Family Affair
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50 free Family Affair trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Family Affair ran for five seasons from 1966 and became one of the best-loved family sitcoms of its era. Its premise was simple and a little sad: a globe-trotting bachelor suddenly finds himself raising his late brother's children, with only a very proper gentleman's gentleman to help. The mix of warmth, gentle comedy and one famous doll made it a hit, and it is still fondly remembered. This quiz covers the whole series: Uncle Bill, Mr. French, Buffy, Jody and Cissy, the actors who played them, the well-known faces who dropped in as guest stars, and the episodes fans still talk about. There are also questions on how the series was made, what its cast did before and afterwards, and the short-lived 2002 remake. It is pitched at anyone who grew up with the series or found it later in reruns. Easier questions come first and a few deep cuts wait further in, and every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What name does Buffy give the bespectacled doll she carries almost everywhere on Family Affair?
Mrs. Beasley
Mrs. Beasley was such a hit with young viewers that a talking version went on sale in toy shops. Buffy only gives her up in the final season, when friends say she is too old for dolls.
Q 02Which character in Disney's The Jungle Book was voiced by the actor who played Mr. French on Family Affair?
Bagheera
Bagheera the wise black panther reached cinemas a year after the sitcom began, so its butler was a Disney voice and a prime-time star at the same time.
Q 03Which actor, the father of the twins in Disney's The Parent Trap, played bachelor Uncle Bill on Family Affair?
Brian Keith
Brian Keith earned three Emmy nominations as Uncle Bill. He was more than the star, too: he held part ownership of the series.
Q 04The actor who played Mr. French on Family Affair released an album of spoken recitations of which songwriter's songs?
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan's songs became solemn spoken verse on the 1967 album, whose title billed one man as actor and the other as poet. Two tracks later landed on a compilation of celebrity singing oddities.
Q 05Which Rocky Horror Picture Show star took over as Mr. French in the 2002 remake of Family Affair?
Tim Curry
Tim Curry played the butler opposite a new Uncle Bill, but the remake lasted less than a season. Two finished episodes were never broadcast.
Q 06Which future sitcom daughter played Buffy's gravely ill schoolmate in a Christmas episode of Family Affair?
Eve Plumb
Eve Plumb took the role a year before she became Jan on The Brady Bunch. With the girl's prognosis poor, the Davis family sets out to do something special for her.
Q 07In which city does Uncle Bill share his luxury high-rise apartment with the children on Family Affair?
New York
New York is the setting, with the apartment placed on the Upper East Side, yet the series itself was filmed in a California studio.
Q 08Buffy's young actress from Family Affair made her only film appearance in The Trouble with Girls beside which superstar?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was the star of the 1969 film, shot at the height of her fame as Buffy. She never made another, and stopped acting when the sitcom ended.
Q 09The opening credits of Family Affair appear over gems and precious stones viewed through which kind of optical toy?
A kaleidoscope
A kaleidoscope of multicoloured jewels fills the screen behind the titles. In the final season the cast went further and greeted viewers on camera before the story began.
Q 10Which toy company turned Buffy's doll from Family Affair into a talking toy sold across the United States?
Mattel
Mattel sold the talking doll once the show proved a hit with girls. It then added two dolls modelled on Buffy herself, each with a miniature copy of her companion.
Q 11Which English actor, the narrator of Disney's Winnie the Pooh featurettes, played Mr. French on Family Affair?
Sebastian Cabot
Sebastian Cabot knew the job first-hand: as a teenager in London he worked as chauffeur and valet to a British actor before going on the stage himself.
Q 12Which American network bought Family Affair before a pilot had even been filmed and aired it for five seasons?
CBS
CBS committed on the strength of its producer's track record. The gamble paid off: in its second season the show tied for fourth place in the national ratings.
Q 13What is the profession of Uncle Bill on Family Affair, whose projects send him all over the world?
Civil engineer
Q 21Which actress, cast at the last minute while the pilot was already filming, played teenage Cissy on Family Affair?
Kathy Garver
Kathy Garver was 20 and a university student when she took the part of the 15-year-old. No scenes had been shot with the actress first chosen for the role.
Q 22Which red-haired child actor, later the lead in the 1973 musical Tom Sawyer, played Jody on Family Affair?
Johnny Whitaker
Johnny Whitaker got the part because the show's leading man had just made a film with him and recommended him to the producers.
Q 23Which child actress, eight years old but small for her age, was cast as six-year-old Buffy on Family Affair?
Anissa Jones
Civil engineer Bill Davis develops major projects abroad. In one episode a bridge his company built collapses, and the children rally round as he faces the consequences.
Q 14Which future sitcom dad played Julian Hill, the philosophy teacher Cissy becomes obsessed with on Family Affair?
Robert Reed
Robert Reed appeared three years before The Brady Bunch made him Mike Brady. He was the first of two future Brady stars to guest on the series.
Q 15On Family Affair, how did Buffy, Jody and Cissy lose their parents a year before moving in with Uncle Bill?
A car crash
A car crash killed Uncle Bill's brother Bob and his wife Mary. The other relatives decided the wealthy bachelor was the one best able to support the three children.
Q 16From which Midwestern state do Buffy, Jody and Cissy move to live with Uncle Bill on Family Affair?
Indiana
Indiana is Uncle Bill's home state as well. The family returns to Terre Haute for a reunion, where an aunt again tries to persuade the children to live with her.
Q 17The actor who played Uncle Bill on Family Affair later starred as a retired judge in which 1980s crime series?
Hardcastle and McCormick
Hardcastle and McCormick made him Judge Milton Hardcastle, partnered with an ex-con racing driver. It gave the one-time sitcom uncle a second hit nearly two decades later.
Q 18What surprise present do Buffy and Jody buy for Uncle Bill with their own savings in an early Family Affair episode?
A horse
A horse, an elderly one that came with its own carriage, was the twins' answer when they could not settle on a gift. The episode is called The Gift Horse.
Q 19Which future M*A*S*H regular plays a hippie in Flower Power, a Family Affair episode about Cissy's new friends?
Jamie Farr
Jamie Farr was still three years from playing Klinger when he turned up as the hippie. Cissy decides she might like to join them, and Uncle Bill disagrees.
Q 20In a three-part Family Affair story, Mr. French loses Buffy and Jody on a bus during a vacation in which country?
Spain
Spain leaves the twins stranded for most of the story, cared for by a poor farming couple while the rest of the family searches frantically for them.
Anissa Jones had made her first commercial at six. Buffy and her brother were written as different ages until producers saw the two children together and made them twins.
Q 24Which actress, later Rhoda's mother Ida Morgenstern, joined Family Affair in its final season as housekeeper Emily?
Nancy Walker
Nancy Walker's Emily is hired to assist the butler and is his opposite in every way, to his great frustration, until she wins over the whole household.
Q 25Family Affair shot Uncle Bill's scenes in two 30-day blocks, a trick borrowed from which sitcom by the same producer?
My Three Sons
My Three Sons had used the schedule to land Fred MacMurray. It let film stars commit to television and still make movies, with co-stars filling in their scenes afterwards.
Q 26Which actor, the droning boss Bill Lumbergh in Office Space, played Uncle Bill in the 2002 Family Affair remake?
Gary Cole
Gary Cole was no stranger to remade sitcom fathers: he had already played Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch films of the 1990s.
Q 27What is the seldom-used first name of Mr. French, the gentleman's gentleman on Family Affair?
Giles
Giles French is nearly always addressed as Mr. French or simply French. His brother, who covers for him for nine episodes, is called Nigel.
Q 28In a second-season Family Affair episode, Jody's invisible friend Arthur is what kind of animal?
A bear
A bear called Arthur keeps landing Jody in trouble. Uncle Bill grows worried enough about the unseen companion to take the boy to a psychologist.
Q 29An advertising agency courts Mr. French on Family Affair to promote which very British breakfast spread?
Marmalade
Marmalade nearly cost Uncle Bill his butler: the obligations of the advertising contract threatened to pull Mr. French out of service with the family.
Q 30Which star of The Thin Man films guest starred on Family Affair as a woman hired as housekeeper and cook?
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy played a woman so unsuited to the job that Nigel, the stand-in butler, had to coach her through it. When the arrangement still failed, she blamed him.