The Name of the Game

"The Name Of The Game" was, as I recall, a very interesting and well-done "rotating" series that portrayed various and sundry well-known actors such as Gene Barry and Tony Franciosa as personnel connected with a well-known magazine. The peculiar thing was that this "fictional" magazine later became the real thing in life as we know it. It was a fascinating show to watch -- especially if you'd not seen it before and had caught it in passing later in syndication. It also had a very cool theme song, quite an accomplishment in itself.

Here's a great series that really should be released on DVD. Each 90 minute episode was a self-contained movie with one of three stars: Gene Barry played Glenn Howard, the self- made man who built his publishing empire from the ground up; Robert Stack played Dan Farrell, an ex-FBI agent who became the editor of "Crime" Magazine to better pursue and expose criminals; and Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon, who played the impetuous reporter for "People" Magazine (yes, and this was way before the actual "People" Magazine we now know). Many now well-known directors shot these episodes, including Steven Spielberg. And Billy Goldenberg's score for each show was always melodic and cutting edge. Hey Universal Home Video, PLEASE release a boxed DVD set of this series! As one of the first (if not THE first) rotating series of shows, it was both groundbreaking and entertaining. It should be enjoyed by a new generation of viewers... THANK YOU!

I used to love this show. I have not seen it recently, and I do not know how it would play today. However, my younger self remembers this as one of the best tv dramas ever. I remember one episode when Tony Franciosa returns to New York City to visit his mother and astranged older brother played by Martin Balsem. Franciosa throughout is trip is reading Thomas Wolf's "You can Never Go Home Again." He reunites with is brother, but later find that his grocery store owner brother is also a local drug dealer. It ends with Franciosa turning his brother into the police. His mother forgiving him, but she leaves to live in her home country of Italy. Susan Saint James played one of the magazine's researchers, and stared in one episode opposite Joseph Cotton. This was a 90 minute show that had three rotating stars. Tony Franciosa played the star reporter for a fictional magazine called "People," his millionare publisher was Glenn Howard played by Gene Barry, and Robert Stack played Dan Farrell, a former FBI agent turned crime reporter.

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.