The Name of the Game (TV series)
The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack, which aired from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes each. The show was a wheel series, setting the stage for The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s. The program had the largest budget of any television series at that time.[1]
The Name of the Game
Plot[edit]
The series was based on the 1966 television movie Fame Is the Name of the Game, which was directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starred Tony Franciosa. The Name of the Game rotated among three characters working at Howard Publications, a large magazine publishing company—Jeffrey "Jeff" Dillon (Franciosa), a crusading reporter with People magazine (not to be confused with the real-life periodical that debuted in 1974); Glenn Howard (Gene Barry, taking over for George Macready, who had originated the role in the earlier film), the sophisticated, well-connected publisher; and Daniel "Dan" Farrell (Robert Stack), the editor of Crime magazine. Then-newcomer Susan Saint James, as Peggy Maxwell, served as research assistant to each of the lead characters for nearly half the episodes, providing for some continuity.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
The Name of the Game provided Steven Spielberg with his first long-form directing assignment: the dystopic science fiction episode, "L.A. 2017," written by Philip Wylie, who had earlier written Barry's memorable offbeat episode "Love-In at Ground Zero" in the first season. In the episode, Glenn Howard is hunted down in a lethally polluted Los Angeles of the future, where the fascist government is ruled by psychiatrists and the populace has been driven to live in underground bunkers to survive the pollution. But at the end, Howard wakes up to discover that it was a dream, which allowed the science-fiction plot to fit into the modern-day setting of the show.
Steven Bochco received one of his first writing credits on the series, and served as story editor for the third-season Robert Stack episodes.
Segment Producers / Executive Producers included David Victor (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. etc.), Dean Hargrove (U.N.C.L.E., Perry Mason Returns, Diagnosis Murder etc.), Gene L. Coon (Star Trek etc.), and Leslie Stevens (The Outer Limits, Mystery Movies etc.)
The Universal Studios headquarters building was used for the exterior shots of the "Howard Publications" building.[2]
Opening titles[edit]
The show's opening graphic used each actor's name, zoomed out to form a line drawing of the face of each of the primary stars in turn, with the face each time being formed out of repetitions of the star's name, accompanied by a jazzy, pulsating theme by Dave Grusin. This graphic originally put the featured lead first, then the other two as "starring in ...", Franciosa set on pale blue background, Barry on red, and Stack on green. All three leads were thus depicted, although usually only one of them actually appeared. Each episode then carried individual credits with the featured lead name "in" followed by title and guest cast. Episodes where Barry was the lead, or a "special guest" on episodes with guest "reporters", originally had the opening graphic order as "Barry–Franciosa–Stack", and Franciosa's installments originally had the rotational order as "Franciosa–Stack–Barry". When the show ran on the Encore Mystery channel between 1996 and 1999, a single "Stack–Barry–Franciosa" opening graphic (originally used only on those episodes in which Stack starred) was shown on nearly every episode (except "Keep The Doctor Away", "Goodbye Harry", "The Takeover", and "The Tradition" which each retained their original correct rotation order respectively). This single graphic also preceded almost all except those four episodes on re-runs which Cozi TV aired in 2014.
Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa)[edit]
Franciosa's "Jeff Dillon" segments were "current affairs" stories that ranged from industrial espionage ("The Other Kind of Spy"), to medical fraud and malpractice ("Keep The Doctor Away"), racial tensions ("The Black Answer"), or shady goings-on in an Army training camp ("The Prisoner Within"). The charismatic Jeff Dillon was a stylish, charming character with a boyish smile, a razor-sharp mind with an attention to detail, and a dogged persistent investigative style later used by (and subsequently more strongly associated with) the 1970s Mystery Movie character Columbo. Susan Saint James's award-winning character, research assistant "Peggy Maxwell," was an ever-present supporting character in the "Jeff Dillon" segments (except the third-season episode 'The Enemy Before Us' where Dillon returned to his New York home). She even shared the lead with him on one occasion, in the season two episode "The King of Denmark." (in which she had a 'one off' greater starring role but was billed second in the episode credits).
Glenn Howard (Gene Barry)[edit]
Barry's "Glenn Howard" was a cool, self-made businessman who cut an elegant, impeccable, playboy millionaire figure, similar to his longer-running character of Amos Burke in Burke's Law. His tales usually involved big business ("The Perfect Image") or political intrigue ("High Card") set in powerful, wealthy circles. Howard also had a small but memorable number of more surreal "offbeat" escapades, such as "Love-In At Ground Zero," in which he was abducted by fanatical hippies and forced to witness their protest mass suicide during a secret chemical weapons test, and the aforementioned, Steven Spielberg-directed "L.A. 2017", which appeared at first to shift the series into the genre of science fiction. Other memorable episodes included the spooky "Tarot," the wild "One of The Girls in Research," and the Western set episode "The Showdown." Howard's assistant, "Andrew Hill" (Cliff Potts), appeared in some first-season episodes. Mark Miller was featured as "Ross Craig" in some Howard tales.
Dan Farrell (Robert Stack)[edit]
Stack's "Dan Farrell" was a resolute, stern ex-F.B.I. investigator, a righteous figure with a tireless sense of justice, which recalled his previous role as Federal Agent Eliot Ness in The Untouchables. Farrell's character had a tragic edge, unlike his two co-stars, being a widower whose wife's murder was shown, in flashback, in the first-season episode "Nightmare," which explained his more serious attitude. His stories were normally crime capers, often unusual types such as spree killers ("The Bobby Currier Story"), corruption in sport ("Brass Ring") or "televangelism" ("The Glory Shouter"), illegal use of prisoners as slave labor ("Chains of Command") and crooked charities ("Give Till It Hurts"). Most Stack episodes concluded with a negative image that transformed into the most recent cover shot of Crime Magazine.
Home media[edit]
On October 28, 2014, Shout! Factory was slated to release season 1 on DVD in Region 1 for the first time.[6] However, the release failed to appear and the show's status is apparently currently still 'in limbo' regarding any DVD release as of April 2016. Shout Factory has sent e-mails to interested parties that the DVD release has been cancelled per e-mail from Shout Factory.