In the Heat of the Night Trivia Quiz

Answer: Carroll O'Connor

The TV series "In the Heat of the Night" was a police series set in one of the southern states of the USA. A grumpy police chief and his detective sergeant of Afro-American descent (character named Virgil Tibbs), solve at least one crime per episode. The series share the title and the characters with a movie from 1968, starring Sydney Poitier as Tibbs and Rod Steiger as William Gillespie.
In the TV series Howard Rollins played detective Tibbs, and Carroll O'Connor starred as Chief Gillespie. Carroll O'Connor (1924-2001) has acted in several TV series and some movies. His best known part is arguably the role of Archie Bunker in the series "All in the Family", that aired from 1968 until 1979.
Henry Winkler played the Fonz in "Happy Days". Bill Cosby was Dr. Huxtable in "The Cosby Show". Matthew Perry was Chandler Bing, one of the "Friends". None of these actors appeared in the TV series "In the Heat of the Night".

Answer: Nighthawks

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) started his painting career in 1895. His early works were influenced by the Impressionists, but later he took to realism. In 1942, he painted "Nighthawks" - a painting showing a diner at night. There are four people in the diner: one single man sitting with his back towards the audience, a couple (man clothed in typical thirties style, woman in a red dress) ready to order something to go with their coffee, and a white-dressed attendant. If you look very closely, you'll see the couple has already been served coffee, but they are about to order something to go with it.
"American Gothic" is a painting by Grant Wood. It shows us a farmer and his wife (or sister?), the farmer holds an agricultural fork and seems to be quite angry.
"The Artist's Mother" (officially known as "Arrangement in Grey and Black N° 1") is a portrait of his mother painted by James Whistler.
"Riding Bikes" is an installation by Robert Rauschenberg: two bikes in fluorescent colours standing on the rear wheel.

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart (1756-1791) was the composer we're looking for in this question. The Queen of the Night is a role in Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" (original title "Die Zauberflöte").
Mozart had already in mind who would sing each and every part in "The Magic Flute". So the musical score was adapted to the musical experience of the singers. As the very talented Josepha Hofer would sing the role of the Queen of the Night, her part is a very demanding role, in which she could demonstrate all her vocal abilities.
The story for "The Magic Flute" goes as follows. A young prince, Tamino, and a bird merchant named Papageno, are sent by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from the evil Sarastro. Tamino and Papageno encounter several difficulties, but the magic flute given by the Queen of the Night helps them on their mission.
The other composition with a nocturnal theme is of course "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" ("A Little Night Music"), officially known as "Serenade for strings in G major".
The other composers I've mentioned have also left us a composition with a nocturnal theme. The Austrian composer Gruber (1787-1863) wrote the music for "Silent Night", while Joseph Mohr wrote the lyrics.
Mendelssohn (1809-1847), a German composer, created the overture "Mid Summer Night's Dream". You'll probably have heard its "Wedding March".
Mussorgsky (1839-1881) was a Russian composer. His orchestral poem "Night on a Bald Mountain" depicts a witches' Sabbath on Saint John's Eve (June 22).

Answer: Twelfth Night

All these are comedies by William Shakespeare, but only "Twelfth Night" fits into the theme of the present quiz (see the title).
In "Twelfth Night", we meet Viola after a shipwreck on the coast of Illyria. Her brother Sebastian went missing, and Viola is convinced Sebastian drowned. Viola dresses up as a eunuch named Cesario, and goes to serve the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. Orsino would like to marry Olivia, but then the arrival of Viola/Cesario makes things complicated. While Viola falls in love with Orsino, Olivia gets enamoured by Ceasario. At the end Sebastian turns up and marries Olivia, whereupon Viola drops her disguise as Cesario and marries Orsino.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" tells us how Falstaff is tricked by Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford.
"Much Ado About Nothing" is a comedy with four protagonists: Benedick of Padua with his quarrelling love interest Beatrice, and Count Claudio of Florence who is in love with the young Hero.
"Love's Labour's Lost" renders the love affairs between King Ferdinand of Navarre with the Princess of France, and his three attendants with her three ladies in waiting.

Answer: The Museum of Natural History in New York

"Night at the Museum" stars Ben Stiller as a divorced man, who takes a job as night guard in the Museum of Natural History in New York. On his first shift, he notices something weird happening: at night, all the characters on display come magically to life.
Other roles in this comedy are played by Robin Williams (as President Theodore Roosevelt), Patrick Gallagher (as Attila the Hun) and Mizuo Peck (as Sacajawea).
Incidentally, the other museums mentioned here are also used in various movies. "The Da Vinci Code" starts in the Louvre, and "Roman Holiday" has a scene in the Castel Sant'Angelo. The Metropolitan was the site of the TV movie "Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum".

Answer: John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney

"Saturday Night Fever" is the story of Tony Manero, a young boy who excels only at dancing. He meets Stephanie, another star dancer, and trains with her for the club championship.
John Travolta (born 1954) started his movie career in 1975 with "The Devil's Rain". "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) was his first great success, for which he even got an Oscar nomination. He followed up on this success with "Grease" (1978) and "Staying Alive" (1983). Later he got involved in action movies such as "Pulp Fiction" (1994 - another Oscar nomination) and "Face Off" (1997).
Karen Lynn Gorney (born 1945) has starred in the TV series "All My Children" from 1970 until 1974. After "Saturday Night Fever", she has starred in the 2006 comedy "Creating Karma".
Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer were the star dancers in "Footloose". Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer starred in "Grease 2" (a sequel to a movie with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John). Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood were Tony and Maria in "West Side Story".

Answer: Saint-Remy de Provence

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch painter. He started his career in The Hague and Nuenen, but no notorious paintings have been made in these two Dutch localities.
When he moved to Antwerp, he painted "The Potato Eaters".
After a few years in Paris, where he painted the "Portrait of Père Tanguy", he moved to Arles. There he created most of his important works, for instance "The Yellow House", "Sunflowers" and "Irises".
In May 1889 Van Gogh was committed to a hospital in Saint-Remy de Provence, a few miles from Arles. Here he created the "Starry Night".
In May 1890 Van Gogh moved yet again, this time to Auvers-sur-Oise (close to Paris). Here he painted his "Portrait of Dr. Gachet".
Van Gogh died in poverty, but nowadays his paintings are sold for millions of dollars.

Answer: Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell (born 1930) debuted with the Inspector Wexford series in 1964. Some titles out of this series : "A New Lease of Death", published in the US as "Sins of the Fathers"; "An Unkindness of Ravens".
In 1986, she started writing some novels under the alias Barbara Vine.
"No Night Too Long" tells the story of Tim, an author who travels to Alaska with his lover Ivo. When Tim meets Isabel, he fights with Ivo on a deserted island, and he seems to have killed him. But later someone writes Tim anonymous letters about what happened to Ivo.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) also published a few novels under the alias Mary Westmacott. Main characters are the retired private detective Hercule Poirot, the old Miss Jane Marple and the couple Thomas and Prudence (Tuppence) Beresford.
Elizabeth George (born 1949) is an American author of detective novels set in Great-Britain. The main character is Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley.
Nicci Gerard (born 1958) is the female half of the duo Nicci French. She has published several detective novels on her own, and several more together with her second husband Sean French (born 1959). When Nicci and Sean write together, they use the alias Nicci French.

Answer: Bob Hope

NBC airs a late-night talk show since 1954. This show is entitled "The Tonight Show".
The first person to present "The Tonight Show" was Steve Allen (1921-2000). He starred the show for three years.
In 1957 Jack Paar (1918-2004) took over for five years.
Johnny Carson (1925-2005) presented "The Tonight Show" for thirty years, from 1962 until 1992.
Jay Leno (born 1950) has presented "The Tonight Show" since 1992, with only one sabbatical period. In 2009 Conan O'Brien (born 1963) replaced Jay Leno for about six months.
Bob Hope (1903-2003) was never host on "The Tonight Show". He had a talk show of his own on the radio, but he is best remembered for his numerous movies.

Answer: A Hard Day's Night

The Beatles were a top act in the sixties. This rock band started in 1960 under the name "The Beatles". John Lennon, Paul Mc Cartney and George Harrison were the original members, and Ringo Starr replaced the former drummer Pete Best in 1962. Stuart Sutcliffe was part of the band too, for one year only.
"A Hard Day's Night" was a hit named after a malapropism by Ringo Starr. The lyrics are "It's been a hard day's night - I been working like a dog - It's been a hard day's night" and then the fragment rendered in this question. It was composed as the title number for the eponymous movie, a sort of very early mockumentary.
Of course you saw the other titles mentioned in the question are other famous songs by the Beatles.