Any word on when The Name Of The Game is being released on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[GlennC]

That is a shame to hear as The Name of the Game is probably the only remaining series I am after.

I do have quite a few episodes but most of them are only watchable if you are desperate.

 

[Neil Brock]

That is a shame to hear as The Name of the Game is probably the only remaining series I am after.

I do have quite a few episodes but most of them are only watchable if you are desperate.

The number of shows which were commercially released over the last 20 or so years is amazing and something which I never foresaw happening. That being said, there are also hundreds and hundreds of shows which the only way one could have is if they recorded them or bought them on 16mm in the prior decades. The folks who have made a lot of things available on youtube or sold copies of, are almost entirely made up of people who acquired the shows 4th hand and not those of us who did the actual recordings, hence the abysmal quality.

 

[GlennC]

I just wish I had been able to record the episodes when they were shown on TV a couple of years ago. Unfortunately they haven’t been shown in the UK since before the advent of video recorders.

 

[Tom.W]

It aired in the U.S. on Cozi tv a few years ago. I'm not sure if it was the same package that aired on Encore. Those would be edited but at least clear video.

 

[Lecagr]

That's too bad if Name Of The Game won't be released on DVD. I'd be in for the complete series with uncut shows if it was issued. The last time I saw any episodes was in the early 1970's when repeats were shown on TV. I should go on to You Tube and watch whatever episodes are available there.

 

[GlennC]

Most of the episodes I got from a certain trading site (not EBay) but the quality was not good. I did get more from a different person but it seemed like most of the episodes were coming from the same awful source material.

There were some on YouTube a few years ago but last time I looked there wasn’t much around.

At this point I would take any episodes even cut ones where the picture and sound is OK.

It is a shame that the Cozi ones don’t appear to have turned up anywhere.

Perhaps NBC Universal will make the series available in its streaming service. (Do I detect Miss Piggy flying past my window!)

 

[DeWilson]

It aired in the U.S. on Cozi tv a few years ago. I'm not sure if it was the same package that aired on Encore. Those would be edited but at least clear video.

Well, except for the odd episode or two, they were the same ones that air on ENCORE (and not even all of them!) - but they were also edited down to around 65 minutes before commercials! It was about as bad as their run of "Run For Your Life" - Edited down to 44 minutes before commercials down from what would have been about 50 minutes, and they were about 47-48 minutes on RTV on their run.

 

[DeWilson]

....The folks who have made a lot of things available on youtube or sold copies of, are almost entirely made up of people who acquired the shows 4th hand and not those of us who did the actual recordings, hence the abysmal quality....

Ain't that the truth! One lazy person throws stuff together from wherever source and then everyone copies that. Don't get me started on people cramming stuff on early-tech DVD recorders at Six Hour Mode from LP or SLP/EP recordings - ever watch a TV Show through a fishtank!

Fortunately, old school collectors like us know better.

 

[GlennC]

In the UK there is a channel called Talking Pictures which shows old (mainly British) TV series and films that none of the other channels or streaming services would be interested in, It is just a pity there isn't an equivalent one for US series like The Name of The Game. As far as I can tell this channel shows stuff unedited.

 

[GlennC]

Ain't that the truth! One lazy person throws stuff together from wherever source and then everyone copies that. Don't get me started on people cramming stuff on early-tech DVD recorders at Six Hour Mode from LP or SLP/EP recordings - ever watch a TV Show through a fishtank!

Fortunately, old school collectors like us know better.

Unfortunately this series was never available for me to record as not only was it last shown here pre DVD days but pre VHS too.

 

[bmasters9]

I eagerly rushed to this thread hoping there was more news.

I suppose at this point the only hope might be the NBC Universal streaming service but realistically I wouldn’t expect there to be much more than the more recent series.

Which is why I have hardly touched anything streaming lately-- always what's on now, at the expense of what was.

 

[JohnHopper]

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned the retail-quality clips from episode "LA 2017" that were included in a bonus feature about Spielberg on the DUEL release. If we're not getting the series, how about including his episode as a bonus feature with a movie, or part of a "Spielberg At Universal" collection? Maybe it's too late for that since there's already a "Director's Collection" blu-ray, but if getting that episode released could be brought to his attention, perhaps he might help with the entire series.

What about a The TV Years of Steven Spielberg!

The Episodic Series
Marcus Welby, M.D. (1)
Night Gallery (2)
The Name of the Game (1)
The Psychiatrist (2)
Columbo (1)
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1)
The Telefilms
Savage
Something Evil

I watched Name of the Game first run as a 12 to 15 year old. I remember it having a number of very good segments overall, but also felt that far too many of the episodes really dragged it out to fill a 90 minute time slot. But that was my impression as a kid, and I wonder if I'd have the same impression now. It was certainly topical for the times, being inspired in it's story telling by current newsworthy events...one that I vividly remember was the episode with a bunch of war protesters and animal rights activist Hippies occupying a target on a military test range before a scheduled nerve gas test...and of course, only Gene Barry knows they are doing this, not the military brass and the crew of a B 47 carrying the nerve gas bombs to the target...This episode aired within months of the inadvertent killing of rancher's sheep and cattle off range of the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, in the aftermath of a botched nerve gas experiment with shifting winds...

I agree with you concerning your overall judgement.
The stories are very uneven: it’s either conventional or provocative.
Moreover, there’s a Universal TV mold of the era aka the sausage factory syndrome.
It’s up to the leading reporter and the guest actors too.

 

[DeWilson]

What about a The TV Years of Steven Spielberg!

The Episodic Series
Marcus Welby, M.D. (1)
Night Gallery (2)
The Name of the Game (1)
The Psychiatrist (2)
Columbo (1)
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1)
The Telefilms
Savage
Something Evil

That would be great!

 

[John Karras]

Ain't that the truth! One lazy person throws stuff together from wherever source and then everyone copies that. Don't get me started on people cramming stuff on early-tech DVD recorders at Six Hour Mode from LP or SLP/EP recordings - ever watch a TV Show through a fishtank!

Fortunately, old school collectors like us know better.

Not to mention no chapter stops; no individual titles so you had a 6-hour continuous play disc with all the episodes running together; and of course the fact that most of these people had no clue how to connect a VCR to a DVD recorder and would produce a disc that only had audio on one channel. You can't give advanced technology to the masses.

 

[Lecagr]

Not to mention no chapter stops; no individual titles so you had a 6-hour continuous play disc with all the episodes running together; and of course the fact that most of these people had no clue how to connect a VCR to a DVD recorder and would produce a disc that only had audio on one channel. You can't give advanced technology to the masses.

I once got a DVD in a trade that had this problem, sound playing in only one speaker. I ended up having to re-do the DVD using an audio splitter and now there is sound in both speakers.

 

[bmasters9]

no individual titles so you had a 6-hour continuous play disc with all the episodes running together

Something that would have helped (at least IMO)? Using a timer to set the length of each show, then pausing the recording when the timer ran out (perhaps I'm incorrect, but maybe that would have helped).

 

[mark-edk]

I saved 22 episodes from COZI TV - they're mostly from the first season, a few from 2 and a few more from 3. They are 70-71m in length. Quality wasn't really good enough to make DVDs so I saved them as mp4 files.

 

[Neil Brock]

What about a The TV Years of Steven Spielberg!

The Episodic Series
Marcus Welby, M.D. (1)
Night Gallery (2)
The Name of the Game (1)
The Psychiatrist (2)
Columbo (1)
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1)
The Telefilms
Savage
Something Evil

I've pitched that idea to a couple of companies with not much response. The idea may have very well been looked into and maybe Spielberg was against it. In the Hollywood hierarchy, he has great power and rights or no rights, no one dares cross him. I forget who the actress was, but I read that she was recruited by him to be one of the Tom Cruise beard wives and when she declined, her career suffered.

 

[JohnHopper]

I've pitched that idea to a couple of companies with not much response. The idea may have very well been looked into and maybe Spielberg was against it. In the Hollywood hierarchy, he has great power and rights or no rights, no one dares cross him. I forget who the actress was, but I read that she was recruited by him to be one of the Tom Cruise beard wives and when she declined, her career suffered.

Thanks for your testimony in that direction.
I read that Spielberg didn't like two telefilms of his own: Savage and Something Evil.

 

[DeWilson]

I've pitched that idea to a couple of companies with not much response. The idea may have very well been looked into and maybe Spielberg was against it. In the Hollywood hierarchy, he has great power and rights or no rights, no one dares cross him. .

...and considering his 50+ years association with Universal under all it's owners, they wouldn't want to make him unhappy.