Trivia - Quiz Shows and Use in Mass Media

Quiz Shows and Use in Mass Media

Before the books, Goodgold and Carlinsky had already staged contests. The first, held in Columbia's Ferris Booth Hall on March 1 of that year, reported in campus press and the New York Post, was the first occasion in which the pastime was formalized. On September 13, 1965, four Columbia students appeared on the TV quiz show I've Got a Secret and competed in a trivia contest with the show's regular panelists. A much-publicized First Annual Ivy League-Seven Sisters Trivia Contest was held at Columbia the same semester. By 1966, other campuses had instituted Trivia bowls while colleges such as Lawrence University and Williams College began radio contests which continue to this day. In this manner, the codified form of the diversion became an institution.

In 1974, a former Sacramento air traffic controller named Fred L. Worth published The Trivia Encyclopedia, which he followed in 1977 with The Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia, and in 1981 with Super Trivia, vol. II. The popularity of books by Goodgold and Carlinsky, Worth and others in the 1960s and 1970s laid the groundwork for the first edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit in the early 1980s.

The enormous success of this game led to the re-launch of Jeopardy! in the United States, reviving a quiz show genre that had been dormant since the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. The American TV broadcaster ABC had a surprise hit with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, an import of a successful British quiz format which launched another wave of interest in trivia. In both the UK and Canada, the quiz format has enjoyed continuous success since the 1950s, untouched by the scandals that dogged the American format.

In late 1978 Steve D. Tamerius launched TRIVIA UNLIMITED magazine, the first monthly magazine devoted to pop culture trivia. Owned by his organization, the United States Trivia Association, the magazine was published until April 1984. Tamerius began staging high school trivia contests as early as 1963. TRIVIA UNLIMITED magazine owned the syndicated radio program, "The Trivia Twins", which was written and produced by Tamerius beginning in 1980 and aired on almost 50 stations in the United States and Canada. The first widely-published trivia calendar, "The 365 Trivia facts-A-Year-Calendar", was written by Tamerius and Fred L. Worth and released by Workman Publishing in 1984. The two trivia mavens later cooperated on an Elvis encyclopedia, ELVIS--HIS LIFE FROM A TO Z. Tamerius later became a writer on the Jeopardy!

Tamerius and three other businessmen founded an organization called the United States Trivia Association to start the National Trivia Hall of Fame in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1980. Robert L. Ripley was the "overwhelming and runaway" choice as its first inductee according to Tamerius. Radio host Casey Kasem and original "Jeopardy!" host Art Fleming were later inductees.

In addition to the mass media trivia, there have also been two entrenched trivia subcultures. One is the pub quiz phenomenon, which is especially prevalent in Great Britain and in select U.S. cities, particularly in pubs that serve a large Irish American community. (The U.S. pub quiz scene is crimped by the popularity of Buzztime, a satellite-based game.)

Wilson Casey is an American columnist, book author, entertainer, speaker, and record holder. He earned two Guinness World Records (trivia marathon and radio broadcasting) for a thirty-hour live, continuous broadcast on radio station WKDY-AM on January 9–10, 1999 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. During the 30 hours he asked and identified the correct answer to 3,333 questions. Casey is regularly called and labeled "The Trivia Guy". His website, TriviaGuy.com, provides daily multiple choice trivia questions (with answers) by subscription to newspapers and to the general public.