MovieChat Forums > The Name of the Game (1968) Discussion > Are these TV movies or just 90 minutes t...

Are these TV movies or just 90 minutes television episodes?


I know the pilot was shown as a Movie of the Week, but are the others considered films? I always thought hey were, because of their production values and running time. Am I wrong?

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[deleted]

I think some of the ninety minute shows of series like the Name of the Game were released as movies in other parts of the world.

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Ninety minute episode series were not uncommon way back when. The SHAFT seires was 90 minutes as well. There were others but I cannot recall them.

"That object you're tracking isn't a large asteroid; its a very large spacecraft."

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They were, indeed, 90 minute episodes, shown ever week. The stars rotated. I liked the Gene Barry ones best and these were the ones they experimented with! The Robert Stack episodes were good, too. I never watched the Anthony Franciosa ones.

If they released these on DVD, I'd buy them in a New York minute.

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The Name Of the Game was 90 min weekly TV series. When the show was cancelled the reruns were shown in some markets as movies and shown randomly in movie time slights (here in the NYC area our local CBS station Channel two, some times ran them on the "late late show" and not on a regular basis as NAME OF THE GAME back in the late 1970's) Hey! My memory is pretty good ain't it?!!

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Gee! ..That makes two of us! Considering I used to watch these episodes an ocean away, in Spain and in Spanish…(Que?) . Liked the ones of Gene Barry and Robert Stack….Tony…no quite…I have been looking around to see if these will be available in DVD or what ever. I must see ( like some one else here mentioned “..Before we kick the bucket”…) one episode where Gene Barry goes overseas (France???) and has a flashback to his days in WWII.. I had a chance to see this episode twice, and I missed both way back in 1971 !!!!… Just remember the beginning of it …he (Gene) seems to walk in a street make of cobble stones… takes a seat at an outdoor café… and suddenly the Germans appear marching on… when he mentally flashes back into his past……Where is this episode !!!!!!
For some time I though of the episode titled “The Inquiry” which occurs in Italy…but who knows ….
Regards,

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If you go to the following address they have some Name Of The Game episodes. I just bought one off ebay. Hope this helps.



http://hometown.aol.com/susvues/myhomepage/business.html

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...............The network wanted the audience to think it was a movie. The continued magazine story line and cast of characters was more suggestive of a TV series..........A regional TV channel used to call the episodes "movies" and, unfortunately, made a lot of edits for used car commercials and "Dialing for Dollars".
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.

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It is a 90 minute tv show with movie production values. They were actually 75 minutes long. GAME was the most expensive series in TV history at the time at $400,000 per episode.

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TNOTG was definitely a series because, as the youngest in my family, I had no control over the TV whenever it came on because my attention-deficit family members used to always change the channel to some other moronic program whenever it came on (in my extended family, ADHD was not an affliction, but a lifestyle choice).

I only got to watch a couple of these, but I found them very intriguing but slightly incomprehensible, too (I was about 9 years old then). After it went off the air, I remembered it and always wanted to see it again but don't believe it showed up in syndication in my town. If it did, they might have listed the episodes under their individual titles, instead of as TNOTG.

Did manage to recently get a copy of LA 2017, though, and I must say if that's what the series was capable of doing on a weekly basis, I'd be really interested in taking a look at this show if it were released on DVD.



I'm really sick of paying MORE for stuff...and getting LESS of it!

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yes NOTG was an ongoing series with three alternating leads - plus a few 'special guest leads' featured too

Tony Franciosa's episodes were 'current affairs' tales

Gene Barry's episodes were normally either big business or political intrigue tales...but also some rather 'offbeat' episodes such as; 'L.A. 2017 ad', the spooky 'Tarot' etc were featured...

Robert Stack episodes were crime capers

Susan Saint James supporting character 'Peggy Maxwell' appeared with all three leads and Gene Barry made some cameo appearances in four of each of his two co-stars episodes with Tony Franciosa once making a cameo appearance in the Gene Barry episode; 'The Taker' in season one.

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For anyone that's interested, COZI TV just stared showing NAME OF THE GAME again, and the first season is or will be available on DVD soon.

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