9 to 5
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40 free 9 to 5 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
9 to 5 arrived in December 1980 as a comedy about three office workers who turn the tables on a boss who lies, cheats and takes credit for their ideas. Jane Fonda developed it after listening to real clerical staff describe their jobs, and it gave Dolly Parton her first film role along with one of her signature songs. The jokes are broad, but the complaints behind them, unequal treatment, stolen ideas and no path to promotion, were real ones. This quiz covers the whole story: the revenge fantasies, the kidnapping plot and the closing captions; the cast and the people behind the camera; the theme song's chart run, its trophies and its afterlife in adverts and other films; and the sitcom and Broadway musical that followed. It suits fans who know the film by heart, Dolly Parton devotees, and anyone planning a movie night or an office quiz. The questions range from easy to tough, and each answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did Dolly Parton click together on the set of 9 to 5 to create the theme song's typewriter beat?
Her fingernails
Her fingernails, long acrylic ones, gave Dolly Parton a clacking rhythm, and she built the song around it on set. Her album credits even list her on vocals and nails.
Q 02In 9 to 5, what does Violet Newstead accidentally put in Franklin Hart's coffee instead of sweetener?
Rat poison
Rat poison came in a box nearly identical to the sweetener, so a distracted Violet grabbed the wrong one. Hart never drank it: his desk chair malfunctioned and he knocked himself out first.
Q 03Which US president wrote in his diary that 9 to 5 was funny but its pot-smoking scene made him mad?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan watched the comedy with Nancy on Valentine's Day 1981, weeks after taking office. He felt the scene endorsed the drug for young viewers and wished the women had simply got drunk.
Q 049 to 5 was the second-biggest box office hit of 1980, behind which other 20th Century Fox release?
The Empire Strikes Back
The Empire Strikes Back took about $209 million in North America, roughly double the office comedy's $103 million. One studio released both, giving it the year's top two hits.
Q 05Which comedian played Violet Newstead, the widowed supervisor passed over for promotion, in 9 to 5?
Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin played Violet, a twelve-year veteran who once trained Franklin Hart and still gets treated like his secretary. Jane Fonda cast her after long wanting to work with her.
Q 06In 9 to 5, what does Violet Newstead steal from a hospital, believing she has killed Franklin Hart?
A dead body
A dead body ended up in her car because Violet feared an autopsy would expose her mix-up with the coffee. It turned out to be a stranger, so the women quietly returned it.
Q 07Which relative of Dolly Parton took over her role as Doralee Rhodes in the 9 to 5 television sitcom?
Her sister
Her sister Rachel Dennison, the youngest of the twelve Parton children, played Doralee from the show's first episode to its last. It was the only acting role of her career.
Q 08Which duet with Kenny Rogers gave Dolly Parton her only other Hot 100 number one after 9 to 5?
Islands in the Stream
Islands in the Stream returned her to the top as half of a duo. As a solo artist, Dolly Parton reached number one on the Hot 100 only with the song she wrote for the film.
Q 09Dolly Parton reunited with her 9 to 5 co-stars with a cameo in the final episode of which Netflix comedy?
Grace and Frankie
Grace and Frankie starred Jane Fonda and her old office ally for seven seasons before the third member of the trio turned up in the finale. The cameo completed a reunion four decades in the making.
Q 10Why does Judy Bernly take her first job as a secretary at the start of 9 to 5?
Her husband left her
Her husband left her for his own young secretary, pushing a lifelong housewife into an office for the first time. Jane Fonda prepared by studying women who began work late after a divorce.
Q 11Which actor, later the sexist soap opera director in Tootsie, played Franklin Hart in 9 to 5?
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman made such a convincing office tyrant that comic villains became the roles he was best known for. He rejoined two of his captors on screen in The Beverly Hillbillies.
Q 12At the end of 9 to 5, chairman Russell Tinsworthy takes Franklin Hart away to work in which country?
Brazil
Brazil was the reward Hart never wanted: Tinsworthy, delighted by the office's soaring productivity, drafted him for a multiyear project there. The changes he took credit for were the women's.
Q 13Where do the women of 9 to 5 hold Franklin Hart prisoner while they wait for evidence against him?
His own bedroom
Q 21Which Harold and Maude screenwriter directed 9 to 5 and rewrote its script as a comedy?
Colin Higgins
Colin Higgins was hired partly to make room in the script for all three stars. Dolly Parton, making her first film, was glad to find him quiet and low-key.
Q 22The title of 9 to 5 came from an association of women office workers founded in which US city?
Boston
Boston was home to the group, started by an old friend of Jane Fonda, and its members' stories about their jobs gave her the idea. It grew out of a newsletter for the city's office workers.
Q 23How did screenwriter Patricia Resnick research office life before writing the first draft of 9 to 5?
Going undercover at an insurer
His own bedroom became the jail once the women learned the invoices they needed as proof would take four to six weeks to arrive. They ran the office in his name while he was out of sight.
Q 14Which singer and talk show host re-recorded 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton for the documentary Still Working 9 to 5?
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson was personally invited by Dolly Parton, and their version slowed the tune into a midtempo ballad to suit the documentary. The two later sang it live on her daytime show.
Q 15Which superhero sequel plays Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 over an opening sequence of its hero at work?
Deadpool 2
Deadpool 2 has Ryan Reynolds's antihero cue the music himself before a string of contract killings. The joke is that a hired killer's bloody shift is just another working day.
Q 16In 9 to 5, Violet Newstead's fantasy of killing Franklin Hart is staged in the style of which genre?
A fairy tale
A fairy tale is how Violet pictures doctoring his coffee and tipping him out of a window. Judy imagines hunting him like big game, while Doralee turns his own harassment on him.
Q 17Which reform do the women of 9 to 5 introduce in Franklin Hart's name while he is held captive?
A daycare center
A daycare center opened in the office alongside flexible hours, job sharing and equal pay, all approved with a forged signature. Productivity rose 20 percent, and Hart got the credit.
Q 18Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 lost the Best Original Song Oscar to the title song of which film?
Fame
Fame, sung by Irene Cara, took the Oscar, and its film became the first to land two nominees in the category. Willie Nelson's On the Road Again lost that night too.
Q 19Which Scottish singer's 9 to 5 was renamed Morning Train in America because of Dolly Parton's hit?
Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton's single came out in Britain months before the film, then went to number one in America under its new name. It reached the top less than two months after the Parton hit had last been there.
Q 20Before it was rewritten as a comedy, 9 to 5 was first planned as what kind of film?
A drama
A drama was the plan until Jane Fonda decided every version felt too preachy. She kept cutting anything that smacked of a soapbox, even scenes her director liked.
Going undercover at an insurer, she posed as a secretary at a huge brokerage to see the job from the inside. Her director later gathered more stories from focus groups of office workers.
Q 24Although 9 to 5 seems set in Los Angeles, its opening credits mostly show the downtown of which city?
San Francisco
San Francisco supplies most of the shots, including an electric Muni bus and the Ferry Building clock. Principal photography otherwise took place mainly in Los Angeles.
Q 25The song 9 to 5 won Dolly Parton two of which honors, for best country song and female country vocal?
Grammy Awards
Grammy Awards went to the song in both country categories, and it was up for Song of the Year as well. It also earned nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Q 26Dolly Parton re-recorded 9 to 5 as 5 to 9 for a 2021 Super Bowl commercial for which company?
Squarespace
Squarespace aired the reworked song during Super Bowl LV, four decades after the original topped the charts. The new title turned the working day on its head.
Q 27Which US senator often took the stage to Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 during her 2020 presidential campaign?
Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren used it as walk-on music, but the singer's camp had not signed off. Parton's manager said they did not approve requests of a political nature.
Q 28Which critic gave 9 to 5 three stars out of four and called Dolly Parton a natural-born movie star?
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert found the plot almost too preposterous but said watching her do anything in the film was a pleasure. Reviews were mixed, though praise for the newcomer ran through many of them.
Q 29Why does Franklin Hart have Maria Delgado fired in 9 to 5 after a tip from his assistant Roz?
Discussing her salary
Discussing her salary with a co-worker was enough to cost Maria her job. She returns part-time once the women launch their job-sharing scheme.
Q 30What crime do the women of 9 to 5 catch Franklin Hart committing, giving them leverage to blackmail him?
Selling off inventory
Selling off inventory and pocketing the proceeds was his secret sideline. Once freed from captivity, he simply bought the stock back before anyone could prove it.