TV Characters
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50 free TV Characters trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Great television characters outlive their shows. Decades after a finale, people still recognise the bartender, the nosy neighbor or the cartoon dad from a single detail: a job, a pet, a habit, a secret past. This quiz hands you that detail and asks for the name. The clues come from sitcoms, dramas, cartoons, science fiction and British classics, running from the 1960s to the streaming age. Each answer comes with the story behind the character: the actor who nearly missed the part, the costume a network vetoed, the real person who inspired the role. It is built for anyone who grew up in front of a television, and for quiz hosts who need a ready-made round. Early questions lean on household names; later ones reward viewers who stayed for every season.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Sesame Street character, owner of a pet worm named Slimey, had orange fur in his earliest episodes?
Oscar the Grouch
Oscar the Grouch turned green after the first season and stayed that way. Puppeteer Caroll Spinney found the voice in a New York taxi driver who drove him to the studio.
Q 02Which cartoon dad works as a nuclear power plant safety inspector in a section called Sector 7-G?
Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson was named after creator Matt Groening's own father, though Groening said the only thing the two had in common was a love of donuts.
Q 03Which Friends character is a masseuse whose twin sister Ursula began on the sitcom Mad About You?
Phoebe Buffay
Phoebe Buffay and waitress Ursula were both played by Lisa Kudrow, who won a Primetime Emmy for the part.
Q 04Which Star Trek science officer was born to a father named Sarek and a human mother, Amanda Grayson?
Spock
Spock introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch when he had to knock out an evil double of Captain Kirk in the episode The Enemy Within.
Q 05Which character in The Office runs a beet farm and a bed and breakfast with his cousin Mose?
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Schrute shares the farmhouse with Mose, who was played by Michael Schur, one of the sitcom's own writers and producers.
Q 06Which Breaking Bad chemistry teacher builds a drug empire in Albuquerque under the alias Heisenberg?
Walter White
Walter White was played by Bryan Cranston, whom AMC hesitated to cast because viewers knew him as the goofy dad in Malcolm in the Middle.
Q 07Which Game of Thrones character names her slender sword Needle, a parting gift from Jon Snow?
Arya Stark
Arya Stark chose the name as a jab at the needlework lessons she dreaded. The part was Maisie Williams's first acting role.
Q 08Which Pokémon does Ash Ketchum get from Professor Oak after waking up late on his tenth birthday?
Pikachu
Pikachu starts out rebellious, and the pair only bond after it steps in to stop an angry flock of Spearow chasing them both.
Q 09Which Seinfeld character's first name stayed a secret until his long-estranged mother Babs let it slip?
Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer was called Kessler in the pilot, because the real neighbor who inspired him had not yet agreed to lend his name.
Q 10Which SpongeBob SquarePants character is a karate-loving squirrel from Texas with a Southern drawl?
Sandy Cheeks
Sandy Cheeks wears an astronaut-like diving suit outside her treedome, while her sea-dwelling visitors need helmets filled with water to come inside.
Q 11Which Big Bang Theory theoretical physicist was born at a Kmart in Galveston, Texas?
Sheldon Cooper
Sheldon Cooper was cast after an audition so startlingly good that co-creator Chuck Lorre asked for a second one, to be sure the actor had not just got lucky.
Q 12Which Stranger Things character is the hard-drinking Vietnam veteran who heads the Hawkins police?
Jim Hopper
Jim Hopper starts out reclusive after the death of his daughter, then becomes the adoptive father of Eleven, the girl with telekinetic powers.
Q 13Which Scooby-Doo character, real first name Norville, was made a vegetarian at his voice actor's urging?
Shaggy Rogers
Q 21Which Cheers character is a former Boston Red Sox relief pitcher who owns and tends the bar?
Sam Malone
Sam Malone went to Ted Danson mainly because of his chemistry with Shelley Long, who played the waitress Diane.
Q 22Which Frasier character is the Manchester-born physical therapist who thinks she is a bit psychic?
Daphne Moon
Daphne Moon grew up as the only daughter in a family of nine children, and her odd hobbies back in England included raising show rats.
Q 23Which X-Files agent chases the paranormal because of the childhood abduction of his sister Samantha?
Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder did not get his first name from the network that aired the drama, as fans often assume. Creator Chris Carter had a childhood friend with that name.
Shaggy Rogers was first voiced by radio host Casey Kasem, who convinced the producers that the character should share his own meat-free diet.
Q 14Which South Park character's speech is muffled by the hood of his orange parka?
Kenny McCormick
Kenny McCormick is voiced by co-creator Matt Stone. In season five the creators tried killing him off for good, having found him too much of a prop to develop.
Q 15Which Family Guy character is a football-headed baby who speaks in an upper-class British accent?
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin began as a megalomaniac obsessed with world domination, a side the writers toned down as he grew friendlier and more flamboyant.
Q 16Which Happy Days character is the motorcycle-riding greaser played by Henry Winkler?
Fonzie
Fonzie mostly wore a green windbreaker in the first season, because ABC thought the black leather jacket the writers wanted suggested criminality.
Q 17Which M*A*S*H company clerk from Ottumwa, Iowa can hear incoming helicopters before anyone else in camp?
Radar O'Reilly
Radar O'Reilly was played by Gary Burghoff in both the film and the sitcom, the only regular character to keep the same actor.
Q 18Which Golden Girls character tells peculiar stories about growing up in St. Olaf, Minnesota?
Rose Nylund
Rose Nylund finds work at a grief counseling center, then switches careers to assist a consumer reporter at a local TV station.
Q 19Which Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cousin is known for an exaggerated dance devised by actor Alfonso Ribeiro?
Carlton Banks
Carlton Banks was Ribeiro's breakout role, though he later said the part left him pigeon-holed as an actor for many years.
Q 20Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fights with twin sai and alone kept his original mask color?
Raphael
Raphael still wears red, the color all four turtles started with before the other three adopted different ones.
Q 24Which Parks and Recreation character secretly plays jazz saxophone under the stage name Duke Silver?
Ron Swanson
Ron Swanson was inspired by a real libertarian official, and NBC needed five months to agree to Nick Offerman playing him.
Q 25Which How I Met Your Mother character loves expensive suits, laser tag and Scotch whisky?
Barney Stinson
Barney Stinson was imagined as a large, John Belushi type until Neil Patrick Harris auditioned with a laser tag scene and slammed into a wall attempting a dive roll.
Q 26Which Dallas oil baron was shot by an unknown assailant in a cliffhanger that became a 1980 phenomenon?
J.R. Ewing
J.R. Ewing was played by Larry Hagman, the only actor to appear in all 357 episodes of the original run.
Q 27Which A-Team member, played by Mr. T, is a gifted mechanic with an intense fear of flying?
B. A. Baracus
B. A. Baracus has to be drugged, knocked unconscious or, in one episode, hypnotized by his teammates before they can get him onto a plane.
Q 28Which TV housekeeper lives in with the blended family of six children on The Brady Bunch?
Alice Nelson
Alice Nelson went to Ann B. Davis, who was judged more than wacky enough, so the producers cast a more down-to-earth actress as the mother for balance.
Q 29Which Addams Family butler is summoned by a bell pull shaped like a hangman's noose?
Lurch
Lurch was played by Ted Cassidy in the original sitcom, where one episode has him record a song on his harpsichord and become a pop sensation.
Q 30Which Futurama robot was built in Tijuana, Mexico at a factory owned by Mom's Friendly Robot Company?
Bender
Bender is powered by alcohol-based fuels, so when he stops drinking he starts to malfunction and grows a red beard of rust.