The Name of the Game

This series to me was in a class by itself. The stories were first-rate and the stars were very charming and sophisticated. I always did admire Gene Barry as an actor and his work in this series made me a lifelong fan. I loved the clothes that he wore on the show and hence have tried to emulate his sophisticated style ever since. I feel that there were very few actors at that time other than Craig Stevens and Robert Wagner that had the same aura and screen presence. I also greatly enjoyed the episodes that Tony Franciosa and Robert Stack headlined. This series had the feel of a theatrical motion picture and one could tell that big bucks were being spent to produce it. I have some episodes on tape and still think that they hold up very well as compared to dramatic television today. Like the old saying goes; "They don't make 'em like that anymore".

Based on a popular TV-movie from 1966 ("Fame is the Name of the Game"), this 90-minute series was touted as NBC's 'quality' series of 1968, with three high-caliber stars (Gene Barry, Anthony Franciosa, and Robert Stack), movie-quality scripts, and first-class production values. Set in the world of magazine publishing, NBC trumpeted stories "ripped from today's headlines", and "action and adventure on a world-wide scale".

While NO series could have delivered everything NBC promised, "Name of the Game" was, in general, an entertaining series, through much of it's run, and occasionally could be daring and imaginative.

Top-billed was Gene Barry ("Bat Masterson", "Burke's Law"), as Glenn Howard, multimillionaire head of Howard Publications, replacing crusty character actor George Macready from the TV-movie. Suave and debonair, Barry's character often seemed little removed from his previous role, millionaire cop Amos Burke. But Howard was a crusader, unafraid to take on Washington, and address 'sensitive' issues. His 'starring' episodes tended to be the widest-ranging, with the most memorable single show of the entire series, "L.A. 2017", a nightmarish yet often satirical view of a pollution-poisoned future, based on a Philip Wylie story, and directed by a very young Steven Spielberg.

Anthony Franciosa ("Valentine's Day") reprised his TV-movie role as Jeff Dillon, an investigative reporter for "People" magazine (long before Time/Warner created it!) Cocky and intuitive, Dillon would often stumble into major stories by chance, and would, 'Columbo'-like, hound villains until the full measure of their evil-doings would become known. The most 'lone shark' of the three leads, Dillon was Howard's 'bad boy', often in hot water, but always vindicated by episode's end.

Appearing least frequently, Robert Stack ("The Untouchables"), ex-cop and crusading head of "Crime" magazine, took on everyone from the Mob to serial killers, willing to tackle cases that law enforcement agencies had given up on. Aided by reporters Joe Sample and Ross Craig (Ben Murphy and Mark Miller), he could dissect 'perfect' crimes, and bring closure to grieving families. Despite his limited appearances, "Name of the Game" offered some of Stack's best work.

Making her TV-series debut was Susan Saint James, who, at 20, had been a hit in the TV-movie. Now 22, she would appear in most of the episodes, as Howard's personal assistant and Dillon's bane. Spunky, occasionally loopy, but always endearing, Saint James would become one of television's most popular actresses for over two decades, moving on to "McMillan and Wife" and "Kate and Allie".

While ratings would eventually do "The Name of the Game" in (as dwindling quality scripts, and changing formats, necessitated by budget restraints, lost the series it's core audience), and other publishing-themed series proved more hard-hitting and topical ("Lou Grant"), NBC's ambitious series certainly earned it's place in the sun. While many of it's elements seem dated, today, it was as 'cutting-edge' as TV got, in 1968!

It's almost completely forgotten today, but once upon a time, it was briefly one of the most popular series on television, a clever crime drama that boldly straddled the line between a "continuing series" (The same cast of characters every week.) and "anthology series" (A different cast of characters every week.) by ambitiously merging the best of both worlds, as well as being big-budget, movie-length weekly episodes, with three rotating leading characters! The name of this now long forgotten series was "The Name of the Game". If you asked an NBC network programming executive back in 1968, which of the following two NBC series would be remembered & beloved more, The Name of the Game or Star Trek? The answer would have been resoundingly The Name of the Game!

While Star Trek struggled & scraped by for three seasons, before being cancelled & rediscovered in syndication, The Name of the Game was an immediate major ratings success, that fell almost as immediately as it rose, and it remains almost forgotten today. For those who aren't familiar with this series, here's a quick thumbnail sketch: In 1966, there was a highly-rated TV movie of the week called "Fame is the Name of the Game" that was a pilot for a prospective TV series. That pilot TV movie of the week was a major ratings success and the resulting series was greenlighted to premiere in the fall of 1968. The premise was the glamorous, jet-setting world of the Howard Publications publishing empire: At the top of the publishing empire, was the globe-trotting, wealthy publisher, Glenn Howard (Gene Barry) whose jet-setting adventures alternated with his two star reporters: Dan Farrell, tough-as-nails ace investigative reporter for Crime Magazine, (Robert Stack) and Jeff Dillon, hotshot star reporter for People Magazine. (*Six years before the premiere of the real-life People Magazine!*) Jeff Dillon, the most popular character of the three leads, who was portrayed by Tony Fransciosa. (Who I'll get back to in a moment!) Finally, tying the ambitious-for-its-time 90-minute episode package together, was the plucky & resourceful Howard Publications secretary, who was the personal assistant to all three leads, Peggy Maxwell, as portrayed by an "adorkable" pre-McMillan and Wife Susan Saint James! The three leads occasionally crossed-over into each other's stories and with Susan Saint James frequently crossing-over into all three leads' stories, it gave the series a genuine feeling of a shared-universe inter-continuity and with Tony Fransciosa as Jeff Dillon as the series' white-hot breakout star, the series seemed poised to be a syndicated success, after a long and healthy network run. However, the fickle finger of fate had other plans in mind.

The series' biggest asset was also its biggest liability: Tony Fransciosa as Jeff Dillon. Fransciosa was an eccentric prima-donna, whose on-set antics made William Shatner's ego driven antics on Star Trek seem civil & benign by comparison: He would arrive to work late, leave early, suddenly taking-off unannounced during the middle of the shooting schedule day, instigate off-the-cuff improvisations & rewrites, (Partially motivated by his difficulty learning his lines!) and frequently firing producers & directors who he didn't work & play well with! Adding insult to injury for the bewildered Universal Studios & NBC network executives was the irony that loose canon Franciosa's episodes were the highest-rated episodes of the three leads! This empowered Franciosa's reign of terror over both studio and network alike for two seasons, but the tantrums and no-shows eventually came to a head in the middle of shooting a big budget two-part episode shot on location in Las Vegas early on in season three. During the middle of location shooting of the episode, Fransciosa walked-off the set, never to return. Both NBC and Universal finally had enough and Franciosa was fired. Thanks to some script doctoring & film editing, Universal finished Franscioa's final episode without him and, for the rest of the season, the studio hired several rotating guest stars to play reporters replacing Jeff Dillon in episodes originally written for Franciosa's Dillon. Unfortunately, without the show's breakout star, the series' ratings immediately plummeted and never recovered and, as a result, the show was quickly cancelled after three tulmetous seasons then just-as-quickly forgotten, while Star Trek, which was largely ignored by the network while the show was on the air, achieved legendary status in syndication and in pop culture and both network & studio executives expected the exact opposite to happen!

Why the ironic reversal of fortune? Several factors, actually. Firstly, changing trends: Back in 1968, the sleek, new novelty was the 90-minute format. Less-than-two-hours, but more than one hour, the 90-minute format was the new & unique flavor of the month. In fact, Name eventually paved the way for the even-more-successful NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, featuring Columbo, McCloud, & McMillan and Wife. But as trends change, studios & networks adjust accordingly. While in 1968, the 90-minute format was novel, by 1974, the format was by then judged unwieldy. Once the novelty of the 90-minute format wore-off, the mundane reality of day-to-day local TV station scheduling set in: While local TV stations could easily accommodate either one-hour or two-hour TV programs, 90-minute TV programs were too much of a logistical scheduling nightmare, which greatly hurt Game's syndication resale value! Eventually, even The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie transitioned from 90-minutes to two hours, sounding the death knell of the 90-minute format.

Also, Star Trek benefited from fortunate timing & better scheduling: During Star Trek's original network run, NASA hadn't landed on the moon yet, so the Apollo missions had become somewhat routine and, as a result, all things outer space had suddenly become old hat by that point. Mere weeks after Star Trek was cancelled, Apollo landed on the moon! Suddenly old hat outer space was brand new again and that was also a contributing factor in Star Trek's re-emergence on the pop cultural landscape! That, and the fact the same show that struggled at 10:00 pm on Friday nights on the network, now suddenly soared at 6:00 pm on weeknights in syndication!

Finally, the changing tides of trends & tastes: As I mentioned earlier, the 90-minute format was briefly a big deal at the time, also briefly a big deal at the time: Tony Fransciosa. Fansciosa was the new flavor of the month in 1968. By 1971, he was old hat, like Star Trek & outer space briefly was, back in 1968. However, unlike Star Trek, Tony Fransciosa never really bounced back. While he continued to act for the rest of his life and he led a long, diverse, and varied journeyman actor's career, he never regained his white-hot pop cultural super-star status. His fleeting moment in the pop cultural spotlight was over by 1971, while Star Trek's were only beginning. In fact, I'd say that far more people today know who George Takei is than know who Tony Fransciosa was. Ultimately, time is both the great equalizer and the best judge. The final score: Star Trek, 1; The Name of the Game, 0. Game over.

Even though I ultimately prefer Star Trek over The Name of the Game, there is still a lot to be said for Game. With Game's ambitious format and its elaborate shared-universe inter-continuity, it boldly predicted the shared-universe inter-continuity of the various Law and Order & Chicago Fire/PD/Med TV series, among others, that are in vogue today. Also, the episodes were very well-crafted mysteries, with occasional flashes of brilliance! While a pop cultural footnote today, The Name of the Game was, in some ways, very groundbreaking and, at the very least, very solid television!

UPDATE: Yesterday afternoon, (November 15, 2023) I was surfing on YouTube, intending to watch two of my favorite TNOTG episodes, "LA 2017" & "All The Old Familiar Faces", only to find that all but one of the TNOTG episodes posted on YouTube have been removed! Also, Shout Factory, which previously announced plans to release TNOTG on DVD way back in 2014, has long since cancelled their plans to do so. The Name of the Game is now officially a *forgotten series*. A pity.

When this debuted in 1968, I thought it was the best TV show I'd ever seen. It had a "wheel" format of the kind pioneered by Warner Bros. a decade before, which allowed more time to film each episode and allowed the show to attain higher quality than the average TV show. You could also do any kind of story on it. Glen Howard, (Gene Barry) could get involved with boardroom battles, political scandals in Washington, could travel to anywhere in the world. He was involved in everything from a campus protest to a murder investigation in and English country house to the "Prague Spring" to a flashback episode that took place in the old west to a Phil Wylie vision of a post-apocalyptic world. Dan Farrell, (Robert Stack), was Elliot Ness with a typewriter, going wherever crimes were committed to battle the bad guys with the truth and comfort the afflicted. Jeff Dillon, (Anthony Franciosa), was more interested in afflicting the comfortable as a reporter for People Magazine, (Time/Life's version didn't exist yet), His was perhaps the most open-ended job of all. He could be doing a personality piece on a show business icon, going undercover at a paramilitary training ground, investigating a phony doctor, covering the coverage of a search for someone lost in the woods, (an updated version of "Ace in the Hole"). Susan Saint James was the real star of the show as she was assigned as the assistant to each in time for their latest adventure, (a strange practice, it seems to me, but she was always welcome).

The whole thing was packaged in a glittery covering of jazzy music and artsy-craftsy direction, (including by a young Stephen Spielberg), that made it all seem "hip" and exciting. Looking back at it now, that's one of the problems. It's so aggressively contemporary that it's now very dated, both in style and attitudes. The "Man From Uncle" doesn't date because it was never realistic to begin with. "Adam 12" doesn't date because it was never about issues. The things those cops dealt with is the same thing they'd deal with today. "Lou Grant " doesn't date as much because it was presented in a straight forward manner. "Name of the Game" seems stuck in it's own time.

Another problem is that it got more and more wordy as the show went on. it started out as that rare dinosaur, the 90 minute drama. Coming up with movie length stories on a weekly basis was tough and there was a lot of "fill" in many of the episodes. NBC, experimenting with the notion that longer shows might be cheaper because they meant less shows, eventually expanded it to a series of "special" two hour shows, which not only bloated it more but took it past many bedtimes. What finally killed it was the expense. It was the most expensive show in TV history to that time, (and probably would still be with inflation factored out). it had to be a huge ratings hit to "make it" for a long run. It wasn't and it didn't. But, for a while there, it was something special.

After more than 35 years, I still remember The Name of the Game as one of my all-time favorites. The format was original and the overall vibe cool and classy. The stories were well-written with interesting plot twists. Back then, I had no idea who the writers were but now, of course, Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues) is a TV icon and I'm not surprised to learn his superb career had its genesis here. The actors were on a par above other shows of the day -- movie stars doing a TV turn. not the norm at that time. Susan Saint James made her career on this show. Her character was vivid and sexy and it was obvious she was destined for bigger parts.