The Name of The Game TV show

[John Wilson]

I hope this does not upset any 'forum rules' and get deleted...?

Does anyone remember seeing 'The Name of The Game' on ITV in the late sixties & early seventies...?

I would love to see this late sixties TV show rerun and get issued on DVD

It has virtually been 'forgotten' now tho' clips of it's opening and some episode clips can be found on youtube

Originally it had a striking 'Rotating' opening graphic which put up the three alternating regular stars faces in order of whoever took the Lead that episode.

The TV series was an expensive ambitious 90 minute Universal TV episodic 'wheel' series done like as on a feature film budget & scripting concerning a Magazine Publications empire 'Howard Publications' (whose tower office was actually Universal's own head office building in California) and it's two principal Magazines 'People' (some 8 years before the actual magazine of that name first began publication ) & 'Crime' magazine

the series alternated Lead actor between:
TONY FRANCIOSA / GENE BARRY / ROBERT STACK

Gene Barry was 'Glenn Howard' - millionaire owner of the publishing empire
Tony Franciosa was 'Jeff Dillon' - Chief reporter for Howard's 'People' Magazine
Robert Stack was 'Dan Farrell' - Ex- F.B.I. man & Editor of Howard's 'Crime' Magazine

Robert Stack's segments were Crime stories, with many unusual types of Crimes from spree killers, crooked landlords, crooked charities, corruption in sport, Unions, Pop Music business, an elaborate frame of a woman for murder, drug trafficking, or the use of prisoners as forced chain gang slave labour by crooked deputies in a rural prison etc

Gene Barry's stories were normally big business or Political intrigue tales...plus some offbeat 'surreal' stories such as a sci fi themed nightmare vision of a polluted future Earth; 'L.A. 2017' (Directed by the young Steve Spielberg), and a spooky story 'Tarot' plus a story where Howard is kidnapped on a desert highway by a hippie cult intent on making him witness their mass protest suicide (from a sealed safe room) during a top secret military test of chemical weapons ('Love in At Ground Zero')

Tony Franciosa's episodes were 'current affairs' tales re bogus top doctors, military POW Training camps that were too realistic, a reclusive millionaire with a 'missing' wife, Racial tensions, corrupt share dealing investors, corruption in local government, exposure of the goings on in the world of showbiz, social decline, etc...

Susan Saint James (later of 'McMillan & Wife','Kate & Allie') appeared with all three stars as their research girl,

Ben Murphy (Later of 'Alias Smith & Jones' 'Gemini Man', etc) was Robert Stack's assistant in some of his episodes.

Special Guest Star Lead actors occasionally featured in an episode (7 episodes in all) playing 'other reporters' of Howard Publications, these were:
Robert Wagner, Peter Falk, Robert Culp, Darren McGavin, & Vera Miles
but normally it was one of the three regular Stars who took the lead role.


Steve Spielberg, Stven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, LA Law, etc) , Dean Hargrove (Man From UNCLE, Diagnosis Murder, etc) , Gene L.Coon (Star Trek, etc) & Leslie Stevens (the Outer Limits, McCloud, etc) all worked on this show

Dave Grusin & Dominic Frontiere did the music for this award winning colour show.

Orseon Welles narrated one episode, being a big fan of the show which featured Boris Karloff's last acting performance,

many top guest stars featured such as:
William Shatner, Jack Klugman, Roddy McDowall, Joseph Cotton, Donald Sutherland, Pete Duel, Dennis Weaver, Pernell Roberts, Van Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, Charles Boyer, Sal Mineo, Julie Harris, Steve Forrest, Robert Young, Robert Webber, David Carradine, Honor Blackman, Shirley Jones, Chuck Connors, Sammy Davis jnr, Claudine Longet, William Conrad, Susan Strasberg, Broderick Crawford, Susan Oliver, Nigel Davenport, Jill St. John, Frank Gorshin, Will Geer, Pamela Franklin, Brandon deWilde, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Barry Sullivan, Frank Sinatra, Jessica Walter (of 'Play Misty For Me' fame) and many more....

NBC Universal went on to make Columbo, McCloud, Bancek, McMillan & Wife directly after this largely as a result of the success of this show using the same Production teams.

It would be an ideal series for a channel such as TCM or Channel Five to screen....

while a DVD release of this three season running TV Show & it's pilot TV Movie: 'Fame is The Name of The Game' (1966) starring Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon is long overdue.

[George D]

yes I remember the show.. i have a few in my collection however I dont know if it being released on dvd.

[Peter Stirling]

Yes ' the Mystery Movie on drugs'.Very stylish and unconventional for the time, certainly a kid with the keys to the sweet shop for people like Steven Speilberg I reckon?
Apparently Tony Franciosa was bit of a handful to direct and I am not sure if his appearances started to dwindle in favour of the others?
One of those US series we were lucky to get fresh (some UK ep transmissions were in days -rather than months- of the US transmissions).
Yes I dont know why we dont see it anymore as even the earliest Columbos have been around the block several times

[iankmclachlan]

I too would like to see this series released on DVD. I have heard a lot about it but sadly did not see it at the time.

[Deleted]

This series takes me back to the early years of Thames! I used to watch it at the time and used to particularly look forward to Gene Barry's episodes due to his connection with Burke's Law! It also always reminds me of another series from Thames beginnings, for some reason: It Takes A Thief.

I'm not sure how many episodes were made but can remember it being on from about 1971 in the London area. I'm not sure i'd want to sit through the whole run but it would be good to dip in to a few episodes and see. There are still a huge number of well-remembered series that have fallen off the radar, even in this age of a million and one DVD releases to choose from!

[George D]

Lets take a thief was a great series with Robert Wagner and Malachi Throne. In the us it ran from 68-70 but perhaps made its way to uk a few years later.