| #9010, aired 2024-01-05 | LINES IN CLASSIC NOVELS $1000: This Sinclair Lewis guy hears "Preacher... damned if I'm going to watch you seducing the first girl you get your big sweaty hands on" Elmer Gantry |
| #8840, aired 2023-03-31 | LAST LINES OF MOVIES $1200: 1976: "This was the story of Howard Beale, the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings" Network |
| #8826, aired 2023-03-13 | 'TIS SHAKESPEARE $600: This knight's first line in "Henry IV, Part 1" is asking what time it is, which leads to 100 lines of banter & trash talk Falstaff |
| #8721, aired 2022-10-17 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $200: It contains the opposite of its title in "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills" Out of Africa |
| #8721, aired 2022-10-17 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: "1984" begins, "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking" this very odd number thirteen |
| #8721, aired 2022-10-17 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $600: This novel begins, "It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him" Catch-22 |
| #8721, aired 2022-10-17 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" in this tale the Metamorphosis |
| #8721, aired 2022-10-17 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1000: "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" starts, "Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund &" her Lucy |
| #8480, aired 2021-10-01 | THAT'S A BIG BOOK $6,000 (Daily Double): "Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit" is the first of this poem's more than 10,000 lines Paradise Lost |
| #8435, aired 2021-07-02 | THE ART OF THE LIMERICK $2000: 19th century first & last lines often ended with the same word, as in this nonsense master's "There was an old man with a beard" Lear |
| #8375, aired 2021-04-09 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $200: "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal" Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
| #8375, aired 2021-04-09 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: "All children, except one, grow up" Peter Pan |
| #8375, aired 2021-04-09 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $600: "Buck did not read... or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not... for himself, but for every tide-water dog" The Call of the Wild |
| #8375, aired 2021-04-09 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold" Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas |
| #8375, aired 2021-04-09 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1000: "In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing" A River Runs Through It |
| #8137, aired 2020-01-14 | POEMS' SECOND LINES $1200: Second line: "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height..."; first line: this How do I love thee |
| #7921, aired 2019-02-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: A 1970s bestseller:
"The great fish moved silently through the night water" Jaws |
| #7921, aired 2019-02-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: "'Where's Papa going with that ax?' said Fern to her mother" Charlotte's Web |
| #7921, aired 2019-02-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1200: A New York Times Best Book of the Year from 2010:
"Today I'm five. I was four last night going to sleep in wardrobe" Room |
| #7921, aired 2019-02-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1600: "Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested" The Trial |
| #7921, aired 2019-02-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $3,000 (Daily Double): From 1931:
"It was Wang Lung's marriage day" The Good Earth |
| #7826, aired 2018-09-24 | poetry $1200: of the first 65 lines of his "howl", only 2 start with a capital letter: "I" & the "P" in "Peyote" (Allen) Ginsberg |
| #7825, aired 2018-09-21 | LINES FROM THE TV COMEDY $2000: On this '90s show:
"I can handle it. 'Handle' is my middle name. Actually, it's the middle part of my first name" Friends |
| #7809, aired 2018-07-19 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $200: "Born down in a dead man's town, the first kick I took was when I hit the ground" "Born In The U.S.A." |
| #7809, aired 2018-07-19 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $400: From Mr. Sinatra:
"And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain" "My Way" |
| #7809, aired 2018-07-19 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $600: From the Beatles, of course:
"I read the news today, oh boy" "A Day In The Life" |
| #7809, aired 2018-07-19 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $800: A Tom Petty classic:
"She's a good girl, loves her mama, loves Jesus and America too" "Free Fallin'" |
| #7809, aired 2018-07-19 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $1000: "You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips" "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" |
| #7805, aired 2018-07-13 | FIRST LINES FROM NOVELS $200: 1884:
"You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'" Huckleberry Finn |
| #7805, aired 2018-07-13 | FIRST LINES FROM NOVELS $400: 1859:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" A Tale of Two Cities |
| #7805, aired 2018-07-13 | FIRST LINES FROM NOVELS $600: Page 001 (not 007):
"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning" Casino Royale |
| #7805, aired 2018-07-13 | FIRST LINES FROM NOVELS $800: 1878:
"All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" Anna Karenina |
| #7805, aired 2018-07-13 | FIRST LINES FROM NOVELS $1000: 1952:
"Roy Hobbs pawed at the glass before thinking to prick a match with his thumbnail" The Natural |
| #7663, aired 2017-12-27 | TIME FOR SECONDS $1200: When the first transcontinental RR was completed in 1869, so was the second transcontinental one of these lines telegraph |
| #7604, aired 2017-10-05 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $400: "Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, & of having nothing to do" Alice in Wonderland |
| #7604, aired 2017-10-05 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $800: "It was a pleasure to burn" Fahrenheit 451 |
| #7604, aired 2017-10-05 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $1600: From 19th century England:
"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day" Jane Eyre |
| #7604, aired 2017-10-05 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $2000: A '70s book: "I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the left grip of the cycle, that it is 8:30 in the morning" Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance |
| #7604, aired 2017-10-05 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $5,000 (Daily Double): Nonfiction:
"June 17, 1972. Nine o'clock Saturday morning. Early for the telephone" All the President's Men |
| #7566, aired 2017-07-03 | LINES ON THE MAP $200: This geographic line was first designated by an international conference in 1884 the prime meridian |
| #7423, aired 2016-12-14 | LITERARY LINES $1000: "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered..." The Lovely Bones |
| #7401, aired 2016-11-14 | I'M LIKE ON PAGE 1 $5,800 (Daily Double): Ponyboy says in the first few lines of this classic, "I was wishing I looked like Paul Newman"; don't we all, Ponyboy The Outsiders |
| #7282, aired 2016-04-19 | SHAKESPEARE'S FIRST LINES $400: "Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene" begins this play Romeo and Juliet |
| #7282, aired 2016-04-19 | SHAKESPEARE'S FIRST LINES $800: A member of this trio asks "When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain?" the three witches |
| #7282, aired 2016-04-19 | SHAKESPEARE'S FIRST LINES $1200: He's the aging subject of the line "I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall" King Lear |
| #7282, aired 2016-04-19 | SHAKESPEARE'S FIRST LINES $1600: Antonio, this title Italian, says, "In sooth I know not why I am so sad, it wearies me, you say it wearies you" the merchant of Venice |
| #7282, aired 2016-04-19 | SHAKESPEARE'S FIRST LINES $2000: One midsummer night, this Duke of Athens declares, "Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour draws on apace" Theseus |
| #7192, aired 2015-12-15 | FIRST LINES $200: A classic: "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents', grumbled Jo, lying on the rug" Little Women |
| #7192, aired 2015-12-15 | FIRST LINES $400: A kids' classic: "Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot" How the Grinch Stole Christmas |
| #7192, aired 2015-12-15 | FIRST LINES $600: A Rand-om novel: "Who is John Galt?" Atlas Shrugged |
| #7192, aired 2015-12-15 | FIRST LINES $800: From the 1990s: "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth..." Fight Club |
| #7192, aired 2015-12-15 | FIRST LINES $1000: By Joseph Conrad: "The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails..." Heart of Darkness |
| #7079, aired 2015-05-28 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $200: The Beat Generation Bible:
"I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up" On the Road |
| #7079, aired 2015-05-28 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $400: A dystopian novel:
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" 1984 |
| #7079, aired 2015-05-28 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $600: "Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's grand gallery" The Da Vinci Code |
| #7079, aired 2015-05-28 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $800: By Joyce:
"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road..." Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man |
| #7079, aired 2015-05-28 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $1000: Hard boiled:
"Sam Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting V under the more flexible V of his mouth" The Maltese Falcon |
| #6980, aired 2015-01-09 | FAMOUS FIRST WORDS $1600: These 7 words penned by Edward Buller-Lytton have inspired an annual contest dedicated to bad opening lines It was a dark and stormy night |
| #6736, aired 2013-12-23 | RADIOASTRONOMY $1200: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew presents the clue from the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.) In addition to giant modern scopes, Green Bank houses the first radio telescope used in 1938 to confirm that mysterious static on phone lines was caused by radiation emanating from this, visible as a glowing band across the night sky the Milky Way |
| #6723, aired 2013-12-04 | BRITISH NOVELS' FIRST LINES $400: A Christie mystery: "It was 5:00 on a winter's morning in Syria. Alongside the platform at Aleppo stood the train..." Murder on the Orient Express |
| #6723, aired 2013-12-04 | BRITISH NOVELS' FIRST LINES $800: 1813: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a... fortune, must be in want of a wife" Pride and Prejudice |
| #6723, aired 2013-12-04 | BRITISH NOVELS' FIRST LINES $1200: E.M. Forster: "Except for the Marabar Caves... the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary" A Passage to India |
| #6723, aired 2013-12-04 | BRITISH NOVELS' FIRST LINES $1600: 1962: "'What's it going to be then, eh?' There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs" A Clockwork Orange |
| #6723, aired 2013-12-04 | BRITISH NOVELS' FIRST LINES $2000: Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The often parodied "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents" Paul Clifford |
| #6715, aired 2013-11-22 | THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM $1600: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew delivers the clue from the Guggenheim Museum in New York.) One of the first purely abstract painters, this Russian artist used lines, colors, & shapes as a visible language, much like the language of music, to evoke emotions Kandinsky |
| #6592, aired 2013-04-23 | BASEBALL BITS $400: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew shows us a diagram of a baseball diamond.) On a scorecard, if a batter hits a double, we mark the lines from home plate to second base & write 2B; if we mark the first line & write HBP, it indicates the player reached first base in this way hit by a pitch |
| #6384, aired 2012-05-24 | SHAKESPEAREAN LINES $400: Dick the Butcher makes the bloody suggestion "The first thing we do, let's kill all" these professionals lawyers |
| #6276, aired 2011-12-26 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $400: Kerouac:
"I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up" On the Road |
| #6276, aired 2011-12-26 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $800: A kids' classic:
"'Where's papa going with that ax?' said Fern to her mother" Charlotte's Web |
| #6276, aired 2011-12-26 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $1600: No. 1 of 7:
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley... were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much" Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
| #6276, aired 2011-12-26 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $2000: A 2002 novel:
"My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie, I was 14 when I was murdered on December 6, 1973" The Lovely Bones |
| #6276, aired 2011-12-26 | BOOKS' FIRST LINES $8,000 (Daily Double): A bestseller: "Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the... archway of the museum's Grand Gallery" The Da Vinci Code |
| #6174, aired 2011-06-16 | POETS & POETRY $600: First name of the 16th & 17th century poet whose "Hymn to God the Father" uses the word "done" 7 times in 18 lines John |
| #5994, aired 2010-10-07 | McCARTNEY $800: Originally, the first 2 lines of this Beatles song were "she was just 17, never been a beauty queen" "I Saw Her Standing There" |
| #5988, aired 2010-09-29 | LITERARY LINES $600: The first line of this novel says, "It was Wang Lung's marriage day" The Good Earth |
| #5973, aired 2010-07-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: "You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'" Huckleberry Finn |
| #5973, aired 2010-07-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a... fortune must be in want of a wife" Pride and Prejudice |
| #5973, aired 2010-07-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1600: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed...into a gigantic insect" Metamorphosis |
| #5973, aired 2010-07-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $2,000 (Daily Double): "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently" The Grapes of Wrath |
| #5973, aired 2010-07-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $2000: "In the town there were two mutes and they were always together" The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter |
| #5816, aired 2009-12-21 | ELTON JOHN: FIRST LINES $400: "It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside" "Your Song" |
| #5816, aired 2009-12-21 | ELTON JOHN: FIRST LINES $800: "Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band" "Tiny Dancer" |
| #5816, aired 2009-12-21 | ELTON JOHN: FIRST LINES $1200: "She packed my bags last night, pre-flight" "Rocket Man" |
| #5816, aired 2009-12-21 | ELTON JOHN: FIRST LINES $1600: "When are you gonna come down? When are you going to land?" "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" |
| #5816, aired 2009-12-21 | ELTON JOHN: FIRST LINES $2000: "When I look back, boy I must have been green" "Honky Cat" |
| #5650, aired 2009-03-13 | LESSER-KNOWN LINES $200: You might score with this speech's first line, but the second begins, "Now we are engaged in a great Civil War" the Gettysburg Address |
| #5636, aired 2009-02-23 | LITERARY OPENING LINES $2000: Rushdie:
"'To be born again,' sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, 'First you have to die"' The Satanic Verses |
| #5607, aired 2009-01-13 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: "Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony" The Maltese Falcon |
| #5607, aired 2009-01-13 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: "Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse had signed a lease on a five-room apartment in a geometric white house" Rosemary's Baby |
| #5607, aired 2009-01-13 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1200: "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714 , the finest bridge in all Peru broke" The Bridge of San Luis Rey |
| #5607, aired 2009-01-13 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1600: "Except for the Marabar Caves ...the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary" A Passage to India |
| #5607, aired 2009-01-13 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $2000: "A screaming comes across the sky" Gravity's Rainbow |
| #5389, aired 2008-01-31 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $200: Orwell: "Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night..." Animal Farm |
| #5389, aired 2008-01-31 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $400: Fitzgerald: "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind..." The Great Gatsby |
| #5389, aired 2008-01-31 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $600: Tolstoy: "'Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes'" War and Peace |
| #5389, aired 2008-01-31 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $800: Golding: "The boy with fair hair lowered himself down...and began to pick his way toward the lagoon" Lord of the Flies |
| #5389, aired 2008-01-31 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $1000: Bronte: "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day" Jane Eyre |
| #5356, aired 2007-12-17 | GIRLY MOVIES $2000: For this 2004 film, Catalina Sandino Moreno was the first Best Actress Oscar nominee to speak all her lines in Spanish Maria, Full of Grace |
| #5294, aired 2007-09-20 | THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER LYRICS $1000: The 2 times of day mentioned in the first 2 lines dawn & twilight |
| #5065, aired 2006-09-22 | THE CANTERBURY TALES $600: 1 of the 2 months that appear in the first 2 lines of the prologue April (or March) |
| #4933, aired 2006-02-08 | THE SCHOOL PLAY: ROMEO AND JULIET $400: Those not cast in individual roles at least got to be part of this group that says the play's first lines the chorus |
| #4896, aired 2005-12-19 | BASS LINES $1200: (Jon of the Clue Crew plays short on the bassline.) In 1973, this became Pink Floyd's first Top 40 hit "Money" |
| #4787, aired 2005-05-31 | THE NAACP $2,400 (Daily Double): (Kweisi Mfume reads the clue.) This award, the NAACP's highest honor, was first bestowed in 1915 & named for a past chairman of the NAACP the Spingarn Medal |
| #4747, aired 2005-04-05 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $200: A CCR title:
"Left a good job in the city, workin' for the man every night and day" "Proud Mary" |
| #4747, aired 2005-04-05 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $400: It earned ours:
"What you want, baby, I got it, what you need, do you know I got it?" "Respect" |
| #4747, aired 2005-04-05 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $600: A disco anthem:
"First I was afraid, I was petrified" "I Will Survive" |
| #4747, aired 2005-04-05 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $800: "Deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens" "Johnny B. Goode" |
| #4747, aired 2005-04-05 | CLASSIC SONGS' FIRST LINES $1000: Wayne & Garth rocked out to it:
"Is this the real life, is this just fantasy" "Bohemian Rhapsody" |
| #4678, aired 2004-12-29 | HAMLET $800: Subject of the lines in the first scene,
"'Tis here!"
"'Tis here!"
"'Tis gone!" Hamlet's ghost |
| #4643, aired 2004-11-10 | WEIRD HISTORY $1600: During the Battle of the Marne in this war, 6,000 French soldiers were rushed to the front lines in taxicabs the First World War |
| #4502, aired 2004-03-16 | EPICS $1600: From 1667, it includes the lines "Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? Th' infernal serpent; he it was" Paradise Lost |
| #4318, aired 2003-05-14 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $200: A satirical fable: "Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night..." Animal Farm |
| #4318, aired 2003-05-14 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: 1813: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a... fortune must be in want of a wife" Pride and Prejudice |
| #4318, aired 2003-05-14 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $600: The absurd:
"Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure" The Stranger (L'Étranger) |
| #4318, aired 2003-05-14 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800 (Daily Double): By E.M. Forster:
"'The signora had no business to do it," said Miss Bartlett, '...she promised us south rooms...'" A Room with a View |
| #4318, aired 2003-05-14 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1000: About an Irish Catholic Youth:
"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow..." Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man |
| #4160, aired 2002-10-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $200: 1900:
"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies..." "The Wizard of Oz" |
| #4160, aired 2002-10-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: 1843:
"Marley was dead: to begin with" "A Christmas Carol" |
| #4160, aired 2002-10-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $600: 1854:
"When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone in the woods..." "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" |
| #4160, aired 2002-10-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: 1976:
"In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing" "A River Runs Through It" |
| #4160, aired 2002-10-04 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1000: 1973:
"There were 117 psychoanalysts on the Pan Am flight to Vienna and I'd been treated by at least six of them" "Fear of Flying" |
| #4120, aired 2002-06-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: 1974: "The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail" Jaws |
| #4120, aired 2002-06-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: The 1860s: "My father's family name being Pirrip, & my Christian name Philip..." Great Expectations |
| #4120, aired 2002-06-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1200: 1996: "New Year's resolutions. I will not drink more than fourteen units of alcohol a week" Bridget Jones's Diary |
| #4120, aired 2002-06-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1600: 1957: "Who is John Galt?" Atlas Shrugged |
| #4120, aired 2002-06-28 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $2000: 1843: "True!--nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" The Tell-Tale Heart |
| #3989, aired 2001-12-27 | MUSHY STUFF $1000: These first two lines of a lot of mushy poems mention the flowers seen here: Roses are red, violets are blue |
| #3845, aired 2001-04-27 | SIGNS & SYMBOLS $200: It was 16th C. mathematician Robert Recorde who first used 2 parallel lines as this equal sign |
| #3769, aired 2001-01-11 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $200: "It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him" "Catch-22" |
| #3769, aired 2001-01-11 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream & he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish" "The Old Man and the Sea" |
| #3769, aired 2001-01-11 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $600: "The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home" "The Wind in the Willows" |
| #3769, aired 2001-01-11 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $800: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" "1984" |
| #3769, aired 2001-01-11 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $1000: "On a bright Dec. morning long ago, two thinly clad children were kneeling upon the bank of a frozen canal in Holland" "Hans Brinker"/"The Silver Skates" |
| #3695, aired 2000-09-29 | DEAD LINES $800: 1968:
"The first Soviet swallow in the cosmos" Yuri Gagarin |
| #3601, aired 2000-04-10 | ON THE MONEY $500: Poet Banjo Paterson & the first lines of his "The Man From Snowy River" grace this country's 10-dollar note Australia |
| #3349, aired 1999-03-11 | POETRY POTPOURRI $300: An 8-line stanza, it's usually the first 8 lines in an Italian sonnet Octave |
| #3276, aired 1998-11-30 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $200: "All children, except one, grow up" Peter Pan |
| #3276, aired 1998-11-30 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $400: "The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail" Jaws |
| #3276, aired 1998-11-30 | LITERARY FIRST LINES $600: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" Rebecca |
| #3233, aired 1998-09-30 | SWEET AD LINES $200: Teddy Roosevelt was the first to remark that this coffee was "Good to the Last Drop" Maxwell House |
| #3007, aired 1997-09-30 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $200: "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream..." The Old Man and the Sea |
| #3007, aired 1997-09-30 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $400: "The Salinas Valley is in northern California." East of Eden |
| #3007, aired 1997-09-30 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $600: "It was Wang Lung's marriage day." The Good Earth |
| #3007, aired 1997-09-30 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $800: "Half-way down a by-street of one of our New England towns, stands a rusty wooden house..." The House Of The Seven Gables |
| #3007, aired 1997-09-30 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $1000: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." 1984 |
| #2663, aired 1996-03-13 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $200: "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm..." Gone with the Wind |
| #2663, aired 1996-03-13 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $400: "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?" Love Story |
| #2663, aired 1996-03-13 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $600: "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently..." The Grapes of Wrath |
| #2663, aired 1996-03-13 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $800: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." Rebecca |
| #2663, aired 1996-03-13 | NOVELS' FIRST LINES $1000: "There were 117 psychoanalysts on the Pan Am flight to Vienna and I'd been treated by at least six of them." Fear of Flying |
| #2615, aired 1996-01-05 | POETRY $200: This Greek poet probably invented the sapphic, a 4-line stanza whose first 3 lines have 11 syllables Sappho |
| #2407, aired 1995-02-07 | FIRST LINES $200: "In a certain village in La Mancha, which I do not wish to name, there lived not long ago a gentleman..." Don Quixote |
| #2407, aired 1995-02-07 | FIRST LINES $400: "Marley was dead: to begin with" A Christmas Carol |
| #2407, aired 1995-02-07 | FIRST LINES $600: "Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens..." Around the World in Eighty Days |
| #2407, aired 1995-02-07 | FIRST LINES $800: "Half-way down a by-street of one of our New England towns, stands a rusty wooden house..." The House of the Seven Gables |
| #2407, aired 1995-02-07 | FIRST LINES $900 (Daily Double): "Mr. Jones of the Manor Farm had locked the hen-houses...but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes" Animal Farm |
| #2320, aired 1994-10-07 | SHAKESPEARE $200: One of Sampson's first lines in this play is: "A dog of the house of Montague moves me" Romeo and Juliet |
| #1838, aired 1992-09-09 | PLAYGROUND RHYMES $500: First line of the rhyme that includes the lines "11, 12, dig and delve; 13, 14,
Maids a-courting" One, two, button (buckle) my shoe |
| #1643, aired 1991-10-23 | ANCIENT GREEK SCIENCE $600: In creating the first star map, Hipparchus came up with this system of lines now used on Earth maps longitude & latitude |
| #1615, aired 1991-09-13 | SEASONAL QUOTES $1,500 (Daily Double): Title character who mentions winter & summer in the first lines of Shakespeare's play about him Richard III |
| #1356, aired 1990-06-25 | AUTO-BIOGRAPHIES $400: "Life Lines" is her second autobiographical book; "Life Wish" was her first Jill Ireland |
| #1017, aired 1989-01-24 | FIRST LINES $200: "Once upon a time there were 4 little rabbits, & their names were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail & Peter" Peter Rabbit |
| #1017, aired 1989-01-24 | FIRST LINES $400: "It looked extremely rocky for the Mudville nine that day;" Casey at the Bat |
| #1017, aired 1989-01-24 | FIRST LINES $600: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Matthew (The New Testament) |
| #1017, aired 1989-01-24 | FIRST LINES $800: "Those who wish to win favor with a prince...offer him those things which they hold most precious..." The Prince |
| #1017, aired 1989-01-24 | FIRST LINES $1000: "Howard Roark laughed." The Fountainhead |
| #965, aired 1988-11-11 | SHAKESPEAREAN 1ST LINES $200: This fairy king's first line is "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania" Oberon |
| #965, aired 1988-11-11 | SHAKESPEAREAN 1ST LINES $800: His first line consists of just one word, "Calphurnia!" Julius Caesar |
| #905, aired 1988-07-08 | SHAKESPEAREAN 1st LINES $1000: Confronting his mate in the forest, his first line is, "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania" Oberon |
| #893, aired 1988-06-22 | FIRST LINES $100: "I found my thrill on..." "Blueberry Hill" |
| #893, aired 1988-06-22 | FIRST LINES $200: "Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh" "Jingle Bells" |
| #893, aired 1988-06-22 | FIRST LINES $300: "I'm getting married in the morning. Ding! Dong! The bells are gonna chime" "Get Me to the Church on Time" |
| #893, aired 1988-06-22 | FIRST LINES $400: "Well, it's 1 for the money, 2 for the show, 3 to get ready, now go, cat, go!" "Blue Suede shoes" |
| #893, aired 1988-06-22 | FIRST LINES $500: "Baby cried the day the circus came to town..." "Don't Cry Out Loud" |
| #806, aired 1988-02-22 | FIRST LINES OF PLAYS $200: "Salieri!.... Salieri!... Salieri!" Amadeus |
| #806, aired 1988-02-22 | FIRST LINES OF PLAYS $400: The 1st lines of this 1979 play, "I have nothing; no hearing, no speech," are in sign language Children of a Lesser God |
| #806, aired 1988-02-22 | FIRST LINES OF PLAYS $600: Maggie says, "One of those no-neck monsters hit me with a hot buttered biscuit..." Cat on a Hot Tin Roof |
| #806, aired 1988-02-22 | FIRST LINES OF PLAYS $800: This play opens with a friend of Hamlet's tossing coins & saying, "heads... heads.... heads... heads... heads." Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead |
| #806, aired 1988-02-22 | FIRST LINES OF PLAYS $1000: "With one particular horse, called Nugget, he embraces." Equus |
| #759, aired 1987-12-17 | SHAKESPEAREAN 1st LINES $200: The first thing he says is his wife's name, "Calpurnia!" Julius Caesar |
| #691, aired 1987-09-14 | FIRST LINES $100: "My country, 'tis of thee..." "America" |
| #691, aired 1987-09-14 | FIRST LINES $200: "O beautiful for spacious skies..." "America The Beautiful" |
| #691, aired 1987-09-14 | FIRST LINES $300: "Hey, there! Stella, baby!" A Streetcar Named Desire |
| #691, aired 1987-09-14 | FIRST LINES $400: "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the Valley of Death rode the six hundred...“ "The Charge of the Light Brigade" |
| #691, aired 1987-09-14 | FIRST LINES $500: "It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea..." "Annabel Lee" |
| #664, aired 1987-06-25 | FIRST LINES $100: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord..." "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" |
| #664, aired 1987-06-25 | FIRST LINES $200: "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream..." The Old Man and the Sea |
| #664, aired 1987-06-25 | FIRST LINES $300: "Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that." A Christmas Carol |
| #664, aired 1987-06-25 | FIRST LINES $400 (Daily Double): "The great fish moved silently through the night water..." Jaws |
| #664, aired 1987-06-25 | FIRST LINES $400: It looked extremely rocky for the Mudville 9 that day..." "Casey at the Bat" |
| #574, aired 1987-02-19 | FIRST LINES $100: "Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor woodcutter with his wife & his 2 children" "Hansel & Gretel" |
| #574, aired 1987-02-19 | FIRST LINES $200: The 1st 4 words in "The Sound of Music", sung by Julie Andrews The hills are alive |
| #574, aired 1987-02-19 | FIRST LINES $300: "There once lived in a sequestered part of...Devonshire, one Mr. Godfrey Nickleby..." Nicholas Nickleby |
| #574, aired 1987-02-19 | FIRST LINES $400: "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." Little Women |
| #574, aired 1987-02-19 | FIRST LINES $500: "All children, except one, grow up." Peter Pan |
| #574, aired 1987-02-19 | LAST LINES $1000: "...he never knew...it...was his own bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be real." The Velveteen Rabbit |
| #559, aired 1987-01-29 | FIRST LINES $200: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." A Tale of Two Cities |
| #559, aired 1987-01-29 | FIRST LINES $400: "Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank..." Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland accepted) |
| #559, aired 1987-01-29 | FIRST LINES $600: "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." Out of Africa |
| #559, aired 1987-01-29 | FIRST LINES $800: "The time traveler (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding..." The Time Machine |
| #559, aired 1987-01-29 | FIRST LINES $1000: "The Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement is perhaps unknown to you" All About Eve |
| #502, aired 1986-11-11 | SHAKESPEAREAN 1ST LINES $200: "2 households both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona where we lay our scene..." the first line of Romeo and Juliet |
| #497, aired 1986-11-04 | FIRST LINES $200: "I wish I was in the land of cotton" "Dixie" |
| #497, aired 1986-11-04 | FIRST LINES $400: Completes Longfellow's opening line "Listen, my children, & you shall hear" "of the midnight ride of Paul Revere" |
| #497, aired 1986-11-04 | FIRST LINES $600: Its 1st 3 words are "We the People" the U.S. Constution's preamble |
| #497, aired 1986-11-04 | FIRST LINES $800: "When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods" Walden |
| #497, aired 1986-11-04 | FIRST LINES $1000: "In the 2nd century of the Christian era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the Earth" The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |
| #358, aired 1986-01-22 | MOVIE FIRST LINES $100: 1970 tear-jerker that opens, "What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died?" Love Story |
| #358, aired 1986-01-22 | MOVIE FIRST LINES $200: "Chapter one: he adored N.Y. City", Woody Allen says at the start of this film Manhattan |
| #358, aired 1986-01-22 | MOVIE FIRST LINES $300: "Hey, boy, what you doin' with my mama's car" Faye Dunaway asks this car thief when they meet Clyde Barrow |
| #358, aired 1986-01-22 | MOVIE FIRST LINES $400: This actor opens as a talkative corpse: "Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, Cal." William Holden |
| #358, aired 1986-01-22 | MOVIE FIRST LINES $500: "There was me, that is Alex, & my 3 droogs", ready for ultraviolence in this Kubrick film Clockwork Orange |
| #343, aired 1986-01-01 | FIRST LINES $200: "Let there be light" were the 1st words he spoke in the Bible God |
| #343, aired 1986-01-01 | FIRST LINES $400: This 1941 film opens as Effie the Secretary enters & Sam the Dick says, "Yes, sweetheart?" The Maltese Falcon |
| #343, aired 1986-01-01 | FIRST LINES $800: MC who opened his '50s show with, "Would you like to be queen for for a day?" Jack Bailey |
| #343, aired 1986-01-01 | FIRST LINES $1,000 (Daily Double): Follows "Where the bee sucks" in Shakespeare's song there suck I |
| #343, aired 1986-01-01 | FIRST LINES $1000: Metaphysical poet who addresses "Death" saying, "be not proud" John Donne |
| #304, aired 1985-11-07 | FIRST LINES $200: First 3 words of the Bible In the beginning |
| #304, aired 1985-11-07 | FIRST LINES $400: "When in the course of human events" the Declaration of Independence |
| #304, aired 1985-11-07 | FIRST LINES $800: Beatles song that begins, "You think you've lost your love" "She Loves You" |
| #304, aired 1985-11-07 | FIRST LINES $5,000 (Daily Double): Proper title of the poem that begins, "'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house" "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" |
| #270, aired 1985-09-20 | FIRST LINES $200: The 3 groups mentioned in the 1st line of Marc Antony's eulogy on Caesar friends, Romans, countrymen |
| #270, aired 1985-09-20 | FIRST LINES $400: It begins, "Mr. Phileas Fogg lived in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Road, Burlington Gardens..." Around the World in Eighty Days |
| #270, aired 1985-09-20 | FIRST LINES $600: Philip Roth story where Neil tells us, "The 1st time I saw Brenda she asked me to hold her glasses" Goodbye, Columbus |
| #270, aired 1985-09-20 | FIRST LINES $800: It begins, "Marley was dead to begin with" A Christmas Carol |
| #270, aired 1985-09-20 | FIRST LINES $1000: TV show whose theme begins, "Just sit right back & you'll hear a tale..." Gilligan's Island |
| #175, aired 1985-05-10 | FIRST LINES $100: The Gettysburg Address "Four score and seven years ago" |
| #175, aired 1985-05-10 | FIRST LINES $200: In opening narration of his TV series, what Superman was "more powerful than" a locomotive |
| #175, aired 1985-05-10 | FIRST LINES $300: Flatt & Scruggs opened this series each week with, "Come'n listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed" The Beverly Hillbillies |
| #175, aired 1985-05-10 | FIRST LINES $400: Elizabeth Browning's poetic question whose answer begins, "let me count the ways" "How do I love thee?" |
| #175, aired 1985-05-10 | FIRST LINES $500: Shakespearean title character who enters on the line, "So foul & fair a day I have not seen" Macbeth |
| #163, aired 1985-04-24 | FIRST LINES $200: Trio onstage as "Macbeth" begins with "When shall we three meet again?" the three witches (or the three Weird Sisters) |
| #163, aired 1985-04-24 | FIRST LINES $400: Man-on-the-street Louis Nye greeted him each week with "Hi-ho, Steverino!" Steve Allen |
| #163, aired 1985-04-24 | FIRST LINES $600: Famous document that opens, "When in the course of human events" the Declaration of Independence |
| #163, aired 1985-04-24 | FIRST LINES $800: Before this series self-destructed, it opened, "Good morning, Mr. Phelps" Mission: Impossible |
| #163, aired 1985-04-24 | FIRST LINES $1000: Poet whose "Sonnet on His Blindness" begins, "When I consider how my light is spent" John Milton |
| #124, aired 1985-02-28 | FIRST LINES $200: In Longfellow work, "listen, my children, and you shall hear" of this "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" |
| #124, aired 1985-02-28 | FIRST LINES $400: "Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot," but this Seuss title character did not the Grinch |
| #124, aired 1985-02-28 | FIRST LINES $600: Misfit monarch who opens his Shakespearean play with "Now is the winter of our discontent" Richard III |
| #124, aired 1985-02-28 | FIRST LINES $800: Poe's story that opens "True! Nervous... but why will you say that I am mad?" & ends with a cardiac arrest "The Tell-Tale Heart" |
| #124, aired 1985-02-28 | FIRST LINES $1000: The man Virgil sings of in poem that begins "of arms & the man I sing" Aeneas |
| #82, aired 1985-01-01 | FIRST LINES $200: The 2 things created in the 1st line of the King James Bible the earth and the heavens |
| #82, aired 1985-01-01 | FIRST LINES $400: "You don't know about me without you have read...The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" Huckleberry Finn |
| #82, aired 1985-01-01 | FIRST LINES $600: 1st word in this Orson Welles movie is also the title character's last Citizen Kane |
| #82, aired 1985-01-01 | FIRST LINES $800: "It was love at first sight" between Yossarian & his chaplain in this novel Catch-22 |
| #82, aired 1985-01-01 | FIRST LINES $1000: It is "the cruelest month" in T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" April |
