Time-Sink Television Trivia Quiz

Answer: Supernatural

Commencing in 2005 on what was then the WB Network, "Supernatural" soon formed a cult following, and due to the consistent ratings wins it proceeded far past its five-season plan and renewed itself for season after season of storylines. While the show initially followed brothers Sam and Dean Winchester as they crossed America fighting all manner of folkloric creatures, the mythology of the program expanded to include a war with angels and demons and, eventually, Satan.

It became the longest-running network fantasy show of all-time in its eleventh year.

It hit episode 250 in 2017.

Answer: The Simpsons

A television juggernaut for FOX, "The Simpsons" first appeared in the "Tracey Ullman Show" in 1987, but got their own primetime TV show on FOX in 1989 (with a Christmas episode). Its popularity skyrocketed in its early years and never really faced cancellation, pushing across several decades of antics and hitting its 600th episode in 2016.

The show, of course, follows the events going on in Springfield surrounding the core Simpson family (of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie) and numerous secondary characters around them.

Answer: Doctor Who

"Doctor Who" started its serialized tales traveling through space and time in 1963, before stopping in 1989 and resuming again on the BBC in 2005. Due to the length of the show and the evolution of the stories therein, the Doctor himself has regenerative properties, and when an actor's tenure on the show ends, he transforms, taking on a new persona and continuing his story. Famous Doctors over time have included Tom Baker, Christopher Eccleston, and David Tennant.

The show, over its hundreds and hundreds of episodes, is iconically British.

Answer: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" was one of the biggest ratings grabs for CBS for many years, but age showed on this show by its fifteenth season, by which point many of the main characters had left the show. Even the original lead CSI-- played by William Petersen originally-- had been replaced twice (once by Laurence Fishburne and again by Ted Danson).

The show, which spun off into "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: NY" and both of which were cancelled earlier, followed procedural cases during which state-of-the-art forensic technology was used to locate criminals.

Answer: Family Guy

"Family Guy" was one of the earliest instances in which fan support brought a TV show back from the dead. Cancelled after fifty episodes, high DVD sales after the fact ended the show's cancellation only three years later. The show proved its staying power almost immediately after, leading FOX to create a weekend comedy block (including "The Simpsons") that would pull in high ratings long after. So while the show commenced in 1999, "Family Guy" hit season 15 in 2016.

Answer: ER

"ER", originally created by Michael Crichton during his heyday, ended up being on TV for fifteen consistent years, raking in over three hundred episodes and launching the careers of George Clooney, Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle, and Ming-Na among others. Faltering ratings led to the show's cancellation, but not before it won nearly two dozen Emmy Awards and a Peabody for its merits.

It was nowhere near able to beat "Law and Order's" episode total on the same network (CBS, and 456 episodes).

Answer: Survivor

While reality television has been hit or miss since it emerged as a popular genre at the turn of the century, "Survivor" has always proven to be on top of the pile with its million-dollar game of wits. Hitting episode five hundred in the beginning of its 34th season ("Game Changers"), the program has forced hundreds of Americans to rough it in locations as diverse as Gabon, Brazil, Australia, China, and Palau in an effort to vote out their competitors and convince a jury of their peers that they deserve to be the last person standing.

Answer: The X-Files

Airing on FOX during the 1990s and reviving itself in the 2010s, "The X-Files" followed the speculative events surrounding two agents of the FBI as they uncovered odd cases of paranormal origins. While most episodes were procedural in nature, fulfilling a monster-of-the-week formula (which carried over into many other horror/sci-fi network shows over the decades), a large, overarching narrative continued for both characters who fell in and out of love as time progressed.

In addition to the over two hundred episodes of the show, it also resulted in two films.

Answer: Lassie

"Lassie", debuting on TV in 1954, spent years living with the Millers, then more years with the Martins before moving in with several forest rangers, then going on her own and settling down at a ranch in the 1970s; the dog had a long life. To be fair though, since the show went on for so long, six different dogs played the role on-screen. Most of the episodes were cautionary tales, during which Lassie would need to save someone (usually a young boy master) and lessons would be learned as to why the endangered person was making a bonehead move...though in more pleasant words.

Answer: Friends

"Friends" ran for ten highly-rated seasons, becoming a gold standard for sitcoms and sending its six main stars into the A-list. In more than two hundred episodes, you could watch as Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross dealt with their problems in life and amongst each other, overcame their obstacles, got married repeatedly, saw their divorces, got pregnant, got jobs, and tested the bounds of their friendships. Comparably, "Seinfeld" ran for 180 episodes, "Frasier" for 264, and "Cheers" for 275, all on the same network. "Frasier" actually ran around the same time, but started a year earlier.