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 Name of the Game (Season 1)
Fear of High Places (Episode 1)
Writer: Mark Rodgers
Air date: 1968-09-20
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Jeff Dillon investigates the death of a beautiful model, which involves an industrialist who is about to assume an important government post.
The Witness (Episode 2)
Writer: Dick Nelson
Air date: 1968-09-27
Runtime: 73 min
Overview: When a Mafia informant is assassinated, Dan Farrell, senior editor of Crime Magazine, looks for the only other witness to a major mob crime. She allegedly committed suicide eight years earlier.
The Taker (Episode 3)
Writer: William Link
Air date: 1968-10-04
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Crime Magazine publisher Glenn Howard refuses to support a powerful businessman who backs a crooked political candidate and finds himself in a battle of wits over the takeover of his publishing empire.
Collector's Edition (Episode 4)
Writer: Leslie Stevens
Air date: 1968-10-11
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Photographer Peter Max had once saved Jeff Dillon's life when the two were on assignment in Vietnam. Now Max is accused of murder, and he's counting on Dillon's help in clearing his name.
Nightmare (Episode 5)
Writer: Ed Adamson
Air date: 1968-10-18
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Dan Farrell patiently prepares to exact his revenge upon the robbers that murdered his wife.
Incident in Berlin (Episode 6)
Writer: William Link
Air date: 1968-10-25
Runtime: 74 min
Overview: Glenn Howard goes to Berlin to arrange the release of one of his top editors, who has been arrested in East Germany as a spy.
Shine On, Shine On, Jesse Gil (Episode 7)
Writer: James M. Miller
Air date: 1968-11-01
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: A woman accuses a shrewd financial manipulator of being responsible for her brother's death.
Lola in Lipstick (Episode 8)
Writer: Richard Alan Simmons
Air date: 1968-11-08
Runtime: 74 min
Overview: While in Rome, publisher Glenn Howard finds corruption, illicit romance and narcotics at every turn.
The Protector (Episode 9)
Air date: 1968-11-15
Runtime: 74 min
Overview: Glenn Howard goes up against a bigoted millionaire who sets out to solve the nation's racial problems with his own private army.
Ordeal (Episode 10)
Writer: Alvin Sapinsley
Air date: 1968-11-22
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: A woman sitting on death row hopes that Dan Farrell can find enough evidence to prove that she did not murder her husband.
The White Birch (Episode 11)
Writer: Luther Davis
Air date: 1968-11-29
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Glenn Howard travels to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he and other rival journalists try to get custody of an ailing author's latest work.
High On A Rainbow (Episode 12)
Writer: Robert L. Collins
Air date: 1968-12-06
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: When drugs start appearing in the hands of schoolchildren, Dan Farrell and Peggy pose as a truck driver and car-hop as they investigate a narcotics ring.
The Black Answer (Episode 13)
Writer: Leslie Stevens
Air date: 1968-12-13
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Jeff Dillon is investigating the fire-bombing death of a black newspaper editor who advocated nonviolence. The chief suspect is Joe X. Lee, a leading black militant.
Pineapple Rose (Episode 14)
Writer: Richard Neubert
Air date: 1968-12-20
Runtime: 73 min
Overview: Peggy Maxwell is kidnapped while digging up information on a famous rock star.
The Revolutionary (Episode 15)
Writer: Ronald Austin
Air date: 1968-12-27
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Glenn Howard helps an exiled president of a South American nation regain control in the midst of a counter-revolution.
Swinger's Only (Episode 16)
Writer: Anthony Spinner
Air date: 1969-01-10
Runtime: 73 min
Overview: Farrell (RS) takes a hand in the investigation of a murder at a ""Swinging Singles"" apartment. The victim is the mistress of one of Farrell's editors. The wife of the victim who despite her despair over her husband's pecadilloes urges Farrell to find the guilty party.
The Inquiry (Episode 17)
Writer: Harold Livingston
Air date: 1969-01-17
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Howard (GB) is called before a Senate committee to answer charges that he stole a fortune in U.S. Army funds while serving with the OSS in Italy during World War II.
The Incomparable Connie Walker (Episode 18)
Writer: Leslie Stevens
Air date: 1968-01-24
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Conway ""Connie"" Walker is the first black mayor of a large unnamed city. In addition to suffering the slings and arrows of racism, Walker is the target of accusations that he has been accepting kickbacks. Crime magazine reporter Jeff Dillon (TF) investigates when a city accountant is murdered.
Love-In At Ground Zero (Episode 19)
Writer: Dean Hargrove
Air date: 1968-01-31
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Howard (GB) is kidnapped by a group of protestors who demand he witness their suicide and then write an expose of the army's testing of chemical warfare weapons.
The Suntan Mob (Episode 20)
Writer: Dick Nelson
Air date: 1969-02-07
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Dan Farrell (RS) convinces a moll to help him prove that the mafia is controlling a tiny island.
Keep the Doctor Away (Episode 21)
Writer: Robert M. Young
Air date: 1969-02-14
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Jeff Dillon (TF) investigates a doctor who is really a bungling killer.
The Bobby Currier Story (Episode 22)
Writer: Robert L. Collins
Air date: 1969-02-21
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Currier (Brandon de Wilde) is a young, small-town perennial loser. He kidnaps the daughter of the local sheriff and goes on a murder spree. Dan Farrell (RS) tries to unearth the circumstances that turned the hapless Currier into a murderer.
A Wrath of Angels (Episode 23)
Writer: Dick Nelson
Air date: 1969-02-28
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Dan Farrell (RS) investigates as a man and a priest try to clean up the slums and end up having a showdown with a powerful Mafioso.
The Third Choice (Episode 24)
Air date: 1969-03-07
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Howard (GB) tries to save a Howard Publications editor kidnapped by a man who hopes to use the ransom to overthrow an African government.
Breakout To A Fast Buck (Episode 25)
Writer: Sy Salkowitz
Air date: 1969-03-14
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Dan Farrell (RS ) is called in to investigate a prison break. One of the escapees is an elderly former building contractor, who didn't want to join his fellow cons in their breakout. Farrell suspects that the contractor is being sprung in order to help break into one of the buildings that he designed.
An Agent of the Plaintiff (Episode 26)
Writer: Dean Hargrove
Air date: 1969-03-21
Runtime: 75 min
Overview: Howard (GB) is the victim of a conspiracy hatched by his own attorney, the lovely-but-lethal Bethany Cromwell, and plaintiff Harold Wyler.
