Shark Bytes
The Name of the Game never jumped the shark. The shark swam underneath it when the 60's officially ended (about 1972). Love it anyway, but very,very dated.
A great american drama which was innovative for its time. The juxtaposition of Berry, Fanciosa and Stack was perfect. Susan St. james was charming as the link between the three.
This was quite possibly the best show to ever hit the airwaves. Topical story lines, great characters (Jeff Dillon was my personal favorite), and Dave Grusin's outstanding theme song! I remember seeing an episode where Robert Stack had to use a shovel-it looked like he had never used one before. I also remember the episode where Gene Barry's character, Glen Howard, went back to the west, to a place called Hangtown. That stuck in my head because the little road with a few houses in the middle of nowhere where I grew up was called Hangtown. I recall the episode where Dan Farrell and Peggy Maxwell were investigating a drug ring or something, and he posed as a truck driver. I can't remember the specifics about this scene anymore, but I think I remember him losing control of his truck while he was drugged. He managed to get it stopped, and was sitting in the truck laughing. I recall my 6 or 7 year old brain being a little unimpressed with his acting in that part. The Jeff Dillon character got into the most intense situations, making them the most memorable! What's bad though, is that I was so young when this series ran that now I can't remember any one episode specifically. For example, there was an episode where Jeff Dillon was locked in some sort of room, and if I remember right, whoever locked him up was trying to drive him crazy. He kept repeating "Jeff Dillon-correspondent...Jeff Dillon-correspondent!" It may not sound like much, but Franciosa's acting in that episode gave me goose pimples! That's what struck me the most about this show. The acting, the settings (sometimes very lush, other times very bare), the stories. I remember it appearing to be a very expensive, polished show. Everyone else could have ABC's Friday night schedule, to me, THIS was REAL TV watching!
THE NAME OF THE GAME was an innovative show for the late 60's. This show was about three guys who worked for the same organization apparently but each week only featured one of the three guys. They alternated between Gene Barry, Tony Franciosa, and I think Hugh O'Brien was the third and Susan St. James appeared as Peggy the secretary to all three of them. The revolving heroes kept this show interesting and it was very state of the art for the late 60's. I think I liked Tony Franciosa the best. Great escapist fun that never jumped the shark.
I watched this show when it came out I was aged 7-11 during it's original run. The series was one of my favorties at the time. It seemed legitimate--something that contributed to my since of pre-pubescent righteous indignation, and to my belief that LA, the film industry, and so on was the center of civilization. Johnson may have had his Great Society, but the film industry represented for me the Great Civilization. (Kubrick and Felini were at the top of their game in these days, by gosh!) My favorite character was Tony Fransciosa, though I also liked Gene Berry, and his episodes (If I could view them again) might be the best of the lot. Stack disappointed me for some reason. Too stiff. As for Berry: I thought I would be that rich corporate aristocrat someday. It was one of those series--like the Fugitive--that exposed the corruption and racism of small town America, and without the sentimentality and holy-er-than-thou moralizing characteristic of shows that came out in it's wake; Kung Fu, for instance. Now that I am older, I sometimes get the impression that the people who made these films had been out there in the hinterlands working as academics, journalists, and so on, who had been run through the ringer of small town corporate America, and who sought to set the record straight through television. If I recall correctly, organized crime was often portrayed as the "Syndicate"--rather than ethnic mobsters the bad guys were portrayed as white corporate types. This is probably the strongest prophetic element of the show which survives in my imagination. I recently visited my dad, who is now 80. We spoke of a civilization that existed in the late sixties and early seventies. Hip, swinging, intelligent, strong, optimistic, on course despite all its problems. The Name of the Game seemed to capture that outlook. Those days seem gone, but maybe the outlook somehow endures?
Nobody's mentioned the extremely cool theme song that went with this show! And I also remember the weird episode where Gene Barry dreams that he's in the polluted future. (Soooo 60's) That episode was directed by...Steven Spielberg! This was the second tv movie he did (right after the "Eyes" segment of the Night Gallery TV movie.) I'd love to see this on dvd.
The two episodes I remember (I was around 11) were an episode with Barbara Feldon on the island of Catalina (even though I was a kid, I was impressed with the cinematic quality of the romance in that one) and the environmental disaster episode that was filmed through a red filter to represent the ruined future.
I remember one kind of cool episode, though not in detail, that somehow jumped Gene Barry back in time to a Western setting, and I also seem to remember one that took a character to the future. A very innovative show.
Never jumped. For the record, Gene Barry (Glenn Howard) was the major stockholder & CEO of Howard Publishing, which published both People Magazine and Crime Magazine. Tony Franciosa (Jeff Dillon) was a reporter for the various Howard publications, including People. Robert Stack (Dan Farrell) was a retired FBI agent who served as editor of Crime Magazine. Susan St. James was girl Friday to all three, but I remember her mostly in the Franciosa episodes. Episodes were well made and well acted, although they did err on the liberal preachy side sometimes. "We Love You Billy Baker", the two-parter that featured much of the Vegas Rat Pack, including Sammy Davis Jr. and Sinatra, was very memorable, worth putting on DVD, as is the whole series. Guest starts included well-respected Classic TV actors of the era like Joseph Campanella, as well as Classic Hollywood stars like Dorothy Lamour and Ann Baxter. When are we going to see it on tape or DVD?
This series started off as a successful TV Movie, Fame is the Name of the Game, which did introduce Susan St. James. She went on to be the consistent link between the three stars and "wheel" concept of the 90 minute weekly series. It was then known for its sharp production values and was the first of a long period of Universal-produced series. In its wake were series like The Sunday Night Mystery Movie and the lesser successful Search, which some people have confused with this series (mostly because of Franciosa). Search, though, was a Warner TV production that should be here somewhere.
For the record Name of the Game starred Gene Barry, Tony Franciosa, and Robert Stack. Barry owned People magazine, Franciosa was the star reporter, and Stack was the publisher. They three of them rotated on a weekly basis. Lesile Stevens was one of the producers of this series Probe was TV movie that aired on NBC in FEB 1972. It starred Hugh O'Brian as space aged PI. When it became series that fall, it was retitled Search for legal reasons. It adopted the same format as Name of the Game by having three rotating stars on a weekly basis. Leslie Stevens was the producer of this show also, which is why I think every one confuses it with Name of the Game. Hugh O'Brian, Tony Franciosa, and Doug McClure were the 3 rotating PROBE agents on Search. This show was wayyyyyyyyyyy ahead of it's time when it came to computer technology. It's a shame that these two very cool shows were never picked up in syndication.
This show also had Doug McClure and Gene Barry. McClure later went on to another show with three lead, the way-ahead-of-its-time "Probe." The Franciosa segments also featured a very young Susan St James in mini-skirts and go-go boots, playing the same role she later refined in McMillan: always getting in the way, knocked out, and tied up. I think Barry's magazine was named "People"--life imitates art.
Grand show! Me, I preferred Gene Barry's episodes. One episode that *could* have been a shark-jumper was when he went into the future and dreamed about deadly industrial smog, then came back and it was just carbon monoxide in his car. I remember the wistful song as he returns... haunting...nice... Could'a been awful! But... wasn't.
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