Under Moonlight & Mental Knots Quiz

Answer: Knots Landing

Loosely inspired by Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage" (1973) "Knots Landing" centres on the lives of four married couples living in Seaview Circle in the fictional town of Knots Landing. Created by David Jacobs, who would go on to produce "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman", the programme ran for 14 seasons on CBS between 1979 and 1993. This makes it is one of the longest running prime time dramas on US television.

Answer: Six Feet Under

Suvari, a former model, was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her performance as Lester Burnham's infatuation, Angela Hayes, in the 1999 film "American Beauty". Her breakthrough role however, was as Oz's (Chris Klein) girlfriend, Heather, in the teen comedy "American Pie" (1999). She later reprised the role in "American Pie 2" (2001) and "American Pie Reunion" (2012).
In "Six Feet Under" she appeared in seven episodes during the fourth season as Clare's friend and, briefly, lover Edie. Edie's sexual ambivalence proves too much for Clare and the relationship soon falls apart.

Answer: The Mentalist

CBI is a fictional setting in Sacramento, California. The show "The Mentalist" revolves around its titular character, Patrick Jane, a former conman and self confessed psychic of dubious quality, and his association with the Serious Crime Unit at CBI. The team is lead by Special Agent Teresa Lisbon, played by Robin Tunney, who provides the straight man (woman) to Jane's laconic and mischievous investigator.

The programme draws upon the detectives' abilities to draw conclusions from a range of seemingly insignificant clues or details, begging comparisons with literary detective Sherlock Holmes and television crime solvers in "Monk", "Profiler" and "Law and Order".

Answer: Knots Landing

Now I wasn't looking for any tenuous link such as a "six degrees of separation" working on Simon Baker ("The Mentalist") and Ted Shackelford (Knots Landing). "Knots Landing" is a direct spin-off of the "Dallas" series and its back-story is built around the character Gary Ewing, played by Shackelford, who is the insecure younger brother of JR Ewing and feels like he doesn't get the respect he deserves from his father, Jock. Then, as you do, he turns to alcohol and finds himself estranged from the family.

The interesting thing is that "Knots Landing" outlasted its noted progenitor "Dallas" in prime time, received greater critical acclaim and, eventually, in 1988 and 1989 out-rated it.

Answer: Moonlighting

"Moonlighting" ran for five seasons on ABC between 1985 and 1989. For Bruce Willis, who played Detective David Addison, it was his big break and the series that set him on the road to stardom. For Shepherd this was a reversal of fortune of sorts. "Moonlighting" arrived for her on the back of some rather average projects such as "The Yellow Rose" (1983-4), "Secrets of a Married Man" (1984) and "Seduced" (1985). "Moonlighting" begins with Maddie (Shepherd), a noted model, who has had her fortune embezzled from her by her accountant and left only with a series of failing businesses that she has been using as tax write-offs. One of those is the City of Angels Detective Agency, which David (Willis) convinces her to hold onto, enter into a partnership with him and change the name to the Blue Moon Detective Agency.

Answer: Six Feet Under

One of television's most successful series, "Six Feet Under" is a black comedy that premiered on cable network HBO in June of 2001 and ran for five seasons. Its writers have received widespread critical acclaim and so has its cast. In all the show secured nine Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and the prestigious Peabody Award, which recognises only one criterion - excellence. The tone or mood for each episode is set by a death which occurs at the beginning of each show, creating a unique vehicle for the programme's oblique sense of humour and surrealism.

Answer: Moonlighting

The dream sequences, which took up most of this episode, were shot in black and white. During the programme David and Maddie are informed of a 40 year old murder that had occurred in a nightclub where a singer and musician had fallen and love with each other and the singer's husband suddenly wound up dead. David reckons the singer did it while Maddie is convinced it was the musician.

In their dreams they take on the roles of the singer and the musician and play out the scene as they see it. The episode earned Emmy nominations for its cinematography and its musical composition. Cybill Shepherd displays her versatility by performing two numbers in the show, "Blue Moon" and "I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out".

Answer: Knots Landing

Baldwin was 26 years old when he appeared on "Knots Landing". He spent two seasons on the show in 1984 and 1985 in a role which was the first to gain him clear recognition in the industry. In his role as Joshua he is the son Lilimae abandons as a baby, which makes him Valene's brother. He is a preacher who becomes a televangelist, marries Kathy (Geary), develops some mental issues, becomes violent, tries to kill Kathy and then falls off a roof and dies. (Oops, should I have revealed that)?

Answer: The Mentalist

"The Mentalist" follows police consultant and former psychic Patrick Jane as he utilises his finely attuned observational skills to solve crimes for a fictional investigative team based in Sacramento. A story that runs parallel to this and is regularly intertwined into the threads of episodes is Jane's pursuit of a serial killer known as "Red John", who is responsible for the brutal killing of Jane's wife and daughter.

The series first aired in September 2008 on the CBS network and stars Simon Baker in the lead role.

Heller is an English screenwriter who is also responsible for the 2005 HBO series "Rome".

Answer: Moonlighting

The smooth voiced Alwin "Al" Jarreau is a multiple Grammy Award winner and a highly regarded jazz and scat singer. The music for the theme song was written by Lee Holdridge, while Jarreau wrote the lyrics. Released as a single in 1987 it reached number one on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts and it got as high as number 23 on Billboard's Hot 100. Previously, in 1985, it had been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics.