Classic TV Trivia
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157 free Classic TV trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
107 free Classic TV trivia questions with answers. Classic TV trivia for seniors, built from the shows a generation actually grew up watching: I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners, Gunsmoke and Bonanza, Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson, Andy Griffith's Mayberry, The Twilight Zone, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Waltons, Dallas, Cheers and The Golden Girls. The questions lean on the things a viewer remembers - catchphrases, theme songs, addresses, who played whom - alongside a few real production facts: the three-camera rig invented for a 1951 sitcom, the letter campaign that bought Star Trek one more season, the bar picked out of a Boston phone book. The 157 questions run from easy ones any rerun-watcher will get to a handful that will make even a devoted fan pause, so the set works as a warm-up at a senior center, a family game after dinner, or a solo trip down memory lane. Each question comes with four choices, instant scoring and a one-line explanation that adds a detail you may not have known. Every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source, so if a grandchild argues about who shot J.R., you can settle it.
30 of 157 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1950s sitcom's three-camera setup became the standard for live-audience comedies?
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy, shot on film with three cameras by cinematographer Karl Freund from 1951, turned the multi-camera setup into the standard for studio-audience sitcoms.
Q 02Which production company did Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz jointly own?
Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions, formed by Ball and Arnaz in 1950, made I Love Lucy and later Star Trek and Mission: Impossible; Ball bought out Arnaz's share in 1962 after their divorce.
Q 03Which January 1953 I Love Lucy episode drew a then-record 71.7 Nielsen rating?
Lucy Goes to the Hospital
'Lucy Goes to the Hospital' aired on 19 January 1953 to a 71.7 rating, about 44 million viewers, more than watched Eisenhower's inauguration the next day; CBS had banned the word 'pregnant'.
Q 04Which pair played the landlords and best friends of the Ricardos?
Vivian Vance and William Frawley
Vivian Vance and William Frawley played landlords Ethel and Fred Mertz, who lived downstairs from the Ricardos; the two actors famously disliked each other off camera for the whole run.
Q 05What is the title of the 1983 M*A*S*H finale, one of the most watched US broadcasts ever?
Goodbye, Farewell and Amen
'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen' aired on CBS on 28 February 1983, ran two and a half hours, and was directed by series star Alan Alda.
Q 06Roughly how many viewers watched the 1983 M*A*S*H finale?
106 million
About 106 million Americans watched the M*A*S*H finale on 28 February 1983, then the largest audience for any US television broadcast; the 2010 Super Bowl finally passed it.
Q 07Which unit is the setting of M*A*S*H?
The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, set near Uijeongbu in South Korea, is the fictional unit; real MASH units operated a few miles behind the front during the Korean War.
Q 08How many episodes of M*A*S*H were made across its 11 seasons?
256
M*A*S*H made 256 episodes over 11 seasons, from 1972 to 1983, running eleven years to depict a war that lasted 1,128 days.
Q 09Who created and presented The Twilight Zone?
Rod Serling
Rod Serling created, hosted and wrote most of The Twilight Zone from 1959, appearing on camera from its second season; he had already won three Emmys for live dramas such as Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Q 10How many of The Twilight Zone's 156 original episodes did Rod Serling write or co-write?
92
Rod Serling wrote or co-wrote 92 of the original Twilight Zone's 156 episodes, well over half, often dictating scripts aloud into a tape recorder.
Q 11How did the fourth season of The Twilight Zone differ from the rest?
Episodes ran about 51 minutes
In its fourth season (1963) CBS stretched The Twilight Zone to an hour, so episodes ran about 51 minutes; the writers disliked padding stories and the show went back to half-hours for its final year.
Q 12What is the registry number of the starship in Star Trek's original series?
NCC-1701
NCC-1701 is the USS Enterprise's registry; designer Matt Jefferies chose digits that are hard to misread on screen, and later Enterprises added letters such as NCC-1701-A.
Q 13Roughly how many letters did NBC receive in the campaign that won Star Trek a third season?
116,000
Q 21In which fictional town is The Andy Griffith Show set?
Mayberry
Mayberry was modelled on the star's real home town of Mount Airy, North Carolina.
Q 22Who whistled the theme in The Andy Griffith Show's opening credits?
Earle Hagen, who composed it
Earle Hagen, who composed it, also whistled 'The Fishin' Hole' theme himself; it became one of the most recognised pieces of television music.
Q 23Where did The Andy Griffith Show finish in the Nielsen ratings for its final season?
Top of the chart
The Andy Griffith Show finished at the top of the chart, number one in Nielsen's 1967–68 season, and never ranked below seventh in its eight-year run; only I Love Lucy and Seinfeld have matched that exit.
NBC reported about 116,000 letters between December 1967 and March 1968 from the campaign organised by Bjo Trimble; the network announced the renewal on air in March 1968 and cancelled the show a year later.
Q 14How many episodes of the original Star Trek were made across its three seasons?
79
The original Star Trek made 79 episodes across three seasons, from 1966 to 1969; syndicated reruns, not first broadcast, turned that short run into a phenomenon.
Q 15How did the Cheers producers find the Boston pub that inspired the bar?
They picked it out of a phone book
They picked it out of a phone book: creators Glen and Les Charles chose Boston's Bull & Finch Pub from the Yellow Pages while scouting, and its Beacon Street doorway became one of the city's most photographed.
Q 16What was Sam Malone's career before he bought the bar?
Relief pitcher for the Red Sox
Sam Malone was a relief pitcher for the Red Sox, nicknamed 'Mayday' on the mound; alcoholism ended his career, which is why the bar's owner never drinks.
Q 17Where did the Cheers premiere rank in the weekly ratings, nearly getting it cancelled?
Seventy-fourth out of 77 shows
The Cheers premiere ranked seventy-fourth out of 77 shows in its week's Nielsen ratings in 1982; NBC kept the low-rated first season alive on critical praise, and it won the 1983 comedy series Emmy.
Q 18Who turned out to have shot J.R. Ewing?
Kristin Shepard
Kristin Shepard, Sue Ellen's sister and J.R.'s mistress, was revealed as the shooter on 21 November 1980, eight months after the March cliffhanger.
Q 19In which American city is Happy Days set?
Milwaukee
Happy Days is set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through the 1950s and early 1960s; the city unveiled the Bronze Fonz statue of Arthur Fonzarelli on its RiverWalk in 2008.
Q 20Which song opened the first season of Happy Days?
Rock Around the Clock
Bill Haley's 'Rock Around the Clock', recorded in 1954, opened Happy Days for its first two seasons; the 'Happy Days' theme with the show's name in the lyrics took over the opening in 1975.
Q 24What is the name of the boat that runs aground in Gilligan's Island?
The SS Minnow
The SS Minnow was named as a dig at FCC chairman Newton Minow, who had called television 'a vast wasteland' in 1961; creator Sherwood Schwartz disliked his views on the medium.
Q 25How long was the boat trip in Gilligan's Island supposed to last?
Three hours
The lyrics promise 'a three hour tour', so the trip was meant to last three hours; the castaways instead spent three seasons (1964–67) stranded, with an improbable amount of luggage.
Q 26Which phrase stood in for the Professor and Mary Ann in Gilligan's Island's first-season theme?
'And the rest'
'And the rest' was all they got until season two, when the characters grew popular enough to have their names written into the lyrics.
Q 27What was Ralph Kramden's job in The Honeymooners?
Bus driver
Ralph Kramden was a bus driver for the Gotham Bus Company, working a Madison Avenue route in New York while dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes.
Q 28Art Carney's character Ed Norton did which job for New York City?
Municipal sewer worker
Ed Norton was a municipal sewer worker, proudly employed underground by the City of New York; he lived in the flat above the Kramdens, and the role won Art Carney several Emmys.
Q 29At what Brooklyn address did the Kramdens and Nortons live?
328 Chauncey Street
328 Chauncey Street was Jackie Gleason's real boyhood address in Brooklyn; the Kramdens' famously bare apartment set there had little more than a table, a sink and an icebox.
Q 30All in the Family was adapted from which British sitcom?
Till Death Us Do Part
Till Death Us Do Part, Johnny Speight's BBC sitcom about bigoted Alf Garnett, gave Norman Lear the format after he read about it in Variety; Archie Bunker is Alf's American counterpart.