My Other Name... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Monk

"Monk" (2002-2009) Tony Shaloub played the brilliant but troubled San Francisco Homicide Detective Adrian Monk. Monk's wife is murdered and he becomes dysfunctional. It seems he had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and was no longer able to serve officially.

The disability often helped him solve crimes, and his old boss hired him on as a consultant. And, like Richard Kimble, he spent much of his time looking for his wife's killer.

Answer: Hyatt

"Alice" (1976-1985) was based on Martin Scorsese's 1974 film "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" about a widow with a young son who decides to move from New Mexico to California. The title role was played by Ellen Burstyn. The sitcom had Linda Lavin in the eponymous role.

When her husband was killed in a trucking accident, single mother and aspiring singer, Alice Hyatt, decides to move to Hollywood. She gets as far as Phoenix, Arizona, where she gets a job working as a waitress at Mel's Diner.

Answer: DuBois

"Benson" (1979-1986) was Benson Dubois, originally a butler on the nighttime comedy soap opera "Soap". Robert Guillaume played the role with caustic brilliance and wound up with a TV promotion, i.e., he left the employ of the Tates, and was hired as a member of Connecticut Governor Gatling's household staff. Benson was the one voice of sanity amidst a nutty staff, and he went on to be promoted again to become state budget director.

Answer: Summers

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997-2003) started out as a 1997 movie, written by Joss Whedon, and starring Kristie Swanson as Buffy Summers, slayer of demons and vampires. The film led to the TV series about a teenage girl in Sunnydale, California, who has been chosen to fight vampires and demons and forces of darkness (oh, my!); Sarah Michelle Gellar played the title role of a typical teenage girl, with very unusual problems. Buffy also calls upon her friends Willow, Cordelia, and Xander to help her guard the gateway to the netherworld.

Answer: Michaels

"Arli$$" (1996-2002) was a cable show on HBO show about a "super-agent", wheeling and dealing his way through the sports world. There is big money to be made by athletes, and Arliss is out to get all he can in the high stakes world of fame, glamour and wealth.

The successful and sleazy agent is played by Robert Wuhl, "like Jerry Maguire without a conscience". The show often featured cameos by well-known superstars.

Answer: Matlock

"Matlock" (1986-1995) was a crime-solving drama about 'down-home' Atlanta criminal defense attorney, Ben Matlock. Apparently, after Andy Griffith was kindly Sheriff Andy Taylor in Mayberry, he decided to go to law school (possibly Emory University School of Law). He became Ben Matlock, a high priced lawyer ($100,000 starting fee) with friends and family to help him find the real murderers and win his cases.

Answer: Russo

"Blossom" (1990-1995) was a teenage girl living with her two brothers and her divorced dad. Mayim Bialik, formerly of "Beaches", and yet to become Amy Farrah Fowler of "The Big Bang Theory", played the role of Blossom Russo. She was a sweet, spunky teenager who is surrounded by her musician father, her oldest brother trying to recover from substance abuse, her other brother who's "one sandwich short of a picnic" and her ditzy friend Six. Blossom shines through her unconventional life.

Answer: Bartkowski

"Chuck" (2007-20012) is a computer geek who works at a Burbank, California electronics store called Buy More. One day this average guy happens to open an e-mail coded with secret information and abilities. That is when Chuck Bartkowski becomes a secret agent. Zachary Levi plays Chuck as a kind, unassuming guy who is not happy being thrust into the life of a spy.

His safety and that of his family is threatened by forces trying to obtain his new found knowledge, so two domestic agents are sent to protect him.

Answer: Burke

"Hazel" (1961-1966) was a TV sitcom about a maid who worked for corporation lawyer George Baxter and his family. The show was based on the popular cartoon created by Ted Key. Actress Shirley Booth played the eponymous role of Hazel Burke. At that time, it was fashionable on television to have the 'man of the family' be the breadwinner at work, and the brainless head of the household at home.

The parents were clueless, and it was up to Hazel to solve the everyday problems of the family.

Answer: Morgan

"Dexter" (2006-2013) was a forensics expert working with the Miami Metro Police Department; he was also a serial killer. Michael C. Hall was previously one of the stars of the program "Six Feet Under", where he played an undertaker in Los Angeles, California. Hall seems to have a penchant for working with fictional dead people. On "Dexter", he was forensic expert and blood splatter analyst Dexter Morgan, now working in Florida by day; but by night, he exacts revenge on evildoers by killing them.