The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

Of course I'd hoped to get all primary-season political on you, and pull together a bevy of challenging questions about The Sorta Democracy (TM), but as with all of my good intentions of late, it's come to naught. In the spirit of self-abasement and an embrace of the low standards to which I must admit I've long since stooped to, I hereby invite you to join me as I splash around in the extremely shallow end of the trivia pool. To wit, questions about old television shows.

To partially compensate for the particularly poor quality of the material, I'm offering up a four-part Quiz this week. Which is a real vote for quantity over quality -- and in that sense, what could be more American? Enjoy, fellow Patriots and freedom-enviers alike!

1. A televised competition in 1983 pitted Jim Perry, Bob Eubanks, Nipsey Russell, Betty White and Bill Cullen in a competition against Bert Parks, Jim Lange, Tom Kennedy, Leslie Uggams and Peter Marshall. On what program did this occur?

2. At the end of the original run of this series, the television network was flooded with phone calls demanding an explanation for the events of the finale. The creator of the series was reportedly beseiged at his home by similarly outraged viewers, and claims to have gone into hiding for a period of time as a result. What was the series?

3. Author Earl Hamner published an autobiographical novel in the early 1960s, based on his life as a young boy. It addressed themes such as the effects of infidelity and alcoholism in the family. A film adaptation followed, with an actor who would, two decades later, win an Academy Award. When Hamner wrote a follow-up novella, this became the basis of a long-running television series, for which he supplied offscreen narration. What was the series? For a bonus point, who was the actor in the original film adaptation? For a double bonus, what was the name of the original novel and film?

4. A 1980 episode of a long-running series climaxed with a speech, delivered by the star, about the final moments between artist Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo. What was the program?

First correct answer to any of these wins a random set of 15-20 pages pulled from a galley copy of Alexander Theroux's Laura Warholic, or, the Sexual Intellectual. No Googling or Warholicking. One guess at any part per comment, but you may comment, even if you're a member of the Writer's Guild. I promise not to pay anyone anything for any of this.