208 Fun Facts About Trivia for Seniors

Which comedienne starred with her real-life husband Desi Arnaz in a hit 1950s CBS sitcom?

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz toured a stage act in 1950 to win over CBS, which doubted viewers would accept her Cuban-born husband as her screen spouse; I Love Lucy followed in 1951.

In I Love Lucy, what was the surname of landlords Fred and Ethel?

Mertz was the surname of the landlords played by William Frawley and Vivian Vance, who feuded off screen; offered a Fred-and-Ethel spin-off of their own, Vance turned it down.

What kind of dog was Lassie?

A Rough Collie named Pal first played Lassie on film; Pal was male, and so were the dogs who followed him in the role, although Lassie is written as female.

Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in which Mississippi town?

Tupelo is where Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, in a two-room house built by his father, grandfather and uncle; his twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn.

What is the name of Elvis Presley's mansion in Memphis?

Graceland was already the name of the Toof family's farm when Ruth Moore, a Toof descendant, built the mansion on it; Elvis kept the name when he bought the house for his family.

On Elvis Presley's third and final Ed Sullivan Show appearance in January 1957, how was he filmed?

Only from the waist up applies to this third appearance alone: on his first Sullivan shows in 1956, the cameras had shown Elvis's hip-shaking in full.

Frank Sinatra was born to Italian immigrant parents in which city across the Hudson from Manhattan?

Hoboken-born Sinatra never served in World War II: a punctured eardrum was the reason given for ruling him unfit, and he spent the war years singing to crowds of swooning bobby-soxers.

Which singer's recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" became the biggest hit of his career?

Bing Crosby's 1942 recording sold so heavily that the master wore out from pressing copies, so he re-recorded the song in 1947, and that remake is the version usually heard today.

Which single gave the Beatles their first US number one?

I Want to Hold Your Hand hit number one on February 1, 1964, after the band's earlier American singles, issued on small labels, had flopped; eight days later some 73 million people watched them on Ed Sullivan's show.

The Beatles came from which English city?

Liverpool record-shop manager Brian Epstein visited the city's Cavern Club in 1961 to watch the band play a lunchtime show, and soon became the Beatles' manager.

Which singer made "The Twist" a nationwide dance craze in 1960?

Chubby Checker's 1960 cover of Hank Ballard's The Twist hit number one, helped by repeated appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.

Doris Day sang "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" in which Alfred Hitchcock film?

The Man Who Knew Too Much has Doris Day's character sing it loudly at an embassy so her kidnapped son can hear her and whistle back; the song went on to win the Best Original Song Oscar.

Nat King Cole's 1951 hit "Unforgettable" returned to the charts in 1991 as a studio-made duet with which family member?

His daughter Natalie Cole sang the duet over the vocal Nat had recorded in 1951; he had died in 1965, when she was a teenager, and the track won the Grammy for Record of the Year.

Who was Fred Astaire's most famous dancing partner, with whom he made ten films?

Ginger Rogers and Astaire were first paired as supporting players in Flying Down to Rio (1933); their dance number stole the film from its billed stars, and nine more pictures together followed.

Marilyn Monroe was born under what name?

Norma Jeane Mortenson became Marilyn Monroe in 1946, when Fox executive Ben Lyon suggested a new name for her first studio contract; Monroe was her mother's maiden name.

John Wayne won his Best Actor Oscar as one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn in which 1969 film?

True Grit brought John Wayne his only competitive Oscar; accepting it in 1970, he joked that had he known, he would have put on that eye patch thirty-five years earlier.

Who played Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 Civil War epic set on a Georgia plantation?

Vivien Leigh, a British actress, won the most coveted role in Hollywood only after some 1,400 candidates had been interviewed for the part of the Southern belle.

In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine runs what sort of business?

A nightclub and gambling den is what Rick's Café Américain is, which sets up a famous joke: Captain Renault shuts it down, 'shocked' to find gambling there, just as a croupier hands him his winnings.

Which song from The Wizard of Oz won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

Over the Rainbow was nearly cut from the film: MGM executives thought the ballad slowed the opening down, and it survived only because the film-makers insisted.

Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz lives on a farm in which state?

Kansas is filmed in drab sepia so that the picture can burst into Technicolor the moment Dorothy steps out into Oz.

The Sound of Music (1965) is set in and around which Austrian city?

Salzburg's real von Trapps never hiked over the Alps to escape: in 1938 they simply boarded a train to Italy, telling people they were off to sing in America.

The Andy Griffith Show was set in the fictional town of Mayberry in which state?

North Carolina is home to Mount Airy, Andy Griffith's birthplace and the town widely taken as the model for Mayberry; it now celebrates the show every September with a Mayberry Days festival.

Who played Andy Taylor's nervous deputy, Barney Fife?

Don Knotts won five Emmys as Barney Fife, the last two for guest returns: he had left the series in 1965 to make films.

On Bonanza, what was the name of the Cartwright family ranch near Lake Tahoe?

The Ponderosa grew so famous that NBC reran the series under that name; on the ranch, thrice-widowed Ben Cartwright raised three sons, each born to a different wife.

Which gentle giant of a Bonanza son was played by Dan Blocker?

Hoss left with his actor: after Dan Blocker's sudden death in 1972 the show carried on without the character, the ratings fell, and Bonanza left the air in January 1973.

Gunsmoke followed Marshal Matt Dillon keeping the peace in which frontier town?

Dodge City, Kansas, was Marshal Dillon's beat for twenty television seasons; John Wayne, who had recommended James Arness for the part, appeared on camera to introduce the first episode in 1955.

What did Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden drive for a living?

A New York City bus was Ralph Kramden's daily grind at the Gotham Bus Company; after Jackie Gleason's death the city's real transit agency named a Brooklyn bus depot in his honour.

Which child actor played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver?

Jerry Mathers played the Beaver, a nickname the show itself explains: as a toddler, big brother Wally could not pronounce Theodore, and the family turned his garbled attempt into Beaver.

Milton Berle, host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater from 1948, earned which nickname?

Mr. Television got the name because his show sold TV sets: the number of American homes with one grew from about 500,000 to many millions during its run. An ad-libbed sign-off to children also made him Uncle Miltie.

The children's TV show Howdy Doody opened with host Buffalo Bob asking the Peanut Gallery what question?

"Say kids, what time is it?" was Buffalo Bob Smith's opening call, and the children in the studio's Peanut Gallery roared back: "It's Howdy Doody Time!"

The Ed Sullivan Show ran on CBS on which night of the week?

Sunday night at eight belonged to Ed Sullivan from June 1948 until 1971, when CBS dropped the show and handed its slot to movies.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon, in July 1969?

Neil Armstrong took over the controls during the descent to steer the lander past a crater strewn with boulders; he stepped out hours later, and Buzz Aldrin followed about twenty minutes after him.

The Apollo 11 lunar module that landed on the Moon was named what?

Eagle overshot its planned landing spot by miles before settling in the Sea of Tranquility, where it gave the Moon landing its famous radio call: 'The Eagle has landed.'

Which president championed the 1956 law that created the Interstate Highway System?

Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the act on June 29, 1956, authorising a 41,000-mile network; back in 1919, as a young officer, he had crossed the country with the Army's first transcontinental motor convoy.

Jackie Robinson broke baseball's colour line in 1947 playing for which team?

Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947; fifty years later his number 42 was retired across the major leagues, and every team now marks April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day.

Babe Ruth's sale to the Yankees is blamed for a Boston title drought known as the Curse of the what?

Bambino was one of Ruth's nicknames, but the curse got its name late: sportswriters coined it decades after Boston sold him following the 1919 season, and the drought ran until the 2004 World Series win.

Henry Ford offered the Model T in any colour, so long as it was what?

Ford wrote that he told his salesmen in 1909 a customer could have any colour 'so long as it is black', and admitted that nobody in the room agreed with him.

The plastic hula hoop craze of the late 1950s was launched by which California toy company?

Wham-O founders Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin launched the plastic Hula Hoop in 1958 after learning of the exercise hoops that Australian schoolchildren twirled around their waists in gym class.

The first drive-in movie theater opened in 1933 near Camden, in which state?

New Jersey got the first drive-in on June 6, 1933, after Richard Hollingshead tested the idea in his own driveway with a projector on the hood of his car and a screen pinned to the trees.

Coca-Cola was invented by pharmacist John Pemberton in the 1880s in which Southern city?

Atlanta banned alcohol in 1886, so Pemberton reworked his coca wine into a non-alcoholic syrup, which first went on sale at Jacobs' Pharmacy for five cents a glass.

Which of these companies was a famous maker of jukeboxes?

Wurlitzer made its name with the 'Mighty Wurlitzer' organs that filled cinemas in the silent-film era, and only later became better known for jukeboxes such as its 1940s Model 1015.

Which engineer led the 1930s design of the Volkswagen Beetle, the 'people's car'?

Ferdinand Porsche designed it for Hitler's 'people's car' project, begun in 1934, but the war came first: mass production for civilians only got going after 1945, with the factory under British Army control.

Which actor won the Best Actor Oscar as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Gregory Peck went to the Oscars with a pocket watch from Harper Lee: it had belonged to her father, and she gave it to him for luck on the night he won.

Which 1939 film won the Best Picture Oscar after a gala premiere in Georgia?

Gone with the Wind made Hattie McDaniel the first African American to win an Oscar, yet she and the film's other African American actors had been kept away from its segregated premiere.

Besides 'Ol' Blue Eyes', by which other nickname was Frank Sinatra widely known?

The Chairman of the Board had the business to match the title: in 1960 he walked out on Capitol Records to found a label of his own, Reprise.

Which 1953 film won Frank Sinatra the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor?

Sinatra won Best Supporting Actor as Private Angelo Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953), a role that revived his flagging career.

What was Elvis Presley's first single for RCA Victor, a number one in 1956?

Heartbreak Hotel grew, its writers said, out of a newspaper story about a man who killed himself and left a note reading 'I walk a lonely street'; it became Elvis's first number one.

Which Patsy Cline hit of 1961 was written by a young Willie Nelson?

Crazy nearly defeated her: still hurting from a serious car crash, Cline could not reach the high notes at the first session and came back weeks later to record the vocal.

Which Nat King Cole hit won the Academy Award for Best Original Song of 1950?

Mona Lisa was issued as a B-side, and its writers recalled that the record's first adverts did not even mention it; radio play made it a number one for Cole, and the Oscar came for the film Captain Carey, U.S.A.

Which was Chuck Berry's first hit, an adaptation of the country song 'Ida Red'?

Maybellene began as Berry's take on the country tune Ida Red until Leonard Chess asked for a new title; Chess then gave disc jockey Alan Freed a co-writing credit in return for airplay.

What was the name of Buddy Holly's band, which topped the charts with 'That'll Be the Day' in 1957?

The Crickets name let Holly release That'll Be the Day on Brunswick despite his Decca contract; Holly, from Lubbock, Texas, died in a plane crash in February 1959.

The Beatles grew out of which earlier group led by John Lennon?

The Quarrymen took their name from Quarry Bank High School, where John Lennon started the skiffle group in 1956; Paul McCartney joined after meeting him at a church fete in July 1957.

Detroit's best-known record label blends which two words in its name?

Motor and town make Motown, short for 'Motor Town', a nod to Detroit's role as the center of America's car industry.

Which singer became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987?

Aretha Franklin entered in the Hall's second year, after a first class of ten performers in 1986 that was entirely male; Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones gave her induction speech.

With which song did ABBA win the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest?

Waterloo won Eurovision for Sweden in Brighton in April 1974 even though the host country's own jury gave it no points at all.

On which island were the three Gibb brothers of the Bee Gees born?

The Isle of Man was only their first home: the Gibbs moved to England and then, in 1958, emigrated to Australia, where the brothers first found fame.

Which instrument did Karen Carpenter play, in addition to singing?

The drums came to Karen Carpenter through her school marching band, which she joined to get out of gym class; handed a glockenspiel, she asked to switch to the drums instead.

What is Elton John's birth name?

Reginald Kenneth Dwight built his stage name from two bandmates in the group Bluesology: saxophonist Elton Dean and singer Long John Baldry.

Which bandleader's 'champagne music' show, complete with bubble machine, ran on ABC from 1955?

Lawrence Welk refused to fold when ABC dropped his show in 1971 as too old for advertisers: he signed up more than 200 stations himself and kept it running in syndication until 1982.

Which comedy duo performed on the very first Ed Sullivan Show in June 1948?

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, a team only since 1946, appeared on the June 20, 1948 debut of Toast of the Town, alongside Rodgers and Hammerstein previewing South Pacific.

Irving Berlin wrote the song 'White Christmas' for which 1942 film?

Holiday Inn is about a country inn that opens only on public holidays, which is why Berlin's score needed a Christmas number; the song won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Which Glenn Miller record was the first ever gold record?

Chattanooga Choo Choo sold over a million copies, and RCA Victor presented Miller with the first gold record in February 1942; he vanished over the English Channel in December 1944.

Who founded Motown Records in 1959 with an $800 loan from his family?

Berry Gordy launched the company as Tamla Records in January 1959, working from a house he boldly named Hitsville; Motown was at first just one of its labels, until the name took over the whole firm.

Johnny Cash's trademark stage wardrobe earned him what nickname?

The Man in Black said he and his band first wore it simply because black shirts were the only matching clothes they owned; his 1971 song of that name recast it as a stand for the poor and the prisoner.

Under what name was Dean Martin born?

Dino Paul Crocetti boxed as 'Kid Crochet' and worked as a croupier in his hometown of Steubenville before he turned to singing; he became Dean Martin in 1940 with Cleveland bandleader Sammy Watkins.

Which England-born comedian starred in seven 'Road to...' films and hosted the Oscars 19 times?

Bob Hope spent fifty years taking his variety show to American troops wherever they were stationed, and in 1997 Congress made him an honorary veteran of the armed forces.

Who brought French cooking to American kitchens with a 1961 cookbook and The French Chef TV show in 1963?

Julia Child came to French cooking late: she was 36 when her husband's embassy posting took the couple to Paris in 1948, and it was there that she enrolled at the Cordon Bleu.

Who grew up in Iowa and Nebraska, served in the Navy in WWII, and hosted NBC's Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992?

Johnny Carson took over from Jack Paar in 1962 and, ten years in, moved the show from New York to Burbank, California, where it stayed until his farewell in 1992.

Which CBS Evening News anchor, 'the most trusted man in America', signed off with 'And that's the way it is'?

Walter Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981; announcing President Kennedy's death in 1963, he took off his glasses and fought back tears on air.

Which 'first lady of game shows' produced a sitcom in 1953 and worked in TV until her death at 99?

Betty White co-produced Life with Elizabeth as well as starring in it; in 1954, pressed by Southern stations to drop African American dancer Arthur Duncan from her own show, she refused and gave him more airtime.

Which Indiana, Pennsylvania native starred in It's a Wonderful Life after flying bomber missions in World War II?

James Stewart was already an Oscar winner when he joined up; he commanded a bomber squadron over Europe, came home a decorated colonel, and later reached brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve.

Which Brussels-born star danced for the Dutch resistance as a teenager and later worked for UNICEF?

Audrey Hepburn said she never forgot the food and medical relief that reached her as a hungry teenager at the end of the war, and she gave her last years to UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador from 1988.

Which 'First Lady of Song' rose to fame with Chick Webb's orchestra and 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket'?

Ella Fitzgerald took over Chick Webb's band when he died in 1939 and later recorded her celebrated Songbook albums for Norman Granz's Verve label.

Which New Orleans trumpeter, nicknamed 'Satchmo' and 'Pops', won a 1965 Grammy for 'Hello, Dolly!'?

Louis Armstrong followed his mentor Joe 'King' Oliver to Chicago in 1922; his Hello, Dolly! knocked the Beatles off the top of the US chart in May 1964.

Who painted Saturday Evening Post covers for nearly fifty years, plus Rosie the Riveter and the Four Freedoms?

Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms toured sixteen cities in 1943 as the centrepiece of a war-bond drive that raised more than $130 million.

Which Presbyterian minister from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, hosted a long-running children's show about his Neighborhood?

Fred Rogers went before a Senate subcommittee in 1969 to defend public television's funding and simply talked about children's feelings; chairman John Pastore told him he had just earned the $20 million.

Who refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery in 1955, becoming the 'mother of the civil rights movement'?

Rosa Parks was no accidental heroine: born in Tuskegee, she had been secretary of the Montgomery NAACP for twelve years when her arrest set off the bus boycott.

Which farm wife took up painting in her late seventies, became a folk-art star and lived to 101?

Grandma Moses, born Anna Mary Robertson in 1860, embroidered pictures in yarn until arthritis made her switch to a brush; she died in 1961 at 101.

Which vaudeville violinist turned radio and TV star played a vain miser forever aged 39?

Jack Benny found comedy by accident: when his violin act flopped in front of fellow sailors during World War I, he started telling jokes instead, and the fiddle became a prop for the rest of his career.

On Gilligan's Island, what was the name of the shipwrecked charter boat?

The SS Minnow was named, as a jab, after FCC chairman Newton Minow, who had called television a 'vast wasteland'; it set out from Honolulu on a three-hour tour.

Who played the Skipper on Gilligan's Island?

Alan Hale Jr. kept the Skipper alive after the series ended: in the 1970s he opened a Los Angeles seafood restaurant under his own name, Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel.

Which former dancer played Jed Clampett, the mountaineer an oil company bought out for $25 million?

Buddy Ebsen had already lost one famous role: cast as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, he fell so ill from the metallic dust in his make-up that he had to be replaced.

Which bluegrass duo played themselves on The Beverly Hillbillies as friends of the Clampetts?

Flatt and Scruggs also played the show's theme, The Ballad of Jed Clampett: on air Jerry Scoggins sang over their picking, while their own single, sung by Lester Flatt, topped the country chart.

The CBS series M*A*S*H followed army surgeons during which war?

The Korean War lasted three years, but the series about it ran nearly four times as long, from 1972 to 1983.

Which actor played Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H?

Alan Alda did far more than act: he also wrote and directed episodes, among them the two-and-a-half-hour finale in 1983.

Which corporal wore dresses hoping for a discharge on M*A*S*H?

Klinger's dresses were inspired, writer Larry Gelbart said, by stories that comedian Lenny Bruce had tried to get out of the Navy by dressing as a woman.

What was the title of the M*A*S*H finale?

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen drew about 106 million viewers in February 1983; a brush fire had destroyed the outdoor set months earlier, so the writers put a fire into the script.

Which song serves as the instrumental theme of M*A*S*H?

Suicide Is Painless has lyrics by director Robert Altman's teenage son Mike; Altman later said the boy made more than a million dollars from the song, against his own $70,000 for directing the film.

Which Norman Lear sitcom topped the Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976?

All in the Family nearly never aired: Norman Lear made two pilots for ABC, which turned the series down, before CBS took the gamble and put a disclaimer in front of it.

What nickname did Archie Bunker use for his son-in-law Michael?

Meathead was Archie's verdict on his liberal, college-student son-in-law, whose arguments with him drove much of the show's comedy; Archie glossed it as 'dead from the neck up'.

What theme song did Archie and Edith Bunker sing at the piano each week?

Those Were the Days was also the sitcom's own working title when its pilots were made for ABC; on air, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton sang it themselves at the piano.

Which business made the Bunkers' neighbor George Jefferson his fortune?

Dry cleaning made George Jefferson rich enough to own seven stores and swap the Bunkers' street for a penthouse on Manhattan's East Side, the move his own spin-off series began with.

Who created and hosted The Twilight Zone?

Rod Serling turned to fantasy after sponsors and networks censored his realistic dramas; a story set in another dimension, he reckoned, would slip past them.

Which Walt Disney World thrill ride opened in 1994 with a Twilight Zone theme?

Tower of Terror ends in a thirteen-storey plunge in a runaway hotel lift, and its pre-show uses archive footage of the series' original host, with a soundalike voicing the new lines.

Which actor played defense lawyer Perry Mason from 1957 to 1966?

Raymond Burr was first tested for the district attorney; he then slimmed down and tried for the lead, and author Erle Stanley Gardner is said to have declared on seeing him, 'That's Perry Mason.'

Who was Perry Mason's confidential secretary?

Della Street was played by Barbara Hale, who won a 1959 Emmy and came back to the part in 30 TV movies from 1985, working alongside her real-life son William Katt.

Which district attorney did Perry Mason usually face in court?

District Attorney Hamilton Burger, played by William Talman, lost to Mason almost every week; Paul Drake was Mason's private investigator.

Who created The Dick Van Dyke Show?

Carl Reiner wrote the show about his own life and starred in the first pilot, Head of the Family, himself; when CBS turned it down, Dick Van Dyke took the lead and Reiner played Alan Brady.

What was Rob Petrie's job on The Dick Van Dyke Show?

TV comedy writer Rob Petrie ran the writers' room of the fictional Alan Brady Show, a job the series' creator drew from his own years writing for Sid Caesar.

What piece of furniture did Rob Petrie famously trip over in The Dick Van Dyke Show's opening credits?

An ottoman sent Rob sprawling in the best-known opening; a second version had him neatly sidestep it, and episodes used one or the other at random.

Which suburb was home to Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show?

New Rochelle, New York, was home to the Petries at 148 Bonnie Meadow Road; the show's creator had lived at number 48 on the real road and simply added a 1.

How did Samantha cast spells on Bewitched?

Twitching her nose was how Samantha, played by Elizabeth Montgomery, worked her magic, even though she had promised her mortal husband Darrin to live without witchcraft.

Which actor replaced the ailing original Darrin on Bewitched in 1969?

Dick Sargent took over as Darrin in 1969 after Dick York, suffering from a chronic back injury, collapsed on set and left the show.

Who played Samantha's mother, Endora, on Bewitched?

Agnes Moorehead, a four-time Oscar nominee, played Endora, who so disapproved of Samantha's mortal husband that she refused to get his name right, calling him Derwood or Darwin.

Which cartoon studio produced Bewitched's animated opening credits?

Hanna-Barbera animated the opening credits, and the favour was returned in 1965, when Samantha and Darrin moved in next door to the Flintstones as cartoon guest stars.

What did Larry Hagman's character do for a living on I Dream of Jeannie?

Astronaut Tony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman, found Jeannie's bottle on a desert island after his space capsule came down off course; Barbara Eden played the 2,000-year-old genie.

Which novelist created I Dream of Jeannie?

Sidney Sheldon created the show as NBC's answer to the rival hit Bewitched and wrote most of the scripts himself; only after turning 50 did he start the novels that made him a best-seller.

What colouring did TV's talking horse Mister Ed have?

Palomino gelding Bamboo Harvester played Mister Ed; the credits billed the horse as 'Himself' and never named Allan 'Rocky' Lane, the old Western star who supplied the voice.

Which town was Green Acres set in?

Oliver Douglas gave up a New York law career to farm outside Hooterville, the same town that served Petticoat Junction's Shady Rest Hotel.

Which actress played Lisa Douglas on Green Acres?

Eva Gabor, younger sister of Zsa Zsa, played Lisa Douglas, the Hungarian socialite dragged unwillingly from a Manhattan penthouse to a run-down farm; she later voiced Duchess in Disney's The Aristocats.

Which POW camp was the setting of Hogan's Heroes?

Stalag 13 was the fictional camp near Hammelburg run by Colonel Klink, whose boast that no prisoner had ever escaped hid Hogan's tunnel network.

Which Hogan's Heroes character often said 'I know nothing!'?

Sergeant Hans Schultz, played by John Banner, said 'I know nothing! Nothing!' to avoid noticing the prisoners' schemes.

Which actor played Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes?

Werner Klemperer, whose family left Germany in 1933, took the part of Colonel Klink only on condition that Klink would be a fool who never succeeded; it won him two Emmys.

What was Mike Brady's profession on The Brady Bunch?

Architect Mike Brady, played by Robert Reed, supposedly designed the family home; the real Studio City house was chosen because the show's creator felt it looked like somewhere an architect would live.

Who played the housekeeper Alice on The Brady Bunch?

Ann B. Davis won two Emmys on The Bob Cummings Show before playing Alice Nelson; in 1976 she sold her Los Angeles home and joined an Episcopal community in Denver.

Which producer created both Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch?

Sherwood Schwartz created both shows and had a hand in writing their theme songs; The Brady Bunch never cracked the Nielsen top 30 on the network, then became a hit in after-school reruns.

Which Carol Burnett Show sketch featured a curtain-rod dress that is now in the Smithsonian?

Went with the Wind! had Carol's Starlett O'Hara sweep downstairs in the curtains with the rod still across her shoulders; designer Bob Mackie's outfit is now in the Smithsonian.

Which sitcom grew out of the Eunice sketches on The Carol Burnett Show?

Mama's Family starred Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper; NBC cancelled it in 1984, but it came back in first-run syndication in 1986 and ran for four more seasons.

Which comedian became a regular on The Carol Burnett Show in 1975?

Tim Conway, a frequent guest since 1967, joined the cast full-time in 1975; Dick Van Dyke lasted only ten episodes when he replaced Harvey Korman in 1977.

Which city was The Mary Tyler Moore Show set in?

Minneapolis was where Mary Richards worked in the WJM newsroom; a statue now marks the downtown spot on Nicollet Mall where she tossed her hat in the opening credits.

Which Mary Tyler Moore Show neighbor got her own spin-off series in 1974?

Rhoda Morgenstern, played by Valerie Harper, moved back to New York in her 1974 spin-off and was married just eight weeks into it; Phyllis Lindstrom's own series followed a year later.

Which Mary Tyler Moore Show character went on to a newspaper drama of his own in 1977?

Lou Grant, Mary's gruff boss, was fired from WJM with most of the newsroom in the sitcom's finale, so he moved to California and resurfaced as city editor of the Los Angeles Tribune.

What killed The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Chuckles as he led a circus parade?

A rogue elephant tried to shell Chuckles the Clown, who was dressed as a peanut; Mary scolds her colleagues for joking about it, then cannot stop laughing at his funeral.

Which actor created and played Sergeant Joe Friday in Dragnet?

Jack Webb created Dragnet and played Joe Friday on radio and TV; the catchphrase everyone remembers, 'Just the facts, ma'am', is a misquote of his usual 'All we want are the facts, ma'am'.

Under what alternate title was Dragnet syndicated?

Badge 714, Friday's badge number, was the syndication title given to reruns of the 1950s Dragnet to set them apart from the network run.

Which town did the Flintstones live in?

Bedrock was home to the Flintstones, who were the Flagstones until late in development; the name was changed, reportedly to avoid confusion with the Flagston family of the comic strip Hi and Lois.

Which cigarette brand co-sponsored The Flintstones' first two seasons?

Winston co-sponsored the first two seasons, and Fred and Barney puffed Winstons in its commercials ('Winston tastes good like a cigarette should').

Which classic sitcom inspired The Flintstones?

The Honeymooners gave Fred and Barney their template in Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton; Jackie Gleason later said he had considered suing the cartoon's makers but decided to let it pass.

Where did Fred Flintstone work?

Slate Rock and Gravel Company employed Fred as a dinosaur-crane operator under Mr. Slate; the name was not fixed from the start, and in early episodes the quarry firm went by other names.

Which businesswoman created the Barbie doll in 1959?

Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel, modelled Barbie on Germany's Bild Lilli doll and named her after her daughter Barbara; the doll debuted at the 1959 New York Toy Fair.

What is Barbie's full name?

Barbara Millicent Roberts was spelled out in a series of 1960s Random House novels, which also gave her parents named George and Margaret and a hometown of Willows, Wisconsin.

At which department store was the Slinky first demonstrated in 1945?

Gimbels let Richard James, the naval engineer who had invented the toy in 1943, demonstrate it in the toy department for Christmas 1945, and the first 400 Slinkys sold out almost at once.

Which British die-cast brand were Mattel's Hot Wheels launched to outrace in 1968?

Matchbox, made by England's Lesney, ruled the toy-car aisle until Mattel set out to surpass it; Hot Wheels' wide, low-friction wheels were designed to roll faster than its rival's.

Which powder coats the inside of an Etch A Sketch screen?

Aluminum powder, mixed with tiny plastic beads, clings to the inside of the glass; the stylus scrapes it off to leave a dark line.

Which company manufactured the Etch A Sketch from its 1960 launch until 2016?

Ohio Art passed on Frenchman André Cassagnes's 'magic screen' at a 1959 toy fair, then took a second look and paid $25,000 for it; it sold the brand to Spin Master in 2016.

Who turned Tupperware home parties into a marketing empire as vice president?

Brownie Wise outsold the shops with her home parties, so Earl Tupper pulled Tupperware from stores and made her vice president in 1951; he fired her in 1958, and she left without any company stock.

What holiday meal made up the first Swanson TV Dinner?

Thanksgiving turkey with cornbread stuffing, peas and sweet potatoes filled the first tray; a Swanson executive later claimed the idea came from a huge surplus of unsold frozen turkeys, a story the family disputed.

Which Nebraska city was home to the Swanson company?

Omaha was where Swedish immigrant Carl Swanson went from grocery-store worker to head of a poultry business; his sons launched the frozen TV Dinner and sold the company to Campbell's two years later.

Who founded Polaroid and created the first instant camera in 1948?

Edwin Land began work on instant film after his small daughter asked why she couldn't see a vacation snapshot at once; the first Land Cameras went on sale at a Boston department store in 1948.

Which Soviet craft became the first artificial satellite in October 1957?

Sputnik, a beeping metal sphere of about 184 pounds, circled Earth until January 1958; the shock of it led directly to the creation of NASA later that year.

On whose dairy farm was the 1969 Woodstock festival held?

Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel took the festival in after the town of Wallkill banned it only weeks before the gates opened, so 'Woodstock' never took place in Woodstock at all.

Which guitarist closed Woodstock on Monday morning?

Jimi Hendrix, held up by rain delays, did not go on until Monday morning, by which time a crowd of more than 400,000 had thinned to a few tens of thousands; his set included The Star-Spangled Banner.

Which actress made her feature film debut in Mary Poppins?

Julie Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for Mary Poppins (1964), her first feature film, after being passed over for the film of My Fair Lady.

Which Mary Poppins song won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

Chim Chim Cher-ee grew out of a drawing of a chimney sweep by screenwriter Don DaGradi, who told the Sherman Brothers of the old belief that shaking hands with a sweep brings good luck.

Which actor played Norman Bates in Psycho?

Anthony Perkins took a reduced fee to play Norman Bates in Psycho, which Hitchcock shot on a small budget with the crew of his television series; he went back to the role in a string of sequels.

Which novelist wrote the book Psycho was based on?

Robert Bloch's 1959 novel, loosely inspired by Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, was adapted for Hitchcock by screenwriter Joseph Stefano.

Which 1959 epic won a record eleven Academy Awards?

Ben-Hur won eleven of its twelve nominations, a total unmatched until Titanic; its one loss was the screenplay award, after a public row over the writing credit.

Under what name did Simon and Garfunkel record as teenagers?

As Tom & Jerry, the teenage pair had a minor 1957 hit with 'Hey, Schoolgirl', an imitation of their idols the Everly Brothers.

In which New York borough did Simon and Garfunkel meet at school?

Queens was home to both boys, who lived a few blocks apart in Kew Gardens Hills and became friends in 1953 when they were cast in a sixth-grade production of Alice in Wonderland.

In which California city did the Beach Boys form in 1961?

Hawthorne, a Los Angeles suburb, was home to the Wilson brothers, who formed the band with a cousin and a friend; Dennis, said to be the only surfer among them, suggested they sing about it.

Which 1966 Beach Boys album was Brian Wilson's answer to the Beatles' Rubber Soul?

Pet Sounds in turn spurred the Beatles on to Sgt. Pepper; their producer George Martin said that album would never have happened without it.

Under what name did the Supremes form in Detroit in 1959?

The Primettes, formed in 1959 as a sister act to the Primes, became the Supremes on signing to Motown in 1961; the members came from the Brewster-Douglass housing project.

In which Kentucky city was Muhammad Ali born?

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay in Louisville in 1942 and took up boxing at 12 after his bicycle was stolen; the Muhammad Ali Center stands in the city.

Whom did Ali fight in the 'Rumble in the Jungle'?

George Foreman, unbeaten and the heavy favourite, punched himself out in Zaire while Ali leaned on the ropes, the tactic he dubbed the rope-a-dope; Ali knocked him out in the eighth round.

Why did teenagers remove their shoes at a sock hop?

To protect the gym floor, dancers left their hard-soled shoes at the door and danced in socks; the name stuck even after sneakers made the rule unnecessary.

Which Dallas eatery became the first drive-in restaurant in 1921?

Kirby's Pig Stand was opened by businessman J.G. Kirby and a doctor partner, who reckoned drivers would rather not leave their cars; young men ran out to serve them, years before the word carhop saw print.

In which Indiana city was Studebaker based?

South Bend was where the Studebaker brothers set up as wagon builders in 1852; the firm switched from horse-drawn vehicles to cars in the early 1900s and closed its home plant in 1963.

Which Chevrolet debuted in 1953 as a white fiberglass-bodied convertible?

Corvette production began with 300 largely hand-built cars in Flint, Michigan, all Polo White with red interiors; early sales were so poor that GM considered dropping the model.

Which Ford model, launched in April 1964, gave the 'pony car' class its name?

Mustang sales passed 400,000 in the first year, four times Ford's forecast, and rivals rushed out sporty, affordable 'pony cars' of their own.

Route 66 ran from Chicago to which California city?

Santa Monica marked the western end of Route 66, some 2,400 miles from Chicago; the highway was dropped from the US system in 1985, after the interstates had bypassed the towns along it.

Which Steinbeck novel popularized the nickname 'Mother Road' for Route 66?

The Grapes of Wrath (1939) sends the Joads west along Route 66, which Steinbeck called the mother road, as Dust Bowl families headed for California; boosters preferred 'the Main Street of America'.

From which city was American Bandstand broadcast until 1964?

Philadelphia station WFIL launched it in 1952 as a local show called Bandstand; Dick Clark took over in 1956 after host Bob Horn was fired over a drunk-driving arrest, and it went national a year later.

Which overture provided the Lone Ranger's theme music?

William Tell Overture's galloping finale was a thrifty choice of theme: the radio show used classical pieces because they were in the public domain and cost nothing to license.

Which actor played the Lone Ranger for most of the television series' run?

Clayton Moore played the masked man from 1949 to 1957, apart from one season when John Hart replaced him, reportedly over a contract dispute; Jay Silverheels played Tonto.

What was the name of Roy Rogers's golden horse?

Trigger carried Roy Rogers through his films and TV series; when the horse died in 1965, Rogers had the hide mounted by a taxidermist and put on show in his museum.

Under what name was Roy Rogers born?

Roy Rogers was born Leonard Slye in Cincinnati in 1911 and was billed as Dick Weston before Republic Pictures renamed him in 1938; he became the King of the Cowboys.

Which actor played Hopalong Cassidy in 66 films?

William Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy in 66 films from 1935 to 1948, then bought the rights and became an early television star; Hoppy's white horse was Topper.

Who played Captain Kangaroo for 29 years?

Bob Keeshan, earlier Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody, was Captain Kangaroo on CBS from 1955 to 1984, basing the show on the bond between grandparents and children.

Which original Mouseketeer did Walt Disney himself discover dancing in a Swan Lake recital?

Annette Funicello was 12 when Walt Disney saw her dance the lead at a Burbank recital and made her the last Mouseketeer cast; by the end of the first season she was getting 6,000 fan letters a month.

Who created and hosted Candid Camera?

Allen Funt began with radio's Candid Microphone in 1947; when a flight he was on was hijacked to Cuba in 1969, passengers who recognised him took it for one of his stunts.

Who moderated What's My Line? in its original run?

John Charles Daly moderated the CBS original from 1950 to 1967; panelists such as Bennett Cerf and Arlene Francis were blindfolded for the weekly mystery guest.

Which producers revived The Price Is Right in 1972?

Goodson and Todman, makers of the Bill Cullen original, brought it back as The New Price Is Right with Bob Barker; it caught on so quickly that 'New' was dropped the following year.

Who was the original host of Jeopardy! when it premiered on NBC in 1964?

Art Fleming hosted for more than a decade; creator Merv Griffin said the answers-first format was his wife Julann's idea, a switch on the quiz shows that had been caught feeding contestants answers.

Which cosmetics company sponsored the 1950s quiz show The $64,000 Question?

Revlon signed on for just 13 weeks, hoping to copy rival Hazel Bishop's success with This Is Your Life; the show became a sensation, and contestants sweated in the 'Revlon isolation booth'.

Which brand was famous for rhyming sign sequences along American roadsides?

Burma-Shave planted its rhyming signs along American roads from 1926; as interstates spread and cars sped up, the little signs became hard to read, and they came down after the company was sold in 1963.

Which drink mix was created in Nebraska in 1927 by drying a syrup called Fruit Smack into a powder?

Kool-Aid began in its inventor's mother's kitchen, when he removed the liquid from Fruit Smack to cut shipping costs; it sold so well that he moved production to Chicago in 1931.

Which singer was nicknamed 'The Velvet Fog'?

Mel Tormé was given the nickname by a New York disc jockey in the 1940s and detested it; he also co-wrote The Christmas Song, dreamed up on a sweltering July day as a way to think cool.

Which company introduced Spam in 1937?

Hormel Foods of Austin, Minnesota introduced Spam in 1937, and it spread across the Pacific with American troops during World War II.

Which trading stamps, pasted into saver books for catalogue prizes, outnumbered US postage stamps in the 1960s?

S&H Green Stamps were handed out at supermarket and gas-station tills; the craze faded as grocery chains dropped stamps to advertise lower prices, and gas stations gave them up in the 1973 fuel shortage.

In which Florida city did the four women of The Golden Girls share a house?

The house at 6151 Richmond Street, Miami, belonged to Blanche; the friends worked out their problems around the kitchen table over late-night cheesecake.

Which make of battered old car did TV detective Columbo drive?

Peugeot built the battered 403 convertible that Columbo drove; the rumpled raincoat came from Peter Falk's own wardrobe, because, he said, he just felt comfortable in it.

Happy Days followed the Cunningham family in which Midwestern city?

Happy Days was set in 1950s Milwaukee, where Richie's father Howard ran a hardware store; the biker Fonzie grew from a minor character into the show's biggest star.

The Waltons was set on Walton's Mountain in which US state?

Creator Earl Hamner based the Depression-era stories on his own childhood in Schuyler, Nelson County, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge foothills.

Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote lived in the small coastal town of Cabot Cove in which state?

Maine's Cabot Cove existed only on screen: its harbour-town exteriors were filmed on the opposite coast in Mendocino, California, where Jessica's house is now a bed and breakfast.

On Dallas, who was revealed in November 1980 to have shot J.R. Ewing?

Kristin Shepard, Sue Ellen's sister and J.R.'s mistress, fired the shots; the answer came after an eight-month wait, in an episode whose rating was the highest then recorded for a TV episode.

Which two-word order did Steve McGarrett famously give Danno on Hawaii Five-O?

Book 'em was McGarrett's sign-off, sometimes followed by the charge, as in 'Book 'em, murder one'; the Five-O of the title saluted Hawaii as the fiftieth state.

Which newsmagazine did producer Don Hewitt launch on CBS in 1968?

60 Minutes used its ticking stopwatch from the very first season; by 1979 it was the top-rated programme on American television, unheard of for a news show.

On Matlock, what was lawyer Ben Matlock's favourite food?

Hot dogs were the thrifty Matlock's weakness: he charged clients a $100,000 retainer, yet lunched on them in the same light grey suit week after week.

Which candy, sold only to the military during World War II, promised to melt in your mouth, not in your hand?

M&M's are said to have been inspired by candy-shelled chocolates Forrest Mars saw soldiers eating during the Spanish Civil War. The hard sugar coating let troops carry chocolate in hot climates.

Which president, the only one to serve more than two terms, spoke to radio listeners in his fireside chats?

Franklin Roosevelt won four elections in a row. The Twenty-second Amendment, ratified in 1951, now bars anyone from winning more than two.

Which toy, launched in 1952 with a campaign aimed straight at children, was the first advertised on TV?

Mr. Potato Head first came as plastic parts to push into a real potato or other vegetable. Hasbro added a plastic body in 1964 after complaints about rotting food.

Which Yankee Clipper hit safely in 56 straight games in 1941 and later married Marilyn Monroe?

Joe DiMaggio got his nickname from a Yankees announcer, who likened his speed and range in the outfield to Pan American's new airliner.

Which territory, bought in a deal nicknamed Seward's Folly, became the 49th US state in January 1959?

Alaska cost the United States $7.2 million when Secretary of State William Seward negotiated its purchase from Russia.

Which cereal has put athletes on its boxes since 1934 under the slogan 'Breakfast of Champions'?

Wheaties began with a kitchen accident in 1921, when a Minnesota clinician spilled a wheat bran mixture onto a hot stove.

Which film musical recast Romeo and Juliet as a romance between rival teenage gangs, the Jets and the Sharks?

West Side Story won 10 Academy Awards as a 1961 film, including Best Picture. It began as a Broadway stage show four years earlier.

Which researcher's polio vaccine was declared safe in April 1955 after mass trials on American schoolchildren?

Jonas Salk never patented the vaccine. Asked on television who owned the patent, he replied, 'Could you patent the sun?'

Which director narrated the 1938 radio play The War of the Worlds, which some listeners took for real news?

Orson Welles signed off by comparing the show to dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush to say 'boo'. How far listeners really panicked is still disputed.

Which crooner made 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco' his signature song after first singing it in 1961?

Tony Bennett's label tucked the song on the back of another single in 1962, but disc jockeys flipped the record over and made it the hit.

Which fruit, eaten once a day, keeps the doctor away in a proverb first recorded in Wales?

An apple was eaten at bedtime in the 1866 original from Pembrokeshire: 'Eat an apple on going to bed, and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread.'

In the nursery rhyme Thomas Edison used for his first phonograph recording, which animal followed Mary to school?

A lamb trotting into class may really have happened. The poem, published in 1830, was possibly inspired by a real incident at a Massachusetts school.

Which upholsterer is said to have sewn the first Stars and Stripes for General George Washington?

Betsy Ross entered the history books in 1870, when her grandson told a historical society she had made the first flag. No record from her own lifetime backs the tale.

Which reindeer with a shiny red nose guided Santa's sleigh in Gene Autry's chart-topping 1949 song?

Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet that Robert L. May wrote for the Montgomery Ward department store. May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, turned the tale into the song.

Which body of water did Charles Lindbergh cross alone in the Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927?

The Atlantic took Lindbergh over 33 hours to cross, flying alone from America to Paris to win the $25,000 Orteig Prize.

Which canned vegetable gives Popeye, the cartoon sailor first drawn in 1929, his sudden bursts of strength?

Spinach growers in Crystal City, Texas, put up a statue of Popeye to thank him for boosting their sales.

Which president was put on the American penny in 1909 to mark the centennial of his birth?

Abraham Lincoln was the first president on a circulating American coin. Earlier generations, George Washington among them, saw a leader's portrait on money as a habit of kings.

In the patriotic song 'Yankee Doodle', what does the rider call the feather he stuck in his cap?

Macaroni was 1770s slang for a fop in extreme fashions. British troops sang the line to mock Americans who thought a feather was enough to make them stylish.

Which fairy-tale heroine, helped by a fairy godmother, loses a glass slipper while fleeing a ball at midnight?

Cinderella owes her glass slippers, pumpkin and fairy godmother to Charles Perrault, who added them in his French version of 1697.

Which nursery rhyme character, usually drawn as an egg, is never actually called one in the rhyme?

Humpty Dumpty probably began as a riddle whose answer was an egg. The 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass later fixed the picture of him as one.