The Name of the Game

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!

"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.

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.

I had just visited Universal Studies, Hollywood in 1968, when I was 15 and saw sets where they filmed The Name of The Game. Growing up with Bat Masterson and The Untouchables, I was a big fan of two of the stars, Gene Barry and Robert Stack. Susan St. James was just a young lady as Peggy Maxwell at 22 years of age. Tony Franciosa was fine too though I think he got into some type of dispute with the studio and disappeared from the show.

The 90 minute show ran on Friday nights and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. I have not seen it in some time and really hope it will be available on DVD sometime soon. It was shot in color and I think ran for about three years. Though the show is now almost 40 years old, I know I would still have fun watching it. My kids would laugh at the rotary dial telephones and lack of computers but to me it would still be a blast. They would recognize Robert Stack from Airplane though! Tony Franciosa was good but my favorites were Barry and Stack. The action, cars, outfits and setting were all classy. Please bring it back on DVD!

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".