Dick Van Patten's Totally Terrific TV Trivia

Back when I was a youngster living at home, I constantly heard the parental refrain... "You watch too darned much television! Turn off that set!" After reading Dick Van Patten's buzztime TV trivia title, it's obvious that mom and dad were wrong, wrong, wrong. I always fancied myself quite the trivia expert, and television/pop culture was one of my specialities. Mr. Van Patten has clearly outed me as a fraud. I rarely could rack up better than 70% on the hundreds of 10-question "games". It shakes me to my baby boomer foundation to learn that I'm not "master of my domain". Totally Terrific also surprised me in two ways. First, there were areas in which I knew more than I thought. Amazingly, I kept getting lots and lots of Milton Berle-Texaco Theatre-Your Show of Shows era questions correct. And then, there were other areas in which I considered myself intelligentia supremo, only to fall flat on my over-confident face. For example, I missed question after question in the Seinfeld category, "not that it matters". I would have thought that seeing every single issue of "the show about nothing" at least two dozen times would have earned me a few 100% scores. Mr. Van Patten's questions literally gave me "the Jimmy legs". OK seriously, this is another fun entry in the buzztime trivia series. I loved the Micky Dolenz rock and roll title from last year. I'm rating this five stars based on expectation and delivery. I realize that Totally Terrific TV Trivia isn't Hamlet. But, it's great fun to zip through a game or two when you have a moment. I'd also suggest this title for airplane entertainment, etc.

This newest book in the ongoing "Buzztime Trivia" series jams over 900 great questions into one little (and affordable) book. There are all kinds of questions about TV shows from the late '40s to just this past season. And who better than Dick Van Patten to guide the reader along: in addition to his best-known role as father Tom Bradford on ABC's EIGHT IS ENOUGH, this sweet-faced TV legend has been all over episodic television in one way or another for nearly 50 years! In addition to the sheer volume of information contained in such a teeny little book, my favorite thing was all the weird little factoids that come jumping out at you when you least expect it. I had forgotten, for example, that Commissioner Gordon was Batgirl's father on the BATMAN TV show. And I knew that Ricardo Montalban played a villain named Khan on STAR TREK, but I only just learned from this book that Khan's full name was revealed in the episode to be Khan Noonien Singh. This book also reports that Tiger Woods' first appearance on TV was on "The Mike Douglas Show" when he was only 2 years old, showing off his perfect golf swing to none other than the late, great Bob Hope. Cool! If you've been alive during the past 50 years and were only paying attention to TV every other week, this book will amuse and entertain you. Imagine how much you'll like it if you've really been watching lots of TV?! Highly recommended.