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60 free 1960s Television trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Looking for our main 60s TV page? 60s TV Trivia is the bigger, primary set with 60 questions on 1960s television, and it is the one we keep growing. This page is a companion round with a British-and-American mix; play both if you want the full decade. Television grew up in the 1960s. The decade opened with Kennedy and Nixon debating on live TV and closed with the Moon landing beamed around the world, and in between it gave us the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, colour broadcasting, Star Trek, Doctor Who and the golden age of the American sitcom. This quiz covers the lot, on both sides of the Atlantic. The American questions run from The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies through Batman, The Fugitive, Bonanza, Get Smart, Mission: Impossible, Laugh-In and the 1969 arrivals of Sesame Street, Scooby-Doo and The Brady Bunch. The British side takes in Coronation Street, The Avengers, Doctor Who's late start on 23 November 1963, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds, Steptoe and Son, Dad's Army, Top of the Pops, The Forsyte Saga and Monty Python. There are questions on the technology and the news too: Telstar, the Daisy ad, and which network went all-colour first. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the individual programmes and the year-by-year television timeline, so the dates, networks and cast names are reliable.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The first Kennedy-Nixon debate of September 1960 was held in the studios of WBBM-TV in which city?
Chicago
Nixon refused make-up and his stubble showed on black-and-white screens; the next presidential debates were not held until 1976.
Q 02Which writer created Coronation Street, basing Weatherfield on his home town of Salford?
Tony Warren
Granada's founder Sidney Bernstein initially rejected the idea; it is now the world's longest-running soap.
Q 03The Flintstones, launched on ABC in 1960, was the first animated series to do what?
Air in prime time
Bill Hanna cited The Honeymooners as one of its inspirations.
Q 04The Andy Griffith Show was set in Mayberry, a fictional small town in which state?
North Carolina
The show ended its final season at number one in the Nielsen ratings and never finished lower than seventh.
Q 05The Andy Griffith Show originated from an episode of which comedian's sitcom?
Danny Thomas
Don Knotts's Barney Fife and Ron Howard's Opie became the supporting stars.
Q 06Rob Petrie of The Dick Van Dyke Show was head writer for a fictional TV variety star with what name?
Alan Brady
Carl Reiner's series won 15 Emmys and was set in suburban New Rochelle.
Q 07Rod Serling wrote or co-wrote how many of The Twilight Zone's 156 episodes?
92
He also hosted and narrated, appearing on screen in each opening scene.
Q 08On The Avengers, which actress played Emma Peel opposite Patrick Macnee's John Steed?
Diana Rigg
Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale came before her and Linda Thorson's Tara King after; the show began in January 1961.
Q 09The Beverly Hillbillies' Clampett family struck oil and moved to California from which mountains?
The Ozarks
Creator Paul Henning followed it with Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.
Q 10Which 1962 satellite relayed the first transatlantic television pictures?
Telstar
The same year Johnny Carson took over The Tonight Show from Jack Paar.
Q 11The Jetsons holds what distinction in ABC's history?
First programme broadcast in colour
Only 24 episodes were made in 1962-63; new ones followed in the 1980s.
Q 12Steptoe and Son's rag-and-bone men lived at 26a Oil Drum Lane in which part of London?
Shepherd's Bush
Galton and Simpson's sitcom was remade in the US as Sanford and Son.
Q 13Who presented the BBC's ground-breaking 1962-63 satire show That Was the Week That Was?
David Frost
Ned Sherrin devised and produced it; Millicent Martin sang the topical opening song.
Q 21The Addams Family sitcom of 1964 was based on cartoons from which magazine?
The New Yorker
Vic Mizzy composed and sang the finger-snapping theme; The Munsters beat it in the ratings.
Q 22Which actor replaced the ailing original Darrin in Bewitched for its final three seasons?
Dick Sargent
Elizabeth Montgomery's Samantha and Agnes Moorehead's Endora carried on regardless.
Q 23Which suave agent of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was co-conceived by the creator of James Bond?
Napoleon Solo
The show was originally to be called Ian Fleming's Solo; producer Sam Rolfe added the Soviet Kuryakin.
Q 14Doctor Who's first episode, in November 1963, aired eighty seconds late due to news about what?
The assassination of John F. Kennedy
William Hartnell was the first of what are now fourteen Doctors.
Q 15In The Fugitive, Dr Richard Kimble hunts the real killer of his wife, a man distinguished by what?
One arm
David Janssen starred; Barry Morse's Lieutenant Gerard was his Javert.
Q 16The Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show appearance on 9 February 1964 drew an audience of over how many?
73 million
The show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 1948 to 1971.
Q 17Which song was the first ever featured on Top of the Pops on 1 January 1964?
Dusty Springfield's I Only Want to Be with You
The Rolling Stones were the first band to perform, with 'I Wanna Be Your Man'.
Q 18Ready Steady Go! opened every Friday evening with which slogan?
The weekend starts here!
Rediffusion's show ran from 1963 to 1966 with theme tunes including the Surfaris' 'Wipe Out'.
Q 19Gilligan's Island's castaways left Honolulu on the SS Minnow for how long a tour?
Three hours
Sherwood Schwartz's show ran 98 episodes on CBS from 1964.
Q 20The Munsters lived at what address?
1313 Mockingbird Lane
Fred Gwynne's Herman was Frankenstein's monster and Al Lewis's Grandpa was Dracula.
Q 24The 1964 'Daisy' political advertisement, aired only once, helped which candidate to a landslide?
Lyndon B. Johnson
It is regarded as a turning point in political advertising.
Q 25Peyton Place, the ABC evening soap that launched Mia Farrow, was at its peak aired how often?
Three new episodes a week
It launched Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal and ran 514 episodes from 1964 to 1969.
Q 26Merv Griffin's Jeopardy!, which debuted on NBC in 1964, was hosted for its first 15 years by whom?
Art Fleming
Contestants are given answers and must respond with questions.
Q 27I Dream of Jeannie's Tony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman, worked for which organisation?
NASA
His capsule Stardust One came down near a desert island where he found the bottle.
Q 28Get Smart was created by Buck Henry and which comedy legend?
Mel Brooks
Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, worked for CONTROL against KAOS.
Q 29Thunderbirds' International Rescue was led by Jeff Tracy and how many of his sons?
Five
Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation puppets premiered on ITV in September 1965.
Q 30Hogan's Heroes was set in which fictional German prisoner-of-war camp?
Stalag 13
Werner Klemperer's Klink and John Banner's Schultz ran it for 168 episodes.