The Name of the Game (TV series)
Three reporters, one publishing empire, rotating leads.
It starred Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack, and was a wheel series that set the stage for later anthology programs like The Bold Ones and The NBC Mystery Movie. The program had the largest budget of any television series at that time.
Quick Facts
- Runtime
- 90 minutes
- Creator
- Jennings Lang
- Theme music
- Dave Grusin
- Company
- Universal Television
- Country
- United States
- Executive producers
- Richard Irving
- David Victor
- Leslie Stevens
- Dean Hargrove
- Network
- NBC
- First aired
- 20 September 1968
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The series rotated among three characters working at Howard Publications, a large magazine publishing company. Glenn Howard, played by Gene Barry, was the sophisticated, well-connected publisher. Susan Saint James played Peggy Maxwell, a research assistant who appeared in nearly half the episodes.
Cast
Tony Franciosa played Jeff Dillon in seasons 1–2 and the first half of season 3, leading 15 episodes and supporting in two others. Gene Barry played Glenn Howard, leading 27 episodes and supporting in 14 others. Robert Stack played Dan Farrell, leading 26 episodes. Susan Saint James played Peggy Maxwell in 38 supporting episodes and led one episode. Cliff Potts, credited as Cliff Potter, played Andy Hill in seasons 1–2, supporting in six episodes and leading one. Ben Murphy played Joe Sample in seasons 1–2, appearing in 12 supporting episodes only in Farrell's episodes. Mark Miller played Ross Craig in season 3, supporting in four episodes. Jo de Winter played Helena, an executive secretary for Howard, in four supporting episodes only in Howard's episodes. Guest stars included Darren McGavin, Vera Miles, Robert Culp, Peter Falk, Robert Wagner, and Suzanne Pleshette.
Production
In that episode, Glenn Howard is hunted in a lethally polluted future Los Angeles ruled by psychiatrists, with the populace living in underground bunkers; the plot is revealed as a dream, allowing the science-fiction story to fit the modern-day setting. Steven Bochco received one of his first writing credits on the series and served as story editor for the third-season Robert Stack episodes. Segment producers and executive producers included David Victor, Dean Hargrove, Gene L. Coon, and Leslie Stevens. The Universal Studios headquarters building was used for exterior shots of the Howard Publications building. The show's opening graphic used each actor's name zoomed out to form a line drawing of the star's face, with the face composed of repetitions of the name, accompanied by a jazzy theme by Dave Grusin. The graphic originally placed the featured lead first, with Franciosa on a pale blue background, Barry on red, and Stack on green. Episodes where Barry was lead used the order Barry–Franciosa–Stack; Franciosa's installments used Franciosa–Stack–Barry. This same single graphic preceded almost all episodes on Cozi TV reruns in 2014.
More in 1970s American Mystery Television Series
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