''Fame Is the Name of the Game'' is a 1966 American
made-for-television drama film starring
Tony Franciosa that aired on
NBC and served as the
pilot episode
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...
of the subsequent series ''
The Name of the Game Name of the Game may refer to:
Television
* ''The Name of the Game'' (TV series), a 1968–1971 American drama
** ''Fame Is the Name of the Game'', a 1966 American television film and pilot for the series
* "The Name of the Game" (''Grey's Anato ...
''. It was directed by
Stuart Rosenberg
Stuart Rosenberg (August 11, 1927 – March 15, 2007) was an American film and television director whose motion pictures include '' Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Voyage of the Damned'' (1976), ''The Amityville Horror'' (1979), and ''The Pope of Gree ...
and was produced by
Ranald MacDougall, who also wrote the teleplay, from the novel ''One Woman'' by
Tiffany Thayer.
The film stars Tony Franciosa as
investigative journalist Jeff Dillon and also presents the screen debut of 20-year-old
Susan Saint James as Peggy Chan, Dillon's new editorial assistant. (In the series, St. James's character is renamed Peggy Maxwell, and she is the research assistant to all three of the rotating lead characters.) In the film, Jeff Dillon writes for ''Fame'' magazine, a publication of Janus Enterprises, and Glenn Howard (
George Macready) is just the managing editor. In the subsequent series, Dillon writes for ''People'' magazine, a division of Howard Publications, and Glenn Howard (
Gene Barry) is head of the whole company.
The telefilm also features
Jill St. John,
Jack Klugman, and
Robert Duvall.
Plot
An investigative reporter looks into the murder of a call girl. His investigation unearths her diary, which has the names of many prominent people inscribed within its pages. He sets out to find her killer from among the names contained in the diary.
Cast
*
Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon
*
Jill St. John as Leona Purdy
*
Jack Klugman as Ben Welcome
*
George Macready as Glenn Howard (replaced by
Gene Barry in the subsequent series)
*
Jack Weston as Griffin
*
Susan Saint James as Peggy Chan (Peggy Maxwell in the series)
*
Lee Bowman as Cruikshank
*
Robert Duvall as Eddie Franchot
*
Jay C. Flippen
Jay C. Flippen (March 6, 1899 – February 3, 1971) was an American character actor who often played crusty sergeants, police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s and 1950s. Before his motion-picture career he was a leading v ...
as Dizzy Shaner
*
Nicholas Colasanto as Lieutenant Lewis
Production
Advertising
In the weeks before the telefilm's first broadcast, NBC ran an unprecedented blitz of TV ads which erroneously billed ''Fame is the Name of the Game'' as television's first "world premiere" of a "major motion picture". The film garnered phenomenal ratings, leading to the
spin-off
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...
series.
See also
* ''
Chicago Deadline'' (1949)
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 0060393
1966 films
1966 television films
Remakes of American films
American television films
Films with screenplays by Ranald MacDougall
Television films as pilots
1960s English-language films