivered babies from a practice inside the family's Brooklyn brownstone, while his wife Clair worked as a lawyer.
Q 09Thomas Magnum lived in the guesthouse of an estate called Robin's Nest on which Hawaiian island?
Oahu
Oahu; Robin's Nest was the estate of the unseen novelist Robin Masters, and the exterior shots used a real beachfront house at Waimanalo on the island's windward coast.
Q 10ALF, the furry alien who moved in with the Tanner family, came from which planet?
Melmac
Melmac; ALF's real name was Gordon Shumway, and his home planet was destroyed in a nuclear catastrophe after he left, stranding him on Earth with the Tanners.
Q 11"Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?" was the catchphrase of which character on Diff'rent Strokes?
Arnold Jackson
Arnold Jackson, played by Gary Coleman, aimed the line at his older brother Willis (Todd Bridges) after the Harlem boys were adopted by Park Avenue millionaire Phillip Drummond.
Q 12Jessica Fletcher, the mystery novelist of Murder, She Wrote, lived in which fictional Maine town?
Cabot Cove
Cabot Cove; the Maine fishing village was filmed at Mendocino, California, and Angela Lansbury earned twelve Emmy nominations as Jessica Fletcher without ever winning.
Q 13The Facts of Life's Eastland girls' boarding school was in which state?
New York
Q 21The Simpsons made their first appearance in April 1987 as short segments on which program?
The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show; the crudely drawn shorts ran from 19 April 1987 until the half-hour series premiered on 17 December 1989 with a Christmas episode.
Q 22Which 80s action hero refused to carry a gun, relying on a Swiss Army knife and duct tape?
MacGyver
MacGyver; Richard Dean Anderson's agent built escapes from paper clips and chewing gum, and 'to MacGyver' entered Oxford Dictionaries as a verb in 2015.
Q 23What make and model was the General Lee, the orange car of The Dukes of Hazzard?
1969 Dodge Charger
New York; the Eastland School for girls was set in Peekskill, and a young George Clooney joined the later seasons as handyman George Burnett.
Q 14Sgt. Phil Esterhaus ended every roll call on Hill Street Blues with which line?
Let's be careful out there
The show won eight Emmys for its debut season, a record for a first-year series that stood until The West Wing in 2000.
Q 15The 1988 finale of St. Elsewhere implied the entire series took place inside what object?
A snow globe
A snow globe; the hospital turned out to be a toy in the hands of autistic Tommy Westphall, spawning the fan theory that hundreds of crossover-linked shows share his dream.
Q 16Which sitcom's 1990 finale revealed the entire show had been another sitcom character's dream?
Newhart
Newhart; innkeeper Dick Loudon woke up as Dr. Bob Hartley beside Suzanne Pleshette's Emily from The Bob Newhart Show, which had ended in 1978.
Q 17Which show's 1988 debut aired on ABC immediately after Super Bowl XXII, with narration by Daniel Stern?
The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years; Fred Savage's Kevin Arnold grew up between 1968 and 1973 to Joe Cocker's 'With a Little Help from My Friends', and the show won the comedy Emmy after only six episodes.
Q 18Maddie Hayes and David Addison worked cases at which detective agency on Moonlighting?
Blue Moon
Blue Moon; former model Maddie had been the face of Blue Moon Shampoo and renamed the failing agency after it, while Al Jarreau sang the hit theme.
Q 19Which show's 'Moldavian massacre' finale left nearly the entire cast lying in a bullet-riddled chapel?
Dynasty
Dynasty; the Carringtons of Denver were television's number-one show in the 1984-85 season, and Alexis and Krystle's catfights in a lily pond and a salon became its signature.
Q 20Which sitcom was the first primetime series broadcast on the newly launched Fox channel in 1987?
Married... with Children
Married... with Children; Al Bundy's misery ran 259 episodes from 1987 to 1997, with Frank Sinatra's 'Love and Marriage' as its theme.
A 1969 Dodge Charger, painted orange with '01' on the doors, which were welded shut so the Dukes climbed in through the windows; Waylon Jennings narrated as 'the Balladeer'.
Q 24Which Cheers regular was a Boston mail carrier forever sharing 'little-known facts'?
Cliff Clavin
Cliff Clavin, played by John Ratzenberger, was the know-it-all postman; Ratzenberger pitched the character himself after auditioning unsuccessfully for Norm.
Q 25Balki Bartokomous of Perfect Strangers came from which fictional Mediterranean island?
Mypos
Mypos; Balki the sheep-herder arrived in Chicago to live with his cousin Larry Appleton, and the pair's 'Dance of Joy' ended many episodes.
Q 26V.I.C.I., the android girl of the syndicated sitcom Small Wonder, was an acronym for what?
Voice Input Child Identicant
Voice Input Child Identicant; robotics engineer Ted Lawson passed Vicki off as his adopted daughter for four seasons and 96 episodes in first-run syndication.
Q 27Mork & Mindy and which other sitcom were both spun off from Happy Days?
Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley; Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams' brewery workers debuted in 1976 and were television's number-one show in the 1977-78 season.
Q 28Which 1982 Happy Days spin-off sent Scott Baio and Erin Moran's characters to Chicago?
Joanie Loves Chachi
Joanie Loves Chachi ran 17 episodes in 1982-83, following Joanie Cunningham and Chachi Arcola to Chicago to chase a music career before both returned to Happy Days.
Q 29Which 80s drama recast its lead detective from Loretta Swit to Meg Foster to Sharon Gless?
Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey; between them Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless won the lead-actress drama Emmy six years running from 1983 to 1988, and a letter campaign revived the show after its 1983 cancellation.
Q 30Playing Dan Fielding on Night Court earned John Larroquette how many consecutive Emmys?
Four
Four, from 1985 to 1988, after which Larroquette withdrew his name from consideration; the show ran nine seasons on NBC with Harry Anderson as Judge Harry Stone.