The Jeffersons Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
37 free The Jeffersons trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Jeffersons moved on up in 1975 and stayed for eleven seasons, the longest run of any All in the Family spin-off. This quiz covers it top to bottom. Forty-one questions take in George and Louise, the dry-cleaning chain built on a $5,000 bus settlement, the high-rise on East 63rd Street, Florence's wisecracks, Bentley's bad back, Ralph the doorman's open palm, Mother Jefferson, and Tom and Helen Willis, prime time's first regular interracial couple. The backstory gets its due too: George's debut on All in the Family, the Broadway show that delayed Sherman Hemsley's arrival, the Black Panthers who pushed Norman Lear to write a prosperous Black family, Ja'Net DuBois writing 'Movin' On Up', Isabel Sanford's landmark Emmy, the four-episode spin-off Checking In, and the way the cast learned of the cancellation from newspapers. Easy questions ask what George's business is; hard ones want the number of time slots the show cycled through and who played George in the 2019 live special. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the series and cast, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 37 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Jeffersons is a spin-off of which sitcom?
All in the Family
All in the Family introduced the Jeffersons as the Bunkers' next-door neighbours, and the spin-off went on to outlast its parent, staying on air for 11 seasons.
Q 02Which producer developed The Jeffersons as a spin-off from one of his own sitcoms?
Norman Lear
Norman Lear developed the series, but the on-screen 'created by' credit went to three of his writers: Don Nicholl, Michael Ross and Bernie West.
Q 03Where do the Jeffersons move to?
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is where the theme song sends them, to a 'deluxe apartment in the sky': George's growing business had paid the family's way out of working-class Queens.
Q 04What business made George Jefferson prosperous?
A dry-cleaning chain
A dry-cleaning chain made his fortune: George bought his first store with the payout from a car accident and built it into seven outlets across New York.
Q 05Which entertainer played himself in a 1984 episode of The Jeffersons, hiding from fans in the apartment across the hall?
Sammy Davis Jr.
Sammy Davis Jr. rents the place for some peace and quiet in 'What Makes Sammy Run?', and a star-struck Louise finds his secret almost impossible to keep.
Q 06What pet name does George Jefferson call his wife Louise?
Weezy
Weezy came from Sherman Hemsley himself: it was his name for a girl called Louise he had a crush on as a boy in Philadelphia, and the producers let him use it for George's wife.
Q 07Which Emmy was the Louise Jefferson actress the first Black woman to win?
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series was hers in 1981, and it did not go to another Black woman for more than 40 years, until Quinta Brunson won for Abbott Elementary in January 2024.
Q 08Sherman Hemsley's debut as George was delayed by his role in which Broadway musical?
Purlie
Hemsley was committed to Purlie, the 1970 Broadway musical based on Ossie Davis's play Purlie Victorious, so George was only talked about on the parent show until he finally appeared in 1973.
Q 09Which comedy star played Tom Willis in ABC's 2019 live restaging of The Jeffersons?
Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell was more than a guest: his company co-produced the special with Jimmy Kimmel, and he played Helen's husband opposite Kerry Washington.
Q 10The Jeffersons' premise of a prosperous couple 'moving on up' came after which group visited the producer's office?
The Black Panthers
The Black Panthers who called on him complained that every Black man on television was 'dirt poor'; a family with money was his answer.
Q 11Who co-wrote and sang the theme song 'Movin' On Up'?
Ja'Net DuBois
Ja'Net DuBois was known as an actress, the neighbour Willona on Good Times, yet it is her voice, backed by a gospel choir, that opens every episode.
Q 12What job did Marla Gibbs's character, Florence Johnston, do for the Jeffersons?
Housekeeper
Housekeeper Florence was written as a one-off, but the studio audience loved her so much that she was called back and ended up a regular.
Q 13For her first two years on The Jeffersons, Marla Gibbs kept her day job doing what?
Airline reservations agent
Airline reservations agent: her first contract covered only seven episodes, so Gibbs kept going back to her United Airlines desk until the producers offered a full one.
Q 21Who played George's mother, Olivia 'Mother' Jefferson?
Zara Cully
Zara Cully played Mother Jefferson, who constantly ran down Louise; Cully died of lung cancer in February 1978 and the character was written out.
Q 22What was Ralph Hart's defining habit on The Jeffersons?
Stalling at the door, hand out for a tip
Stalling at the door with his hand out for a tip nearly always worked on George, and Ralph also charged extra to keep quiet about things he had overheard.
Q 23Which actor played Tom Willis, Helen's husband, throughout The Jeffersons?
Franklin Cover
Q 14After The Jeffersons was cancelled, Marla Gibbs moved straight to which NBC sitcom?
227
227 was built around her: it came from a stage play she had starred in in Los Angeles, and she co-produced the series and sang its theme.
Q 15Harry Bentley, the eccentric British neighbour, worked in what job?
Interpreter at the United Nations
Bentley worked as an interpreter at the United Nations; George regularly slammed the door on his rambling stories and was pressed into walking on his bad back.
Q 16How did Bentley address the Jeffersons?
'Mr. J' and 'Mrs. J'
'Mr. J' and 'Mrs. J' were his names for them; Paul Benedict made Bentley thoroughly English, though the actor was an American, born in New Mexico.
Q 17Paul Benedict, who played Bentley, was also known to children as which Sesame Street character?
The Number Painter
The Number Painter daubed numerals wherever he liked on Sesame Street; Benedict's striking jaw was put down partly to acromegaly, which a doctor first spotted while watching him on stage.
Q 18Tom and Helen Willis were notable as what?
An early prime-time interracial couple
George derided their children as 'zebras'; their daughter Jenny married Lionel.
Q 19Roxie Roker, who played Helen Willis, is the mother of which rock musician?
Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz was ten when his mother won the part, and the family moved to Los Angeles for it; his father, Sy Kravitz, was a television producer.
Q 20Which surname was shared by the two unrelated actors who played Lionel Jefferson?
Evans
Evans it was: Mike Evans left to work on Good Times, a sitcom he had co-created, and Damon Evans, no relation, stepped in; Mike later returned.
Franklin Cover took over a part another actor had played on the parent show, where Jenny's father was called Louis, not Tom.
Q 24How did Sherman Hemsley say he learned that The Jeffersons had been cancelled?
By reading it in the newspaper
By reading it in the newspaper, he said: the network cancelled the show without telling the cast, and one co-star heard the news from Entertainment Tonight.
Q 25Which singer performed 'Movin' On Up' live to open ABC's 2019 restaging of The Jeffersons?
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson sang it on the set as the episode began; when the specials came back that December, Patti LaBelle helped do the same for the Good Times theme.
Q 26In which 1996 series finale did George and Louise appear as the buyers of the Banks mansion?
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air turned its last open house into a sitcom reunion: two characters from Diff'rent Strokes also came to look round before George and Louise bought the place.
Q 27In which 2011 sitcom did Hemsley reprise George, alongside the original Florence?
Tyler Perry's House of Payne
Tyler Perry's House of Payne brought George and Florence back in 2011, a year before it passed The Jeffersons as the longest-running American series with a mostly Black cast.
Q 28After The Jeffersons, Sherman Hemsley starred in which NBC sitcom from 1986 to 1991?
Amen
Amen took Hemsley home: he played a scheming church deacon in Philadelphia, the city where he grew up and once worked for the post office.
Q 29The Louise Jefferson actress appeared in which landmark 1967 film before The Jeffersons?
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner gave her the small part of the maid Tillie; years later she almost refused to do The Jeffersons, until told that Louise would be recast without her.
Q 30In ABC's 2019 special Live in Front of a Studio Audience, who played George Jefferson?
Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx stumbled over a line, then broke character to tell the audience it was live and that everyone at home must think their TV had just messed up, before carrying on.