companion questions to presentation

1. The concepts of these of several of these questions must
be credited to Jeff Gordiner and his book - X Saves the
World - How Generation X Got The Shaft But Can Still
Keep Things from Sucking and Howe and Strauss and
their books on American generations and millennials.
Contents
This PDF document contains questions and score sheet
for three contestants to play in your office.
Download the Presentation
The companion PDF, Powerpoint or Keynote presentation
is online within the TargetX iThink Blog at http://
www.targetx.com/ithink/
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Questions about this presentation?
Jeff Kallay
Experience Evangelist
TargetX
kallay@targetx.com
877-715-7474 x.110
Score Key - Question #1 - Childhood
1

2. Score Key
Score Key - Question #1 for Contestant #1 -
-Part one Five points possible (Sesame Street Star)
_____________
-Part two Five points possible (Big Bird)
_____________
Question #1 for Contestant #2 -
-Part one Five points possible (Brady Kids)
_____________
-Part two Five points possible (Brady Parents)
_____________
Question #1 for Contestant #3 -
-Five points possible (School House)
_____________
-Five points possible (School House)
_____________
2

3. Score Key - Question #2 - Youth
Question #2 for Contestant #2 -
-Part one Five points possible (MTV)
_____________
-Part two Five points possible (VJʼs)
_____________
Question #2 for Contestant #3 -
-Part one Five points possible (Wolverines)
_____________
-Part two Five points possible (War Games)
_____________
Question #2 for Contestant #1 -
-Five points possible (Cosby/Dad-Doctor)
_____________
-Five points possible (Cosby/Mom-Lawyer)
_____________
3

4. Score Key - Question #3 - Rising Adulthood
Question #3 for Contestant #3 -
-Part one Five points possible (Heathers)
_____________
-Part two Five points possible (Reality Bites)
_____________
Question #3 for Contestant #1 -
-Part one Five points possible (Christ/Dave)
_____________
-Part two Five points possible (Seattle)
_____________
Question #3 for Contestant #3 -
-Five points possible (Smelly Cat)
_____________
-Five points possible (Dr. Drake Ramora)
_____________
TOTALS
Contestant #1
______________
Contestant #2
______________
Contestant #3
______________
4

5. Question #1 for Contestant #1: Childhood
Itʼs a photo clue
1969 - Sesame Street hits the airways
Sesame Street, one of the longest running shows on
television, will celebrate itʼs 40th anniversary this fall on
November 9, 2009.
The early episodes of Sesame Street are now available on
DVD. Make sure you screen them before you let your kids
watch them though. Apparently our parents didnʼt love us
enough and let us watch this filth. The masonry on the
dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the
closeted Bert and Ernie shared a dismal basement
apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a
fast track to diabetes. Oscarʼs depression was untreated.
Prozacky Elmo didnʼt exist. Itʼs amazing that some of us
came out normal.
The old “Sesame Street” is not for the faint of heart, and
certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper
“Elmoʼs World” started. Anyone who considers New York a
tidy, governable place — well, the original “Sesame Street”
might hurt your feelings.
5

6. For five points name the comic/actress who appeared on
the first episode, starting a long list of celebrities to make
an appearance:
-Lucille Ball
-Carol Burnett (answer)
-Mary Tyler Moore
For five points tell us just tall is Big Bird?
8ʼ2” (answer)
8”6”
8ʼ8”
6

7. Question #1 for Contestant #2: childhood
Itʼs a video clue
1969 - The Brady Bunch debuts
Americaʼs first large blended family, the Brady Bunch aired
from 1969-1974, a time in America when divorce and
remarriage was seeing a surge.
The showʼs producer Sherwood Schwartz wanted
Florence Hendersonʼs character to have been a divorcée.
The network objected to this, but a compromise was
reached whereby no mention was made of the
circumstances in which her first marriage ended. But many
assume she was widowed.
The newly-formed juvenile sextet, parents, live-in
housekeeper Alice, and the boys' dog Tiger settled into a
large, suburban home designed by the Brady father, an
architect.
Episodes in the first season chronicled the family learning
to adjust to its new circumstances and become a unit, as
well as typical childhood problems such as; dating,
rivalries, and family squabbles and the fact that their
house had two bedrooms and one bath for six children.
Tragically as young Generation X adults, we dealt with the
real life death of Mr. Brady, when the actor Robert Reed
who played this patriarch died of AIDS related causes.
7

8. For five points, tell us the first names of all six Brady
children:
Marsha
Jan
Cindy
Greg
Peter
Bobby
For five points tell us the first names of both Brady
parents:
Carol
Mike
8

9. Question #1 for Contestant #3: Childhood
Itʼs an audio clue
1973 - School House Rock
ABCʼs School House Rock ran on Saturday mornings from
1973-1986. It was developed by former Disney CEO
Michael Eisner then Vice President of the networkʼs
childrenʼs programming.
School House Rock supplemented a luckluster public
education for many of Generation X. After a building boom
for Boomers, Generation X was hit but school system
downsizing and school closings.
Perhaps Generation X applied many lessons from School
House Rock when they finally made it to college and found
limited access to financial aid due because the program
was previously abused by Boomers.
Weʼre listening to Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here
from School House Rockʼs Grammar Rock. Other
categories include: Multiplication Rock, Science Rock,
America Rock, Money Rock and Scooter Computer &
Mr. Chips.
9

10. For five points each name any two of the other 49
School House Rock titles other than Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get
Your Adverbs Here
Multiplication Rock
My Hero, Zero
0
Elementary, My Dear
Three Is a Magic Number
The Four-Legged Zoo
Ready or Not, Here I Come
I Got Six
Lucky Seven
Figure Eight
Naughty Number Nine
The Good Eleven
Little Twelve toes
Grammar Rock
Unpack Your Adjectives
Conjunction Junction
Interjections!
Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
Verb: That's What's Happening
A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing
Busy Prepositions
The Tale of Mr. Morton
10

11. Science Rock
The Body Machine
Do The Circulation
Electricity, Electricity
The Energy Blues
Interplanet Janet
Telegraph Line
Them Not-So-Dry Bones
A Victim of Gravity
The Weather Show
America Rock
Elbow Room
Fireworks
The Great American Melting Pot
I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College
I'm Just a Bill
Mother Necessity
No More Kings
The Preamble
The Shot Heard 'Round The World
Sufferin' Till Suffrage
Three Ring Government
11

12. Money Rock
Dollars and Sense
Making $7.50 Once a Week
Where The Money Goes
Tax Man Max
Walkin' On Wall Street
This For That
Tyrannosaurus Debt
The Check's In The Mail
Scooter Computer & Mister Chips
Introduction Computers
Hardware
omputer Hardware
C
Software
Computer Coftware
Number Cruncher
Computerized Statistics
12

13. Moving down the line -
Question #2 for Contestant #2: Youth
Itʼs a photo cue
1981 - I want my MTV!
On August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., MTV: Music Television
launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and
roll!” Those words were immediately followed by the
original MTV theme song, a crunching guitar riff, playing
over a montage of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
MTV producers used this public domain footage as a
conceit, associating MTV with the most famous moment in
world television history. But, at the moment of its launch,
only a few thousand people on a single cable system in
northern New Jersey could see it.
But, the country soon demanded, “I want my MTV.”
Commercials ran without audio, and MTV actually played
videos.
Itʼs said youʼre no longer young when MTV stops caring
about you. And, in the mid-90ʼs MTV stop caring about
Generation X.
The Real World began the reality revolution and on those
rare occasions when MTV showed videos it was by
Millennial boy bands and manufactured mid-driffs like;
Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Christine Aguilera.
13

14. Itʼs common knowledge that appropriately, the first music
video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by
The Buggles.
For five points name the second video shown.
Was it:
Pat Benatar's "You Better Run." (answer)
Tina Turnerʼs “Whatʼs Love Got To Do With It”
The Clashʼs “London Calling”
For five points name any of MTVʼs first five original VJʼs
or Video Jockeyʼs, all of whom except one who died in
2001, are now on the XM/Sirius Satellite Radio and one of
which started the podcast revolution:
Nina Blackwood
Mark Goodman
Alan Hunter
J.J. Jackson
Martha Quinn
14

15. Continuing down the line
Question #2 for Contestant #3: Youth
Itʼs a video clue
Nuclear themed pop culture
Growing up in a Cold War. A situation over which
Generation X had no control, Perhaps it was this always
looming pending apocalypse, that fueled the Generation X
slacker angst. “Why stress so hard over school and career
when the world may blow up tomorrow?”
As Ronald Reagan outspent the “evil” empire of the Soviet
Union on Star Wars and other military endeavors, the
threat of nuclear war was a constant not only in the news
but in pop culture. Like this 1984 song, 99 Luftballons by
German artist Lena who herself grew up sandwiched
between the two super powers.
Nuclear exchange and itʼs post-apocalyptic aftermath
permeated Generation X literature, television and movies.
Titles like DefCon 4, A Boy and His Dog, Threads, Loganʼs
Run, The Day After, Red Dawn and countless others all
packed “nuclearrific” plots.
15

16. For five points
A popular date movie in 1984, “Red Dawn” featured a
star-studded cast including: Patrick Swayze, Charlie
Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, and Jennifer
Grey.
The WWIII (three) themed movie features the Soviet
Union and Cuba invading and strategically nuking the
United States.
A group of Generation X teens in a small town in Colorado
form a resistance organization and help the US win WWIII.
They took their name and battle cry from their high school
mascot.
For five points what as their “group” name? Was it:
Wolverines
Wolf Pack
Cougars
For five points name the 1983 movie starring Matthew
Broderick and Ally Sheedy as two Seattle teens who
unknowingly hack into War Operation Plan Response or
“W-O-P-R” supercomputer and accidently start the
countdown to World World Three.
War Games
16

17. Question #2 for Contestant #1: Youth
Itʼs an audio clue
1984 - Counter-Stereotypical programming on television.
In itʼs earlier decades, television wasnʼt kind towards
minorities. It often relied and promoted stereotypes.
Women, Southerners, African-Americans, and others
cultures werenʼt always presented in authentic or flattering
light.
NBC first aired The Cosby Show in the fall of 1984 and for
a total of eight seasons Generation X watched the antics
of the Huxtableʼs, an upper-middle class family living in a
Brooklyn brownstone. Originally ABC passed on the pilot
saying, America wasnʼt ready to see upwardly mobile
African Americans.
But NBC took the risk and Generation X embraced this
counter-stereotypical programming and soon all the
networks hopped on the counter-stereotypical
programming bandwagon. Shows like The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air, A Different World, Designing Women, and Ellen
changed the face of television forever.
17

18. For five points tell us the profession of dad Cliff Huxtable,
played by Bill Cosby:
Doctor
For five points tell us the profession of mom Clair
Huxtable, played by Phylicia Rashad
Lawyer
18

19. Moving next down the line
Question #3 for Contestant #3 - Adulthood
Itʼs a photo clue
Late 80ʼs and early 90ʼs - Angst and Anger on the big
screen
In the late 80ʼs and early 90ʼs. Winona Rider lead a cast of
foursomeʼs in two movies that expressed the post-yuppie
boomer influence, isolation and angst placed on
Generation X.
19

20. For five points name the 1989 dark comedy movie
starring Ryder, with co-stars Shannon Daugherty and
Christian Slater.
Its plot centers around a powerful and ruthless cliche of
rich girls at fictitious Midwestern high school where
student life is so vicious it symbolized with Rottweliers as
their high school mascot.
(Critics refer to the 2004 Lindsey Lohan movie “Mean
Girls” as a millennial, cleaner, sanitized version.)
Three members of the cliche share a common Generation
X girlʼs name for which the movie takes itʼs name.
Name this movie.
Heathers
For five points name the 1994 coming of age comedy
starring Ryder with co-stars Janeane Garrofalo, Ethan
Hawke and Ben Stiller about recent college graduates who
can only seem to find “McJobs.” Ryderʼs character, an
aspiring documentary film maker, chronicles her
Generation X friends challenges to fit into a Boomer
created world. But she wonʼt compromise her artistic
principle for commercial success. Name the movie with itʼs
popular soundtrack.
Reality Bites
20

21. Question #3 for Contestant #1: Rising Adult hood
Itʼs a video clue
Itʼs 1991 - Here we are now, entertain us
In 1991 the first members of Generation X entered their
30ʼs. Frustrated at the “Grey Ceiling” in the work place (a
seemingly unbreakable barrier reinforced by older
Boomers that limited promotion), an early-90ʻs economic
recession recession, and the Gulf War;
Generation X found itʼs voice in Nirvanaʼs music. Their
second album Nevermind launched them and alternative
music into the mainstream. Itʼs the sound of a generation
setting aside for once its ambivalence The album exerted
its mutinous influence on the pop charts and the national
psyche. But in true Generation X form, Nirvanaʼs reign
only lasted three short years.
Throughout the 90ʼs Generation X became media darlings
with the term popping up everywhere, but just like Nirvana
this media focus was short lived. It ended abruptly when
the media became obsessed with Boomerʼs offspring; the
first cohort of Millennials had arrived in full force along with
manufactured, “in sync” boy bands and mid-driff girls
singers clones.
Millennial music is polar opposite of Generation X.
21

22. For five points We all know Kurt Cobain was the
conflicted lead singer of Nirvana who committed suicide.
But, name one of the other two members of Nirvana, one
of which is also a founder of Foo Fighters.
Krist Novoselic or Dave Grohl
For five points name their hometown, the city that
became ground-zero for grunge, the poster child for all
things Generation X, and was host to the 2008 NACAC
National Conference. Name Nirvanaʼs home town:
Seattle
22

23. Finishing it up:
Question #3 for Contestant #2
Itʼs an audio clue
1994 - They were our FRIENDS
Like all creative members of generations before,
Generation X gravitated to the big city.
And in the 90ʼs the nation (and the world) watched six
Generation X “Friends” live, love, lose and learn to find
their place in the world.
23

24. For five points name the song by coffeehouse singer/
massause Phoebe Buffay that producers wanted to make
into a hit, but she like other members of her generation
she wouldnʼt sell out her integrity. This song tells the story
of an animal and itʼs affliction, name it.
Smelly Cat
Friends character Joey Tribiani, like others members of
Generation X, experienced boom and bus during the
1990ʼs. While many X-ers, were hoping to find their
dotcom fortune, Joey found fame and fortune and then lost
it all playing what character on Days of our Lives.
For five points name this Days of Our Lives character
Joey played? Was it
Dr. Daniel Jonas
Dr. Colin Murphy
Dr. Drake Ramoray
24

25. Possible Tie Breaker
Vast members of Generation X learned their moral lessons
from a single source: the 1971 movie Willie Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory.
Five children win a golden ticket to tour Willie Wonkaʼs
magical chocolate factory. Each are approached by the
evil Mr. Slugworth who promises them a fortune if they
steal Wonkaʼs new amazing candy.
The lessons of gluttony, narcissism, selfishness, lack of
civility and pride bridge the movieʼs storyline.
But one of the five children is good and is rewarded as
heir of the factory.
For five points name either of the childrenʼs name or the
amazing new candy they are asked to steal.
Charlie Bucket
Mike Teavee
Augustus Gloop
Violet Beauregarde
Veruca Salt
Candy: Everlasting Gobstopper
25

26. Note:
The concepts of these of several of these questions must
be credited to Jeff Gordiner and his book - X Saves the
World - How Generation X Got The Shaft But Can Still
Keep Things from Sucking
Questions about this presentation?
Jeff Kallay
Experience Evangelist
TargetX
kallay@targetx.com
877-715-7474 x.110
26