Q 01/05

In The Shield's pilot, what does Vic Mackey carry into the interrogation room to beat a suspect with?

A) A nightstick

B) A phone book

C) A baseball bat

D) A leather belt

Answer · why

B) A phone book

A phone book goes in with him after the by-the-book detectives get nowhere; the captain who wants Vic off the force is the one who sends him in, and t...

Q 02/05

Before creating The Shield, Shawn Ryan wrote for which sunnier Don Johnson cop show?

A) Miami Vice

B) Nash Bridges

C) Pacific Blue

D) Walker, Texas Ranger

Answer · why

B) Nash Bridges

Nash Bridges needed a hero who always won, but the police ride-alongs Ryan took while writing it showed him far darker things, so he wrote The Shield ...

Q 03/05

Which real LAPD scandal loosely inspired The Shield's Strike Team?

A) Rodney King

B) Bloody Christmas

C) Onion Field

D) Rampart

Answer · why

D) Rampart

Rampart was the show's title until shortly before it aired: after the LAPD protested that FX was cashing in on its scandal, the network renamed the se...

Q 04/05

What is the fictional Los Angeles district where The Shield is set?

A) Farmington

B) Rampart

C) Wilshire

D) Crenshaw

Answer · why

A) Farmington

Nicknamed 'the Farm', it is rife with gang violence, drug trafficking and prostitution.

Q 05/05

On The Shield, the police station known as 'the Barn' was converted from what kind of building?

A) A firehouse

B) A church

C) A school

D) A warehouse

Answer · why

B) A church

A church houses the Barn, a precinct so central to the show that the first script was itself titled The Barn before FX settled on The Shield.