The Name Of The Game 15

The Name Of The Game 13

Van Johnson, June Allyson, Veronica Cartwright. Straightforward undercover story with plenty of window dressing, including: social commentary, effective music/visuals, and strong performances. 8/10

The Name Of The Game 12

Boris Karloff, Roddy McDowall.

• Thrilling espionage tale, using the then-current events in Czechoslovakia as a backdrop and a means towards social commentary.


• The dialogue is sharp and insightful, the ‘message’ aspects of the story never get heavy-handed.


• Mostly, and without shame, it is really just an old-fashioned mystery. And there’s a rewarding twist at the very end.


• The guest stars are all excellent, but it is Gene Barry who towers over everyone and holds the movie together.

9/10

Screengrabs from The Name Of The Game 11. The regular cast:...

Screengrabs from The Name Of The Game 11.

The regular cast: Robert Stack, Susan Saint James and Ben Murphy.

The Name Of The Game 11

Jessica Walter . Slow, methodical, engrossing murder mystery with lots of flashbacks and some truly cold-blooded murder on display. 8/10

Screengrabs from The Name Of The Game 10. The regular cast: Gene...

Screengrabs from The Name Of The Game 10.

The regular cast: Gene Barry, Susan Saint James and Cliff Potts.

The Name Of The Game 10

Robert Young, Anne Baxter. Superb guest performance from Young, a story with weight and significance, and there’s a neat twist at the end regarding the identity of the actual murderer. 9/10

Clips from the first season of ‘The Name Of The...

Clips from the first season of ‘The Name Of The Game’ using an extended version of the theme.

Screengrabs from The Name Of The Game 08. Anthony Franciosa,...

Screengrabs from The Name Of The Game 08. Anthony Franciosa, Juliet Prowse, Gary Collins, Darren McGavin, Susan Saint James, Gypsy Rose Lee, Gene Barry and Kathie Browne.

The Name Of The Game 08

Anthony Franciosa, Darren McGavin. Sophisticated murder-mystery story, with atmosphere and great characters. Jeff goes up against a murder suspect who controls everything, and everyone, in a small town. Franciosa and McGavin are absolutely fantastic together. Pacing in the first half is quite slow, but once the action shifts (briefly) to Washington, D.C., the pace picks up considerably. A lot happens in the final half-hour. And the sense of menace and urgency is palpable. Very satisfying conclusion, on several levels. 8/10

Fri, Jul 4, 08 - Name Of The Game, Greatest American Hero, Riptide

07:30    The Name Of The Game
09:00    The Greatest American Hero
10:00    Riptide

The Name Of The Game.  Season 1, Episode 6.  "Incident In Berlin"  Superb espionage drama finds Glenn Howard taking centre stage when one of his reporters is arrested behind the Iron Curtain, on suspicion of being a spy.  The first half of the movie details Howard's attempts to get the US government to do something.  This leads to the big twist at the mid-point, wherein Howard discovers why the Americans have been stone-walling him.  After that, it's off to Berlin as the mullionaire publisher sets about getting his man back himself, by setting up an elaborate sting operation with the help of the man's mistress.

It might sound like many other similar tales, but this is better.  Gene Barry in particular makes this work.  His Glenn Howard is one of television's most debonair heroes, and this episode shows him at his stylish best: matching wits with intelligence agencys on both sides of the Iron Curtain and never stuck for a witty response.  The fast pace of the plot is another plus.  It moves rapidly and packs every scene with some new development.  All of the characters are interesting and well crafted: the reporter/spy, his bitter wife, his mistress, the KGB agent holding him and the CIA agent trying to help/hinder Howard in his mission.  The cast are, likewise, superb and the ending is very clever.  Written by Richard Levinson and William Link this has all the hallmarks of a clever Columbo denoument.  As the seconds count down, and with considerable panaché, Glenn Howard is able to outwit every other player in the game and it makes for great TV.

The Greatest American Hero.  Episode 6.  "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys"  This wonderful script brought tears to my eyes.  Yup, I cried like a little girl watching this one.  I'm not embarrassed, either.  It's one of Stephen J. Cannell's best scripts.  The story starts with a major upset for both Ralph and Bill.  Ralph nearly kills a busload of people and starts to have serious doubts about continuing to use the suit.  Next: one of Bill's best (only?) friends hints that he wants Bill to help him out with a heist.

Both lead characters have to deal with their hero issues:  Bill's hero (the guy saved his life during the war) has gone dirty and Bill falls apart coming to terms with that revelation.  Ralph, meanwhile, gets to meet his childhood hero: John Hart (playing himself).  It is in these scenes that the episode really shines.  Hart, known to millions as The Lone Ranger, gives a few short words of advice on what it means to be a hero.  Hart's a great actor.  So is William Katt.  I think it's impossible not to have tears in your eyes as you watch him with The Lone Ranger.

Despite being such a Ralph-Bill driven episode, the show still manages to feature Pam in every scene and still give her lots to do.  Her constant support of Ralph (while expressing her honest dislike for "the suit") makes Pam into a very special character, and a great member of the team.  The character could have been frakked up in a major way.  If Pam had been kept in the dark and used as a source of tension/comedy it would have been awful.  Worse, she could have been in on the secret and acted like a total B the whole time.  Instead, the writers found a way to make her hate the suit and still love Ralph and what he does.  And, in doing so, created one of TV's best couples: communicative and loving.  It's great.

There's also a classic scene late in the episode where she's alone with Bill and we get an insight into how fond of her he has become and how inept (and offensive) he is at expressing it.  Connie Sellecca is wonderful in this scene, and in all the others, too.  A real classy lady.

Riptide.  Episode 5.  "The Mean Green Love Machine"  Despite starting off like an A-Team idea (which it might have been, seeing as it was written by Stephen J. Cannell, The A-Team creator) the episode really comes into it's own at the mid-way point.  A pretty girl (of course!) hires the guys to find her dad, who has disappeared in Mexico with his much younger and very pretty (of course!) new wife.  Turns out he's fallen victim to a big scam and it's up the the guys to save the day.  As well as the usual helicopter-action and shoot-outs there's a long sequence where Murray is sent undercover as a 'mark' for the bad guys to target.  Murray has Nick and Cody speaking instructions into his hidden earpiece as he deals with the advances of the very sexy seductress.  The results are genuinely hilarious.  It's one of my favourite scenes from the entire series of Riptide.

Highlight?  The Name Of The Game

Fri, Jun 20th, 2008 - McMillan And Wife, The Name Of The Game

06:30    McMillan And Wife
08:00    The Name Of The Game

McMillan And Wife.  Episode 3.  "The Easy Sunday Murder Case" is the first episode where it feels like the comedy is padding, being used to extend a slim story out to movie-length proportions.  Sally's mother's best friend has her dog kidnapped.  The fact that her husband was also taken is of no real concern to her!  It's a funny idea and there are some laughs to be had, but after a while I tired of seeing Mac and Sally get in and out of their car over and over (He isn't supposed to drive, but keeps forgetting).  It's average stuff, it lacks the polish of the Columbo episodes being produced at the same time and it would have been a much better story at half the length.

The Name Of The Game.  Season 1, Episode 5.  "Nightmare" is an ordinary crime drama, telling how Dan Farrell tracks down the men who shot and killed his wife five years earlier.  The only real highlights are the performance of Robert Stack (the expression 'steel jawed determination' was probably created with him in mind!) and two great scenes.  Mid-way through the story one of bad guys meets Farrell's young daughter as she plays on a swing.  The evil of the man and the innocence of the girl are contrasted.  He shows her his gun, and they talk about it.  She is full of questions.  Then, when asked to show how it works, he casually points it at her chest and pulls the trigger.  The gun turns out to be a toy but the scene is truly chilling.  Later on, the story concludes with a great scene between Stack and guest star Martin Balsam which is worth watching over and over.  Farrell has chased these men for years and he finally has them.  But he doesn't want them dead.  The final line of the movie "Why would I want you dead?" is a wonderful piece of character development and does more to distinguish Dan Farrell as a TV Hero than anything else that happened in the story up to that.  Great stuff.

Highlight?  The Name Of The Game

Sat, Jun 14th, 2008 - Columbo, Name Of The Game, Mary Tyler Moore, WKRP, Rising Damp

04:00    Columbo
05:30    The Name Of The Game
03:00    The Mary Tyler Moore Show
03:30    WKRP In Cincinnati
04:00    Rising Damp

Columbo.  Episode 7.  "Lady in Waiting"  There are many things to admire in this series.  First, there is the quality of the guest stars.  Not just the murderers who go head-to-head with Peter Falk in every story, but also the victims and peripheral characters who appear.  For instance, this episode features Richard Anderson and Leslie Nielsen in strong supporting roles.  Nielsen is particularly good.

Second, there is the music.  Columbo episodes have no opening theme, and use a different closing theme for each story.  Back in 1980 I assembled about 35 of these themes on an audio cassette and listened to it many, many times in the years that followed.  So much so that these Columbo themes are as familiar to me now as the themes to Hawaii Five-0, Magnum, PI or Law And Order.  The scores for each episode tend to use the closing theme (and variations of it) in a lot of scenes and the music is usually beautiful and evocative.

Next, there are many Columbo episodes with a uniquie visual gimmick at some stage.  Some scenes enlist split-screen, freeze-frame or blurred images to help tell the story.  Sometimes the visuals incorporate sun-glasses or chess pieces in inventive fashion.  In other episodes, the producers play around with the audio.  On all fronts the show is creative.

Finally, I always admire the amount of variety the producers/writers work into a very rigid formula.  This episode, for instance, features Susan Clark as the killer and we witness her elaborage plan acted out in a long fantasy sequence.  We are shown how all the pieces will (hopefully) fall into place and she will get away with her crime.  Then, when she actually puts her plan into action, we see how things go wrong for her (in one respect) and she has to scramble like crazy to keep it all on track.  It makes for a very exciting first half-hour.

This is one of the best Columbo stories.  The criminal is sympathetic.  She has been protected by her brother to such an extreme extent that she has basically been bullied into submission and it is fascinating for us to see the transformation that comes over her when he is out of her life.  Fascinating for us and (unfortunately for her) very revealing for Lt. Columbo.

The Name Of The Game.  Season 1, Episode 1.  "Fear Of High Places"  The first regular episode of the TV series (based on the movie which had appeared two years earlier) again stars Tony Franciosa as superagressive investigative correspondent Jeff Dillon.  When I was a kid I thought Franciosa was the coolest of the cool and watching this it is easy to see why.  He owns the screen when he is on it.  Particularly when he puts on his biggest smile and asks the hardest of hard questions.

It's a sophisticated and enjoyable movie.  The middle half-hour meanders a bit too much to maintain interest, but the opening third is strong and the final thirty minutes are the best.  The story starts when Dillon attends a press conference where a high level business tycoon denies that he is about to take over a position of power within the government.  Dillon gives him a hard time over this and - afterwards - is approached by a young woman who claims to have had an affair with the tycoon.  Dillon has misgivings about running the story, but he agrees to meet with the girl.  She later turns up dead, sending Dillon on a investigation that will uncover an elaborate espionage plot.

Franciosa is fantastic, and so is Susan Saint James as his researcher, Peggy Maxwell (the only character to appear in all episodes).  She's funny, but the two of them lack the sort of chemistry required to make us believe that there is a sexual tension between them.  Something the script wants us to believe.  Franciosa's scenes with Gene Barry also lack the sort of comeraderie that the writers wish to convey.  Barry seems strangely out of place.  But none of that is important.  What matters, on this show, is the story.

After all the meandering and the (rather good) action finale, the story comes to a close with a fantastic showdown between Dillon and the tycoon's wife.  He could blow the whole story wide open and destroy the man's credibility.  Yet, despite his infidelity, his wife pleads for him to be left alone.  It's an eloquent debate and Dillon's decision (in the final seconds of the movie) makes for a great ending to a good first episode.

Forty years later Tony Franciosa is still the coolest of the cool.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Episode 14.  "He's All Yours" is one of the weaker episodes.  Mary has to deal with mild sexual harassment from an inept younger man, who also has a go at Rhoda and then spreads rumours about Mary at their workplace.  It's all slightly uncomfortable and lacking in laughs.  Lou Grant is great however.  First he drops Mary right in it by telling her to take the young man under her wing, but he saves her at the end in very heroic (and typically gruff) fashion.  But, all told, not a great episode.

WKRP In Cincinnati.  Episode 61.  "Ask Jennifer" is a classic.  The first half details Herb's unsuccessful attempts to find a DJ for an afternoon advice show.  The second half shows what happens when receptionist Jennifer steps in to do the job and is a roaring success.  WKRP always gets praise for writing the "pretty blonde" as the smartest one on staff.  But I also love the fact that all the other characters awknowledge this and respect her enormously.  Male and female alike, everyone admits that Jennifer is the cleverest one in the room.  This episode highlights this character trait and - using nothing but her own common sense - she becomes a city-wide hit as she dispenses advive left, right and centre with a witty quip.  Loni Anderson has never been better in the role, perfectly capturing Jennifer's joy at at the microphone.  And Loni Anderson really comes into her own when it all turns sour.  One caller, acting on previous advice, is beaten up by her husband.  As she tells her tale, and the camera gently zooms in on Anderson's face, the horror and guilt are perfectly displayed.  It's a wonderful performance and a wonderful script.

Rising Damp.  Episode 3.  "Charisma" contains one of my all-time favourite funny moments.  Ever.  Phillip has told Rigsby that one sure way to win Miss Jones' heart is to "burn love wood".  He then breaks off a piece of the wardrobe and gives it to Rigsby to use.  Not knowing what it is the landlord sets it alight and approaches the object of his affections - a clearly bewildered Miss Jones - waving the smoking stick around like a mad-man.  It cracks me up every time I see it.  Classic comedy.  Wonderful.

Highlight?  The Name Of The Game.