Only Children on TV Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Andy Griffith Show

"The Andy Griffith Show" ran for eight very successful seasons on CBS from 1960 to 1968. It starred Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor, a sheriff in Mayberry, North Carolina with a young son, Opie. The boy is six when the show begins and is thus just into his teens when it ends. Opie was played by Ron Howard who went on to a great career in both television ("Happy Days") and the movies, winning awards as Best Director.

The show itself, though set in the 1960s, has a strong nostalgic feeling of the 1930s, much of this carried by the devotion between father and son.

The opening sequence provides one of the hallmark moments of 1960s' television, where Andy and Opie return from a day's fishing, to the accompaniment of "The Fishing' Hole", whistled by Earle Hagen.

Answer: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Lindsey Willows appeared frequently in the Las Vegas instalment of the "CSI" franchise. She was the daughter of the female lead, Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), and her ex-husband, Eddie. At the beginning of the series she was a child but by season 12 she had left for college. Relations with her mother were often charged and stormy, but in the final episode of the series Lindsey had returned to Las Vegas and was working for the CSI. Lindsey was played by three different actresses for the various ages of her character.

Answer: The Dick Van Dyke Show

"The Dick van Dyke" show ran for five seasons in the early 1960s on CBS. The actor, Larry Matthews, was born in 1955 and played only this one role in popular entertainment. A guidebook to the show reveals that Ritchie's middle name was "Rosebud", an acronym for seven boy's names that were suggested for the character.

In the cast reunion show of 2004 it was revealed that Rob and Laura had moved to Manhattan and that Ritchie bought the family home in New Rochelle.

Answer: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Jake Sisko, played by Cirroc Lofton, was not the first recurring child on "Star Trek". That honour belongs to Wil Wheaton's character of Wesley Crusher on "The Next Generation". Jake was eleven when after his mother was killed at the battle with the Borg at Wolf 359.

He accompanied his father to Deep Space 9, rather unwillingly at first. By the end of the series he was a young adult with aspirations to be a writer. One of the most powerful and moving episodes was "The Visitor", a "what if" story in which Jake's father was seized in a time loop and Jake spent the rest of his life trying to retrieve him.

Answer: Who's the Boss?

"Who's the Boss" ran for nine years on ABC (1984-1992). It was a situation comedy with role reversals. Tony Danza played Tony Micelli, a retired baseball player with a teen-aged daughter (Sam, played by Alyssa Milano), who became a live-in housekeeper for a rising advertising executive, Angela Bower (Judith Light).

She lived in Connecticut with her mother and son Jonathan (Danny Pintauro) who was rather younger than Tony's daughter. They formed a blended family of sorts, but Jonathan was the only child of Angela and her ex-husband.

Answer: Blue Bloods

The Reagans in "Blue Bloods" have a family history embedded in the law. Henry Reagan (Len Cariou) is the retired Police Commissioner of New York City, a position now held by his son Frank (Tom Selleck). Frank's three sons all joined the New York Police (Danny, Joseph and Jamie).

When the show opens, Joseph Reagan has been killed in the line of duty. Frank's daughter Erin is an assistant District Attorney. She and her ex-husband have a daughter Nicky (Sami Gayle), who has never met the line she wouldn't cross. Nicky finishes college at the end of season 9 and takes up a job in San Francisco.

Answer: The Rifleman

The late '50s and early '60s were the era of the Western and one of the most respected examples was "The Rifleman", which ran on ABC from 1958 to 1963 with Chuck Connors playing the title role of Lucas McCain. The show broke new ground by portraying a single parent with his young son, in this case Mark McCain, played by Johnny Crawford. McCain was a veteran of the Union army in the Civil War and after the death of his wife took up farming in North Fork, New Mexico. One of the most noticeable and appealing features of the show was the intense chemistry between Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford as father and son. Johnny Crawford did do some acting after "The Rifleman", but was more seriously interested in live musical performance.

Answer: CSI: Miami

In the opening episode of the sixth season of "CSI Miami" ("Dangerous Son") Horatio Caine suspected and then confirmed that fifteen or so years earlier while undercover he fathered a son, known as Kyle Harmon. We were never told how Kyle ended up in the foster-care system.

After a series of unpleasant experiences (jail, a disastrous reunion with his mother, suspected of manslaughter), Horatio took charge of his son and a warm father-son relationship developed. Kyle joined the military and the last we saw/heard of him was that he is returning to service in Afghanistan.

The character was played by Evan Ellingson.

Answer: Scorpion

"Scorpion" ran on CBS for four seasons (2014-2018). It was intended to be a blend of "The Big Bang Theory" with a cast of bright but nerdy 'superstars' and a drama like those in the "CSI" franchise. It was based on a real-life Walter O'Brien who recruited a group of geniuses to solve problems and attempt difficult missions. One of his recruits was Paige Dineen who was the group's link to 'the real world".

Her nine-year-old son Ralph was thought to be 'slow' but in fact had an IQ of 200. A recurring tension of the show was between Ralph's ability to relate naturally to the geniuses and his mother's desire that he have a 'normal' childhood.

Answer: Lassie

The TV show "Lassie" ran on CBS from 1954 to 1974, but the seven years (1957-1964) when Jon Provost played Timmy Martin mark the high point during its run on television. Timmy was not the first boy in Lassie's life, the original being Jeff Miller (Tommy Rettig).

The original title for the show was "Jeff's Collie". When Rettig turned fifteen, he felt that he was too old for a a boy-and-his-dog series and so he and his mother were written out of the show. Timmy was an orphan boy found in the barn by the new owners of the Miller farm (and of Lassie) ... the rest is television history.