Sitcom Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
193 free Sitcom trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This sitcom trivia quiz spans the whole history of the situation comedy, from the first live half-hours of the 1940s to the streaming hits of the 2020s, and takes in both sides of the Atlantic. The easy questions are the ones every viewer knows: which bar Sam Malone runs, where Fawlty Towers is set, what Dunder Mifflin sells, which show was 'about nothing' and which family lives in Springfield. From there it digs deeper: Mary Kay and Johnny and Pinwright's Progress, Karl Freund's three cameras on I Love Lucy, the Honeymooners' Classic 39, Get Smart's creators, the Flintstones as first prime-time cartoon, the M*A*S*H finale record, Cheers' 74th-place premiere, Frasier's 37 Emmys, the Newhart dream ending, the shark Fonzie jumped, the Golden Girls' clean sweep, the Simpsons' longevity records, Curb's retroscripting, Schitt's Creek and Ted Lasso's Emmy hauls, and British classics from Steptoe and Son and Dad's Army to Peep Show, The Thick of It, Gavin & Stacey and Derry Girls. Our 70s Sitcoms, 90s Sitcoms and Black Sitcoms quizzes go deeper on those slices. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the shows, creators and awards named before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question.
30 of 193 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Friends, which character has an estranged identical twin sister named Ursula?
Phoebe
Phoebe's twin Ursula began as a waitress on the sitcom Mad About You, also played by Lisa Kudrow; Friends then turned the two roles into sisters.
Q 02Which wartime BBC sitcom gave us the catchphrase 'Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once'?
'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo! gave the line to Resistance agent Michelle; David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd devised the whole sitcom as a spoof of the BBC's earnest wartime drama Secret Army.
Q 03What did sound engineer Charles Douglass introduce to American sitcoms in the 1950s?
Laugh track
Laugh track: Douglass added it with his 'Laff Box', a one-of-a-kind machine he kept padlocked and operated out of sight to keep his technique secret.
Q 04In the I Love Lucy episode 'Job Switching', what can't Lucy and Ethel wrap fast enough on a conveyor belt?
Chocolates
Chocolates race past so quickly at the candy factory that Lucy and Ethel start stuffing them into their mouths and clothes to hide the backlog from the forewoman.
Q 05Which studio behind I Love Lucy later launched Star Trek?
Desilu
Desilu was run by Lucille Ball alone after she bought out her ex-husband in 1962, and it was Ball who approved Star Trek for development.
Q 06Little Ricky's birth on I Love Lucy was timed to coincide with the real birth of whom?
Desi Arnaz Jr.
Desi Arnaz Jr. was born by caesarean on 19 January 1953, hours before Little Ricky arrived on air; the episode drew 44 million viewers, more than Eisenhower's inauguration the next day.
Q 07In The Honeymooners, Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden drives what for a living?
A New York City bus
A New York City bus is Ralph's daily grind for the fictional Gotham Bus Company; the real drivers' union made him an honorary member, and in 1988 a Brooklyn bus depot was renamed for Jackie Gleason.
Q 08Who played sewer worker Ed Norton opposite Jackie Gleason in The Honeymooners?
Art Carney
Art Carney played Norton in Gleason's sketches as well as the 39 filmed episodes, then beat Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson to the Best Actor Oscar for 1974's Harry and Tonto.
Q 09Rob Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke, is head writer for which fictional variety programme?
The Alan Brady Show
The Alan Brady Show's vain star was played by series creator Carl Reiner, who drew the sitcom from his own years writing and performing on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.
Q 10Which sitcom was launched by a 1960 episode of The Danny Thomas Show?
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show grew out of 'Danny Meets Andy Griffith', in which Sheriff Andy Taylor arrests Danny for running a stop sign; the series followed that October.
Q 11Which 1964 spin-off followed Mayberry's naive gas-station attendant into military service?
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. began with a pilot aired as a May 1964 season finale, in which Jim Nabors's Gomer joins the Marines and exasperates Sergeant Carter; it ran five seasons.
Q 12Who replaced an ailing York as Darrin on Bewitched for its final three seasons?
Dick Sargent
Dick Sargent replaced Dick York as Darrin Stephens from the sixth season in 1969 until Bewitched ended in 1972; York left with a chronic back injury.
Q 13Which sitcom did novelist Sidney Sheldon create?
I Dream of Jeannie
Q 21Why did CBS axe The Beverly Hillbillies and Hee Haw in 1971?
To win younger urban viewers
To win younger urban viewers for its advertisers, CBS dropped its country-flavoured hits in what became known as the 'rural purge'; Hee Haw simply moved to syndication and ran for two more decades.
Q 22Which 1960 prime-time cartoon was closely modelled on The Honeymooners?
The Flintstones
The Flintstones borrowed so openly from The Honeymooners that Jackie Gleason considered suing, then let it pass; he reportedly didn't want to be the man who took Fred Flintstone off the air.
Q 23In The Jetsons, which short-tempered boss keeps threatening to fire George?
Mr. Spacely
I Dream of Jeannie was still on air when Sheldon, by then in his fifties, turned to fiction; he dictated his novels to a secretary rather than typing them.
Q 14Which charter boat sets out on a 'three-hour tour' at the start of Gilligan's Island?
SS Minnow
The SS Minnow is said to be the creator's sly dig at FCC chairman Newton Minow, who in 1961 had called television a 'vast wasteland'.
Q 15Which two CBS shows did Beverly Hillbillies creator Paul Henning go on to produce?
Petticoat Junction and Green Acres
Petticoat Junction and Green Acres: Henning created the first in 1963 and was executive producer of the second, Jay Sommers's sitcom that sent city folk to the country.
Q 16Which sitcom did ABC rescue after CBS dropped it?
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver had already tested CBS's censors, who held back its intended first episode because the boys hide a pet alligator in a toilet tank.
Q 17Which two comedy writers created Get Smart?
Mel Brooks and Buck Henry
Mel Brooks and Buck Henry wrote the pilot for ABC, which paid for it but turned the series down; NBC took Get Smart because it had Don Adams under contract and wanted a show for him.
Q 18Which fictional POW camp is the setting of Hogan's Heroes?
Stalag 13
Stalag 13's vain commandant, Colonel Klink, boasts that no prisoner has ever escaped; Hogan's men protect that record so they can keep running sabotage from inside the camp.
Q 19Who played Herman Munster?
Fred Gwynne
Fred Gwynne, a 6ft 5in Harvard graduate, came to resent how firmly Herman typecast him; away from acting he wrote and illustrated children's books.
Q 20Vic Mizzy's finger-snapping harpsichord theme opened which 1964 sitcom?
The Addams Family
The Addams Family theme was Mizzy's work from start to finish: he played the harpsichord and sang it himself, overdubbing his voice three times to sound like a group of singers.
Mr. Spacely owns Spacely Space Sprockets, where George's job is to push a button; the show itself lasted just 24 episodes in its first run, yet repeats kept it popular enough for new ones two decades later.
Q 24Why did The Brady Bunch never reveal what happened to Carol's first husband?
ABC wanted her widowed, not divorced
Sherwood Schwartz wrote Carol as divorced, but ABC wanted her widowed, not divorced; the compromise was never to mention her first husband's fate at all.
Q 25Which series' 1983 finale drew about 106 million US viewers, a record for any broadcast until 2010?
M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H signed off with the two-and-a-half-hour 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen'; the series had run eleven seasons, more than three times as long as the Korean War it depicted.
Q 26Which actress played Diane Chambers on Cheers before leaving the show in 1987?
Shelley Long
Shelley Long's Diane sparred with Sam from a 1982 premiere that finished near the bottom of the week's ratings; NBC stuck with the show and it ran eleven seasons.
Q 27Sam Malone of Cheers was a former relief pitcher for which team?
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox employed Sam 'Mayday' Malone as a relief pitcher until drinking wrecked his career; the recovering alcoholic now owns and tends a bar.
Q 28Which Cheers regular does the bar greet by shouting his name?
Norm
Norm is one of only three characters in all 275 episodes, yet George Wendt was first sent to audition for a customer with a single word to say: 'Beer!'
Q 29The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World followed which Huxtable daughter to Hillman College?
Denise
Denise, played by Lisa Bonet, led only the first season; after Bonet left, the show was rebuilt around Whitley and Dwayne and ran for five more years.
Q 30The Golden Girls share a house in which city?
Miami
Miami is home to all four, including Sophia, Dorothy's elderly mother; Estelle Getty, who played her, was in fact a year younger than Bea Arthur, her on-screen daughter.