If game show hosts like Bob Barker, Wink Martindale, and Monty Hall taught me anything during my internet/cable/cellphone-free youth, it’s that a good host always builds suspense before the big reveal of the answers. With that in mind, two notes before I give the answers from Wednesday’s CMEpalooza Agenda Trivia:

1. If your company is interested in sponsoring CMEpalooza Fall, make sure you check out the Sponsorship Prospectus soon. We are selling out quickly.
2. This is how the scoring works: There are eight trivia questions, and the answer for each question relates in some way to one of the agenda sessions. For each question, you get 1 point for the correct answer and 1 point for naming the correct CMEpalooza session, for a total of 2 points for each question. Two of the trivia questions have two-part answers, so you get 1 point for each answer, plus 1 point for the CMEpalooza session, for a total of 3 points. There are a total of 18 possible points. If you get a perfect score without googling, let us know in the comments. There aren’t any prizes, though maybe I can you send you an old pack of baseball cards or something.

Question 1
This article of clothing, made from PVC plastic and featuring numerous colors, was one of the biggest fashion hits of the 80s.

Answer: Jelly Shoes

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Question 2
This 1989 movie predicted that in 2015, the President would be a woman, cars would fly, and the Cubs would win the World Series. All were wrong.

Answer: Back to the Future II

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Question 3
The 80s were weird. People would pay $2 a minute to dial these four digits (followed by a standard seven digit phone number) to listen to pre-recorded messages from Hulk Hogan, Paula Abdul, He-Man, and others (not to mention the various party lines and psychic options that were available.)

Answer: 1-900

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Question 4
This popular 90s sitcom included a character named Wilson Wilson (yes, that’s his name) and his catchphrase “Hi-di-ho, neighbor!”

Answer: Home Improvement

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Question 5
The star of 1980s hit show The Fall Guy also starred as astronaut Steve Austin in this even more popular show from the 70s. One point for naming the actor and one point for naming the show.

Answer: Lee Majors and The Six Million Dollar Man

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Question 6
This person dominated tennis during the 70s and 80s, winning 18 major singles titles, 31 major doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, the most in the Open Era.

Answer: Martina Navratilova

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Question 7
This song from 1985 was written for a movie of the same name, by the same person (Danny Elfman) who wrote the theme song for The Simpsons. One point for naming the song and one point for naming the band who sings it.

Answer: Weird Science by Oingo Boingo

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Question 8
In 1984, a Mister Softee ice cream truck driver memorized the board patterns of this game show and won more than $100,000, record winnings at the time.

Answer: Press Your Luck

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The answer to Scott’s bonus question (“There was one for Mr. Body in the study, 2 for the chandelier, 2 at the lounge door, and 1 for the singing telegram. 1+2+2+1”) is Clue (0 points.)

In honor of our newly released CMEpalooza Fall 2022 agenda (Wednesday, October 19!), I put together a little trivia game for everyone because, well, mostly because I was sitting around waiting for an email and needed something to do. Mind you, this is not trivia about the actual CMEpalooza agenda. No offense to our wonderful panel of speakers (we love you all!), but that would be pretty boring. No, this is is trivia focused on 80s (and a smattering of 70s and 90s) pop culture, because that is what we do here at CMEpalooza. We might not be good at a lot of things, but we are good at 80s trivia.

This is how it works: There are eight trivia questions, and the answer for each question relates in some way to one of the agenda sessions. For each question, you get 1 point for the correct answer and 1 point for naming the correct CMEpalooza session, for a total of 2 points for each question. Two of the trivia questions have two-part answers, so you get 1 point for each answer, plus 1 point for the CMEpalooza session, for a total of 3 points. There are a total of 18 possible points. (Note from Scott: “There was one for Mr. Body in the study, 2 for the chandelier, 2 at the lounge door, and 1 for the singing telegram. 1+2+2+1” – name the 80s movie for a bonus point. Math rules!)

This is all for fun, so there are no prizes and you can track your own answers. I’ll give you two days to think about it and then reveal the answers on Friday. Good luck!

NOTE: I just realized none of these are actually worded as questions. Whatever. You all know what we’re doing here. This ain’t rocket science.

Question 1
This article of clothing, made from PVC plastic and featuring numerous colors, was one of the biggest fashion hits of the 80s.

Question 2
This 1989 movie predicted that in 2015, the President would be a woman, cars would fly, and the Cubs would win the World Series. All were wrong.

Question 3
The 80s were weird. People would pay $2 a minute to dial these four digits (followed by a standard seven digit phone number) to listen to pre-recorded messages from Hulk Hogan, Paula Abdul, He-Man, and others (not to mention the various party lines and psychic options that were available.)

Question 4
This popular 90s sitcom included a character named Wilson Wilson (yes, that’s his name) and his catchphrase “Hi-di-ho, neighbor!”

Question 5
The star of 1980s hit show The Fall Guy also starred as astronaut Steve Austin in this even more popular show from the 70s. One point for naming the actor and one point for naming the show.

Question 6
This person dominated tennis during the 70s and 80s, winning 18 major singles titles, 31 major doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, the most in the Open Era.

Question 7
This song from 1985 was written for a movie of the same name, by the same person (Danny Elfman) who wrote the theme song for The Simpsons. One point for naming the song and one point for naming the band who sings it.

Question 8
In 1984, a Mister Softee ice cream truck driver memorized the board patterns of this game show and won more than $100,000, record winnings at the time.

Last week I went with the fam to see Top Gun: Maverick at my local cineplex. I admit to a bit of initial skepticism over all the rave reviews its been receiving, but wow — that was a fun night at the movies!

There were old faces, new faces, old faces made to look new, and new faces made to look old. My daughter swooned over Miles Teller; my wife swooned over Tom Cruise; and I swooned over Tom Cruise’s ability to still run like the wind (How does he do it? The man is 60! Don’t you dare suggest it was a stunt double. Tom Cruise will be 90 and still run like he’s being chased by the devil.) It was a familiar formula with just enough twists and turns to make it feel new and fun.

Now, you may be asking yourself how I am going to transition from Top Gun to announcing the agenda for CMEpalooza Fall on October 19. Am I going to compare the rugged handsomeness of Mr. Cruise to the rugged handsomeness of the two co-producers of CMEpalooza? Hahahahahahahahahahaha…no. But I will tell you that the CMEpalooza Fall agenda has some old faces, some new faces, and a familiar formula with just enough twists and turns to make it feel new and fun. There may even be some running/walking involved, but we will save details on that for later.

There will be many more details and updates to come in the following weeks. For now, take a look at the agenda and mark down the date of CMEpalooza Fall in your calendar (it’s Wednesday, October 19). One of the new twists that I hope to add is that we require all faculty to pick a call sign (like Maverick, or Goose, or Viper) and use that instead of their names during the sessions. I haven’t told Scott about this yet, but I’m sure he’ll love it (mine is going to either be “Zeus” or “Hoss”. It’s hard to narrow down to one.)