100 Fun Facts About 70s Sitcoms

All in the Family was based on which British sitcom?

Till Death Us Do Part gave the BBC the bigoted Alf Garnett, the model for Archie Bunker; ABC rejected two pilots of the American remake before CBS aired it and saw it top the ratings for five straight years.

In which New York City borough do Archie and Edith Bunker live?

The Bunkers live at 704 Hauser Street in Queens; their neighbours the Jeffersons eventually 'move on up' from there to a high-rise on Manhattan's East Side.

What disparaging nickname does Archie Bunker use for his wife Edith?

Dingbat was Archie's word for Edith, whom he also told to 'stifle'; the show's creator modelled him on his own father, who called his son 'Meathead' and told his wife to stifle herself.

Which continuation series picked up where All in the Family left off in 1979?

Archie Bunker's Place moved the story to Archie's bar and ran four seasons; when Jean Stapleton chose to leave, Edith was written out, dying of a stroke between the first and second.

M*A*S*H's 4077th is stationed near which South Korean town?

The 4077th MASH is set near Uijeongbu, north of Seoul; the show ran 11 seasons, 1972 to 1983, far longer than the three-year Korean War.

Which writer developed M*A*S*H for television from Robert Altman's 1970 film?

Larry Gelbart wrote the pilot and ran the show with producer Gene Reynolds; the two wanted no laugh track, and CBS agreed only to drop it from the operating-room scenes.

Which actor joined M*A*S*H as Colonel Sherman Potter, the 4077th's new commander after Henry Blake?

Harry Morgan arrived as Colonel Potter after Henry Blake was written out, his plane shot down on the way home, an ending that brought the producers a flood of letters, many of them angry.

What is the title of the M*A*S*H theme, played without its lyrics on the television series?

Suicide Is Painless was written for the 1970 film: Johnny Mandel composed it and director Robert Altman handed the lyrics to his teenage son Mike. The series used only the tune.

Happy Days is set in which Midwestern city?

Happy Days is set in 1950s Milwaukee, Wisconsin; after two modest seasons it was retooled as a broader comedy and climbed to the top of the ratings.

Happy Days began as an unsold pilot shown as a segment of which ABC anthology series?

The pilot aired in 1972 as a segment of Love, American Style; George Lucas saw it and cast Ron Howard in American Graffiti, which revived ABC's interest.

What business does Richie Cunningham's father Howard own on Happy Days?

A hardware store is Howard Cunningham's business; Richie's older brother Chuck simply vanished from the show after season two.

Which phrase comes from a Fonzie stunt in a 1977 Happy Days episode?

Jumping the shark, now said of a show past its peak, recalls the episode in which Fonzie, still in his leather jacket, water-skis over a shark; far from finished, Happy Days ran on until 1984.

Laverne and Shirley work as bottle-cappers at which brewery?

Laverne and Shirley cap bottles at Shotz Brewery until 1980, when the show packed them and their friends off to Burbank, California.

Michael McKean and David Lander played which duo of Laverne & Shirley's oddball neighbours?

Lenny and Squiggy, played by McKean and Lander, lived upstairs and had one unfailing gag: whenever the girls mentioned something revolting, the door flew open and Squiggy brayed 'Hello!'

Three's Company was adapted from which British sitcom?

Man About the House, ITV's 1973-76 flat-share comedy, took ABC three pilots to remake: the women's roles were recast along the way, and only the third version sold.

Why does Stanley Roper let Jack Tripper move in with Janet and Chrissy?

He is told the new tenant is gay, a fib that Jack then has to keep up, camping it up whenever the suspicious Mr Roper comes to the door.

In which California city is the Three's Company apartment building?

Santa Monica is where Janet and Chrissy find Jack asleep in their bathtub the morning after a party; on learning that he can cook, they offer him the spare room.

Redd Foxx's junkyard sitcom was adapted from which British series about rag-and-bone men?

Steptoe and Son, the BBC's comedy about a father-and-son junk business in London, was licensed for America, where the feuding pair became Black junk dealers in Watts, Los Angeles.

What is the first name of Fred Sanford's long-suffering son?

Lamont, played by Demond Wilson, is the target of Fred's favourite trick: clutching his chest in a fake heart attack and calling to his late wife, 'I'm coming to join you, Elizabeth!'

George Jefferson made his money with a chain of what?

Dry cleaners made George's fortune: his chain of seven stores paid for the 'deluxe apartment in the sky' on Manhattan's East Side.

How did Sherman Hemsley say he learned The Jeffersons had been cancelled in 1985?

By reading it in the newspaper, Hemsley said; CBS ended the show abruptly in 1985 after 11 seasons and the cast never got a proper finale.

Which sitcom followed Florida Evans, once Maude's housekeeper, and her family in a public housing project?

Good Times spun Florida out of Maude, but stars John Amos and Esther Rolle both departed after clashing with producers over the clowning of son J.J., whose catchphrase was 'Dy-no-mite!'

Taxi's cabbies work the night shift at which fictional New York garage?

Sunshine Cab Company grew out of a New York magazine article about night-shift drivers at a real New York cab garage; the show's creators bought the rights to it.

Who played the burnt-out hippie 'Reverend' Jim Ignatowski on Taxi?

Christopher Lloyd first played Reverend Jim as a one-off, marrying Latka to a stranger in season one, and was brought back as a regular for season two.

What job did Andy Kaufman's Latka Gravas hold on Taxi?

Mechanic Latka was written in after the producers saw Andy Kaufman's stand-up act, built around a character called Foreign Man, and wanted that character in their garage.

On WKRP in Cincinnati, which birds does the station drop from a helicopter?

Turkeys plummet onto a shopping centre in the Thanksgiving promotion as the station's newsman reports in horror, and the boss insists, 'As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.'

Which WKRP in Cincinnati character was played by Howard Hesseman?

Dr. Johnny Fever, Howard Hesseman's burnt-out DJ, had been sacked by a Los Angeles station for saying 'booger' on air, and he marks WKRP's switch to rock by saying it again.

Barney Miller's 12th Precinct squad room is in which Manhattan neighbourhood?

Greenwich Village is home to the show's 12th Precinct, whose shabby squad room was almost its only set; Abe Vigoda's weary Detective Fish left it in 1977 for a spin-off of his own.

Mary Richards works at which Minneapolis TV station?

WJM is the lowest-rated station in town; Mary applies there to be a secretary and is instead made associate producer of the six o'clock news.

Which Mary Tyler Moore Show character got a spin-off drama?

Lou Grant, Mary's gruff boss, moved from the Minneapolis newsroom to the city desk of a Los Angeles daily in 1977; Ed Asner won Emmys for the same character first in a sitcom and then in a drama.

Who played Baxter, the buffoonish anchorman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show?

Ted Knight won two Emmys as the vain Ted Baxter, who in the 1977 finale is the only member of the newsroom to keep his job when everyone else is fired.

What is Bob Hartley's profession on The Bob Newhart Show?

Psychologist Bob Hartley was played by a former accountant: Newhart spent two and a half years keeping books before his deadpan telephone monologues made him a star.

Which city is The Bob Newhart Show set in?

The Bob Newhart Show is set in Chicago, Newhart's hometown; Suzanne Pleshette played wife Emily, and her surprise cameo ended the later series Newhart in 1990.

What did the remedial students in Welcome Back, Kotter call themselves?

They called themselves The Sweathogs; Kotter had been a founding Sweathog at the same school a decade earlier.

Which future movie star got his breakthrough role on Welcome Back, Kotter?

John Travolta was still on the show as Vinnie Barbarino when Saturday Night Fever and Grease made him a film star; Kotter kept running until 1979.

Welcome Back, Kotter grew out of which comedian's stand-up routine about his own Brooklyn school days?

Gabe Kaplan had been a remedial student at New Utrecht High in Bensonhurst; his routine about his classmates became the show, and his old school plays Buchanan High in the opening credits.

Mork first appeared in which Happy Days episode before getting his own show?

My Favorite Orkan aired in February 1978 and had Mork try to carry Richie Cunningham off to Ork as a specimen; the response to the character won Robin Williams his own series that autumn.

What did Robin Williams reportedly do at his Mork audition to win over producer Garry Marshall?

Sat on his head: asked to take a seat, Williams reportedly did it upside down and won the part, and the sitcom then built around Mork became a showcase for his improvising.

One Day at a Time, starring Bonnie Franklin as a divorced mother, is set in which city?

Indianapolis is where newly divorced Ann Romano, back to using her maiden name, brings her two teenage daughters from Logansport to start again.

Which future Golden Girls star played the liberal Maude Findlay?

Bea Arthur's Maude chose to have an abortion in a 1972 two-parter, shown before the Supreme Court legalised it nationwide; when CBS repeated the episodes, at least 25 of its stations refused to air them.

Who played daughter Carol on Maude?

Adrienne Barbeau's Carol lives with Maude and her fourth husband Walter, the target of 'God'll get you for that'; when Maude finds herself pregnant at 47, it is Carol who urges her to have an abortion.

Who played the fussy Felix Unger in the 1970 TV version of The Odd Couple?

Tony Randall played Felix through five seasons of low ratings and won his Emmy for the role only in 1975, just after ABC had cancelled the show.

Which future film star played Jodie Dallas on the daytime-serial spoof Soap?

Billy Crystal's Jodie was a regular in Susan Harris's send-up of daytime serials, which church groups campaigned to keep off the air before a single episode had been shown.

Linda Lavin's sitcom set at Mel's Diner in Phoenix was based on which 1974 film?

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Martin Scorsese's film, won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar; Diane Ladd, its waitress Flo, joined the sitcom in 1980 as a different waitress, Belle, once the TV Flo left for a spin-off.

Which real-life family band was The Partridge Family loosely based on?

The Cowsills, a real singing family from Rhode Island, were considered for the roles themselves before the producers cast actors instead, with Shirley Jones as the mother.

What is the name of the Brady family's live-in housekeeper?

Alice Nelson, played by Ann B. Davis, ran the Brady house; the show only became a hit in syndication after its 1974 cancellation.

Which teen idol does Marcia Brady promise to book for her school dance in a famous Brady Bunch episode?

Davy Jones of the Monkees duly takes Marcia to the dance in 'Getting Davy Jones', and he sent the scene up decades later with a cameo in The Brady Bunch Movie.

Which Diff'rent Strokes housekeeper was spun off into her own show, The Facts of Life?

Mrs. Edna Garrett, played by Charlotte Rae, left the Drummonds to be housemother at a girls' boarding school, and The Facts of Life went on to run nine seasons, one more than the show that spawned it.

Which young star shot to fame as the Chico of Chico and the Man?

Freddie Prinze was 20 when the series made him a star; after his death in January 1977 it carried on for one more season, with a 12-year-old boy named Raul taking Chico's place.

Lorenzo Music, the voice of Rhoda's unseen doorman Carlton, later voiced which cartoon cat?

Garfield got his sleepy drawl from Lorenzo Music in the 1980s; the Rhoda writer had no wish to act, yet his heard-but-never-seen doorman went on to star in an Emmy-winning cartoon special.

What's Happening!! was loosely based on which 1975 coming-of-age film?

Cooley High was first turned into a straight TV pilot for ABC; when that flopped with the network, new writers rebuilt it as a studio sitcom with a different cast and a new title.

Which producer was behind All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times and The Jeffersons?

Norman Lear made most of them with partner Bud Yorkin at Tandem Productions, then in 1980 turned activist, founding People for the American Way to counter the religious right.

Fawlty Towers is set in a dysfunctional hotel in which English seaside town?

Torquay, Devon, is the setting; John Cleese modelled Basil on Donald Sinclair, the proprietor of a hotel in the town where the Monty Python team stayed while filming.

How many episodes of Fawlty Towers were ever made?

12 episodes were all John Cleese and Connie Booth wrote, six in 1975 and six in 1979; the couple were married for the first batch and divorced by the time the second aired.

Who played the wily old lag Fletcher in Porridge?

Ronnie Barker's Fletcher is serving five years in Slade Prison, and it is Barker's own voice that booms out as the judge passing sentence in the opening titles.

What was the 1992 spin-off that reunited the main cast of Are You Being Served?

Grace & Favour starts when the staff learn their pension fund was sunk into a run-down country manor, so they move in and run it as a hotel.

In The Good Life, Tom and Barbara Good pursue self-sufficiency in which suburb?

Surbiton is the leafy suburb where Tom Good, turning 40, packs in his job so he and Barbara can live off their own back garden.

Which actor played the miserly landlord Rigsby in the 1970s sitcom Rising Damp?

Leonard Rossiter first played the landlord on stage in 1973 in Eric Chappell's play The Banana Box, and co-stars Frances de la Tour and Don Warrington followed him to television.

In the 1975 spin-off Phyllis, Cloris Leachman's widowed Phyllis Lindstrom moves from Minneapolis to which city?

San Francisco turns out to be Phyllis's original hometown, so the new widow moves back in with her late husband's mother and stepfather.

The Ropers (1979), a Three's Company spin-off, was loosely based on which British sitcom?

George and Mildred moved the landlords of the British original beside a snobbish estate agent, and The Ropers copied it with a realtor neighbour who felt Stanley lowered the tone.

Which actor played the armchair-bound bigot Archie Bunker for nine seasons of All in the Family?

Carroll O'Connor took the part after Mickey Rooney turned it down. He went on to win four Emmy Awards as the Bunker patriarch.

Which actor played the leather-jacketed greaser Arthur Fonzarelli, known as the Fonz, on Happy Days?

Henry Winkler was nothing like his streetwise character: he held a master's degree from the Yale School of Drama.

Which actor played wisecracking surgeon Hawkeye Pierce and directed the 1983 finale of M*A*S*H?

Alan Alda also helped write nineteen episodes, including the two-and-a-half-hour finale. Donald Sutherland had played Hawkeye in the 1970 film.

Which actress joined The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1973 as man-hungry Happy Homemaker host Sue Ann Nivens?

Betty White landed the part after the script called for an actress of her type. Playing against her sweet image won her two Emmy Awards.

Which actor played trainee chef Jack Tripper, who shares an apartment with two women on Three's Company?

John Ritter was the son of singing cowboy star Tex Ritter. The role won him an Emmy and a Golden Globe in the show's final year.

Which actor played Louie De Palma, the bullying dispatcher who rules from a caged-in office, on Taxi?

Danny DeVito won an Emmy and a Golden Globe as the tyrant of the garage. He had already appeared in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

What is the profession of Mike Brady, the widowed father of three boys on The Brady Bunch?

Mike Brady is an architect, and creator Sherwood Schwartz picked the family's exterior house because it looked like a home an architect would live in.

Which Monty Python star co-wrote Fawlty Towers and played its rude, snobbish hotel owner Basil?

John Cleese based Basil on Donald Sinclair, a real hotel owner he later described as the rudest man he had ever come across.

Which teen idol played eldest son and lead singer Keith on the musical sitcom The Partridge Family?

David Cassidy sang lead on the group's real records. At his peak his fan club was bigger than those of Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

Which child star played the younger of two Harlem brothers taken in by a millionaire on Diff'rent Strokes?

Gary Coleman kept a childlike look into adulthood because a kidney disease and its medication limited his growth to 4 ft 8 in.

On All in the Family, what insulting nickname does Archie Bunker give his liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic?

Meathead was what the show's creator Norman Lear had been called by his own father, who was also part of the inspiration for Archie himself.

On M*A*S*H, what nickname do the surgeons give strait-laced head nurse Major Margaret Houlihan?

Hot Lips was phased out midway through the run, with colleagues calling her Margaret or Major Houlihan instead.

Which gospel-flavoured theme song, sung by Ja'Net DuBois with a choir, opens The Jeffersons?

Movin' On Up was co-written by DuBois, whose daughter said she wrote it as a promise to give her own mother a grand home once she became a star.

On Sanford and Son, junk dealer Fred Sanford fakes heart attacks while calling out to which late wife?

Elizabeth was the younger sister of Fred's sparring partner Aunt Esther, whose family had opposed the marriage from the very beginning.

Which actor played the slovenly Oscar Madison in the 1970s TV version of The Odd Couple?

Jack Klugman already knew the role well: he had replaced Walter Matthau as Oscar in the original Broadway production in 1965.

Which actress played naive blonde secretary Chrissy Snow on Three's Company until a pay dispute cut her role?

Suzanne Somers asked for a raise from $30,000 to $150,000 an episode to match her male co-star. Producers cut her to a 60-second scene per episode instead.

In a three-part Brady Bunch holiday filmed on location, Greg wipes out while surfing in which US state?

Hawaii brought the Bradys a cursed tiki idol and horror star Vincent Price, who plays a professor holding the boys hostage.

In which American college city does the alien Mork land his egg-shaped spacecraft and meet Mindy McConnell?

Boulder, Colorado, still has the real house used for exteriors, and the opening credits were filmed around town, including at the university football field.

Which actor, a real professional boxer discovered in a New York gym, played a boxing cab driver on Taxi?

Tony Danza fought as a middleweight until 1979, and his cabbie shared both his first name and his sport. He later starred in the sitcom Who's the Boss?

On Fawlty Towers, Basil excuses the blunders of his Spanish waiter Manuel by saying he comes from which city?

Barcelona was awkward for Catalan television, whose dubbed version turned Manuel into a Mexican from Mexico City.

Which actress played Edith, the ever-optimistic wife of Archie Bunker, on All in the Family?

Jean Stapleton feared being typecast and asked to leave, so Edith's death from a stroke happened off-screen in the follow-up series.

On Happy Days, at which drive-in restaurant do Richie, Potsie, Ralph Malph and the Fonz hang out?

Arnold's got a second life when Weezer set the video for their song Buddy Holly there, mixed with real clips of Richie and the gang.

Which Andy Griffith Show star joined Three's Company in 1979 as the swaggering new landlord Ralph Furley?

Don Knotts had won five Emmy Awards as Deputy Barney Fife. On the newer show he took over much of the comedy written for the departed Chrissy.

The living-room armchairs of Archie and Edith Bunker from All in the Family are displayed in which museum?

The Smithsonian received the chairs in 1978, though the show's set designer had bought them for a few dollars at a Goodwill thrift store.

Which actress and singer played Carol, the mother of three daughters, on The Brady Bunch?

Florence Henderson had already made television history in 1962 as the first woman to guest-host The Tonight Show.

Which actress won four Emmys as Rhoda Morgenstern, Mary's wisecracking neighbour on The Mary Tyler Moore Show?

Valerie Harper took the character into a spin-off, where Rhoda's wedding drew more than 52 million viewers, over half the US audience that night.

On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which TV clown is killed by a rogue elephant while dressed as a peanut?

Chuckles dies off-screen, yet his funeral, where Mary cannot stop giggling, topped TV Guide's 1997 list of the greatest episodes of all time.

On Laverne & Shirley, which unusual mixture is the favourite drink of tomboy bottle-capper Laverne DeFazio?

Milk and Pepsi is one of Laverne's trademarks, along with the script letter L on her sweaters, an idea Penny Marshall took from a vintage one in wardrobe.

Which comedian played Matsuo Takahashi, owner of the teenagers' drive-in hangout, on Happy Days?

Pat Morita was first turned down as Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid for being too closely tied to comedy, then won the part and an Oscar nomination.

Which actress played Jennifer Marlowe, the glamorous radio station receptionist on WKRP in Cincinnati?

Loni Anderson's character turned the dumb-blonde cliché around: the receptionist was the station's highest-paid employee.

Which Godfather actor played weary Detective Phil Fish on Barney Miller and then in a spin-off of his own?

Abe Vigoda was wrongly reported dead by People magazine in 1982, a mistake that became a running joke for more than thirty years.

Which sardonic butler to the wealthy Tate family on Soap got a spin-off sitcom of his own in 1979?

Benson rose from butler to lieutenant governor in the spin-off, and Robert Guillaume won an Emmy for the role on each of the two shows.

Which actress made her professional debut on Rhoda as Brenda Morgenstern, the title character's younger sister?

Julie Kavner won an Emmy as Brenda in 1978, then spent decades lending her gravelly voice to Marge Simpson.

Which former Lovin' Spoonful frontman wrote and sang the chart-topping theme to Welcome Back, Kotter?

John Sebastian says he gave the song a broader theme because he could not find a reasonable rhyme for Kotter. It reached No. 1 in spring 1976.

Which Rat Pack entertainer plants a surprise kiss on Archie Bunker's cheek in a 1972 All in the Family episode?

Sammy Davis Jr. played himself, and the episode-ending kiss produced the longest sustained audience laughter in the show's history.

Dad's Army follows a seaside platoon of ageing volunteers in which British force of the Second World War?

Home Guard service was co-writer Jimmy Perry's own wartime experience, and the sitcom revived memories of a largely forgotten part of Britain's defence.

Which sitcom, launched in 1973, follows a trio of elderly men misbehaving around Holmfirth in West Yorkshire?

Last of the Summer Wine ran until 2010, changing its central trio many times and turning Holmfirth into a tourist destination.

On M*A*S*H, Corporal Max Klinger shares which Ohio hometown with Jamie Farr, the actor who played him?

Toledo let Farr slip real local favourites into his lines, including the Mud Hens minor league baseball team and a hometown hot dog cafe.

On One Day at a Time, what is the surname of the building superintendent played by Pat Harrington Jr.?

Schneider starts out handing unwanted advice to single mother Ann Romano, then becomes a welcome part of her family.

Which Bill Haley hit served as the opening theme of Happy Days during its first two seasons?

Rock Around the Clock was re-recorded by Haley for the series in the same period that American Graffiti sent his 1950s original back into the charts.