The Final Curtain Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shot down over the Sea of Japan

He was, of course, Lt. Col. Henry Blake, of "M*A*S*H" who was given a magnificent send-off by his comrades in the 4077th in the episode "Abyssinia, Henry", first aired in March 1975. The news of his death, announced by Radar during a session in the operating room, came as a shock to everybody.

Blake was replaced by Harry Morgan's Colonel Sherman Potter, who was still in command when the series ended in 1983.

Answer: Hill Street Blues

Although he continued to be credited for the entire fourth season, Conrad's last appearance in "Hill Street Blues" was in December of 1983. The death of roll call Sgt. Esterhaus was broken to the rest of the precinct by Captain Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) in the February 1984 episode "Grace Under Pressure".

Esterhaus was eventually replaced by Sgt. Stan Jablonski, who was played by Robert Prosky until the series came to an end in 1987.

Answer: A broom

Heckles, played in deadpan style by Larry Hankin, met his not-quite-final curtain in "The One Where Heckles Dies" which aired in October 1995. He made a curtain call in the 1996 episode "The One with the Flashback", in which he claimed Monica and Phoebe were disturbing his oboe practice by making too much noise. Of course he didn't play the oboe!

Just before he expired he had been using his broom to knock on the ceiling of his apartment to tell Monica and Rachel to "keep it down", and it was this that was found in his hand. The tiny tutu was from the time Heckles claimed that Ross's monkey Marcel was his and he dressed the creature in a pink ballet costume. At the end of "The One Where Heckles Dies", Chandler decided to keep the old curmudgeon's high school yearbook, and promised to try to "keep it down".

Answer: Not Penny's boat

Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) was a young musician who struggled with drug addiction, but became an asset to the company of survivors as he worked to stay clean. His last actions were to close a watertight door to save Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) when one of The Others breached the outer wall of The Looking Glass station with a grenade, and to give this important message to Desmond. Charlie had just been in communication with Desmond's girlfriend, Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger) and she had denied knowledge of the boat that had been spotted not far from the island. Charlie wrote "Not Penny's boat" on his hand and showed it to Desmond through a porthole, so the survivors could be warned that the boat might not be the salvation they were expecting.

The episode described appeared in May 2007. In the alternate reality of the final season, which ended in May 2010 many "dead" castaways reappeared, Charlie included.

Answer: Victor Lang

Victor Lang (John Slattery) was mayor of Fairview, and Gabrielle Solis's husband between her two marriages to Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira). Gaby (Eva Longoria) and Carlos had tried to get rid of Victor once, but he returned and tried to kill Carlos. A tornado intervened and Victor was staked like a vampire by a flying picket from a white picket fence in the fourth season episode "Something's Coming" (December 2007).

Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) committed suicide by gunshot just before the series began in 2004. Despite this she narrated almost every episode, and appeared in several flashbacks. Nora Huntington (Kiersten Warren) was Tom Scavo's "other woman" and was shot during a hostage incident at a supermarket in the episode "Bang" from November 2006. Mike Delfino (James Denton) almost made it to the series finale, but was shot on his own front porch in the episode "You Take It for Granted" which aired in March 2012, just two months before the series came to an end.

Answer: John Ritter

John Ritter died of an aortic dissection in September 2003, having already completed a few episodes of the show's second season. In the double-length episode "Goodbye" which aired on November 4th of that year, we learned that Paul went out one morning to buy milk for the family's cereal and "collapsed in Aisle 3". This fact was imparted by daughter Bridget (Kaley Cuoco). James Garner joined the cast in the same episode as grandfather Jim Egan, David Spade arrived a few episodes later and Martin Spanjers played Rory, the son of the family.

The series only lasted another season and the closer aired in April 2005.

Answer: Poor gun maintenance

It had been shown in an earlier episode that Speed was not as conscientious as he should have been about keeping his weapon clean and ready to fire. When he and Horatio (David Caruso) were surprised by armed robbers in a jewellery store, Speed's gun jammed and he was shot before he could clear it. "Lost Son" was shown in September 2004.

Speed's memory was kept alive by his comrades, who left his locker untouched, and in hallucinations suffered by his friend Eric Delko (Adam Rodriguez) in the episode "Bang, Bang You're Dead" in the seventh season (October 2007). The series came to an end in April 2012.

Answer: Explosion

Lew Young had approached a bomb set by a serial bomber in order to defuse it, but found it to be booby-trapped and that he was standing on a landmine that would explode if he tried to retreat. He had gone in alone because the rest of the team had other bomb threats with which they had to deal. His friend Mike Scarlatti, aka Spike (Sergio Di Zio) begged to be allowed to attempt a rescue, but in the end Lew deliberately moved his foot so nobody else would be endangered.

This was in the second season of the show, and as the series progressed there were more violent deaths. The two part finale "Keep the Peace" which aired in December 2012, was particularly bloody.

Answer: A gay man named Harvey

Harvey told Fran that when his long-time partner died, the partner's family cut Harvey off completely as if the relationship had never existed. Because Maxwell's grandmother was not impressed with Fran, and Maxwell had taken back what he said on the airplane, Fran started to worry that the same thing would happen to her and she took a job in a department store to get away. Of course, Maxwell came after her and brought her home. The series continued until 1999.

The part of Danny was played in the two early episodes by Jonathan Penner, who later appeared in more than one season of the reality show "Survivor". In the 1997 episode of "The Nanny" with Danny's funeral the character was not seen, although his coffin was.

Answer: Nathaniel Fisher, Sr.

The senior Fisher, father of Nate, David and Claire, was driving the hearse owned by their family-run funeral home when it was hit by a bus. His death notwithstanding, Nathaniel was able to make numerous appearances during the five year run of the series, which ended in 2005.