Classic Television - Prime Time

The Name of the Game

Original channel

NBC

Original run

September 20, 1968 – March 19, 1971

Starring

Tony Franciosa

Gene Barry

Robert Stack

Peter Falk

Robert Culp

Robert Wagner

Darren McGavin

Susan Saint James

Mark Miller

Ben Murphy

Cliff Potts

The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s. The show had an extremely large budget for a television series.

The series was based on the 1966 television movie Fame Is the Name of the Game, directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Tony Franciosa. The Name of the Game rotated among three characters working at Howard Publications, a large magazine publishing company — Jeff Dillon (Franciosa), a crusading reporter with People magazine (before there was a real-life People magazine); Glenn Howard (Gene Barry, taking over for George Macready, who had originated the role in the earlier film), the sophisticated, well-connected publisher; and Dan Farrell (Robert Stack), the editor of Crime magazine. Serving as a common connection was newcomer Susan Saint James as Peggy Maxwell, the editorial assistant for each.

The show had a striking, imaginative rotating opening graphic, which in turn put up the three lead actors with their faces forming out of repeatedly appearing collages of their names, each slightly differing, along with a jazzy, pulsating theme by Dave Grusin. This graphic originally put the featured lead first, then the other two as 'starring in...', Franciosa set on pale blue background, Barry on red, and Stack on green. All three leads were thus depicted, although usually only one then actually appeared. Each episode then carried individual credits with the featured lead name 'in' followed by title and guest cast. When the show ran on Encore Mystery channel (1996–99), a single 'Stack-Barry-Franciosa' opening graphic was shown on every episode.