Glued to the Box Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Big Bang Theory

"The Big Bang Theory" was first televised by CBS in 2007 and since then it has glued audiences worldwide to the box! It's a sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady and focuses upon four geeks and a waitress living in Pasadena, California.

The main character, Sheldon Cooper (played by Jim Parsons), is a senior theoretical physicist at Caltech who shares an apartment with Leonard Hofstadter (played by Johnny Galecki) who is also a Caltech physicist but has none of Sheldon's incredibly irritating personality quirks.

The other geeks are aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (played by Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali (played by Kunal Nayyar). Kaley Cuoco plays Penny the waitress who lives in the apartment across the hall. She's an aspiring actress from a small town in Nebraska, and is relied upon heavily by Sheldon for common sense instructions!

That everyone knows someone like Sheldon creates a unique 'glue' for audiences worldwide. I've been watching Shelly for years!

Answer: Modern Family

First televised by the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2009, "Modern Family" follows the lives of Jay Pritchett and his family in suburban Los Angeles. The series was created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan and is presented in a 'mockumentary' style (where the characters talk directly into the camera).

Included in Jay Pritchett's family are his second wife Gloria (formerly Delgado, née Ramirez) - a Colombian half his age with a son from her previous marriage, Manny Delgado; their infant son Fulgencio (Joe) Pritchett; and his two adult children and their partners and children.

Jay's daughter, Clair, has a fairly conventional marriage with three children; but his son, Mitchell, is the character that raises most laughs (and eyebrows) because he's homosexual, married to Cameron Tucker and they adopted a daughter, Lily Tucker-Pritchett, from Vietnam!

The laughs (and perhaps shudders) you get from this show make you appreciate even more the relative 'normality' of your own family life; but as families are definitely becoming more complex this show deals very well with helping viewers accept what's happening around them.

Answer: The Graham Norton Show

"The Graham Norton Show" was first televised in February 2007 on BBC Two in the United Kingdom and made its North American premiere on BBC America a few months later. Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives also televise the show, mostly a week after the BBC broadcast.

The 'chair tipping' segment is just one of many funny devices Norton has used to raise a laugh. Other devices include the "Cooldown"; surprise telephone calls; hidden cameras; and the rude objects in "Graham's drawer". This type of comedy appeals to the 'naughty child' hidden inside some of us. :)

Answer: The Last Leg

Adam and Alex are themselves disabled - Josh isn't. "The Last Leg" was originally broadcast nightly on British television Channel 4 during the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Its 'live' and 'interactive' format was so popular that it continued as a weekly show, broadened to include news events and guest interviews.

A feature of the original show was its "Questions about Disability" segment - Twitter hashtag #isitok - which later took on all questions, about anything. Adam's challenge to viewers in August 2013 - to fill his Wikipedia page with misinformation - led to vandalism of many pages, including that of Boris Johnson's (the Mayor of London). The disapproval this stunt generated may have affected the future of the series, but that's unlikely because audiences love it and it fills a need in society.

Answer: The Chase

Produced in the United Kingdom by ITV Studios and first shown 29 June 2009, "The Chase" is a popular television trivia game show because it successfully turns a dry and somewhat boring subject into pure entertainment for the masses.

It is franchised to many countries - Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and the United States - but its British version, if you can see it, is the most entertaining of all because its presenter, Bradley Walsh, often stops the show with uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Interestingly, Mark Labbett (the 'Beast') featured as the only British Chaser in the American version of the game, but both he and Anne Hegerty ('Frosty Knickers') featured in the Australian version. People who would not normally be interested in trivia watch the show for laughs, and that's the secret of its success! Laughter connects people, and with this show they may also learn something as well.

Answer: The World's Strictest Parents

"The World's Strictest Parents" was developed by TwentyTwenty Television. It was originally televised by the BBC in 2008 and its success in Britain led to the creation of many international versions.

Basically, the series sends two uncontrollable teenagers to live abroad with a family that has strict rules regarding raising children. In just one week, this family has the task of changing the attitude and behaviour of these teenagers, and in most cases they do a good job. However, the shenanigans that the teenagers get up to in order to break the house rules - and the tactics that the host family employ to thwart them - are pure gold!

Answer: I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

"I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" was originally created in the United Kingdom and its first episode went to air in August 2002. It has been licensed to the United States, Australia, Denmark, Romania, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden and the Netherlands.

As a reality television series featuring up to thirteen celebrities living roughly in a jungle for a few weeks or more, competing to become the king or queen of the jungle, it's very entertaining and makes you appreciate more your basic home comforts let alone the luxuries!

With adventure, celebrities and laughter this show ticks all the boxes and gives those who are glued to it a common talking point at work the next day, or on fan websites.

Answer: The Simpsons

Never-aging and yellow-hued, "The Simpsons" - comprising Homer Simspon, his wife Marge and their children Bart, Lisa and Maggie - have had audiences worldwide in stitches since the show first appeared as a series for the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1989. Its creator, cartoonist Matt Groening, first drew the family as sketches for "The Tracey Ullman Show" and after its phenomenal success she filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Fox in 1992 claiming a share of its profits.

Its location, Springfield, has aroused much curiosity but it really was created to be relevant to any of the twenty-two Springfields in the United States - if not any city anywhere in the world. Wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt is guaranteed to connect you with people everywhere!

Answer: Top Gear

Jeremy Clarkson presented "Top Gear" on BBC television from 1988-2001 and, following Channel 5's launch of "Fifth Gear" in 2002 (which featured many former "Top Gear" presenters), he and producer Andy Wilman came up with the idea to relaunch "Top Gear" in a new format.

With Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe (later replaced by James May), Clarkson did a stellar job revamping "Top Gear" (which had been running since 1977 as a rather staid motoring show) into a very entertaining show, more a "Three Stooges" comedy built around cars than a motoring show with three presenters. Who can forget their "Search for the Source of the Nile" episode!

Jeremy, Richard and James have been signed by Amazon for a streaming version of their old show's format, and if you can watch it you'll be glued to it!

Answer: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Since its premier in 1954, "The Tonight Show" (with various similar names) has been hosted by Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and in 2014 Jimmy Fallon took over with "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon".

Previously, Fallon had hosted "Late Night" and he brought to his new position most of the features of that show that made him popular with a younger audience - incorporating the Internet, his hip-hop house band "The Roots", musical impressions that went viral online and "Thank You Notes" to concepts and objects.

Fallon's warm personality shines through in the show; you can't help liking the guy! Of his comedy skits, "Egg Russian Roulette" is the funniest. Guests are challenged to pick random eggs, smash them on their forehead and then see whether they're raw or hard-boiled!