Match the Couple to their Show Quiz

Answer: The Dick van Dyke Show

Even though "The Dick van Dyke Show" ran for only five seasons (1961-1966), it remains one of the all-time great comedy shows, featuring a memorable ensemble cast. Dick van Dyke played Rob Petrie, lead writer for the variety programme "The Alan Brady Show" but the action varied between his adventures at work writing for his difficult boss, and his life at home with wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and son Ritchie.

Answer: I Love Lucy

It would have been too easy to have gone with the main couple on the show, Lucy and Ricky. Fred and Ethel Mertz, played by Vivian Vance and William Frawley respectively, provided the support for Lucy's antics and Ricky's attempts to keep her in line.

The actors who played Fred and Ethel, incidentally, did not get on at all well and the animosity between them added to some of the comic exchanges between them.

Answer: All in the Family

Norman Lear's show "All in the Family" broke new ground when it made its debut on CBS in the early 1970s, with its controversial themes and the portrayal of the main character, Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), as a working-class bigot with pronounced opinions on everyone and everything he did not like.

He often called his wife Edith, played by Jean Stapleton, a "ding-bat" and was forever ordering her to bring him a beer. Yet for all the humour there was a real affection displayed between the characters and Archie was quite devastated when Edith died.

Answer: Married ... with Children

This TV show moved more squarely into the realm of dark or dysfunctional comedy. "Married ... with Children" ran for 11 seasons (1986-1997) on Fox, and featured the Bundy family who lived in or near Chicago. Al Bundy was a high-school football star, now suffering from the "Bundy curse", who sold women's shoes and had an unappealing family life.

His wife Peggy was a bored housewife with no cooking skills whatsoever, daughter Kelly an empty-headed blonde bombshell, and son Bud a girl-crazy who rarely succeeded. Things rarely went well for this family.

Answer: The Cosby Show

The most successful and popular situation comedy of the 1980s, "The Cosby Show" starred Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad as Cliff and Clair Huxtable, a prosperous professional couple living in a brownstone in Brooklyn. He was a gynaecologist and his wife a lawyer, They had five children, although only four in the pilot episode: four daughters and a son.

Although generally laid-back and easy-going in tone, it tackled serious episodes such as their son's dyslexia and a teen-aged friend of the family who became pregnant.

Answer: Family Ties

"Family Ties", along with "Cheers" and "The Cosby Show", was part of NBC's Thursday night line-up which ruled that evening's viewing in the 1980s. It ran from 1982 to 1989 and began by contrasting two now grown-up flower children of the '60s, Steve and Elyse Keaton, with the conservative atmosphere of the 1980s, especially as exemplified by their son Alex P. Keaton, played by newcomer Michael J. Fox. Alex eventually stole the show and became the focus around which this clever family-values' show revolved.

Answer: Castle

This is a less obvious domestic couple, especially since they did not get married until season seven of the show -- they were supposed to at the end of season six, but mysterious circumstances intervened (never fully or satisfactorily explained). The original premise was that Richard Castle, a popular New York mystery and thriller writer, became seconded to the Homicide Division of the New York Police Department and was partnered with Detective Kate Beckett.

Originally she could not stand Castle but over the seasons became more and more attached to him.

The show ran on ABC from 2009 to 2016.

Answer: Father Knows Best

Here's one from the 'Golden Age' of television. "Father Knows Best" ran for six seasons during the 1950s, on CBS, then NBC, and again on CBS. It was originally a harder-edged radio show, starring veteran performer Robert Young, who was the only actor to migrate to the much softer and humane television version, Along with "Leave to Beaver" this show was the epitome of American family values, with Robert Young playing an insurance salesman, Jim Anderson, Jane Wyatt his wife Margaret, and three children, Betty (Elinor Donahue), Bud (Billy Gray), and Kathy (Lauren Chapin).

Answer: McMillan and Wife

"Mac" may have made you think of Mac Taylor on "CSI:NewYork", but the right answer here is NBC's light-hearted police show, "McMillan and Wife" ran from 1971-1977, in a time slot shared with "Columbo" and "McCloud". Rock Hudson played San Francisco Police Commissioner Stuart McMillan and his wife Sally by Susan Saint James. Plots tended to revolve around crimes in high society and Hudson was often costumed in a formal tuxedo in a setting where he seemed very much at home.

Answer: Seventh Heaven

"Seventh Heaven" was the longest-running and most successful show on the WB channel (1996-2006) and then on CW (2006-2007). Set in California, the show starred Stephen Collins as Eric Camden, a respected Protestant minister. His wife Annie was played by Catherine Hicks -- trivia note: both Collins and Hicks had major roles in "StarTrek "movies -- and they had seven children, the last two, twins David and Sam, born during the run of the series.

The show, which tackled serious issues and presented the Camdens' sympathetic reactions to those involved, was one of the most 'family-friendly' shows of the early 21st century.