Pleasantville
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50 free Pleasantville trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Pleasantville drops a pair of 1990s teenagers into a black-and-white 1950s sitcom and watches what happens when real feelings arrive in a town that has never had any. It is a comedy with a serious streak, and it has become a favorite of film classes for the way it turns a visual trick into an argument about change, conformity and prejudice. This quiz covers the whole film: the story from the living-room quarrel to the courtroom, the residents of the town and the actors who play them, the parallels that critics and teachers point to, and the remarkable technical work behind the picture. It suits fans revisiting the film and students revising it for class. 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 01How was Pleasantville's black-and-white sitcom world actually shot before digital artists went to work?
Entirely in color
Entirely in color: about 163,000 frames were then scanned so the hues could be drained away digitally, a first for a new feature film.
Q 02Which everyday fixture is missing from every bathroom in the squeaky-clean sitcom town of Pleasantville?
Toilets
Toilets simply do not exist in the sitcom town, where the temperature is always 72 degrees and the high school team scores with every shot.
Q 03With nothing able to burn in Pleasantville, what is the only job the town's firefighters ever do?
Rescuing cats from trees
Rescuing cats from trees is all they know, so when a real blaze breaks out David grabs the hose himself: the firemen have no idea what it is for.
Q 04Which star of The Andy Griffith Show plays the mysterious TV repairman who zaps the twins into Pleasantville?
Don Knotts
Don Knotts, television's Deputy Barney Fife, made his final on-screen film appearance in the part before turning to voice roles.
Q 05Which future Fast & Furious star plays the most popular boy at Pleasantville High, who dates Jennifer?
Paul Walker
Paul Walker played the school's sports captain three years before The Fast and the Furious made him an international star.
Q 06Which actress plays Jennifer, the popularity-obsessed twin sister, in Pleasantville?
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon won a Young Hollywood Award for Female Breakthrough Performance for the part, three years before she played Elle Woods.
Q 07What do twins David and Jennifer break while fighting over the television at the start of Pleasantville?
The remote control
The remote control snaps in the tussle, and a mysterious repairman soon turns up with a strange replacement that sends them into the sitcom.
Q 08Which 1998 Jim Carrey film did critics often compare with Pleasantville for its TV-is-stifling theme?
The Truman Show
The Truman Show reached cinemas that June, and Entertainment Weekly judged Pleasantville the shallower of the two TV fables.
Q 09Before the twins start retelling famous stories, what do the books in Pleasantville's library contain?
Blank pages
Blank pages fill with words only as David and Jennifer summarize the plots for their curious classmates.
Q 10Which sitcom star plays the divorced mother of David and Jennifer in Pleasantville?
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Kaczmarek took the small role two years before she became Lois, the sitcom mother who earned her seven Emmy nominations.
Q 11Which actor plays David, the sitcom-obsessed twin in Pleasantville, four years before becoming Spider-Man?
Tobey Maguire
Tobey Maguire won the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor as the shy teenager who escapes into 1950s reruns.
Q 12Inside the sitcom world of Pleasantville, Jennifer must pose as which wholesome daughter of George and Betty?
Mary Sue
Mary Sue is the sitcom family's model daughter, but Jennifer refuses to stick to the script and rebels on her very first date.
Q 13Pleasantville High's team never misses a shot, and David joins the roster, in which sport?
Basketball
Basketball is a sure thing in the sitcom town: David scores every time he shoots, which helps keep him happy there at first.
Q 21What do David and Bill Johnson make together to protest Pleasantville's strict new code of conduct?
A colorful mural
A colorful mural celebrating love, music and books goes up outside the soda fountain, and it gets the pair arrested and put on trial.
Q 22Jennifer finally changes from black-and-white to color in Pleasantville only after finding a passion for what?
Literature
Literature, not romance, transforms her: she loses interest in partying, turns bookish and decides to go to college.
Q 23At the end of Pleasantville, Jennifer stays behind to attend college in which neighboring town?
Springfield
Q 14What does David show Bill Johnson that inspires the soda jerk to start painting in Pleasantville?
A book of modern art
A book of modern art opens his eyes to what color can do, and his new passion soon leads to a romance with Betty.
Q 15Where do Jennifer and her date park in Pleasantville on the night the first bursts of color appear?
Lovers' Lane
Lovers' Lane is meant for innocent hand-holding in the sitcom town, until Jennifer takes charge and her date is left stunned.
Q 16Which 1939 film do critics cite as an earlier movie that used a switch to color, as Pleasantville does?
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz and Schindler's List were both named by critic Warren Epstein as forerunners in using color as a metaphor.
Q 17Which screenwriter of the comedies Big and Dave made his directing debut with Pleasantville?
Gary Ross
Gary Ross spent about six years developing the idea, and both of those earlier scripts had earned him Oscar nominations.
Q 18Which composer wrote the Oscar-nominated orchestral score for the film Pleasantville?
Randy Newman
Randy Newman scored A Bug's Life the same year, and he recorded a music-only commentary track for the Pleasantville DVD.
Q 19Which Dumb and Dumber star plays Bill Johnson, the gentle soda jerk who discovers art in Pleasantville?
Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels earned a Satellite Award nomination as the man whose life is one repeated routine until David helps him break out of it.
Q 20What finally turns Pleasantville's stubborn mayor from black-and-white to color during the courtroom trial?
Losing his temper
Losing his temper does it: David goads him by suggesting women might go out to work while men stay home to cook, and the mayor flees in shame.
Springfield is reachable only because the town's roads, which once went nowhere else, now lead to other cities.
Q 24Which Fargo star plays George, the sitcom father left bewildered when Betty walks out, in Pleasantville?
William H. Macy
William H. Macy shared the Boston critics' supporting actor prize for his 1998 roles, and Variety called him a standout in an excellent cast.
Q 25Which actress won several critics' awards as Betty, the housewife who awakens to a new life in Pleasantville?
Joan Allen
Joan Allen took supporting-actress prizes from the Los Angeles and Boston critics and tied with Kathy Bates at the Critics' Choice Awards.
Q 26The scene of Pleasantville townspeople burning library books is widely read as a parallel to which regime?
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany's book bonfires are the reference, in a riot that also leaves the town's soda fountain smashed.
Q 27Which critic gave Pleasantville four stars out of four and ranked it among the year's most original films?
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert called it one of the best and most original films of the year, while The New York Times found its metaphor belabored.
Q 28While David settles in for a Pleasantville marathon, what does Jennifer want to watch on the same television?
An MTV concert
An MTV concert clashes with his marathon of reruns, and the tug-of-war that follows brings a strange repairman to the door.
Q 29Which boy, the captain of the Pleasantville High team, does Jennifer rebelliously date soon after arriving?
Skip
Skip is the school's most popular boy, and he comes away from the date so shocked that color starts to seep into the town.
Q 30Which Pleasantville High classmate does David romance while living in the sitcom world?
Margaret
Margaret returns his feelings, yet David is dismayed to stay black-and-white even after romance has transformed others.