It's almost completely forgotten today, but once upon a time, it was briefly one of the most popular series on television, a clever crime drama that boldly straddled the line between a "continuing series" (The same cast of characters every week.) and "anthology series" (A different cast of characters every week.) by ambitiously merging the best of both worlds, as well as being big-budget, movie-length weekly episodes, with three rotating leading characters! The name of this now long forgotten series was "The Name of the Game". If you asked an NBC network programming executive back in 1968, which of the following two NBC series would be remembered & beloved more, The Name of the Game or Star Trek? The answer would have been resoundingly The Name of the Game!
While Star Trek struggled & scraped by for three seasons, before being cancelled & rediscovered in syndication, The Name of the Game was an immediate major ratings success, that fell almost as immediately as it rose, and it remains almost forgotten today. For those who aren't familiar with this series, here's a quick thumbnail sketch: In 1966, there was a highly-rated TV movie of the week called "Fame is the Name of the Game" that was a pilot for a prospective TV series. That pilot TV movie of the week was a major ratings success and the resulting series was greenlighted to premiere in the fall of 1968. The premise was the glamorous, jet-setting world of the Howard Publications publishing empire: At the top of the publishing empire, was the globe-trotting, wealthy publisher, Glenn Howard (Gene Barry) whose jet-setting adventures alternated with his two star reporters: Dan Farrell, tough-as-nails ace investigative reporter for Crime Magazine, (Robert Stack) and Jeff Dillon, hotshot star reporter for People Magazine. (*Six years before the premiere of the real-life People Magazine!*) Jeff Dillon, the most popular character of the three leads, who was portrayed by Tony Fransciosa. (Who I'll get back to in a moment!) Finally, tying the ambitious-for-its-time 90-minute episode package together, was the plucky & resourceful Howard Publications secretary, who was the personal assistant to all three leads, Peggy Maxwell, as portrayed by an "adorkable" pre-McMillan and Wife Susan Saint James! The three leads occasionally crossed-over into each other's stories and with Susan Saint James frequently crossing-over into all three leads' stories, it gave the series a genuine feeling of a shared-universe inter-continuity and with Tony Fransciosa as Jeff Dillon as the series' white-hot breakout star, the series seemed poised to be a syndicated success, after a long and healthy network run. However, the fickle finger of fate had other plans in mind.
The series' biggest asset was also its biggest liability: Tony Fransciosa as Jeff Dillon. Fransciosa was an eccentric prima-donna, whose on-set antics made William Shatner's ego driven antics on Star Trek seem civil & benign by comparison: He would arrive to work late, leave early, suddenly taking-off unannounced during the middle of the shooting schedule day, instigate off-the-cuff improvisations & rewrites, (Partially motivated by his difficulty learning his lines!) and frequently firing producers & directors who he didn't work & play well with! Adding insult to injury for the bewildered Universal Studios & NBC network executives was the irony that loose canon Franciosa's episodes were the highest-rated episodes of the three leads! This empowered Franciosa's reign of terror over both studio and network alike for two seasons, but the tantrums and no-shows eventually came to a head in the middle of shooting a big budget two-part episode shot on location in Las Vegas early on in season three. During the middle of location shooting of the episode, Fransciosa walked-off the set, never to return. Both NBC and Universal finally had enough and Franciosa was fired. Thanks to some script doctoring & film editing, Universal finished Franscioa's final episode without him and, for the rest of the season, the studio hired several rotating guest stars to play reporters replacing Jeff Dillon in episodes originally written for Franciosa's Dillon. Unfortunately, without the show's breakout star, the series' ratings immediately plummeted and never recovered and, as a result, the show was quickly cancelled after three tulmetous seasons then just-as-quickly forgotten, while Star Trek, which was largely ignored by the network while the show was on the air, achieved legendary status in syndication and in pop culture and both network & studio executives expected the exact opposite to happen!
Why the ironic reversal of fortune? Several factors, actually. Firstly, changing trends: Back in 1968, the sleek, new novelty was the 90-minute format. Less-than-two-hours, but more than one hour, the 90-minute format was the new & unique flavor of the month. In fact, Name eventually paved the way for the even-more-successful NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, featuring Columbo, McCloud, & McMillan and Wife. But as trends change, studios & networks adjust accordingly. While in 1968, the 90-minute format was novel, by 1974, the format was by then judged unwieldy. Once the novelty of the 90-minute format wore-off, the mundane reality of day-to-day local TV station scheduling set in: While local TV stations could easily accommodate either one-hour or two-hour TV programs, 90-minute TV programs were too much of a logistical scheduling nightmare, which greatly hurt Game's syndication resale value! Eventually, even The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie transitioned from 90-minutes to two hours, sounding the death knell of the 90-minute format.
Also, Star Trek benefited from fortunate timing & better scheduling: During Star Trek's original network run, NASA hadn't landed on the moon yet, so the Apollo missions had become somewhat routine and, as a result, all things outer space had suddenly become old hat by that point. Mere weeks after Star Trek was cancelled, Apollo landed on the moon! Suddenly old hat outer space was brand new again and that was also a contributing factor in Star Trek's re-emergence on the pop cultural landscape! That, and the fact the same show that struggled at 10:00 pm on Friday nights on the network, now suddenly soared at 6:00 pm on weeknights in syndication!
Finally, the changing tides of trends & tastes: As I mentioned earlier, the 90-minute format was briefly a big deal at the time, also briefly a big deal at the time: Tony Fransciosa. Fansciosa was the new flavor of the month in 1968. By 1971, he was old hat, like Star Trek & outer space briefly was, back in 1968. However, unlike Star Trek, Tony Fransciosa never really bounced back. While he continued to act for the rest of his life and he led a long, diverse, and varied journeyman actor's career, he never regained his white-hot pop cultural super-star status. His fleeting moment in the pop cultural spotlight was over by 1971, while Star Trek's were only beginning. In fact, I'd say that far more people today know who George Takei is than know who Tony Fransciosa was. Ultimately, time is both the great equalizer and the best judge. The final score: Star Trek, 1; The Name of the Game, 0. Game over.
Even though I ultimately prefer Star Trek over The Name of the Game, there is still a lot to be said for Game. With Game's ambitious format and its elaborate shared-universe inter-continuity, it boldly predicted the shared-universe inter-continuity of the various Law and Order & Chicago Fire/PD/Med TV series, among others, that are in vogue today. Also, the episodes were very well-crafted mysteries, with occasional flashes of brilliance! While a pop cultural footnote today, The Name of the Game was, in some ways, very groundbreaking and, at the very least, very solid television!
UPDATE: Yesterday afternoon, (November 15, 2023) I was surfing on YouTube, intending to watch two of my favorite TNOTG episodes, "LA 2017" & "All The Old Familiar Faces", only to find that all but one of the TNOTG episodes posted on YouTube have been removed! Also, Shout Factory, which previously announced plans to release TNOTG on DVD way back in 2014, has long since cancelled their plans to do so. The Name of the Game is now officially a *forgotten series*. A pity.
