1970s Trivia Questions to Quiz Your Old-Head Friends

The engineer & entrepreneur Steve Wozniak famously produced the first designs of this revolutionary piece of tech, while his Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, pictured here, was key in developing preliminary business partners, and the company’s brand image that has lasted to this day. By the time of the release of the Apple Computer II in 1977, both Steves saw great success and helped usher in the personal computer revolution.

Their album Let it Be would be the twelfth and final album by this seminal rock band — who disbanded the same year it released — in 1970. While some members were involved in legal disputes, they still collaborated this year on each others’ solo albums released through the ‘70s as well.

Most members of this Swedish pop supergroup were active musicians before the ‘70s, but they skyrocketed to international fame with their 1974 Eurovision performance. Their biggest-selling single came just two years later with “Dancing Queen” from the album Arrival.

In 1973 and 1979, there were energy shortages around the Western world due to the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries cutting oil production around the Yom Kippur War, and declining production during the Iranian Revolution respectively.

This is none other than Bianca Jagger, then-spouse of the Rolling Stones founding member Mick Jagger. She was well-known in the New York City nightlife scene in the ‘70s, and famously a good friend of Andy Warhol — while also working as an activist for many humanitarian causes over the years.

Warhol’s own studio, The Factory, was a well-regarded gathering place for the who's-who of the time in its own right, but he also socialized at Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan. He was far from their only famous patron, and you could probably find one of your favorite celebs among their past guest list including Liza Minelli, Tina Turner, and Debbie Harry to name just a few.

While Fleetwood Mac was well-known after their formation in 1967, Nicks and Buckingham helped bring the band to an even greater level of success after joining in 1975. While there was significant creative and personal conflict between band members during this period, you can’t deny the high-quality bar they during the late-'70s with their albums Rumours and Tusk.

Saturday Night Live has employed talented impressionists for years and years at this point since its 1975 premiere and never shied away from doing bits about relevant pop culture and political news. Chevy Chase played then-President Gerald Ford in several sketches, including debate parodies and physical comedy bits spoofing President Ford’s occasional tumbles while in office.

This blockbuster thriller, set in the fictional New England vacation destination Amity Island, was a smash hit upon its release and put Steven Spielberg on the map as a household name. However, the set for the film on Martha’s Vineyard was famously chaotic. The prop sharks were extremely difficult to operate and look authentic—and Spielberg’s decision to film on the open ocean caused tons of logistical issues and ballooned the film’s budget.

With a few incredible albums under his belt, including the still-very-listenable Hunky Dory, Bowie could have kept going as himself and had an absolutely impressive career, but he began developing a character to perform onstage inspired by his prior training in dramatic arts. His character Ziggy Stardust, an alien rocker who arrives at a resource-drained planet, fits perfectly in with the burgeoning glam rock movement of the early-’70s, doing his first performance as Ziggy in 1972.

M*A*S*H was a huge phenomenon in the 1970s, beginning with the novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker, this war satire became a hugely successful movie, and then a genre-defining television sitcom just a few years later. The 1970 film was directed by Robert Altman, who did not have kind words for the TV series.

They don’t make TV like this anymore. Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal had been feuding over an essay Vidal penned in the New York Review of Books that was heavily critical of Mailer, calling him a misogynist and comparing him to Charles Manson. This came to a head when they were both booked on The Dick Cavett Show, and Mailer briefly attacked Vidal backstage. The ensuing interview is still a great watch, with Cavett moderating the argument while the journalist Janet Flanner observes and gets some quips in from the couch as well.

This PBS series is considered one of the earliest examples of the reality television genre, drawing millions of viewers who tuned in to view the highs and lows in the lives of the affluent Loud family in Santa Barbara. This series has been referenced and spoofed so much that you may have seen a parody you didn’t realize was a parody, but its impact on future shows in the genre shouldn’t go unrecognized.