20th Century TV Headlines Trivia Quiz

Answer: Soap

"Soap" was a half hour sitcom with continuing stories, like a soap opera. In one story, Burt had been captured by space aliens and kept on their spaceship, but his family didn't know it. Burt had been replaced by an alien clone of himself. The alien clone enjoyed mating with Burt's wife, who became pregnant. When she had the baby, she didn't know what to expect.

Answer: Dynasty

"Dynasty" was a one hour weekly soap opera. It had continuing stories involving the wealthy family of Blake Carrington. Blake's ex wife, Alexis, had a daughter who was marrying a prince in the foreign nation of Moldavia. During the wedding, terrorists with machine guns shot up the place.

This was the end of the season. Viewers had to wait until the next season to find out who survived. (I think that would have been a good time to end the series.)

Answer: Dallas

The soap opera "Dallas" primarily involved brothers Bobby and J.R. Ewing who ran the wealthy Ewing family. They also had a brother, Gary, in the series "Knots Landing". In one season Bobby was killed in a hit-and-run. There was a big funeral, and his brother Gary inherited money in "Knots Landing".

In one episode, Bobby's wife, Pam, woke up to see Bobby taking a shower. Pam had dreamed the entire 1985-86 season. This was the most celebrated cop-out in soap opera history.

Answer: Knots Landing

Gary Ewing in this series was the brother of Bobby and J.R. Ewing from the series "Dallas". At various times his brothers visited him in "Knots Landing". However, there was a story in "Dallas" about Bobby getting killed, which meant Gary inherited some of Bobby's money. Later, "Dallas" explained that Bobby's death was a dream.

This would have messed up the series "Knots Landing", so Gary kept the money, and the people from "Dallas" no longer had any crossover stories.

Answer: Sledge Hammer

"Sledge Hammer" was a satirical half hour comedy about detectives solving crimes in Los Angeles. In the last episode of season one, Detective Sledge Hammer tried to defuse a bomb, but he accidentally destroyed Los Angeles. The last shot showed the ruined buildings while Hammer's boss shouted, "Hammer!" In the next season, everything was back to normal, and the bomb was never mentioned.

Answer: Riverboat

"Riverboat" was a one hour a week western in which Grey Holden (Darren McGavin) had won the riverboat Enterprise in a poker game. The 1959-61 series involved his adventures traveling up and down various big rivers.

Answer: Mork and Mindy

"Mork and Mindy" was a sitcom featuring an alien and an Earth woman. In the final season, they were married, and an egg popped out of Mork. The egg grew to giant size, and then a full grown man came out of it. (On planet Ork, people age backwards.) The man had a mind like a baby, and Mork named his son, Mearth. (He might as well have been like Baby Huey, the indestructible giant cartoon chick.)

Answer: Night Gallery

"Night Gallery" was a supernatural anthology. Sometimes it was an hour a week, telling stories of various lengths. Sometimes it told one half hour story each week. One story involved a man who bought a bunch of land surrounding an old woman's lot. She refused to sell.

He kept after her, but she said she couldn't leave her garden, because she could grow anything in it. After the woman was taken to the hospital, she died. The man returned to her old house and was surprised to see the woman wearing a potato sack and sitting in a rocking chair.

She said, "I told you I could grow anything in my garden, even me."

Answer: Alfred Hitchcock Presents

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was a half hour weekly anthology about murder, attempted murder, and various crimes. In the story "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", a simple minded young man was told that a magician was really the devil, and his wand was really a magic wand.

The man killed the magician and put the magician's wife in the box to be sawed in half. She told him to stop, but he said not to worry because he had the magic wand. In the words of Alfred Hitchcock, the saw worked but the wand didn't, and the magician's wife was beside herself.

Answer: Alfred Hitchcock Hour

The Alfred Hitchcock show began telling a one hour story each week. One story involved a man played by Bob Newhart who wanted to get rid of his wife. He purposely led her to believe he was planning to kill her. He did suspicious things, such as digging a large hole in the backyard.

When his wife complained to her friends, the man always had a logical explanation for what he did. One time he rented a rat from a pet store and put it in his house. His wife bought rat poison. He continued implying he might kill her, so his wife put poison in his milk.

She called the police the next day, expecting her husband to be dead, but he was still alive because he didn't drink the poisoned milk. The wife was convicted of attempted murder, but the woman who rented him the rat said she would tell the police what he did unless he dated her.