Alternative Titles for Television Shows Quiz

Answer: Big Brother

The reality show 'Big Brother' was created by John de Mol Jr and was first broadcast in the Netherlands in 1999 on the then-Veronica channel. The title is believed to have been taken from George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984' (1949) in which the ruling party uses a system of telescreens to constantly surveil citizens. A picture of a man named Big Brother with the slogan 'Big Brother is watching you' is posted up in numerous places to remind people of this. The television show 'Big Brother' has been franchised to many other countries over a period of years and by 2023 more than 500 versions of 'Big Brother' had been shown in over 63 countries and regions. The programme has proved to be more popular and longer-lasting in some countries than in others, for instance being broadcast in the UK between 2000 and 2018 and then returning in 2023. Internationally 'Big Brother' has been nominated for many awards and won some of them, for example the 2002 Australian TV Week Logie Award for Most Popular Reality Programme.

Details of the shows have changed somewhat between countries and over time but the basic idea, which has remained constant, is that contestants, hitherto unknown to each other, are confined in a house together for some time. They do not have access to the outside world and are allowed to communicate only with each other and privately with 'Big Brother' in the Diary Room (or Confession Room). Their interactions are constantly recorded by television cameras and personal microphones and they are given tasks to do by Big Brother for which they are rewarded, perhaps with extra food or privileges, if successful. At intervals, often once a week, the housemates nominate which of the other housemates they would like to leave the house. Then viewers then vote for which of those with the most nominations should be the one to actually leave the house (or sometimes stay). Thus eventually only one housemate is left so declared the winner and rewarded with money and sometimes other prizes.

Answer: Star Trek

The three-series science fiction show 'Star Trek' was created by Gene Roddenberry and the first episode was broadcast on 6th September, 1966, on the CTV network in Canada then shown in the USA on 8th September, 1966. After this, all the episodes were first broadcast on NBC in the USA with the last and 79th episode being broadcast on 3rd June, 1969. NBC then cancelled the show because of low audience numbers but public demand for the series gradually grew and a production company, Paramount Television, sold the series to other channels for broadcasting. By the mid-1970s, the series had been shown by over 100 channels in the USA and 60 channels in other countries and the programme was nominated for several awards and won some. For instance, it was nominated for over a dozen Emmys and won TV Land's 2003 Pop Culture Award while three individual episodes in 1967 and five in 1968 were nominated for a Hugo Award with one of them winning the Best Dramatic Presentation Award each year.

A number of follow-on series with different ships and personnel have also been produced, such as 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', and 'Star Trek' itself is now also known as 'Star Trek: The Original Series'. All the programmes have been set in the future, with the original show being set in the 23rd century. It was about the crew of the starship USS Enterprise who were on a five-year mission to explore hitherto unknown worlds and to make contact with their inhabitants. Often either the latter would be hostile or the planet would present other problems but the crew of the Enterprise were generally able to overcome the challenges they met. Among the crew members were Captain James T Kirk, played by William Shatner, the half-human and half-Vulcan First Officer and Science Officer Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, played by James Doohan.

Answer: Six Feet Under

At the beginning of the first series of 'Six Feet Under,' the owner of a funeral parlour in Los Angeles died and left the business to his sons, Nate and David Fisher, who continued to run it. Several other members of the family, their partners, and their business associates appeared regularly and the show not only concerned interpersonal relationships of different kinds but also explored deeper topics, for instance, characters' thoughts around death. Someone expressing such thoughts usually started each episode and sometimes a character had a conversation with a deceased person. The five series of the show were well received by critics and in particular the very last episode attracted great critical acclaim for showing flashforwards to the main characters' deaths.

'Six Feet Under' was created by Alan Ball and the first episode of the first series was broadcast on 3rd June, 2001, then one series was shown each year until the 63rd and last episode was shown on 21st August, 2005. The programme was produced by Actual Size Films and The Greenblatt Janollari Studio and all episodes were initially shown on the Home Box Office (HBO) channel. In addition to being shown on other countries' terrestrial channels, all the series were subsequently streamed on other channels, such as Amazon Video, and became available as box sets of DVDs. The show attracted large audiences throughout its run and among the many awards it was nominated for were the Golden Globe Awards for Best Drama Series in 2001, 2002, and 2003, which it won in 2001, while, among other award wins, Frances Conroy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2003.

Answer: The Monkees

'The Monkees' was a light-hearted two-series show about a group with that name who were trying to become a successful rock band. Its members lived in shared accommodations in Los Angeles and drove a very customised Pontiac. The episodes were zany and included some comedy and some surreal elements as they showed the group trying to obtain their 'big break' and each episode had one or more musical interludes during which the group played and sang. The first series was very successful, winning two Emmy Awards in 1967; one for Outstanding Comedy Series and one for James Frawley for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy for the episode 'Royal Flush'. Audience figures were high too but by the end of the second series both the group and the television company were ready to end the show. However, the series was repeated several times over the following few decades in the USA and exported to other countries, such as Australia, Brazil, the UK, and the Netherlands, where they were also successful.

The two series of 'The Monkees' comprising 58 episodes were first broadcast between 12th September,1966, and 25th March, 1968, on NBC. Bob Rafelson had had the original idea for the programme and it was eventually made by Screen Gems Television, part of Columbia Pictures, and Raybert Productions. During the casting process four young men, who had had varying degrees of experience in acting and singing, were chosen to form the manufactured group and their roles within the group were allocated to them. Davy Jones became the lead singer and percussionist, Mickey Dolenz the drummer, Michael Nesmith the lead guitarist, and Peter Tork the bass guitarist. Whilst session musicians were used on the television programme, the group members gradually came to have greater musical input to the show. Although the band was manufactured for the television show, The Monkees became a successful group in real life, which continued to record and tour for some years. The band members played at least some of the instruments when giving concerts and the group also had international hit singles and chart-topping albums. In the USA alone they had three number one songs ("Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", and "Daydream Believer") and certified sales of 21 million singles and albums.

Answer: The Sopranos

'The Sopranos' was a show created by David Chase which centred on the character Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, who was supposedly a 'waste-management consultant' but really the head of a branch of a criminal/mobster Mafia family in New Jersey. Due to the stress caused by trying to cope with his extended family and his professional life, Tony developed anxiety-related mental health issues. These resulted in him having therapy sessions with a psychiatrist, played by Lorraine Bracco, and he was shown telling her about his problems. These included scheming and conflict among the members of the Soprano family and between the Sopranos and another Mafia family, while the programme included much violence, for instance, Tony's uncle plotting to kill him.

Altogether six series of 'The Sopranos' containing a total of 86 episodes were produced with the very first episode being broadcast on 10th January, 1999, and the last episode being shown on 10th June, 2007. The series was originally shown in the USA on Home Broadcasting Office (HBO), a pay television network owned by Warner Brothers, and was exported to a number of other countries as well as being issued as box sets of DVDs. 'The Sopranos' was both a commercial and critical success and was accounted a major influence on other shows. It was nominated for many awards and won several, for instance being nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series each year and winning the award in both 2004 and 2007.

Answer: Rawhide

'Rawhide' was a Western show about a large number of cattle being driven from Texas across rural country to market in Missouri and was set in the 1860s. It was created by Charles Marquis Warren and first broadcast on CBS in eight separate series between 9th January, 1959, and 7th December, 1965. The programme was also exported to a number of countries then between 2006 and 2015 was produced in DVD form by different companies for countries in North America, Europe and Oceania. The show won several awards, for instance being named the Winner Bronze Wrangler Fictional Television Drama in the 1964 Western Heritage Awards. It also received very high audience ratings for the first several series although the audience diminished during the later ones. The theme song, also called 'Rawhide', was sung by Frankie Laine and was popular enough to be recorded by other real artists and also appeared in other television shows and in movies, such as 'The Blues Brothers' (1980).

In each episode of the eight series of 'Rawhide' the crew of drovers escorting the cattle met with a problem or challenge to be overcome, which they normally did successfully. These problems ranged from cattle being stolen and attacks by bandits to having to deal with corrupt people such as politicians and with people causing trouble for them in towns they visited. They could also meet with natural disasters, such as a drought on the plains they were travelling over or very bad weather, and with problems with the cattle they were driving, including anthrax among the cattle and a cattle stampede. The two main characters were the trail boss named Gil Favor, who was played by Eric Fleming, and the ramrod/second in charge called Rowdy Yates, who was played by Clint Eastwood, and who became the trail boss for the last series when Eric Fleming left the show.

Answer: Doctor Who

The main character in 'Doctor Who', known as the Doctor, is a humanoid being originally from the planet Gallifrey who can travel through time and space inside a machine named the Tardis, which is an acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Normally accompanied by one or more companions, the Doctor is fond of Earth and many of the storylines have been set here, often in the past, although other planets are visited too. The travellers generally find there are problems in the places where they land so help the inhabitants where possible and also often have to escape from different enemies. One race of recurring enemies is the Daleks, who are originally from the planet Skaro and whose armoured artificial cases house small, intelligent and evil beings who want to exterminate other intelligent life forms. The first actor to play the Doctor was William Hartnell but quite a few actors have played the character over the years, the transitions being explained by the Doctor's ability to regenerate in a different form when fatally injured and about to die.

'Doctor Who' was originally created by Sydney Newman, C E Webber, and Donald Wilson and the first episode was broadcast on 23rd November,1963, with the show continuing through a large number of separate series until 1989. In 1996 a movie for television was made and then the main 'Doctor Who' show returned to television in 2005. The first sets of programmes broadcast up to 1989 each consisted of a serial being shown over a few 25-minute episodes, broadcast during the early evening on Saturdays and aimed mainly at children. From its return in 2005 'Doctor Who' was shown at a slightly later time, intended for children and adults and consisted of longer, generally 45-minute, episodes with storylines sometimes contained in one episode and at other times lasting over several episodes. Apart from a couple of isolated exceptions, the series have first been broadcast in the UK on BBC1 and at least some of them have also been shown in other countries, such as the USA, while the show has won many awards including the 2006 British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series.

Answer: Friends

'Friends' was a ten-series show that followed the intertwined lives of six friends living in New York City from when they were in their twenties until they were in their thirties. The friends were also neighbours and some of them shared apartments, although which of them shared with which changed somewhat over the years. The series often took a lighthearted, sometimes comedic, approach to situations as the episodes showed the friends' professional lives evolving and their changing romantic and sexual relationships. The relationships were sometimes with another person in their friendship group and sometimes with someone outside it, although by the end of the last series four of the friends had formed into two couples and had become parents. In the last episode of the tenth series, the friends were shown moving on from the friendship group to live more separate lives. However, a later one-off episode showing a reunion between them and how their lives had changed over the intervening years was broadcast 17 years later.

The series 'Friends' starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer as the friends and the show was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The programme was produced by Bright/ Kauffman/Crane Productions in conjunction with Warner BrosTelevision and the main series were first shown on NBC. The first episode was broadcast on 22nd September,1994, and one series was shown each year until the 236th and last episode of the tenth series was broadcast on 6th May, 2004, while the later one-off show was first shown on HBO Max on 27th May, 2021. The show was not only very popular in the USA but was exported to many countries in Europe and South America, to Australia, China, and Canada and was later streamed on several online/digital channels. It won many awards over the years, for instance, the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 54th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2002.

Answer: Game of Thrones

'A Game of Thrones' (1996) by George R R Martin was the first novel in his fantasy series 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. This award-winning book and subsequent books in the series were adapted into the television show 'Game of Thrones' with the main creators of the programme being David Benioff and D B Weiss. A number of companies were involved in the production of the 73 episodes which made up the programme's eight series and the very first episode was broadcast on 17th April, 2011, while the final episode was first shown on 19th May, 2019, and the series were all first shown on Home Box Office (HBO). The first four of these series were based on Martin's books but production of the programmes proceeded faster than Martin could write the books. Consequently, the fifth series was based partly on a book and the last three were based partly on outlines of books while all four also had additional original content added. The show was broadcast, often by HBO subsidiaries, in other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, Latin America and the UK, and the series were released on DVD and Blu-ray as well. The programme and its personnel won very many awards throughout the series, for instance, 59 Emmy Awards and eight Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Like the books, the television show 'Game of Thrones' was set mainly on the fictional continent of Westeros, which had seven kingdoms. The main storyline was complex and concerned the continent's nine noble and powerful families engaging in ongoing competition to gain control of the continent's lands and to occupy the Iron Throne as its rulers. Their struggles involved a great deal of fighting and bloodshed, political intrigue, treachery, and deceit between both families and individuals. There were also two other storylines, the first involving an ancient and supernatural enemy of the families rising from a very long dormant period to threaten them and the second concerning the heirs of a usurped dynasty returning from exile in another country to try and reclaim their land.

Answer: Lost

Variously described as a science fiction, mystery, supernatural and thriller show, 'Lost' was set on an island after an aeroplane had crashed onto it. Jeffrey Lieber, J J Abrams, and Damon Lindelof were credited with creating the six-series programme consisting of 121 episodes which were first broadcast on ABC between 22nd September, 2004, and 23rd May, 2010. The programme consistently attracted large audiences and critical acclaim and it was also nominated for many awards and won quite a number of them, both in the USA and in other countries. For instance, it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Drama Series in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and won this award in 2006. Internationally 'Lost' won the Best Drama award at the 2007 Monte Carlo Television Festival, being chosen as the best of over 20 nominated shows from different countries. It has been broadcast on terrestrial and satellite channels in many countries, in addition to being streamed online and released as DVD box sets.

The start of the programme 'Lost' was set just after an aeroplane had broken into three sections when it crashed on an unnamed tropical island in the South Pacific. The show first concentrated on the survivors from one section and followed them as they formed a group and explored the island where they came across sometimes unlikely things, such as polar bears. During the course of the show, they also met humans, including existing inhabitants of the island with whom they interacted, sometimes hostilely, and survivors of the same aeroplane crash from another part of the aeroplane. Some attempts to escape from the island were made and all the series included flashbacks and flashforwards of the characters' lives as well as some complex storylines. Among the many characters who appeared in 'Lost' was a surgeon named Jack Shephard (played by actor Matthew Fox), who was the main protagonist and appeared regularly throughout the show, including in both the first and last episodes.