90s TV Shows Trivia
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This 90s TV shows trivia quiz has 225 free questions with answers and covers the whole decade of television, not just the sitcoms. It starts with the dramas that defined the era (ER, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, Twin Peaks, Law & Order, Buffy, Dawson's Creek, Party of Five), the syndication giants (Baywatch, Xena, three Star Trek series), and the shows kids raced home for: Rugrats, Doug, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Power Rangers, Goosebumps, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Blue's Clues and Batman: The Animated Series. There is a sprinkling of sitcom history too (the Seinfeld and Cheers finales, Frasier's Emmy haul, the Fresh Prince recasting) plus MTV, late night and the game show that closed the decade. Easy questions ask what Hank Hill sells; hard ones ask which Next Generation episode introduced the Borg and what Mike Post calls the Law & Order sound. Every answer is checked against the show's own production history, so the explanations are safe to repeat at your next trivia night.
30 of 225 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which novelist created the NBC medical drama ER, which premiered in 1994?
Michael Crichton
Crichton, a Harvard-trained doctor, wrote the original screenplay in 1974 and Steven Spielberg's company finally produced it as a series two decades later.
Q 02What was unusual about the 1997 ER episode 'Ambush'?
It was broadcast live, twice
'Ambush' was broadcast live, twice: the cast performed the September 1997 season-four opener live for the East Coast, then again three hours later for the West Coast.
Q 03The first five seasons of The X-Files were filmed in which city before production moved to Los Angeles?
Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia, hosted the first five seasons; its damp Pacific Northwest weather gave the show its gloomy look, which faded after production moved to Los Angeles in 1998.
Q 04The 1998 X-Files feature film carried which subtitle?
Fight the Future
The X-Files: Fight the Future opened in June 1998, between seasons five and six of the show; the second film, I Want to Believe, followed in 2008.
Q 05David Lynch co-created Twin Peaks with which writer?
Mark Frost
Frost had been a writer on Hill Street Blues; the pair later reunited for the 2017 Showtime revival.
Q 06Whose murder drives the plot of Twin Peaks?
Laura Palmer
Laura Palmer was played by Sheryl Lee, who was hired as a local extra and then kept on as Laura's lookalike cousin Maddy; 'Who killed Laura Palmer?' became 1990's catchphrase.
Q 07Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered in March 1997 on which network?
The WB
It jumped to UPN for its final two seasons in 2001, one of the first high-profile network switches of the era.
Q 08The Buffy TV series was based on a Joss Whedon film released in which year?
1992
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer film, starring Kristy Swanson, opened in July 1992; Whedon disliked what the studio did with his script and the series let him do it his way.
Q 09Why did at least 30 ABC affiliates initially refuse to air NYPD Blue in 1993?
Nudity and raw language
Partial nudity and raw language were the objection: Bochco and Milch pushed broadcast standards deliberately to compete with cable, and Dennis Franz went on to win four Emmys as Andy Sipowicz.
Q 10Which star left NYPD Blue after its first season, after which the show was built around an ensemble?
David Caruso
Caruso left to make movies; Jimmy Smits arrived as Bobby Simone and stayed for four seasons.
Q 11At its peak Baywatch was cited as the world's most-watched TV series, with roughly how many weekly viewers?
1.1 billion
Guinness World Records cited 1.1 billion weekly viewers in more than 140 countries, making Baywatch the most-watched series in the world in the mid-1990s.
Q 12On Beverly Hills, 90210, twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh moved to California from which city?
Minneapolis
The Walsh twins came from Minneapolis, Minnesota; creator Darren Star's fish-out-of-water setup, produced by Aaron Spelling, ran ten seasons on Fox.
Q 13Which apartment-complex soap spun off from Beverly Hills, 90210 after Grant Show's Jake romanced Kelly for several episodes?
Melrose Place
Q 21Made for $24 million, roughly what did The Rugrats Movie (1998) gross worldwide?
About $141 million
The Rugrats Movie grossed about $141 million worldwide, and its $100 million US take made it the first non-Disney animated feature to pass that mark; it introduced Tommy's brother Dil.
Q 22On Are You Afraid of the Dark?, what was the name of the storytelling club that met around a campfire?
The Midnight Society
Each tale opened with 'Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society' and a handful of midnight dust thrown on the fire.
Q 23Are You Afraid of the Dark? was a Canadian-American co-production filmed mainly in which city?
Montreal
Melrose Place outgrew its parent once Heather Locklear's Amanda moved in, and it spun off Models Inc. in turn.
Q 14What does composer Mike Post call the famous two-note transition sound heard on Law & Order?
The Clang
Mike Post calls it 'The Clang', a composite that includes a jail door slamming; most viewers remember it as an ominous 'chung CHUNG' or 'doink doink'.
Q 15Which award did the 1994 Star Trek: The Next Generation finale 'All Good Things...' win?
A Hugo
It was the show's second Hugo; TNG was also the first syndicated series ever nominated for the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy.
Q 16Which Star Trek: The Next Generation episode featured the first on-screen appearance of the Borg?
Q Who
In 'Q Who' (1989) Q flings the Enterprise 7,000 light-years to meet the Borg; the cliffhanger 'The Best of Both Worlds' came a season later.
Q 17Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's station sits next to a wormhole leading to which quadrant?
Gamma
The Bajoran wormhole leads to the Gamma Quadrant, home of the Dominion, whose war with the Federation dominated the show's final seasons.
Q 18Star Trek: Voyager premiered in January 1995 as the very first show on which new network?
UPN
Voyager's pilot launched UPN on 16 January 1995 as the new network's flagship; Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway was the first woman to lead a Star Trek series.
Q 19Roughly how far from home was the USS Voyager stranded when it was flung into the Delta Quadrant?
70,000 light-years
Voyager was thrown about 70,000 light-years into the Delta Quadrant, a 75-year journey at maximum warp that the crew cut down to seven seasons.
Q 20Which studio, which also animated the first Simpsons shorts, produced Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys for Nickelodeon?
Klasky Csupo
Klasky Csupo's founders Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó animated the Simpsons shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show; Rugrats premiered on August 11, 1991 and was Nickelodeon's longest-running cartoon until SpongeBob.
It was shot in and around Montreal by the Quebec studio Cinar, airing on Nickelodeon's SNICK block in the US and YTV in Canada; co-creator D. J. MacHale later wrote the Pendragon novels.
Q 24Which actor played teacher and neighbour Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World?
William Daniels
Daniels was also the voice of KITT on Knight Rider, and he followed Cory from sixth grade all the way to college.
Q 25Mighty Morphin Power Rangers built its fight scenes from stock footage of which Japanese franchise?
Super Sentai
Super Sentai footage, specifically 1992's Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, supplied the first season's fights, which is why the original Rangers' Zords are dinosaurs.
Q 26In which fictional California town did the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fight Rita Repulsa?
Angel Grove
Angel Grove was the Rangers' hometown; Rita had been sealed in a space dumpster on the Moon, exactly the kind of detail that made the show a playground obsession.
Q 27The 1995 Goosebumps TV series, based on R. L. Stine's books, was filmed largely in which country?
Canada
Goosebumps was shot in Canada, largely in and around Toronto; it ran four seasons and 74 episodes on Fox Kids from 1995 to 1998.
Q 28After a 1993 incident in Ohio, MTV removed all references to what from Beavis and Butt-Head?
Fire
'Fire' was scrubbed after a 1993 Ohio house fire set by a five-year-old was blamed on the show; the word did not return until the 2011 revival, though Beavis and Butt-Head Do America reached cinemas in 1996.
Q 29Which MTV series was spun off from Beavis and Butt-Head in 1997?
Daria
Daria Morgendorffer was the smart girl who tolerated the pair in Highland; her own show ran five seasons.
Q 30What does Hank Hill sell, along with its accessories, at Strickland in Arlen, Texas on King of the Hill?
Propane
Propane and propane accessories is Hank's answer to everything; Mike Judge and Greg Daniels launched the show in January 1997 and it won the animated-program Emmy in 1999.