In the Heat of the Night Trivia
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50 free In the Heat of the Night trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free In the Heat of the Night trivia questions with answers. In the Heat of the Night is two classics in one: the 1967 Best Picture winner that paired Sidney Poitier's Virgil Tibbs with Rod Steiger's Chief Gillespie, and the long-running series that brought Carroll O'Connor and Howard Rollins to Sparta, Mississippi for eight seasons. This quiz covers both, plus John Ball's Edgar-winning novel and the two Poitier sequels. Forty questions take in the murder of Phillip Colbert, the slap heard round the movie world, 'They call me Mister Tibbs!', Quincy Jones and Ray Charles, the Illinois town that stood in for Mississippi, and the film's five Oscars. On the TV side there is Bubba Skinner, Althea Tibbs, Harriet DeLong, Hampton Forbes, the move from NBC to CBS, the Georgia filming location and O'Connor's Emmy. Easy questions ask who played Tibbs; the hard ones want the composer's track titles and the real Sparta. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, novel, sequels and series, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
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Q 01Who directed the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?
Norman Jewison
Norman Jewison was told by Robert Kennedy while making it that the film could be very important because 'timing is everything'; it won Best Picture, though he lost Best Director.
Q 02Who plays detective Virgil Tibbs in the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier played Tibbs three times in five years, returning for two sequels, yet it was his co-star who took the acting Oscar for the original.
Q 03In the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, Virgil Tibbs is a homicide detective from which city?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is where his own chief orders him to stay and help the local police with the case, when all Tibbs wants is to leave town.
Q 04Who won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Chief Bill Gillespie in the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?
Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger won on the night, while his top-billed co-star, who made three films about race relations that year, was not nominated at all.
Q 05In the Heat of the Night beat which Hoffman film to Best Picture?
The Graduate
The Graduate went home with only the directing Oscar, while In the Heat of the Night took five awards from seven nominations, the top prize among them.
Q 06In the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, the town of Sparta is in which state?
Mississippi
Mississippi, a centre of the country's conflict over civil rights in the 1960s, replaced the novel's setting.
Q 07Most of the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night was actually shot in which real town?
Sparta, Illinois
Sparta, Illinois stood in for the Deep South, and the story's town was renamed to match it so the crew could film the real signs and storefronts.
Q 08Why did the star of In the Heat of the Night have reservations about the shoot?
Filming south of the Mason-Dixon line
Filming south of the Mason-Dixon line worried him so much that most scenes were shot in the North, and on the brief Southern location he left his motel only when necessary.
Q 09In the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, whose murdered body is found at the start?
Phillip Colbert
Phillip Colbert, a wealthy investor from the North, was the film's invention: in the novel the victim is an orchestra conductor organising a music festival.
Q 10How does Tibbs first come to the attention of the Sparta police?
He is arrested at the train station
He is arrested at the train station simply for being a Black stranger with a full wallet; only at headquarters do the police learn they have picked up a homicide detective.
Q 11Which plantation owner in In the Heat of the Night slaps Tibbs and is slapped right back?
Eric Endicott
Eric Endicott's slap went unanswered in the first story outline; by the star's own account, he took the part on condition that Tibbs would hit back.
Q 12Who turns out to be the killer in the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?
Ralph Henshaw, a diner cook
Ralph Henshaw, a diner cook, killed for cash to pay for his girlfriend's abortion, and it is the money found in her purse that finally exposes him.
Q 13In the film In the Heat of the Night, Gillespie wrongly arrests which of his officers?
Sam Wood
Q 21What was the title of the 1970 sequel starring Poitier?
They Call Me Mister Tibbs!
Tibbs is now a lieutenant with the San Francisco police, and Quincy Jones's score went funk.
Q 22In the two film sequels to In the Heat of the Night, Tibbs works for the police of which city?
San Francisco
San Francisco is where the sequels make him a lieutenant, though neither film adapts any of John Ball's Tibbs novels; the writers invented new cases.
Q 23Who played Chief Bill Gillespie in the television series In the Heat of the Night?
Carroll O'Connor
Carroll O'Connor took the part five years after his last sitcom ended, became an executive producer, and played scenes with his own son Hugh, cast as Officer Lonnie Jamison.
Sam Wood had made a large bank deposit the day after the killing, which looked like blood money until Tibbs showed where the murder really happened.
Q 14Tibbs's famous retort about his name is echoed by which animal in The Lion King?
Pumbaa
Pumbaa turns it into a battle cry when he is called a pig; the original, Tibbs's answer to a sneer at his first name, is number 16 on the AFI's list of movie quotes.
Q 15Who composed the score of the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?
Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones wrote a bluesy Southern score whose title theme outlived the film: two decades later a new recording of it opened every episode of the television series.
Q 16Who performed the title song of the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?
Ray Charles
Ray Charles sang it over the film's opening, to words by Alan and Marilyn Bergman; the television series later used a new version sung by Bill Champlin.
Q 17Which cinematographer shot the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?
Haskell Wexler
Haskell Wexler is credited with lighting a colour film with a Black star in mind for the first time, toning down the strong lights that threw glare on dark skin.
Q 18Who wrote the screenplay of In the Heat of the Night, adapting John Ball's novel?
Stirling Silliphant
Stirling Silliphant took the job over from a writer-producer who left the project, having just adapted the star's previous film, and won the Oscar for it.
Q 19John Ball's 1965 book In the Heat of the Night won which honour?
The Edgar for Best First Novel
The Edgar for Best First Novel honoured Ball's debut mystery, and Hollywood moved at once: a film version was announced in June 1965, the year the book came out.
Q 20In John Ball's novel In the Heat of the Night, the small town is called Wells and is in which state?
South Carolina
South Carolina's fictional Wells did not survive the adaptation: the film renamed the town Sparta, after the real place where it was shot, so existing signs could be used.
Q 24Who played Virgil Tibbs in the television series In the Heat of the Night?
Howard Rollins
Howard Rollins, Oscar-nominated for Ragtime, was dropped after six seasons because of his legal troubles, though the show's star arranged guest appearances for him.
Q 25The TV series In the Heat of the Night began on NBC in 1988 and later moved to which network?
CBS
CBS took the show over in 1992 after five seasons on NBC, then ended it with a set of two-hour television movies in place of a weekly eighth season.
Q 26In the TV series In the Heat of the Night, why has Tibbs returned to Sparta in the pilot?
For his mother's funeral
For his mother's funeral: the series makes Sparta his hometown, and the mayor persuades the Northern detective to stay on as the town's chief of detectives.
Q 27Which future Walking Dead star made his film debut as Harvey Oberst in In the Heat of the Night?
Scott Wilson
Scott Wilson played the wrongly suspected Harvey Oberst in his first film and a real-life killer in In Cold Blood the same year; decades later he was Hershel Greene.
Q 28Bill Champlin, who sang the TV theme of In the Heat of the Night, belonged to which band at the time?
Chicago
Chicago had Bill Champlin as a singer and keyboard player from 1981 to 2009; his bluesy remake replaced the original heard over the 1967 film's opening.
Q 29From season two, the TV series In the Heat of the Night was shot mainly in which Georgia town?
Covington
Covington took over from Hammond, Louisiana after a single season, and years later doubled as Mystic Falls in The Vampire Diaries.
Q 30Which Dallas star directed several episodes of TV's In the Heat of the Night?
Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman, the J.R. Ewing of Dallas, was a close friend of the show's star and executive producer, and directed several of its later episodes.