Sitcom Trivia
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195 free Sitcom trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This sitcom trivia quiz spans the whole history of the situation comedy, from the first live half-hours of the 1940s to the streaming hits of the 2020s, and takes in both sides of the Atlantic. The easy questions are the ones every viewer knows: which bar Sam Malone runs, where Fawlty Towers is set, what Dunder Mifflin sells, which show was 'about nothing' and which family lives in Springfield. From there it digs deeper: Mary Kay and Johnny and Pinwright's Progress, Karl Freund's three cameras on I Love Lucy, the Honeymooners' Classic 39, Get Smart's creators, the Flintstones as first prime-time cartoon, the M*A*S*H finale record, Cheers' 74th-place premiere, Frasier's 37 Emmys, the Newhart dream ending, the shark Fonzie jumped, the Golden Girls' clean sweep, the Simpsons' longevity records, Curb's retroscripting, Schitt's Creek and Ted Lasso's Emmy hauls, and British classics from Steptoe and Son and Dad's Army to Peep Show, The Thick of It, Gavin & Stacey and Derry Girls. Our 70s Sitcoms, 90s Sitcoms and Black Sitcoms quizzes go deeper on those slices. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the shows, creators and awards named before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question.
30 of 195 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1947 series was the first sitcom broadcast on a US television network?
Mary Kay and Johnny
Mary Kay and Johnny premiered live on DuMont in November 1947 and is counted as the first sitcom on a US network; its married leads shared a bed on screen.
Q 02Which BBC series of 1946 to 1947 was the world's first regular half-hour televised sitcom?
Pinwright's Progress
Pinwright's Progress ran for ten live episodes from Alexandra Palace between 1946 and 1947, making it the first regular half-hour television sitcom.
Q 03Which sound engineer pioneered canned laughter to 'sweeten' laugh tracks?
Charles Douglass
Charles Douglass built the 'Laff Box' in the 1950s; his recorded laughter was dubbed onto US sitcoms from the late 1950s through the 1970s.
Q 04Which cinematographer filmed I Love Lucy, the first scripted show shot on 35mm before a studio audience?
Karl Freund
Karl Freund, who had shot Metropolis and Dracula, photographed I Love Lucy and devised its three-camera film setup lit evenly for a studio audience.
Q 05How many episodes of I Love Lucy aired between 1951 and 1957?
180
I Love Lucy produced 180 half-hour episodes over six seasons from 1951 to 1957, and was the first series to end its run ranked first in the Nielsen ratings.
Q 06Little Ricky's birth on I Love Lucy was timed to coincide with the real birth of whom?
Desi Arnaz Jr.
Little Ricky was born in the 19 January 1953 episode, the same day Lucille Ball delivered Desi Arnaz Jr. by scheduled caesarean.
Q 07In The Honeymooners, Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden drives what for a living?
A New York City bus
Ralph Kramden drives a New York City bus while his pal Ed Norton works in the sewers, and the two spend the show scheming.
Q 08How many filmed episodes of The Honeymooners aired on CBS in its 1955-56 season?
39
The 39 filmed episodes aired on CBS from October 1955 to September 1956; earlier and later Honeymooners were sketches inside Gleason's variety shows.
Q 09Rob Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke, is head writer for which fictional variety programme?
The Alan Brady Show
Creator Carl Reiner played Alan Brady himself.
Q 10Andy Griffith's Mayberry sitcom originated as an episode of which series?
The Danny Thomas Show
The Andy Griffith Show was spun off from the February 1960 Danny Thomas Show episode 'Danny Meets Andy Griffith', in which Danny is arrested for running a Mayberry stop sign.
Q 11Which spin-off did The Andy Griffith Show spawn in 1964?
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. spun off in September 1964 after Jim Nabors's Gomer enlisted in the Marines in a final fourth-season Andy Griffith Show episode.
Q 12Who replaced an ailing York as Darrin on Bewitched for its final three seasons?
Dick Sargent
Dick Sargent replaced Dick York as Darrin Stephens from the sixth season in 1969 until Bewitched ended in 1972; York left with a chronic back injury.
Q 13Who created I Dream of Jeannie?
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon created I Dream of Jeannie for NBC in 1965 and wrote most of its episodes before turning to bestselling novels in the 1970s.
Q 21Green Acres was cancelled in 1971 as part of what CBS programming shift?
The 'rural purge'
CBS's 1971 'rural purge' cancelled Green Acres alongside The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry R.F.D. and Hee Haw to chase younger urban viewers advertisers wanted.
Q 22Modelled on The Honeymooners, which 1960 ABC series was the first animated sitcom and the first cartoon in prime time?
The Flintstones
The Flintstones ran on ABC from 1960 to 1966, and its bickering Stone Age couples were drawn straight from The Honeymooners.
Q 23The Jetsons was the first programme broadcast in what on ABC?
Colour
Only a handful of ABC stations could show colour in 1962.
Q 14What was the name of the charter boat wrecked on Gilligan's Island?
SS Minnow
The SS Minnow left Honolulu with a two-man crew and five passengers before a storm stranded them all on an uncharted island.
Q 15Which two shows created by Paul Henning followed The Beverly Hillbillies on CBS?
Petticoat Junction and Green Acres
Paul Henning followed The Beverly Hillbillies with Petticoat Junction in 1963 and Green Acres in 1965, the latter reversing the formula by sending city folk to the country.
Q 16Which network first broadcast Leave It to Beaver in 1957, then dropped it after one season?
CBS
CBS aired Leave It to Beaver's first season from October 1957, then dropped it; ABC picked the show up and ran it for five more seasons until 1963.
Q 17Which two comedy writers created Get Smart?
Mel Brooks and Buck Henry
Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created Get Smart for NBC in 1965; Brooks called it an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy.
Q 18Which fictional POW camp is the setting of Hogan's Heroes?
Stalag 13
Hogan's Heroes is set in Stalag 13, the Luftwaffe camp run by Werner Klemperer's oblivious Colonel Klink, from which no prisoner had ever escaped.
Q 19Who played Herman Munster?
Fred Gwynne
The Munsters aired on CBS from 1964 to 1966.
Q 20Who composed and sang the theme of the 1964 Addams Family series?
Vic Mizzy
Vic Mizzy composed The Addams Family theme and sang its finger-snapping vocals himself, overdubbing his voice; he also wrote the Green Acres theme.
Q 24Why did The Brady Bunch never reveal what happened to Carol's first husband?
ABC wanted her widowed, not divorced
Sherwood Schwartz wrote Carol as divorced, but ABC wanted her widowed, not divorced; the compromise was never to mention her first husband's fate at all.
Q 25Roughly how many viewers watched the M*A*S*H finale 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen'?
106 million
About 106 million Americans watched 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen' on 28 February 1983, a record for any US broadcast until Super Bowl XLIV in 2010.
Q 26How did Cheers rank in the ratings for its 1982 premiere?
74th out of 77 shows
The September 1982 premiere of Cheers ranked 74th out of 77 shows that week; NBC kept it anyway and it ran eleven seasons until 1993.
Q 27Sam Malone of Cheers was a former relief pitcher for which team?
Boston Red Sox
The bar is set in Boston.
Q 28How many episodes of Cheers were made?
275
Cheers made 275 episodes across eleven seasons from 1982 to 1993; its finale drew over 80 million viewers, the most-watched episode of the 1990s.
Q 29The Cosby Show's spin-off, A Different World, ran for how many episodes?
144
A Different World ran 144 episodes over six seasons on NBC from 1987 to 1993, following Denise Huxtable to fictional Hillman College.
Q 30Who created The Golden Girls?
Susan Harris
Susan Harris created The Golden Girls for NBC in 1985, having earlier created Soap and its spin-off Benson; her husband Paul Junger Witt co-produced.