Thought I’d try to take your mind off of the shopping, decorating, and baking at this hectic time of year, just for a few minutes anyway, and let you focus on something quite trivial and unimportant for just a short period. So, grab another Cup of Happiness, as Jim Roselle used to say, and try your luck with this latest test of memory from the Voice from the Bullpen.

Many of us remember television families and clans from our family time in front of the ONE household (probably B&W) television in our homes growing up. Many of those TV families or individual characters were of the sitcom genre (but not all) which provided us with so much laughter (some drama), that we may have missed some of the minutest details of their lives in the series. One of those details might have been, in what cities or towns did these families/people live, work or go to school?

How many of you can remember where these people lived in their television shows? Go grab your pencils and papers, (or your iPads, notebooks, whiteboards, whatever), take another sip of your favorite morning beverage, and let’s get started with this newest quiz of fairly meaningless trivia. Good Luck!

Where did these families live or events take place?

1.) The Stones (The Donna Reed Show)

2.) The Lanes (The Patty Duke Show)

3.) The Cleavers (Leave it to Beaver)

4.) The Taylors (The Andy Griffith Show)

5.) Hometown of Radar O’Reilly (M*A*S*H*)

6.) Hometown of Hawkeye Pierce (M*A*S*H*)

7.) Hometown of B.J. Hunnicutt (M*A*S*H*)

8.) Hometown of Max Clinger (M*A*S*H*)

9.) Hometown of Frank Burns (M*A*S*H*)

10.) Hometown of Sherman Potter (M*A*S*H*)

11.) Hometown of Henry Blake (M*A*S*H*)

12.) Hometown of Charles Emerson Winchester (M*A*S*H*)

13.) Hometown of Margaret Houlihan (M*A*S*H*)

14.) Hometown of Luther Rizzo (M*A*S*H*)

15.) The Clampetts ( The Beverly Hillbillies)

16.) The Petries (The Dick Van Dyke Show)

17.) The Ricardos after New York City (I Love Lucy)

18.) The Kramdens (The Honeymooners)

19.) The Douglasses (My Three Sons)

20.) The Flintstones (The Flintstones)

21.) The Tanners (Full House)

22.) The Cartwrights (Bonanza)

23.) The Andersons (Father Knows Best)

24.) The Sisters of the Convent of San Tanco (The Flying Nun)

25.) The Family of Kate Bradley (Petticoat Junction)

26.) The Munsters (The Munsters)

27.) The Nelsons (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet)

28.) The Bradys (The Brady Bunch)

29.) The Ricks (Flipper)

30.) The Kids of (Saved by the Bell)

31.) The Cunninghams (Happy Days)

32.) The Employees of Mel’s Diner (Alice)

33.) From where did the S.S. Minnow set sail for its famous Three Hour Tour? (Gilligan’s Island)

34.) The Williams (Make Room for Daddy)

35.) Ann Marie (That Girl) left her hometown to try and make it as an actress in NY City. From what hometown did she leave?

36.) Where was Walt Whitman High, home of the teachers and students of (Room 222)?

37.) The McCoys (The Real McCoys)

38.) The Hartleys (The Bob Newhart Show)

39.) The ensemble cast of characters of (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)

40.) The family of Ann Romano (One Day at a Time)

41.) The Home of (The Golden Girls)

42.) The setting of (Mork and Mindy)

43.) The Bradfords (Eight is Enough)

44.) The employees of the Governor (Benson)

45.) The Evans (Good Times)

46.) The pilots of Sandpiper Air and the characters of (Wings)

47.) The zany characters of (The Drew Carey Show)

48.) The group from (Boy Meets World)

49.) The Cranes and company (Frasier)

50.) The Keatons (Family Ties)

51.) Bonus question worth two points: Where was the Boarding School attended by the girls of The Facts of Life located?

A lot of geography, both real and ficticious, but places we have visited through the magic of television over the years. Some of these were challenging I am sure, and some were pretty easy. Note that some of these places were names of real cities, but never connected with a real state, and some of these places were actually real cities in real states.

Ready to see how you did? I’m listing the answers. When finished checking, give yourself two points for each correct answer. Passing grade: 65 percent, but I’m sure everyone gets much higher than that.

Answers:

1.) Hilldale

2.) Brooklyn Heights

3.) Mayfield

4.) Mayberry, N.C. (Fictitious town filmed in, and that which depicted, Mount Airy, NC)

5.) Ottumwa, IA

6.) Crab Apple Cove, ME (though one episode where Hawkeye was writing to his father mentioned that his father lived in Vermont)

7.) Mill Valley, CA

8.) Toledo, OH

9.) Fort Wayne, IN

10.) Hannibal, MO

11.) Bloomington, IL

12.) Boston, (yes, Massachusetts)

13.) She had no real hometown. She was an Army Brat…family kept moving post to post.

14.) Baton Rouge, LA

15.) Many places mentioned, including Limestone, TN, Kimberling MO, most often the Missouri Ozarks were mentioned

16.) New Rochelle, NY

17.) Westport, CT

18.) Bushwick section of Brooklyn, NY

19.) Bryant Park before moving to Los Angeles

20.) Bedrock

21.) San Francisco, CA

22.) The Ponderosa was a fictional section of land near Virginia City, NV (Southwest of Reno)

23.) Midwest town of Springfield

24.) San Juan, Puerto Rico

25.) Hooterville

26.) Mockingbird Heights (fictitious suburb of Los Angeles, CA)

27.) The Nelsons lived in a suburb of LA

28.) The Brady’s also lived in a suburb of LA

29.) Coral Key Park & Marine Reserve (fictitious version of Coral Reef State Park-Key Largo, FL)

30.) Bayside

31.) Milwaukee, WI

32.) Phoenix, AZ

33.) Honolulu, HI

34.) New York, NY

35.) Brewster, NY

36.) Los Angeles, CA

37.) Smokey Corners, WV before their move to California

38.) Chicago, IL

39.) Minneapolis, MN

40.) Indianapolis, IN

41.) Miami, FL

42.) Boulder, CO

43.) Sacramento, CA

44.) Hartford, CT

45.) Chicago, IL

46.) Nantucket, MA

47.) Cleveland, OH

48.) Philadelphia, PA

49.) Seattle, WA

50.) Suburb of Columbus, OH

51.) Bonus answer: The school’s setting was in Peekskill, NY.

And there you have them … the answers to things that probably never even crossed your minds before picking up this column today. Hey, if it gave you a bit of a respite from the hustle and bustle of the real world for ten minutes, I’ll consider that a success. Now you can go and do the important things on your list for the day.

Have a great day and a great week everyone!