1966 - FAME IS THE NAME OF THE GAME - TV pilot for a series

More film junk from my wasted youth watching televison when I should have been playing softball.  Fame Is The Name of the Game was a TV pilot for a series called The Name Of The Game.  Briefly The Name of the Game revolved around Glenn Howard played by Gene Barry who published two weekly magaiznes, "People" (no relation) and  "Crime."  Robert Stack was the editor of "Crime" and Tony Franciosa who was their top reporter.  Franciosa played reporter Jeff Dillon in the great tradition of Hildy Johnson from The Front Page a smart ass wise guy.

The TV series was unusual in that instead of being the typical 60 minute drama it ran 90 minutes.  Each week a story with feature Gene Barry, the next week it was Robert Stack and then the following week the show would feature Tony Franciosca.  I suppose it should be mentioned that actor Susan Saint James played a "girl Friday" character who showed up in most of the episodes to bring a little consistency to this rather unwieldy format.

 

Well it all started as it usually does with this Universal TV series pilot.  Universal was big on these pilots it helped them decide if the show should be turned into a series.  Fame Is The Name of the Game was essentially a murder mystery with Franciosca wise cracking his way through the plot as his assistant Saint James playing straight man (woman?) to his silly jokes.

For a show produced by Universal Studios in the 1960's this TV movie had a fairly decent cast. Jack Klugman was a bad guy mobster.  Jill Saint John played her usual femme fatale sex kitten and love interest for Franciosca.  Character actor George Macready was originally the publisher Glenn Howard but when the show went to series he was recast in favor of the more sexy Gene Barry.   

This film actually had a fairly good director in Stuart Rosenberg and the producer/writer was old Hollywood pro Ranald MacDougall.  With a decent cast and some good talent behind the camera you would have thought this film would have turned out a little better than usual for Universal Studios.  However Fame Is The Name of the Game is the typical mediocre Universal production.  The camerawork is that boring flat look that every Universal film had.  The sets look like sets and the whole thing just looks cheap in general.  Tony Franciosa was always a likable if intense actor and he carries the show about the best that he can.

The running time is 100 minutes.