Sanford and Son Trivia
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49 free Sanford and Son trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
45 free Sanford and Son trivia questions with answers. Sanford and Son ran for six seasons on NBC and was the number-two show in America twice, all from a Watts junkyard and a cranky widower faking heart attacks. This quiz covers the show itself, from Fred's catchphrases and Aunt Esther's Bible to Grady, Julio, Ah Chew and the 1951 Ford pickup, and the story around it: Norman Lear's adaptation of Britain's Steptoe and Son, Quincy Jones's harmonica theme, Redd Foxx's 1974 walkout and his final quarrel over a dressing-room window. There are questions on the spin-offs too, Grady, Sanford Arms and the 1980 revival that Demond Wilson refused to join, plus a few on Foxx himself, from his real name to the Harlem dishwashing job he shared with Malcolm X. It suits classic-TV trivia nights and anyone who grew up with Friday nights on NBC. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on the show, its cast, its spin-offs and Steptoe and Son, and each question shows the sentence that supports it once you answer. Free, no signup.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which cheap wine is Fred Sanford's drink of choice, the base for cocktails of his own invention?
Ripple
Ripple. Fred stretches it into home-made blends with names to match, such as 'Champipple' and, with Beaujolais, 'Beaujolipple'.
Q 02Sanford and Son was adapted from which British sitcom?
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son. The BBC original was about a white Cockney father and son in London; the American producers kept the squabbling and recast them as a black family.
Q 03Which friend of Lamont's does Fred Sanford keep calling a convict?
Rollo
Rollo. Fred is deeply suspicious of Lamont's friend, yet when the show was revived as Sanford in 1980, Rollo came back with him.
Q 04What business do Fred and Lamont Sanford run?
A junkyard
A junkyard. Lamont left high school to work it with his father, and stays on more out of love for Fred than for the trade.
Q 05In which community of the Los Angeles area is the Sanford family business set?
Watts
Watts. Fred came there from the Midwest, and after his wife died he was left to raise their son Lamont alone.
Q 06Which city did Fred Sanford move to Los Angeles from?
St. Louis
St. Louis. It was Redd Foxx's own birthplace, though he grew up in Chicago, and the city gave him a star on its Walk of Fame the year after he died.
Q 07What was the name of Fred Sanford's late wife, whom he calls to during his fake heart attacks?
Elizabeth
Elizabeth. Clutching his chest, Fred would announce 'the big one' and call up to her that he was coming to join her.
Q 08What insult did Fred Sanford routinely fling at his son Lamont?
You big dummy
You big dummy. Fred thought his son gullible, though it was Lamont who had to keep watch over his father's endless get-rich-quick schemes.
Q 09Who played Fred's Bible-toting nemesis Aunt Esther?
LaWanda Page
LaWanda Page. A childhood friend of Redd Foxx, she began as a dancer billed as 'the Bronze Goddess of Fire' and was in her fifties when he brought her onto the show.
Q 10Which insult does Aunt Esther regularly hurl at Fred Sanford, usually while swinging her purse at him?
Fish-eyed fool
Fish-eyed fool. Esther never approved of Fred, and she backs the insults up with the heavy purse in which she carries her Bible.
Q 11Who played Fred Sanford's friend Grady Wilson?
Whitman Mayo
Whitman Mayo. When Redd Foxx walked out in 1974, the writers moved Grady into the Sanford house to mind it until the star came back.
Q 12Which exclamation is a catchphrase of Fred Sanford's absent-minded friend Grady?
Great googly moogly!
Great googly moogly! Grady blurts it out when something startles him, and he is so forgetful that he keeps losing the name of Lamont, his own godson.
Q 13Fred Sanford's new neighbour Julio moves in next door with which unusual pet?
A goat
A goat. Fred, who resents his new neighbour from the first day, tries to use the animal to get Julio's property condemned by the city.
Q 21Which blues legend comes to dinner at the Sanford house in one of the show's last episodes?
B.B. King
B.B. King. Lamont takes Fred to his concert, and Fred, who fancies himself a songwriter, tries to sell the star some of his own songs.
Q 22Redd Foxx left Sanford and Son in 1977 to do what on a rival network?
Host a variety show
Host a variety show. ABC's Redd Foxx Comedy Hour lasted less than a year, and by 1980 he was back at NBC trying to revive Fred Sanford.
Q 23Sanford and Son twice finished second in the Nielsen ratings behind which sitcom?
All in the Family
All in the Family. The same producers made both, each adapted from a British comedy, so in 1972-73 and 1974-75 they held first and second place at once.
Q 14Which actor had a recurring role on Sanford and Son as Ah Chew?
Pat Morita
Pat Morita. A stand-up comic for years, he went from Ah Chew to running the malt shop on Happy Days, a decade before Mr. Miyagi made him a film star.
Q 15Who composed 'The Streetbeater', the theme of Sanford and Son?
Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones. He told a producer they could never put Redd Foxx, whom he had known for years, on national television, then wrote the theme in about twenty minutes.
Q 16The Sanford and Son theme's main melody is played on which instrument?
Harmonica
Harmonica. The player is Tommy Morgan, who sat in on so many film scores, TV themes and records that he may be the most-heard harmonica player of all.
Q 17Which rapper sampled the Sanford and Son theme on her debut album?
M.I.A.
M.I.A. The tune turns up on 'U.R.A.Q.T.', which was left off the first American release of her album Arular because the sample had not been cleared in time.
Q 18Which red 1951 pickup truck do the Sanfords drive?
A Ford F1
A Ford F1. The truck outlived the show: the same pickup was back on screen when Fred returned in the 1980 revival, Sanford.
Q 19Redd Foxx walked off Sanford and Son during the 1973-74 season over what?
A salary dispute
A salary dispute. Foxx blamed his health, but the row was about money, and the writers had to explain Fred away for the rest of the season.
Q 20How did the writers explain Fred Sanford's absence during Redd Foxx's 1974 walkout?
A cousin's funeral
A cousin's funeral. The scripts kept Fred out of town for the rest of the season and left his friend Grady in charge of the house.
Q 24Which ABC family sitcom aired directly opposite Sanford and Son on Friday nights until its cancellation in 1974?
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch. Both went out at eight o'clock on Fridays, and while the NBC comedy sat in the Nielsen top three, ABC dropped the Bradys after five seasons.
Q 25Which sitcom followed Sanford and Son at 8:30 on NBC's Friday line-up in the 1974-75 season?
Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man. Freddie Prinze's comedy about a young mechanic and a cranky garage owner rode the lead-in to third place in that season's ratings.
Q 26Which production company made Sanford and Son?
Tandem Productions
Tandem Productions. Its two founders spent the 1960s making feature films together before they turned to remaking British sitcoms for American television.
Q 27Which heavyweight boxer plays himself when Lamont Sanford lands a part in a community play?
George Foreman
George Foreman. Fred is so keen to meet him that he barges into rehearsals, drives the director to quit and takes over the play himself.
Q 28Jewel thieves try to use Fred Sanford as their unwitting smuggler in a three-part story set in which state?
Hawaii
Hawaii. Fred is there for a convention when the gang plants stolen diamonds in his suitcase, then chases father and son across the islands to get them back.
Q 29Which short-lived 1977 spin-off carried on with the supporting cast after Redd Foxx left Sanford and Son?
Sanford Arms
Sanford Arms. Viewers were told Fred and Lamont had moved to Arizona, and without its two stars the show was cancelled after four episodes.
Q 30Which singer does Fred Sanford trick into visiting his home with a sob story about his little lame son?
Lena Horne
Lena Horne. On a studio tour Fred slips into her dressing room and tells her that poor Lamont, a grown man, looks on her as a second mother.