TV Employers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Roseanne

Roseanne has had many jobs over the course of nine seasons, but if you can remember back to the beginning, Roseanne and her friends worked for Wellman Plastics, one of the major industries in Lanford. She worked on an assembly line separating pieces of plastic.

She, Jackie, and Crystal worked there for a decade but they all quit in 1989 after a new supervisor acted inappropriately. There was also a young foreman there by the name of Booker Brooks (who liked Jackie); he was played by an actor named George Clooney!

Answer: American Dad!

The protagonist on "American Dad!" is Stan Smith - C.I.A. agent, macho man, patriot, breadwinner, husband, father, Republican. He is the animated head of a household filled with eccentric characters, i.e., his sexy wife Francine, their hippie daughter Hayley and their geeky son Steve.

In addition, they have a zany alien named Roger who lives in the attic and a talking goldfish named Klaus who used to be a German but now resides in a fish bowl. The show is one of Seth MacFarlane's creations which first aired on February 6, 2005 on Fox, right after Super Bowl 39, but after the 11th season it was picked up by TBS in 2014.

Answer: General Insurance Company

Can we think that far back to the 1950s when men went to work and women stayed home, baked cookies, wore pearls and doled out advice? This show depicted the ideal Midwest middle class family where Jim Anderson was head of the household and took his briefcase to work every weekday as an insurance salesman for the (creatively named) General Insurance Company; however, we rarely saw him at work. We watched Jim solve the many problems of the kids, Betty ('Princess'), Bud and Kathy ('Kitten'), e.g., who to take to the prom or getting Kathy to share her toys. Ah, yes, the good old 1950s where very little happened while waiting for the 1960s.

Answer: Orange Is the New Black

While all the choices are prisons of one kind or another, Litchfield Penitentiary is a women's prison and the setting for the Netflix show "Orange is the New Black", which first aired in 2013. This is strictly an adult show with all the cursing, sex, and violence you can handle.

It is based on Piper Kerman's memoir "Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison", about a very middle class young woman who is sentenced to a year in prison and what she has to endure. Although, much like "M.A.S.H." and the Korean War, the show has lasted longer than her sentence.

Answer: Barney Miller

Arguably one of the funniest shows on TV at the time, "Barney Miller" (1974-1982) was a comedy about cops who worked at the 12th Precinct in New York City's Greenwich Village. In the first few seasons, the show was about Captain Barney Miller at work and at home. Gradually, they phased out the home part and just dealt with the eclectic officers at work (Wojo and Harris and Yemana and Fish) and the weird assortment of characters they had to deal with.

They locked up murderers, muggers, hookers, drug dealers and an occasional Werewolf, and Barney was the most understanding, fair-minded, honest, caring boss anyone could hope for.

Answer: The Cheesecake Factory

Penny may have moved on from her waitressing days at the Cheesecake Factory, but while she was working there to support her acting classes, there was room for a lot of laughs, and a cheeseburger every Tuesday night for Sheldon Cooper. When Penny decided to quit being a waitress and try acting full time, she and Sheldon had this exchange: Sheldon said "Did you forget my lemonade?" Penny replied "Oh, sorry. I forgot", to which Sheldon replied "A fitting swan song to your career as a waitress; to forget my order one last time". I hope Penny can find her niche, wherever that may be.

Answer: KACL

You may recognize the incorrect answers as media on other TV shows, i.e., WJM from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", Channel 84 a local TV news station on "King of the Hill" and "WKRP in Cincinnati". When Frasier moved from Boston to Seattle to get a spin-off of his own, he took a job helping people with problems over the radio ("I'm listening").

The radio station on the TV show was KACL (amusing if you say it out loud), 780 AM on your dial. By the way, there is an actual radio station with those call letters at 98.7 FM ("Cool 98.7") located in Bismarck, North Dakota which airs a format of classic hits.

Answer: B.A.U.

The agents on "Criminal Minds" work for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) based out of Quantico, Virginia (I wonder if they've ever run into Stan Smith). The show premiered on September 22, 2005 and is unlike the other procedural dramas like "C.S.I" and "Bones" in that instead of investigating the forensics of the crimes, they look at the profile of the killer or "unsub"/"unknown subject", as they refer to the perpetrator.

They are highly trained in psychology and, with the help of Penelope Garcia, their computer genius, they are able to catch the criminals within the hour, although sometimes it is "to be continued..."

Answer: Herman Munster

While "The Munsters" (1964-1966) doesn't have a theme song with lyrics like "The Addams Family", the Munsters' theme is still quite catchy and spooky. Herman Munster (bolts and all) is played with delightful naivete by the late Fred Gwynne. The Munster family lives at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, a fictional suburb in California: they consist of Grandpa (born as Count Sam Dracula) and Lily, his daughter, who are vampires, son Eddie, a werewolf, and cousin Marilyn who is "normal" (much to their chagrin).

Herman is head of the household and works at the Gateman, Goodbury and Graves Funeral Home. The show is sort of like "Frankenstein" meets 'Beaver Cleaver'.

Answer: Waterman Cable

Before "The Cleveland Show" (2009-2013) was spun-off from "Family Guy", Cleveland Brown lived in Quahog, Rhode Island, was a friend of Peter Griffin and owned his own deli. When his wife Loretta died, Cleveland took his son with him back to Stoolbend, Virginia (I wonder if they ever run into the agents from the BAU).

There he connected with his high school sweetheart Donna, now divorced with two kids of her own. They marry and become the Brown Bunch. Cleveland's old friend Tim gets him a job as a telemarketer at Waterman Cable and he rises up the ranks to become a cable installer.

When the show got cancelled, he moved back to Quahog with his new family.