The Name of The Game: 1968-71

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Billo, Jul 14, 2019.

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  1. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    This probably forgotten Universal show of 76 minute episodes I mentioned on the TV shows not screened in a while thread and remains one of my very fav TV shows ever

    the show began as a pilot TV movie 'Fame is The Name of The Game' starring Tony Franciosa as crusading reporter Jeff Dillon with guest stars Jill St. John, Jack Klugman and Robert Duvall, and introducing a young Susan Saint James as research girl Peggy

    Universal later made the TV show; 'The Name of The Game' which alternately starred;

    Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon now of Howard Publications 'People' magazine

    Gene Barry as publisher Glenn Howard owner of Howard Publications

    Robert Stack as ex-F.B.I. man Dan Farrell editor of Howard Publications CRIME magazine

    the three stars rotated as leads - the show's striking opening graphic actually originally rotated each week putting up the featured star first for their segment episodes tho' later cable TV reruns mostly featured a opening graphic taken from a Robert Stack segment episode edited onto most but not all episodes - why do they have to mess about like that ?

    Gene Barry made cameos 'as Glenn Howard' in four Tony Franciosa and four Robert Stack first season episodes for series continuity purposes

    Susan Saint James now played research girl Peggy Maxwell and was main continuity link as she featured with all three leads, a regular in the Tony Franciosa episodes and semi regular with the two other leads

    A young Ben Murphy featured in a number of Robert Stack episodes as cub reporter/photographer Joseph Sample

    Cliff Potts - credited as Cliff Potter - played executive assistant Andrew Hill in most first season (and one second season) Gene Barry episodes - once taking a 'deputy lead' role in the first season episode; 'Pineapple Rose' when Peggy is kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity

    Mark Miller played Howard's legal executive Ross Craig appearing in a few Gene Barry and Robert Stack episodes

    Leslie Stevens produced Tony Franciosa episodes, Dean Hargrove the Gene Barry tales and George Eckstein the Robert Stack instalments among other producers including David Victor, Fred Shorr, and Gene L Coon

    while a young Steven Bochco was script editor on the third season Robert Stack episodes and wrote the episode; 'So Long Baby And Amen'

    Columbo creators Richard Levinson and William Link wrote and produced the first season Gene Barry episode 'The Taker' - which featured guest stars Burl Ives, Bradford Dillman and a 'one off' cameo by Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon seen briefly early on at a staff meeting Glenn Howard calls

    Gene Barry's Glenn Howard - was a influential millionaire 'playboy' figure with a strong sense of fairness and justice, his episodes were normally either big business or political games of chess stories plus a number of 'offbeat' style tales such as 'Love in at Ground Zero' (where Howard is kidnapped by a group of protesters and intended to watch from a sealed safe room their intended mass suicide during a secret chemical weapon test in a remote desert complex) , the zany 'One of The Girls in Research', a western story; 'The Showdown' and a sci fi themed futuristic story 'LA 2017' directed by a young Steven Spielberg re the perils of pollution affecting a future Earth....

    Boris Karloff's final acting performance was in the Gene Barry episode; 'The White Birch'

    Tony Franciosa's Jeff Dillon - was a stylish often smiling but doggedly persistent star reporter for 'People' magazine (some eight years before the actual magazine of that name...) - Dillon tended to hound his (deserving) targets with a determined approach and his segment stories were current affairs re a dead girl incriminating a state figure, racial tensions, corrupt local politicians, bogus Doctors, a reclusive millionaire with a missing wife, an aspiring young actress apparently being driven to suicide, a famous actor star with a dodgy past, dubuious goings on in a military camp training soldiers re capture by the enemy,a blind ex-Police officer apparently having a operation to restore his sight to identify his assailant...

    Orson Welles narrated the Tony Franciosa episode; 'The Enemy Before Us' where Jeff Dillon returns to his native New York only to find so much has changed...

    Robert Stack's Dan Farrell - was a widower ex-F.B.I. investigator - whose wife is killed in the first season episode 'Nightmare' - a very serious rarely smiling figure now working for Howard's CRIME magazine as editor waging an endless war on crime - be it illegal arms running, illegal immigrants being used as slave labor in a rural prison, corruption in sport, crooked charities, mob involvement in trying to kill protected witness, an apparently guilty woman who might be the victim of an elaborate frame, corruption in unions, a murder in the music business, drug running, a spree killer, and corrupt weathy landlords forcing poor to live in unsafe buildings...

    brothers Pete Duel and Geoff Deuel make their only TV appeance together in the Robert Stack episode; 'The Savage Eye'

    Peter Falk, Robert Culp (two episodes), Robert Wagner, Darren McGavin, Vera Miles and Suzanne Pleshette each made 'one off' guest lead appearances as other top reporters / newsmen working for Glenn Howard in stand alone episodes

    with many top guest stars and great theme music by Dave Grusin the show paved the way for the seventies 'Mystery Movies' of; Columbo, McCloud, Banacek, McMillan and Wife etc which were made by the same production teams

    sadly The Name of The Game seemed to be rather eclipsed by later shows it helped to inspire, largely fading from TV screens by the mid seventies with any long overdue DVD release apparently held up by differing formats issues re episodes plus music clearance issues etc..

    around 30 or so of the 76 episodes have been screened by cable channels in recent years and the show has a devoted Facebook page 'Remembering The Name of The Game'

    However it seems that each of the three leading stars are now chiefly remembered for their other shows and films which is a great shame as 'The Name of The Game' was an award winning lavish made quality Universal production that deserves better than to lay largely apparently forgotten in the NBC Universal archive..

    some episodes are up in full on youtube
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2019
  2. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    Tony Franciosa in 'Fear of High Places' - season one 1968

    with Gene Barry as Glenn Howard

     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2019
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  3. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    Gene Barry in 'LA 2017' - season three 1971

    directed by Steven Spielberg

     
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  4. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    Robert Stack in 'Swingers Only' - season one 1968

     
  5. Linus

    Linus Senior Member

    Location:
    Melb. Australia
    I loved this show as a kid, it was on Friday nights and I was allowed to stay up to watch it as there was no school the next day.
    I vividly remember this episode, (the old hippies listening to acid rock scene stuck in my mind).
    Never knew it was directed by Spielberg!
     
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  6. drad dog

    drad dog A Listener

    Location:
    USA
    One of my favorite themes. May I post it?

     
  7. drad dog

    drad dog A Listener

    Location:
    USA
    IIRC Harlan Ellison wrote an episode called "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" and then wrote about the experience in his TV column. Spoiler: He wasn't happy. It's in a book called the Glass Teat.
     
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  8. ducksdeluxe

    ducksdeluxe A voice in the wilderness.

    Location:
    PNW
    Harlan Ellison was NEVER happy.
     
  9. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Actually, I saw Harlan happy on many occasions, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. His last wife, Susan, helped sand off a lot of the sharp edges of his personality over the years.

    As to The Name of the Game: it's tough to syndicate a show that had marginal ratings for three years and only produced 76 episodes. The series is also very dated, not nearly the "hip, happening" thing it was from 1968-1971. However, I was told by somebody at Universal DVS that they did remaster the show for HD at some point in the last 10-15 years. Whether that was before or after the fire, I don't know. But they could release it to HD and streaming if they really wanted to. There's a ton of stuff Universal sits on that doesn't get released, but perhaps we'll see that once the Comcast/NBC/Universal streaming channel happens over the next year.

    If they just released the Spielberg "LA 2017" episode, that would be pretty cool -- I think that was by far the most interesting and memorable episode of Name of the Game they ever did.

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. ducksdeluxe

    ducksdeluxe A voice in the wilderness.

    Location:
    PNW
    I guess you're right. Just did a little research.

    From this (how I'll always remember him):

    [​IMG]

    To this! :faint:

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Ignatius

    Ignatius Forum Resident

    Thank you for this! I thought this show had fallen off the edge of the earth.
     
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  12. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    No question, Harlan Ellison could be extremely cantankerous and difficult. He told me on more than one occasion, "kid, I'm still workin' on revenge grudges from 1947," and I believe him. Terrific guy, but it was sometimes challenging to be his friend.
     
  13. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    I don't recognise 'Whimper of Whipped Dogs' as a episode title - was it revised under another title ?

    I agree The Name of The Game now looks dated - as a late sixties / early seventies period piece - as are many TV shows dated to their time - eighties shows and many of today's TV shows are mega dated to their time

    here is the Steven Bochco episode

    Robert Stack in 'So Long Baby And Amen' - season three 1970

     
  14. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    and a series overview montage

     
  15. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    Not brilliant picture quality but the 'Columbo' creators Richard Levinson and William Link episode;

    Gene Barry in 'The Taker' - season one 1968

    with Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon



    note this episode retains the correct original rotated opening graphic putting up Gene Barry first, Tony Franciosa who appears then Robert Stack

    Jeff Dillon is seen early on at the staff meeting Glenn Howard calls exchanging banter
     
  16. Humbuster

    Humbuster Staff Emeritus

    If I remember correctly, wasn't each episode a 90 minute time slot?
     
  17. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    I watched this religiously as a kid. I didn't know any of the leads from squat, but I was really into it.
    I remember the Franciosa episodes often had Susan getting captured, knocked unconscious and captured, Tripping over her own feet and almost getting captured, etc.
    So Tony had to rescue miss innocent AND solve the mystery
     
  18. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    AFAIK, they only remastered 44 episodes which they sold to Encore Mystery back in the 90s. Shout Factory was interested in doing a DVD release but good elements for all 76 episodes couldn't be located and it would cost too much to pay Universal to transfer. Plus the 44 shows had a ton of music replacement in them as well.
     
  19. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    Yes, with 14:00 of commercial breaks spread over the time slot.
     
  20. drad dog

    drad dog A Listener

    Location:
    USA
    Hm. It might have not even been made, or it was changed. I read Harlans book a long time ago. I don't see a "name of the game" on the IDMB.
     
  21. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I know it was a short story, and I seem to recall it was pitched as a Twilight Zone episode in the 1980s but was not made. I think the original was heavily rewritten for The Young Lawyers (not The Name of the Game), and as usual, Harlan was furious over the changes.

    The Whimper of Whipped Dogs - Wikipedia

    Harlan had a ton of TV and film scripts that he wrote for years and years, and he got paid for them and they were optioned, but quite a few were never made. It paid for his house, but I think he was frustrated by dealing with a lot of the politics and ruthlessness of the studios and executive producers. I don't think Harlan could always be objective enough to know what would and wouldn't work on television: in particular, the 1980s CBS Twilight Zone reboot didn't get good ratings and lost a lot of money, mainly because the shows were uniformly downbeat and grim. You can make an argument that the competing NBC series, Amazing Stories, failed for exactly the opposite reasons.
     
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  22. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    Ellison also wrote a 3rd season Man From UNCLE episode, The Pieces of Fate Affair, which due to his use of real names, was kept out of syndication for decades until it was finally put into the package. As an UNCLE fan, I remember how in the 80s, it was considered one of the big desires on everyone's want list.
     
  23. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    The show was interesting in that it featured three differing types of stories for each star

    Tony Franciosa episodes - were general current affairs and embraced quite a vast format - Jeff Dillon was like a up market version of 'Columbo' doggedly digging away at his targets - but he wasn't a very good fighter often getting knocked out ! however his sheer persistence would lead him to his objective which was not always a case of a fight or chase at the conclusion sometimes it was a case of just getting to the truth etc

    Gene Barry stories - were usually set in wealthy circles and were often games of chess as Glenn Howard became emeshed in a tricky situation be it at political or business level and some where Howard just gets caught up in events by sheer chance - plus those 'offbeat' seven or eight episodes that are often more remembered including the sci fi episode, a western episode, an arty episode with the 'Third Eye' vocal group unseen by the actors, a wild daydreams filled episode...and perhaps the weakest episode with dreadful ham acting played for cheap laughs ! ('Appointment in Palermo')

    Robert Stack segments - were the most action orientated straight crime capers again covering a wide area of criminal activity - first and most second season RS episodes ended with a negative image then transforming into the latest cover of CRIME magazine - CRIME cover pics included guest stars; Martin Balsam, Van Heflen, Jessica Walter, Pernell Roberts, Ricardo Montalban, Donald Sutherland, Dennis Weaver, Sharon Farrell...

    the show aimed more at 'mini cinema' style than 50 minute TV episode....some were actually shown at film theaters overseas, thus like the following 'Mystery Movies' had a far slower pacing than say shows like 'Ironside', 'Hawaii Five-O' etc and while there was plenty of action it was not the over dominant thing in the show
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2019
  24. Splungeworthy

    Splungeworthy Forum Rezidentura

    Watched this with the parentals on Friday nights. I remember the graphics well. Didn't really get the stories though.
     
  25. Billo

    Billo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Southern England
    Here is the episode featuring the vocal group The Third Eye unseen by the actors

    Gene Barry in 'All The Old Familiar Faces' - season three



    while rather offbeat in style in places as producer Dean Hargrove decided to experiment more in the GB segment knowing it was the show's final season, the overall theme of a public figure being a target is sadly only too real....
     
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