TV Moments We Can't Forget Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kristin Shepard (sister-in-law and mistress)

"Dallas" was one of the most successful shows of the primetime soap opera genre. Like its daytime counterparts, it followed a continuous storyline rather than a random set of events featuring the cast.

"Dallas" centered on the manipulative and amoral head of Ewing Oil, J. R. Ewing, and the family dynamics at their Southfork Ranch. After he was shot, the following season used four episodes to identify the attempted killer, with various clues changing who the probable culprit was. One obvious problem that the police had was that most of the people who knew J.R. had a strong motivation to kill him.

His father, Jock, established the family fortune with a major wildcat oil strike, in which he may have cheated his one-time partner, Willard Barnes. Did he want J.R. removed before his risky practices ruined the company?

His wife, Miss Ellie, was a dignified presence in the house from "old money" and was upset about how J.R. humiliated his brothers. She was an unlikely suspect, but she disliked his treatment of her other sons.

Sue Ellen Ewing, the wife of J.R., was a former beauty queen who countered her husband's infidelities and cruelty with affairs of her own and slipped into alcoholism. Did she want to kill him before he destroyed her?

Bobby Ewing was the nice-guy counterpart to his brother. Did he finally tire of how J.R. treated and humiliated him?

Bobby's wife, Pam, was the daughter of Willard Barnes, Jock Ewing's cheated partner. Was her loyalty to the Ewing or the Barnes family?

Her brother Cliff Barnes was a mirror-image business rival of J.R. Ewing. Did he tire of business rivalry and seek a more direct confrontation?

Deeply troubled, Lucy Ewing was J.R.'s niece, who resented J.R. for chasing her parents, Gary and Valene, from the Southfork ranch. Did he push her over the edge?

Dusty Farlow, the latest of Sue Ellen Ewing's lovers, disappeared in a plane crash. Did he actually die or did he return to save Sue Ellen?

Kristin Shepard, Sue Ellen's sister and J.R.'s recent mistress, was pregnant with his child. Did she attempt to kill him when he rejected her?

Vaughn Leland, Alan Beam, Marilee Stone, and Jordan Lee suffered from J.R. Ewing swindling them or their families. Once financial recovery was impossible, did any of them resort to violence?

The first four episodes of the following season were the police investigation of the attempted murder. As evidence was revealed, the betting odds on the shooter changed. When Sue Ellen Ewing's fingerprints were found on the weapon used, she seemed to be the clear and obvious culprit.

However, she remembered that she had visited her sister, Kristin, and became very inebriated. Her sister placed the gun in Sue Ellen's hands to get her fingerprints on the weapon and stole it. Kristin had been J. R. Ewing's current mistress, and he ended the relationship when she became pregnant. She took revenge on him and shot him with that gun.

Answer: Mary Tyler Moore Show

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" saw the star playing the role of Mary Richards, the leader of the newsroom at Minneapolis television station WJM. At the station, Chuckles the Clown hosted a television show for young children, often dressing up in costumes. He was mentioned from time to time on episodes of the series and even made a few appearances.

Chuckles was selected as the grand marshal for a local parade. He dressed up as a roasted peanut, one of the characters he used on his television show. Unfortunately, a rogue elephant in the parade saw the peanut and crushed Chuckles.

When the news of his death became known, the members of the newsroom reacted with ghoulish humor and seemingly made light of his tragic death. This angered Mary, and she gave a stern warning to her staff. When the funeral service began, the staff members paid respectful silence. The eulogy highlighted events in Chuckles's life, causing Mary to break out in hilarious laughter, much to her chagrin. She then began sobbing at her breakdown until the pastor declared that Chuckles would want to be remembered for the joy and laughter he brought.

The members of the newsroom crew returned to their office and discussed how they wanted to be remembered - providing a comic and yet serious view of life and death.

Answer: David Frost

David Frost (1939-2013) was an English journalist and television personality. He began his television career with the satirical show "This Was The Week That Was". He was noted for his interviews of English and American political leaders. He interviewed all eight British prime ministers who served between 1964 and his death in 2013. He also interviewed all seven American presidents who served from 1969 through 2008.

Over a three-week period, David Frost met with Richard Nixon and collected nearly 29 hours of taped interviews. These were edited down to seven hours for a series of television shows. Frost agreed to pay Nixon a fee of $300,000 and a share of the profits for the interviews. However, Frost was not able to convince the major networks to fund the show; and he had to raise funding himself and broadcast them on other networks.

Nixon was publishing his memoirs at the time and believed that the television interviews would engender favorable publicity. He also believed Frost would not ask adversarial questions, and he would outwit Frost.

The five television shows covered specific topics.

Part 1: Watergate
Part 2: Nixon and the world
Part 3: War at home and abroad
Part 4: Nixon, the man
Part 5: Other items and additions to the first four parts

The first show drew an estimated 45 million viewers, the largest audience for a political show. The general view is that the interviews did not change the public's opinion of Nixon. The closest Nixon came to admitting wrongdoing was stating that he had let the American people down.

Answer: Fawlty Towers

"The Germans" is regarded as one of the best episodes of the "Fawlty Towers" television series. John Cleese, playing Basil Fawlty, was forced to run his hotel by himself while his wife Sybil was recovering in the hospital. She gave him instructions to perform certain tasks during her absence. While conducting a required fire drill, a real fire broke out and Basil suffered a concussion.

He returned from his stay in the hospital just as a contingent of German guests arrived at the hotel. Despite warning his staff "not to mention the war", he started to insult his guests about German World War II leaders while taking lunch orders. He soon began arguing with them, performing a goose-stepping impression of Hitler and making reference to the war.

Answer: Geraldo Rivera

From 1928 until his arrest in 1931, Al Capone ran his criminal enterprise from the Lexington Hotel in Chicago. While preparing for the renovation of the hotel in the 1980s, workers discovered several walled-off chambers, raising curiosity about what was hidden in these rooms.

Television producers proposed the idea of opening the vaults on live TV to discover items left by Capone, perhaps money or even dead bodies. The major networks showed little interest in the idea, citing the lack of definitive evidence for finding anything. The Tribune Broadcasting Network financed the project and hired Geraldo Rivera as the host. Rivera had recently been fired from his position at ABC News and was eager to make a high-profile comeback.

The vault was opened in 1986. IRS agents were present in case any money was found, and the medical examiner was ready to examine any dead bodies. Approximately thirty million viewers, the largest audience for syndicated television shows that year, were disappointed when they saw nothing more than dirt and broken bottles in the vault area.

Answer: Premiere showing of the movie "Heidi" on television

Televised sports contests have some variation in the actual length of time they take to complete. Allowing too much time before the next scheduled show creates "dead time". Allowing too little of a margin creates the problem of which event to show when the game runs too long. The problem is especially acute in the more populous US Eastern Time Zone when late afternoon games often end just before prime time shows start.

NBC had allocated two and a half hours for the Oakland Raiders versus New York Jets football game telecast. Its executives had preempted the regularly scheduled show, "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color", for the first showing on television of the movie "Heidi" in the spot following the game.

However, the number of injuries, penalties, passing incompletions and the high-scoring nature of that game caused the game to go past its planned time. This was a game between two bitter rivals and the result was still in doubt in the final minutes. The audience for the game was very interested in seeing the conclusion to an excellent game.

The original plan had been to switch over to the movie "Heidi" even if the game was still in progress. However, NBC executives made a decision to delay the start of the movie just before the movie was about to start. But their phone lines had become jammed with calls from viewers asking when the movie would start or demanding that the game keep being shown. Unfortunately, this blocked communication between the executives and the television crew about the change in plans to keep the football game on the television feed.

With one minute left in the game, the NBC telecast switched from the game to the movie. At that time, New York was leading 32-29 and Oakland had the ball on its 22-yard line. The Raiders scored a touchdown with 42 seconds left to go into a 36-32 lead. The Jets, still with a chance to regain the lead, fumbled the ensuing kickoff; and Oakland scored again to finish the game with a 43-32 victory. The audience for the football game was very irate that they didn't see the conclusion of the game.

The Jets would later that season win Super Bowl III in a stunning upset.

Answer: Careening out of control down a ski jump ramp

"The Wide World of Sports" was an American sports anthology show, running from 1961 through 1997. The goal of the show was to show events, especially global ones, that were rarely televised in the US. One of the features of the show was its introduction, when film clips of athletes were shown and narrator Jim McKay intoned solemnly:

"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports".

One of the constants of the introduction was the "Agony of Defeat" clip of Vinko Bogataj's wild crash off a ski jump ramp. On his third jump at the World Ski Flying competition at Oberstdorf, West Germany, he realized that conditions had made the ski ramp too fast. Attempting to slow down, he shifted his center of gravity, but lost his balance and fell off the ski ramp. Tumbling and flipping wildly, he eventually crashed through a light barrier fence near spectators. He suffered a mild concussion and a broken ankle as a result.

Although he returned to competition after recovering, he had limited success. He did some coaching and has become a respected painter in Slovenia. Due to the isolation of the Cold War, Vinko never realized he had become a famous, although anonymous, celebrity in the US. He was surprised when he was invited to a Wide World of Sports 20th Anniversary television show, where he received the loudest ovation of any of the athletes.

Answer: David Copperfield

David Copperfield is the stage name for the American magician and illusionist David Kotkin (1956-). He showed an early interest in magic, being admitted to the Society of American Magicians at age 12 and teaching a course in magic at New York University at age 16. His first national television show occurred in 1977 at age 21. He has appeared in about twenty television specials, demonstrating his various tricks and illusions.

In 1983, he performed his most famous illusion before an estimated fifty million viewers, making the Statue of Liberty disappear and reappear. A helicopter flew above the statue with its light shining on it. Copperfield closed a curtain to block the view for a relatively short time. When the curtain was raised several minutes later, the helicopter was still in view, but there was no statue. The curtain was again lowered, and when it was raised again, the statue was there.

For those interested, the Internet has a plausible explanation of how the trick was accomplished. Apparently the audience was seated on a special stage. During the illusion, the stage rotated very slowly and loud music blocked any sound of the movement. The helicopter viewing the statue rotated in a similar manner, with its bright light hiding the changed New York City skyline. These actions were reversed to make the statue reappear.

His most noteworthy feats include:
- Making a Learjet disappear
- Causing the Statue of Liberty to disappear and later reappear
- Levitating over the Grand Canyon
- Walking through the Great Wall of China
- Escaping Alcatraz prison
- Flying through the air for several minutes

Answer: He made an errant tomahawk throw

Ed Ames first achieved stardom, singing with his siblings in the Ames Brothers quartet. Later, he branched out on his own and had a number of well-regarded recordings, such as "Try to Remember", "Who Will Answer", and "My Cup Runneth Over". Before his appearance on the "Johnny Carson Show", he also played a role as the Native American Mingo in the "Daniel Boone" television show.

While on the show, he mentioned that he had learned some Native American skills, such as throwing a tomahawk. Carson offered him the opportunity to demonstrate his prowess, and stagehands wheeled out a large cardboard cutout of a man with chalk outlines of his pants, shirt, and head (obviously this was not a spontaneous event). Before making his throw, Ames gave instructions about the technique required to throw a tomahawk.

It's unclear whether Ames's toss was a wildly errant shot or one William Tell would have been proud of. The throw didn't miss Mr. Cutout, nor would it have killed him. It hit Mr. Cutout in the genital area, which would have led to some nervous laughter. However, it also didn't land with its handle pointing downward - like one would expect. Somehow, some way, the tomahawk handle pointed slightly upward, and Mr. Cutout looked like he had an embarrassing erection.

In a moment of comic genius, when everyone was rolling with laughter for several minutes, Carson maintained a straight face, bypassed the planned commercial break, and then stopped Ames from removing the tomahawk. When Ames tried to recover by asking Carson if he wanted to try, Johnny replied "No Ed, I can't hurt him more than you did."

The episode has remained in the public consciousness since it occurred in 1965, appearing in television "bloopers" and many places on the Internet.

Answer: Henry Blake

McLean Stevenson played Colonel Henry Blake in the popular television series "M*A*S*H". He asked to be released from his contract after the third season of the series due to his reduced role when Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce) assumed the leading role.

On his final show, "Abyssinia Henry", Colonel Blake was given a send-off by other members of the medical unit before his scheduled return to the US. After the supposed final scene, the cast reassembled, and Gary Burghoff (Radar O'Reilly) announced to the unsuspecting cast members that Colonel Blake's plane had been shot down and that there were no survivors. The unexpected shock to the actors provided a realistic response if this had been a real-world event.

Larry Linville, playing Major Frank Burns, left "M*A*S*H" after its fifth season, primarily due to his dissatisfaction with the lack of growth of his character. In his finale, he had become despondent when his affair with Major Margaret Houlihan ended with her wedding to Donald Penobscott. While on R&R leave in Seoul, Frank accosted many women bearing a resemblance to Margaret. Finally, after disturbing a general and his wife, he was admitted to the psychiatric ward and returned to the US.

Corporal Radar O'Reilly, played by Gary Burghoff, left "M*A*S*H" when his Uncle Ed died, and he had to return home to run the family farm.

Trapper John McIntyre, played by Wayne Rogers, also left after the third season when Alan Alda became the primary focus of the series. In the show, his tour of duty ended and he returned to the US. Rogers eventually starred in a spin-off from "M*A*S*H", called "Trapper John, MD".