Off at a Tangent Trivia Quiz

Answer: Station 19

When Dr Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) first met her future second husband during the sixth season of "Grey's Anatomy", Ben Warren (Jason George) was an anesthesiologist. He moved away for awhile, and when he returned served a surgical residency with his now-wife Bailey as his boss. During the 14th season of "Grey's" he shocked Bailey when he told her he wanted to become a firefighter.

The result of his pursuing this occupational tangent was the new series, with plenty of scope for crossover episodes. "Station 19" debuted in 2018.

Included in the cast of the new series were Jaina Lee Ortiz and Miguel Sandoval.

Answer: Benson

Robert Guillaume played Benson DuBois, butler to Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) for the first two seasons of "Soap" (1977-81), with a couple of appearances in the third season as well, for a total of 51 episodes. He left her employ early in the third season, to take up a position as director of household affairs for the governor of the state. During the run of "Benson" (1979-86), the title character progressed from that position, through a series of others to actually becoming a candidate for governor himself.

Other members of the cast of "Benson" were James Noble as Governor Gatling, Inga Swenson and Rene Auberjonois.

Answer: The Jeffersons

"The Jeffersons" (1975-85) spun off from "All in the Family" (1971-79) after Archie Bunker's neighbour, George Jefferson parlayed his dry cleaning business into a successful operation, eventually owning a chain of stores. This enabled George and his wife Louise (Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford) to "move on up" to the "deluxe apartment in the sky" of the show's theme song.

Other cast members included Marla Gibbs, Roxie Roker and Paul Benedict.

Answer: The Facts of Life

Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) was housekeeper to Philip Drummond (Conrad Bain), his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato) and adopted sons Arnold and Willis Jackson (Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges) for the first few seasons of "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978-86). Mrs Garrett proved to be a popular character, and she was given a new job as housemother to some teenage girls at boarding school.

The result was the series "The Facts of Life" (1979-88), during the course of which Mrs Garrett was promoted to school dietician and later opened her own business.

Other members of the cast included Lisa Whelchel, Mindy Cohn and Kim Fields.

Answer: Rhoda

Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) was Mary Richards' (Mary Tyler Moore) neighbour and friend on the latter actress's self-titled series (1970-77), appearing regularly until 1974, and occasionally thereafter. The popular character got her own show, "Rhoda" (1974-78) when she moved back to her native New York City from Minneapolis, to pursue both her career and her love life. Julie Kavner appeared as Rhoda's sister Brenda, and Lorenzo Music voiced Carlton the Doorman, David Groh played Rhoda's sometime husband Joe Gerard for three seasons of the new series.

Answer: Private Practice

Dr Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) was the ex-wife of Dr Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), aka "McDreamy" in the early seasons of "Grey's Anatomy", who turned up to work at Seattle Grace (as the hospital was then known) toward the end of that show's first season.

She appeared as a regular on "Grey's" from 2005-2007, working in the neonatal department and attempting with little success to reconcile with Derek (who was more than a little involved with Dr Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo)). Eventually, Addison accepted the offer of a position at a fancy clinic in Los Angeles, and thus was born "Private Practice" (2007-2013).

Other doctors in the practice were played by Taye Diggs, Tim Daly and Audra McDonald.

Answer: The Cleveland Show

Peter Griffin (voice of Seth MacFarlane) and Cleveland Brown were neighbours in Quahog, Rhode Island in the animated series "Family Guy", from 1998 until Cleveland and his son moved to Virginia to reunite with a high school sweetheart in 2009. "The Cleveland Show" ran until 2013, with Mike Henry providing Cleveland's voice in both series.

Answer: Frasier

The world was first introduced to Dr Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) when he was a regular patron of the title bar of "Cheers" (1982-93) in Boston. Frasier appeared in over 200 episodes of that series, between 1984 and its end, suffering through more than one painful romantic relationship, including his ill-fated marriage to Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth).

Their divorce happened between the end of one series and the beginning of the other, and was the main reason that the eponymous hero of "Frasier" moved home to Seattle, where he became a radio personality.

The cast was rounded out by David Hyde Pierce as his brother Niles, John Mahoney as their father Martin and a dog named Moose as Martin's companion Eddie. Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin also had major roles, and old friends from "Cheers" appeared from time to time.

Answer: Lou Grant

Lou Grant (Edward Asner) had been Mary Richards' boss at WJM TV in Minneapolis, until "Mary Tyler Moore" (1970-77) ended with almost the entire staff of the station being fired. When that happened, tough guy Grant took himself to Los Angeles where he found work as an editor for the LA "Tribune", owned by an equally tough Mrs Pynchon (Nancy Marchand).

Other members of the cast included Robert Walden, Mason Adams and Daryl Anderson. "Lou Grant" (1977-82) was one of several spin-offs from "MTM", but was unusual in that it was a drama spun off from a comedy.

Answer: Angel

David Boreanaz appeared as vampire with a soul Angel (and his evil counterpart Angelus) in 59 episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1996-2003), the majority in the years 1997-99. His romantic entanglement with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) was only one facet of his complicated story.

His move to Los Angeles to seek redemption for past sins was the tangent that resulted in "Angel" (1999-2004). Other cast members included Alexis Denisof, as Wesley, and Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia, both of whom had also appeared in "Buffy". Boreanaz went on to star in "Bones" (2005-2017) and "SEAL Team" starting in 2017.