Pop Quiz: Christine Edition

I once told Christine she was my favorite person I’ve never met. Since 1993, when I met our mutual friend, Lou, I have heard story after story about the legendary Christine. Fiercely loyal with a strong sense of justice, Christine would make you pay if you messed with someone she loved. Riotously funny with a flair for the dramatic, she could make the average day entertaining. When Christine and I became Facebook friends in 2012, it felt like coming home. We shared a love of cats, corgis (all creatures, really), football, good beer, great food, and – of course – pop culture. We bonded over The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Cars, Heathers, Midnight Oil, and The Alienist. She truly was my sister from another mother, and I will miss her every day.

This quiz is dedicated to Christine and some of her favorite pop culture things. Rest well, sweet girl.

1. What bassist, singer, and songwriter, born Benjamin Orzechowski, performed lead vocals on songs like “Just What I Needed”, “Moving in Stereo”, “Let’s Go”, and “Drive” for The Cars?
2. What English rock band, led by Ian Astbury, had their biggest hit in the U.S. with 1987’s “Fire Woman”, the first single off their fourth album, Sonic Temple.
3. “A Clubhouse is Not a Home”, which aired on October 31, 1969, and features the quotes “That almost hit Cindy!” and “This isn’t funny anymore”, is an episode of what sitcom?
4. What Australian musician, activist, and politician is best known as the lead singer of Midnight Oil, the band responsible for 1980s hits like “Beds Are Burning” and “Blue Sky Mine”?
5. What serial killer is the subject of the 2019 movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, as well as a 1988 song by Jane’s Addiction?
6. Nell Campbell, AKA Little Nell, is a singer and actor most famous for her performance as Columbia in what 1973 musical and its 1975 film adaptation?
7. What band, comprised of brothers Ron and Russell Mael, released a 1982 album titled Angst in My Pants that included songs like “I Predict”, “Eaten by the Monster of Love”, and the title track?
8. What NBC series, which was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo and aired from 1983 to 1987, featured characters with nicknames like Hannibal, Faceman, and Howling Mad?
9. Complete the following lyric with the title of a music and dance series that began its run in Philadelphia in 1952 and aired its final episode in 1989: “And I’ll jump, and hey, I may even show ’em my handstand / Because I’m on, because I’m on the ___________________ ___________________.”
10. The Partridge Family is loosely based on what Rhode Island sibling sextet, who had hits in the late 1960s with “The Rain, the Park & Other Things” and “Hair”?
11. What Italian-Canadian rock musician, who had a hit in 1982 with “Fantasy”, won a Grammy Award for his role as a producer on Celine Dion’s 1996 album Falling Into You?
12. What holiday – also the name of a long-running horror film franchise – has traditions rooted in Celtic harvest festivals such as Samhain?
13. Spouses Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, who formed the new wave-funk outfit Tom Tom Club in 1981, are also founding members of what post-punk-art rock band whose biggest US single is 1983’s “Burning Down the House”?
14. What English singer and actor, born Stuart Leslie Goddard, had hits (with his eponymous band AND as a solo artist) like “Dog Eat Dog”, “Stand and Deliver”, “Goody Two Shoes”, and “Desperate But Not Serious”?
15. What 1977 sports comedy, with Cool Hand Luke co-stars Paul Newman and Strother Martin, featured the fictional Hanson brothers, a trio of hockey-playing goons brought in to save a failing minor league team?
16. For what 1962 psychological horror thriller, in which she played the title character, an unhinged former child vaudeville star, did Bette Davis receive her tenth and final Academy Award nomination for Best Actress?
17. “Days Gone By” is the pilot episode of what 2010 post-apocalyptic horror series created by Frank Darabont, director of films like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile?
18. Among the real-life historical figures that feature in The Alienist, a 1994 mystery novel by Caleb Carr, are financier J.P. Morgan, Five Points Gang leader Paul Kelly, and what 20th century US President who was New York City Police Commissioner at the time of the novel’s setting (1896)?
19. A rickroll is an Internet meme involving the surprise appearance of “Never Gonna Give You Up” by what English singer?
20. In a 1988 black comedy, Winona Ryder plays high school student Veronica; what is the first name of all three girls in Veronica’s clique?
21. What Los Angeles glam metal band had their biggest hit in 1984 with “Round and Round”?

ANSWERS

1. Benjamin Orr (FUN FACT: Although never released as a single, “Moving in Stereo” is nevertheless one of the most iconic Cars songs, thanks largely to its use in 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High.)
2. The Cult
3. The Brady Bunch
4. Peter Garrett
5. Ted Bundy (FUN FACT: Jane’s Addiction’s “Ted, Just Admit It…”, a response to Bundy’s bullshit claims that pornography and violence in media were at the root of his psychopathy, is from their 1988 masterpiece Nothing’s Shocking)
6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Rocky Horror Show
7. Sparks
8. The A-Team
9. American Bandstand
10. The Cowsills (FUN FACT: Their version of “Hair”, the title song from the 1967 American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, made it to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was kept out of the top spot by the 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”, a medley of two other songs from Hair.)
11. Aldo Nova
12. Halloween
13. Talking Heads
14. Adam Ant
15. Slap Shot (FUN FACT: The Hanson brothers were based on real-life siblings Jack, Steve, and Jeff Carlson, who all played for the Johnstown Jets in the 1970s)
16. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
17. The Walking Dead
18. Theodore Roosevelt
19. Rick Astley (FUN FACT: “Never Gonna Give You Up” went to the top of the charts in more than 25 countries)
20. Heathers
21. Ratt