The word "Trivium" was Latin for trivia and originated in the early to mid 1400s. At that time, it referred to bits of knowledge that the most educated studied but were useless to the typical person.



The word "Trivial" was first adopted for the English language in 1589. Today's Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines trivia as, "unimportant matters" or "trivial facts or details".

The type of trivia we're talking about in this article was first brought to the attention of the general public in a book published in 1966 simply titled, "Trivia". It was so popular that it shot up in sales and landed on the New York Times Best Seller List!

And, of course, TV Trivia refers to meaningless facts that relate to anything involved with television, typically with TV shows or celebrities.

Did you realize that every episode of Seinfeld either made reference to or contained an image of Superman?

Or that Jessica Biel posed nude in Gear Magazine mainly to get the WB Network to let her out of her "good girl" role on 7th Heaven?

Or that a city in Germany named, "Alf" kept having signs at its city limits stolen because the TV series of the same name was such a huge hit there?

Or that when Patrick Duffy decided that he wanted to return to the Dallas TV show cast after being killed off more than a season earlier, they explained it by saying that more than 30 episodes with him dead were just his wife having a dream?

Or that M*A*S*H* was on the air eight years longer than the entire Korean War lasted?

Or that the USA Network's hit series, "Monk" was originally supposed to be on ABC with actor Michael Richards (Cosmo Kramer on "Seinfeld") playing Monk?

Or that the series, "24" originally had a shot of an exploding 747 airliner exploding in its very first episode that was removed because it would have aired less than two months after the "911" attacks on the World Trade Center?

Or that "The Sopranos" almost got a name change? The producers were afraid that viewers might think the show was about singers so they just added a gun to the show's logo!

Or that Ken Osmond who played the guy everyone loved to hate on "Leave it to Beaver" (Eddie Haskel) joined the LAPD after the series ended and got shot on duty three times?

Or that 464 kids auditioned for the six kids' roles on the Brady Bunch?

Or that William Shatner (Captain Kirk) and Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) appeared together as enemies on an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." almost two years before they appeared together on "Star Trek"?

Well, hopefully those examples have convinced you of just how interesting and how much fun TV trivia can be!