Baa Baa Black Sheep (Black Sheep Squadron)
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40 free Baa Baa Black Sheep (Black Sheep Squadron) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Baa Baa Black Sheep, retitled Black Sheep Squadron for its second season, turned the wartime story of Marine ace Greg "Pappy" Boyington into two seasons of dogfights, bar brawls and run-ins with the brass. Robert Conrad led a squadron of misfits from the fictional island of Vella la Cava, while Colonel Lard and his superiors kept watch from rear-area headquarters on Espritos Marcos. This quiz covers the show from every side: the pilots and mechanics, the guest stars, the memorable episodes, how the aerial scenes were filmed, and where the cast went next. It also sorts fact from fiction, including the real island behind Espritos Marcos and the real career of the man the series was built around. It is for fans who watched the original run or the reruns, for aviation and Second World War buffs, and for anyone settling an argument about what the series invented. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Robert Conrad, who played Pappy Boyington, was best known as a Secret Service agent in which 1960s series?
The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West ran on CBS from 1965 to 1969, with Conrad doing most of his own stunts and fight scenes. He was later inducted into the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame.
Q 02John Larroquette, pilot Bob Anderson in Baa Baa Black Sheep, later won four straight Emmys on which sitcom?
Night Court
Night Court cast Larroquette as prosecutor Dan Fielding. Bob Anderson had been his first regular series role, shortly after he narrated the opening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Q 03Which British rock guitarist, fresh from a best-selling live album, guest-starred in the Black Sheep Squadron finale?
Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton turned up in A Little Bit of England, two years after Frampton Comes Alive! became the top-selling album of 1976. The episode leaves downed pilot Boyle in the care of an English coastwatcher.
Q 04Which kind of Japanese vessel pulled the real Pappy Boyington from the sea when his fighter went down near Rabaul?
A submarine
A submarine, the I-181, picked him up and delivered him to Rabaul as a prisoner, then was itself sunk 13 days later. Boyington spent the remaining 20 months of the war in Japanese camps.
Q 05Red West, chief mechanic Andy Micklin in Black Sheep Squadron, was a longtime bodyguard for which singer?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley had known West since their Tennessee school days, and West co-wrote songs with him. After being fired, West co-wrote a tell-all book that came out two weeks before the singer's death.
Q 06Which decoration did President Truman present to the real Pappy Boyington at the White House after his release?
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor had been awarded in March 1944, while Boyington was listed as missing, and was held in the capital until he could collect it. He was freed from a prison camp near Tokyo in August 1945.
Q 07Which gull-winged American fighter do Pappy Boyington's pilots fly against Japanese Zeros in Baa Baa Black Sheep?
F4U Corsair
The F4U Corsair fighters on screen were leased to Universal by private owners. The bent wing let the landing gear stay short while the huge propeller still cleared the ground.
Q 08Pappy Boyington's dog Meatball in Baa Baa Black Sheep is which breed, also the breed of General Patton's Willie?
Bull Terrier
Bull Terrier Meatball lives on the base against regulations, so Pappy pretends the dog belongs to General Moore, who flatly denies it. Patton bought his own, Willie, in England in 1944.
Q 09Larry Manetti, the Black Sheep's Bobby Boyle, went on to play Rick Wright for eight seasons of which detective series?
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. reunited Manetti with fellow Black Sheep pilot Jeff MacKay, who played the hero's friend Mac. Manetti's Rick ran the beachside King Kamehameha Club.
Q 10Dirk Blocker, pilot Jerry Bragg in Baa Baa Black Sheep, later played Detective Hitchcock in which police sitcom?
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Brooklyn Nine-Nine was Blocker's first regular series role since the Black Sheep, a wait of 35 years. He is the son of Dan Blocker, who played Hoss Cartwright on Bonanza.
Q 11Dana Elcar, the by-the-book Colonel Lard of Baa Baa Black Sheep, later played boss Pete Thornton in which series?
MacGyver
MacGyver wrote Elcar's glaucoma into Pete Thornton's story when the actor began losing his sight in 1991. On the Black Sheep set he had also directed four episodes.
Q 12Simon Oakland, Black Sheep Squadron's General Moore, played the doctor who explains the killer in which Hitchcock film?
Psycho
Psycho ends with Oakland's character laying out Norman Bates's multiple personalities for the police. Oakland had started out as a violinist before turning to acting.
Q 13Which writer-producer, later behind The A-Team and 21 Jump Street, created Baa Baa Black Sheep?
Stephen J. Cannell
Q 21The Black Sheep Squadron season-two opener Divine Wind takes its title from the meaning of which Japanese word?
Kamikaze
Kamikaze joins kami, for god or spirit, and kaze, for wind. In the episode the pilots meet the first suicide attacks while a chaplain helps Anderson face his premonitions of death.
Q 22Which wartime women's pilot organisation moves onto Vella la Cava in a season-one episode of Baa Baa Black Sheep?
The WASPs
The WASPs, or Women Airforce Service Pilots, were civilian fliers, and in the episode their leader bans all fraternising with the Marines. Colonel Lard actor Dana Elcar directed it.
Q 23A Navy squadron billeted with the Black Sheep in season two brings along Sheba, which unusual kind of pet?
A wolf
Stephen J. Cannell wrote the two-hour pilot himself, despite dyslexia that often had him dictating whole scripts to his secretary. Bellisario, a future hit-maker, joined as a writer in season two.
Q 14Which network cancelled Baa Baa Black Sheep after one season, then reversed itself and brought the show back?
NBC
NBC revived the series after axing the sitcom Off the Wall, and relaunched it that December under the new title Black Sheep Squadron.
Q 15The Whiffenpoof Song, whose chorus opens Baa Baa Black Sheep, belongs to an a cappella group at which university?
Yale
Yale's Whiffenpoofs, founded in 1909, are the oldest collegiate a cappella group in the United States. A real Black Sheep pilot, Paul "Moon" Mullen, rewrote their song for the squadron.
Q 16The Whiffenpoof Song, heard over the titles of Baa Baa Black Sheep, adapts a poem by which British writer?
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling's poem Gentlemen-Rankers supplied the words, reworked by two students into the song published in 1909. It later became a hit for Rudy Vallée and then for Bing Crosby.
Q 17Before leading the Black Sheep, the real Pappy Boyington fought over Burma with which American volunteer group?
Flying Tigers
The Flying Tigers fought for China, and Boyington resigned his Marine commission in 1941 to join them. The series pilot opens with him still serving there as Pearl Harbor is attacked.
Q 18In The Hawk Flies on Sunday, the Black Sheep join a secret mission to shoot down which Japanese commander?
Isoroku Yamamoto
Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of Japan's Combined Fleet, really was shot down in 1943, by Army fighters operating from Guadalcanal. The episode was directed by its star, Robert Conrad.
Q 19Which actor guest-starred in the Baa Baa Black Sheep episode where Japanese commandos try to seize General MacArthur?
George Takei
George Takei, Star Trek's helmsman Sulu, appears in Up for Grabs alongside Yuki Shimoda. The commandos invade the squadron's own island, hoping to catch MacArthur while he is there.
Q 20In Sheep in the Limelight, the Black Sheep win unwanted fame by saving which famous passenger's plane?
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt really did visit American troops in the South Pacific on a morale-building tour in August 1943. In the episode, the rescue brings a crowd of reporters down on the pilots.
A wolf named Sheba gives the episode its title, Wolves in the Sheep Pen. The rival units bicker until they have to work together to destroy a Japanese radar ship.
Q 24In The 200 Pound Gorilla, Black Sheep mechanic Andy Micklin starts a bar-clearing brawl to avoid which fate?
A promotion
A promotion to warrant officer is the last thing Micklin wants, so he picks a fight to dodge it. Red West, who played the short-tempered sergeant, had been a real Marine.
Q 25Which Black Sheep mechanic, played by Joey Aresco, is killed when Japanese planes strafe Vella la Cava?
Hutch
Hutch, in full Sergeant John David Hutchinson, dies late in the first season, and the damage from the raid nearly gets the grounded unit broken up. Andy Micklin replaces him as chief mechanic.
Q 26Which Japanese ace, Pappy Boyington's nemesis in Baa Baa Black Sheep, survives being shot down by T.J. Wiley?
Tomio Harachi
Tomio Harachi, known as Tommy, comes back in The Fastest Gun to hunt Boyington personally. Byron Chung played the Imperial Navy captain in both seasons.
Q 27The real Pappy Boyington, technical adviser on Baa Baa Black Sheep, made three cameo appearances as which character?
A visiting general
A visiting general was Boyington's walk-on part in two first-season episodes and one in the second. He was blunt about the scripts, saying no regular character except himself had really existed.
Q 28Pappy Boyington Field is the airport of Coeur d'Alene, the real ace's birthplace, in which state?
Idaho
Idaho's Coeur d'Alene renamed its air terminal for him in 2007, after a grassroots campaign backed by local veterans. Boyington grew up in the logging town of St. Maries before moving to Tacoma.
Q 29The Japanese fighters in Baa Baa Black Sheep were really which American trainer, modified for Tora! Tora! Tora!?
T-6 Texan
The T-6 Texan trainers had been rebuilt to pass for Zeros in the 1970 Pearl Harbor epic, and were afterwards bought up by collectors.
Q 30Which island group provided the South Pacific backdrop for the aerial scenes in Baa Baa Black Sheep?
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California, stood in for the Solomons. Airfield scenes were shot at the now-closed Indian Dunes Airport in Valencia.