Questions written for the Ann B. Davis generally follow the concept that there are five categories and three time periods of popular culture questions. Each packet should have 5 tossups and 5 bonuses for each category, while the time period should be equally distributed among all questions.

Categories:

A packet should consist of 25 tossups and 25 bonuses distributed into five categories.

• Music: In an era where narrowcasting is prevalent and popular culture rarely latches on to one particular artist or genre, it is imperative that questions reflect the broad spectrum of music today. All packets should contain at least one question but no more than two relating to country music, as well as a 1-2 limit on rap/hip-hop. There should be one question referring to music that has a significant narrow following but not a large popular following such as modern jazz, new age, CCM, etc. The remainder of the questions should reflect the overreaching arc of pop and rock.
• Movies: Questions in this category should also represent a broad spectrum of what is available today. Comedies should have at least three questions and should vary in subgenre (e.g.: not having all three be screwball or romantic), dramas should have at least four questions and should also be varied (i.e.: not all being action, spy thriller or horror). The remainders can be questions about minor genres such as documentary or be additional questions about comedies and dramas. Additionally, the questions should be a mixture of identifying both people and work.
• Television: At least six questions should reflect shows that are available to the general public – shows (or the characters or people on those shows) that air on prime-time network television. The remainder can be about cable, daytime or late night shows, but be conscious that even with the prevalence of DVDs and file sharing, shows that do not air on network television are niche.
• Sports: Two questions should be devoted to baseball, two to football (one for NFL and one for NCAA) while two more should be devoted to basketball (one for NBA and one for NCAA). Two questions should be devoted to two of the second-tier sports of hockey, soccer and NASCAR (i.e..: you would have a question about hockey and NASCAR but not soccer). The final two questions should be about other sports such as golf, tennis, Olympics or other lesser followed sports.
• Other: Two questions should be about video games, but they should not be from the same time period. They also need to reflect games that are reasonably popular. Two questions should be from popular literature, with no sub-genre represented twice (i.e.: no more than one sci-fi or romance). Additional questions for this category can be food, drink, restaurants, travel, board games, comic strips, comic books, the Internet, toys, etc. For these sub-categories, do not have more than one representative.

Time Period:

All questions should follow a roughly equal distribution of time in three distinct periods:

• Content from the current time frame (last 24 months)
• Content from the recent time frame (last 2 through last 12 years)
• Content from 12 years and beyond.

Items in the first group (last 24 months) are things that are currently in the popular culture universe. This would include those items that may be popular now but will not carry significance in the future.

The second group (last 2 through last 12 years) should represent things that were not flashes in the pan. This is not the place to neither ask about TV shows that lasted less than six episodes nor movies that were in and out of the theatres in less than one week – unless they carry some pop culture significance today.

The third group (12 years and older) should be mainly about either incredibly important pop culture items or things that now have popular culture significances due to their stamp on today's popular culture. For example, The Velvet Underground never had a major hit, but are incredibly influential on music today, and could be considered fair game for questions. On the other hand, Jim Stafford had some major hits in 1974, and you have no idea who he is.

Tossups:

• Tossups should not be longer than 480 characters, which is a shade over 6 lines of text using Microsoft Word defaults (1.25 inch margins and Times New Roman 12).
• The information should be pyramidal – the most obscure fact should go first followed by clues in decreasing difficulty. The final sentence should clearly state "for 10 points"
• "List Tossups" – tossups where it is simply a barrage of facts (usually names) without other parts of speech are not allowed. Instead of plucking 15-25 names and just listing them, what about taking 5 of them and making a coherent question instead?
• Tossups have a 15 point section (which is indicated in bold) and a 10 point section, separated by an asterisk in parentheses (*). The 15 point portion should rarely stretch beyond the first few words of the second sentence.
• The tossups should be numbered.
• The answer line should come immediately after the tossup, with the answer portion bolded and underlined.
• The goal is to have a packet-wide answer rate of 85% of tossups. Generally, if two good teams are playing, 95% of tossups should be answered. A game with two poor teams playing should have an answer rate of 75%.

Bonuses:

• Generally, the bonuses should include a lead-in statement of 2 lines or less, and three parts of 2 lines or less.
• One of the parts should generally be answerable by 80-90% of the teams. One part should be from 40-60%, and one part from 10-30%. The goal is to average 15 points per bonus.
• Packets should have no more than two "40-30-20-10-1" bonuses.
• Packets should have no more than four bonuses that contain 4 parts. This would include the 40-30-20-10-1 bonuses.
• There should be no 5 or 6 part bonuses, except for the 40-30-20-10-1.
• The bonuses should be numbered.
• Each part of the bonus should have its value stated rather than an ordinal position such as a-b-c.

General:

• Before you turn your packet in -- read it out loud to yourself or someone you know. You'll be amazed on the amount of grammatical mistakes you'll find and that you will correct before you turn it in.
• Please remember to scramble your questions. Don't have the same category appear in consecutive questions.
• We like to keep the tournament PG. Profanity should only be used if it is part of a title or it is used in a quote. Anything that can be discerned as "hate speech" (sexual innuendo, homophobia, racial epithets) are not allowed. Nobody should have to be uncomfortable playing or moderating in the tournament.
• "Meta", where the possibility of getting the answer is enhanced by knowledge of active players, retired players or events in the quiz bowl circuit, is not allowed. The concept of this tournament is to be circuit-neutral.
• Keep your packet balanced. Don't make it "things I only know bowl." Great games and great quiz bowl experiences come from packets where everybody contributed.
• Err on the side of having pronunciation guides as opposed to not having them. Not every moderator can say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch fluently.
• Humor is encouraged, but don't let it stand in the way of good question writing.

Examples:

1.  A talented skateboarder, his first band, the Pinheads, was initially rejected as being "too loud". Born in 1968 (*) in Hill Valley, California, he was nearly killed by terrorists on October 26, 1985 in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, but used a specially modified DMC-12 to escape by getting it up to 88 miles per hour and going back in time to meet his future parents. For 10 points--name this time-traveling high school student played in a Robert Zemeckis trilogy by Michael J. Fox.
Answer: Marty McFly

2.  Step 1: Get your co-worker to be your HR director. Step 2: Get a 15-year-contract. Step 3: Profit. For 10 each:

(10)  Name this New York Islander goalie, who will have guaranteed income through the 2020-21 season.
answer: Rick DiPietro

(10)  DiPietro became the first goaltender drafted #1 overall, playing just one season at what school?
answer: Boston University (accept: Boston)

(10)  DiPietro received this contract due to the graces of his former backup goalie, a Maine standout who became G.M. during the summer of 2006.
answer: Garth Snow

Content by Mike Burger with assistance from Craig Barker. Portions of this web page have been edited and/or recreated for broadcast.

Last updated November 19, 2007.