1968: The Year in Entertainment Quiz

Answer: Planet of the Apes

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"

Remakes, reboots, sequels...there's still only one true "Planet of the Apes" and it was released on February 8, 1968. Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) crash-lands on a planet in the distant future only to find that apes are in charge and humans are treated like, well, apes.

This classic film has one of the great endings of all time. I won't give it away here but if you've never seen "Planet of the Apes", see it before someone spoils the ending for you.

Answer: Frankie Lymon

Frankie Lymon was the lead singer of a vocal group called The Teenagers (see, I tried to give you in a hint in this question). Their breakthrough hit was 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" Frankie ultimately became a solo act but success was elusive. On a 1957 episode of Alan Freed's "The Big Beat" TV show, Frankie danced with a white teenage girl. Southern TV station owners cried foul, "The Big Beat" was canceled, and Frankie's career went into steep decline. He soldiered on but sadly became a casualty of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

Answer: In the Heat of the Night

Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), an African-American detective from the north stumbles into a murder investigation in a small, southern, racially unenlightened town. Rod Steiger would walk away with an Oscar for his performance as 'Bill' Gillespie, the sheriff in charge of the investigation. Stirling Silliphant took home an Oscar for best screenplay.

In the best picture race, "In the Heat of the Night" beat out two classics ("The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde") and two clunkers ("Dr. Doolittle" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"). To be fair, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" deserves some points for its anti-bigotry message as well as its stellar cast (Poitier again, along with Katharine Hepburn and, in his final film, the great Spencer Tracy). For more info on the 1967 Oscar race, check out Mark Harris' terrific book, "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood."

Answer: The Boys in the Band

A year before the Stonewall Riots put the fight for gay rights on the cultural map, playwright Mart Crowley's "The Boys in the Band" presented what NY Times critic Clive Barnes called "the frankest treatment of homosexuality I have ever seen on the stage." After a run of over a thousand performances off-Broadway, "The Boys in the Band" was turned into a film in 1970, starring the same cast.

A group of 30-something gay men gather to celebrate a friend's birthday at the apartment of Michael, a self-loathing alcoholic who wishes he wasn't gay. In our more enlightened time, "The Boys in the Band" seems dated and is rarely performed today. Its place in theater and gay rights history is nonetheless indisputable.

Answer: "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly

In-a-gadda-da-vida honey,
Don'tcha know that I love you?
In-a-gadda-da-vida baby,
Don'tcha know that I'll always be true?

Pardon me while I wipe away a tear, so moved am I by the beauty of these lyrics.

Just give me a minute. I'll be fine.

OK, all better. Now, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was written by Iron Butterfly's keyboardist and lead vocalist, Doug Ingle. Apparently, the lyric was supposed to be "In the Garden of Eden" but Ingle slurred the lyrics so badly that they just decided to keep it that way. The song, at 17 minutes, took up the entire side two of the LP. As far as I know, no one has ever listened to side one -- or at least admitted to it.

The song is considered significant because it marked a shift from psychedelic rock to heavy metal. Hendrix, of course, played a much more significant role in this transition but he never had a 17-minute song loaded with guitar, organ, and drum solos taking up the entire side of an LP. So there.

Too bad they changed the lyrics. "In the Garden of Eden, honey/Don't you know that I love you?" makes so much more sense than "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey/Don't you know that I love you?" Don't you think?

Answer: Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl"

It's difficult to imagine anyone other than Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice, the legendary singer and comedienne of the early 1900's who is the subject of "Funny Girl". Streisand originated the role on Broadway but lost the Tony award that year to Carol Channing in "Hello, Dolly!" Ironically, Babs would steal the role of Dolly from Channing for the film version. Sweeter revenge, I imagine, was the Oscar that Streisand won for playing Brice in the film version of "Funny Girl". (Actually, she tied with Katherine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter.")

"Funny Girl" traces Fanny's rise to fame as a performer in the Ziegfeld Follies and her troubled and ultimately doomed marriage to gambler Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif). The film's veteran director William Wyler, when asked if the diva-esque Streisand was difficult to work with, reportedly quipped, "No, not too hard, considering it was the first movie she ever directed."

Answer: Richard Nixon

Apparently, it took Richard Nixon 6 takes to get the line just right. According to those who witnessed the taping, he was coming across as too angry but, finally, on the 6th take, he got it just right.

Nixon, of course, was the Republican candidate for President at the time. Never one to win over the under-30 crowd, Tricky Dick was fortunate that the Democratic candidate was the equally un-hip Hubert Humphrey. Nixon's handlers thought it might be a good idea for him to go on the flower-powered "Laugh In" to see if he could gain some credibility with the youth of America. Whether he did or not is open to debate but he did manage to win the presidency. For a while, at least. Until Watergate socked it to the nation.

Answer: Hawaii Five-O

"Book him, Danno. Murder one."

In my memory, this was the last line of virtually episode of "Hawaii Five-O", the police procedural in paradise that ran on CBS from September of 1968 all the way until April of 1980. The show starred Jack Lord as Detective Steve McGarrett, head of an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police.

Both NBC's "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" and CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" have since surpassed its record for longevity but "H50" certainly had an impressive run.

Jack Lord became a permanent resident of Hawaii and was clearly a beloved figure. He was often talked about as a potential political candidate and when he died, fans gathered together to fund a statue of him in Honolulu.

Answer: The Beatles, "The White Album"

By most accounts, the recording of "The Beatles", commonly known as The White Album, was a difficult and contentious process. Most of the songs had been written while the four Beatles were studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, between February and April 1968. Once in the studio, however, things got ugly. John Lennon had Yoko Ono in tow, much to the consternation of the other Beatles. Lennon and Paul McCartney became critical of each other's songs while George Harrison and Ringo Starr became increasingly distant from the process. In August, Ringo had had enough after Paul repeatedly criticized his drumming on "Back in the USSR." He quit the band for a time, finally returning in early September to find his drum set covered with flowers, a welcome back gesture from his bandmates.

Given all that, it's a miracle that the Beatles' only double-album (not including future greatest hits packages) was such an artistic triumph. There were no singles released from the LP but there are plenty of great, iconic songs -- "Back in the USSR", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Blackbird", "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", and "Julia". Charles Manson became obsessed with the album and used the song "Helter Skelter" as justification for a series of murders committed in California a year later.

When Rolling Stone magazine released its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the "White Album" was placed at #10.

Answer: NBC airs what comes to be known as Elvis Presley's "Comeback Special"

By 1968, Elvis Presley had become something of a punch line. His last U.S. single had been released in 1962 and he spent much of the sixties making a string of highly forgettable movies. It didn't help that rock and roll had evolved into a legitimate art form in the hands of artists like Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. Elvis was clearly out of step. The "Comeback Special", as it has come to be known, was an attempt to change that. And it worked.

The special contained several big production numbers, not unlike those you might see on a Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby special of the time. What really set this special apart, however, were the live segments in which Elvis, backed by the likes of DJ Fontana and Scotty Moore, performed some of his old hits such as "That's All Right", "Heartbreak Hotel", and "Love Me Tender", which he sang to wife Priscilla who was strategically placed in the audience. These sequences showcased Elvis well and reminded the audience what a vital performer he was and could still be.

Ultimately, the special marked Elvis' transition from movie star to live concert performer. This is the beginning of his Las Vegas career. He started touring again and had his first number one hit -- 1969's "Suspicious Minds" -- in years.