How Is That Not Out? Biggest Head Scratchers By Decade. (1 Viewer)

[Pathfiner]

The Name of The Game - three seasons 1968-71 (76 episodes) and color TV pilot TV movie 'Fame is...TNOTG' (1966)

we have discussed this expensively made Universal show before - re episodes on differing formats, Music rights issues, and a zillion other reasons etc....so it's apparently not likely (Shout / Timeless Media were considering a season one release in 2014 - even a box set cover was featured on Amazon, but it never happened)

COZI TV were rerunning 30 odd episodes a while back but that was all while a facebook page 'Remembering TNOTG' exists

Gene Barry (as publisher 'Glenn Howard') , Tony Franciosa ('People' magazine star reporter 'Jeff Dillon'), Robert Stack ('Crime' magazine Editor 'Dan Farrell') were the regular alternating leads - 'Three Cool Cats' !

- also lovely young Susan Saint James (as research girl 'Peggy Maxwell' - who appeared with all three stars) and Ben Murphy (as Farrell's assistant 'Joseph Sample') were the supports

- plus Darren McGavin, Robert Culp, Robert Wagner, Peter Falk, Vera Miles and Suzanne Pleshette took 'one off' guest leads (Robert Culp did two episodes)

Robert Culp played 'Paul Tyler', Darren McGavin was 'Sam Hardy' , Peter Falk portrayed 'Lewis Corbett', and Robert Wagner played 'Dave Corey'
- all were other top reporters working for Howard Publications

Vera Miles was Howard's top female reporter 'Hilary Vanderman' while Suzanne Pleshette played Howard's celeb magazine investigative gossip columist 'Hallie Manville'

TNOTG features the only time Pete Duel and brother Geoff Deuel appeared together ( Robert Stack episode; 'The Savage Eye'), an episode narrated by Orson Welles (Tony Franciosa episode; 'The Enemy Before Us') and the final acting performance by Boris Karloff (Gene Barry episode; 'The White Birch' - also with Pete Duel and Roddy McDowall)

plus early directing role for Steven Spielberg (Gene Barry episode; 'LA 2017') with production work by Dean Hargrove (Gene Barry), Leslie Stevens (Tony Franciosa) George Eckstein (Robert Stack) and music by Dominic Frontiere plus a terrific theme by Dave Grusin....

also young Stephen J. Cannell got his first major TV job as third season script editor (and writer) on the Robert Stack segment

'Columbo' creators Richard Levinson & William Link wrote for the show as did Philip Wylie

together with very many famous international Guest Stars in this Award winning, ground breaking lavish Universal show that paved the way for the seventies 'Mystery Movies' of Columbo, McCloud, Banacek, McMillan and Wife' etc (made by the same production teams - even having identical yellow episode credits lettering !)

you would think somebody at NBC Universal would bother to dig this show and pilot out of the archive, sort out the various 'issues', restore the original rotating opening graphic (correctly putting up the featured star of each segment first on their episodes)...and put it out on DVD at long last !

we can but hope.....

 

[Matt Hough]

I never watched The Name of the Game when it ran originally (I was in college so was preoccupied with other things), but reading your write-up, Jeff, makes me sorry I didn't. It sounds wonderful and like something I'd really enjoy seeing now with all those wonderful stars of the era.

 

[Pathfiner]

yes like those Mystery Movies and the Universal western series 'The Virginian' it had longer episodes of around 70-75 minutes thus had a 'feature film' feel about each episode

Gene Barry episodes - were normally 'political intrigue / big business' tales of chess like moves ('Incident in Berlin', 'The Taker', 'The Revolutionary' 'The Inquiry', 'High Card', 'The Perfect Image' , 'The Emissary' , 'The White Birch' etc ) - stories re private dictators ('The Protector' / 'The Broken Puzzle') plus there were the 'offbeat' more surreal episodes too such as the sci fi themed 'LA 2017' and 'Love in At Ground Zero', 'Tarot', and attempts on his life from both foreign locals ('The Tradition') and from his past an old enemy ('All The Old Familiar Faces') etc

Tony Franciosa segments - were 'current affairs' stories, re bogus Doctors ('Keep The Doctor Away'), shady goings on in military bases ('The Prisoner Within'), human dramas ('Jenny Wilde is Drowning' / 'Blind Man's Bluff') possible corruption in local government ('Fear of High Places' / 'The Incomparable Connie Walker') , industrial esponage ('The Other Kind of Spy'), racial tensions ('The Black Answer'), investigations into a entertainer's dodgy background ("I love You Billy Baker' - a two part story with Sammy Davis jnr as Billy) the search for a missing child on a reclusive millionaire's vast country estate ("Laurie Marie') and a personal story ('The Enemy Before Us')

Robert Stack tales - were the 'Crime' cases, with a personal story or two ('Nightmare' / 'A Hard Case of The Blues') spree killers ('The Bobby Currier Story'), corruption in sport ('Brass Ring'), housing ("A Wrath of Angels') or unions ('The Power'), drug addiction ("High on A Rainbow' / 'So Long Baby And Amen'), concerning issues at a forestry logging site ('The Savage Eye') and re a religious preacher ('The Glory Shouter' - with William Shatner) also a desperate race against time to save a possibly innocent woman from the gas chamber ('Ordeal') etc

The episodes featured many famous guest stars and almost all of the stories were pretty strong - I think the show later became 'eclipsed' somewhat by the success of the later 'Mystery Movies' it's premise helped to create !

 

[Charles Ellis]

Considering how successful Dark Shadows has been on home video (1225 half hours released on VHS and then DVD!), I'm surprised that the 1969-70 Canadian knock-off series Strange Paradise hasn't been out on DVD yet. The entire series exists and has been even posted on a certain online video website we all know. There's only 195 half-hours and would make a good box set. Also, it would cost a LOT less than the coffin-shaped DS set does! (Mind you, I bought the individual volumes that were released before the coffin set)

 

[Ian K McLachlan]

I would also like to see The Name of the Game and Strange Paradise released on DVD. Most of the SF and fantasy series have been released....apart from Fantastic Journey starring Roddy McDowall. I can't understand why nobody has released this series yet.

 

[Frank Soyke]

I gotta say that I watched NOTG on Cozi for the first time a while back. Never had seen it in reruns . I was optimistic given the stellar cast, but no offense to fans of the show, but I found it very boring and slow moving. I was very disappointed

 

[hoping4thebest]

I agree,would add Please Don't Eat the Daisies and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

 

[MartinP.]

I agree,would add Please Don't Eat the Daisies and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

I'm still undecided about Please Don't Eat the Daisies. I saw a couple episodes on Warner Archive. I don't see any place that describes the show in b&w one season and color the next, but one episode I watched was in b&w. It was the pilot; maybe just the pilot was in b&w. Anyone know?

I tried watching a few episodes of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on Get-TV some time ago and I couldn't get through them. I hated the bright obnoxious color schemes in the show. The plots were too sweet. How the heck did Hope Lange win "2" Best Actress in a Comedy Emmy's for this series when Elizabeth Montgomery and Barbara Feldon never got a single one? (And Lucille Ball won two years in a row for her rapidly deteriorating The Lucy Show series. Awards are fickle.)

 

[Brian Himes]

I tried watching a few episodes of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on Get-TV some time ago and I couldn't get through them. I hated the bright obnoxious color schemes in the show.

This is not unusual for shows in the 60s. When it became mandatory for shows to be broadcast in color, it was quite the practice to use really bright colors. It was like the networks thought people were too stupid to see that it was color so the use of bright colors screamed at you 'This is color!' Shows that went from black and white to color were especially prone to this practice. Lots of reds and oranges were used because these colors stand out. It wouldn't be until the early 70s that things toned down a bit. Almost to the point of being bland color schemes (All In The Family).

 

[Sheldon_W]

I've always had a soft spot for The Adventures of Hiram Holiday - a one-season wonder starring Wally Cox. I wish someone would put that out on DVD/Blu-ray.

 

[Sheldon_W]

When I saw the earlier mention of The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, I thought, 'What about Hooperman?' It debuted the same week as Molly Dodd and the two shows prompted the creation of the word dramedy.

Hooperman gave us some of John Ritter's best work but was way too hip for the room when it came out. I would love to have it on Blu-ray.

 

[Neil Brock]

The Lineup (San Francisco Beat) ran for 6 seasons and produced 200 episodes. That is another head scratcher, especially since its' contemporary, M Squad, was released many years ago.

Not a head scratcher at all. The show hasn't aired anywhere in at least 40 years. While popular in its day, the show is virtually unknown today. It never had any airings on any national cable network. No tape elements exist as it has never run off anything but 16mm film.

 

[Neil Brock]

Considering how successful Dark Shadows has been on home video (1225 half hours released on VHS and then DVD!), I'm surprised that the 1969-70 Canadian knock-off series Strange Paradise hasn't been out on DVD yet. The entire series exists and has been even posted on a certain online video website we all know. There's only 195 half-hours and would make a good box set. Also, it would cost a LOT less than the coffin-shaped DS set does! (Mind you, I bought the individual volumes that were released before the coffin set)

Strange Paradise is owned by an old eccentric who doesn't have the inclination to do anything with the show.

 

[Neil Brock]

When I saw the earlier mention of The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, I thought, 'What about Hooperman?' It debuted the same week as Molly Dodd and the two shows prompted the creation of the word dramedy.

Hooperman gave us some of John Ritter's best work but was way too hip for the room when it came out. I would love to have it on Blu-ray.

Hooperman came out earlier this year.

 

[Frank Soyke]

I always enjoyed the bright colors of the mid 60s shows. Jeannie, Gilligan, F Troop, etc.
That bland garbage coloring of the early 70s on shows like All In The Family, Odd Couple, Room 222, etc I found quite depressing.
I wonder what precipitated the change.... seemed kind of arbitrary. I wonder if it was a concerted effort.

 

[LouA]

Not a head scratcher at all. The show hasn't aired anywhere in at least 40 years. While popular in its day, the show is virtually unknown today. It never had any airings on any national cable network. No tape elements exist as it has never run off anything but 16mm film.

But there are a number of episodes floating around in " collector's circles" probably from 16mm that people rescued .

 

[Brian Himes]

I always enjoyed the bright colors of the mid 60s shows. Jeannie, Gilligan, F Troop, etc.
That bland garbage coloring of the early 70s on shows like All In The Family, Odd Couple, Room 222, etc I found quite depressing.
I wonder what precipitated the change.... seemed kind of arbitrary. I wonder if it was a concerted effort.

I'm not sure what caused the change. I sort of always enjoyed the bright colored 60s as well. It certainly made the shows stand out. Sometimes it seemed to go a bit overboard on reds, but still enjoyable. I always thought Room 222 was rather colorful. At least in the fashions the kids wore. All In The Family has always looked dreadful. The most colorless show ever put on TV. You're right. Just down right depressing.

Maybe it was an effort to make TV look more 'life like' or realistic.

 

[Frank Soyke]

I know the early 70s marked a clear change in the colors used in films as well. They went from that bright technicolor Disney look of the mid to late 60s to that drab colorless stuff in the early 70s. I remember how drab Love Story (71) looked in particular and many other films of that era. TV of that era followed suit. The Lear shows, MTM, Bob Newhart, Barney Miller,etc. It seemed bright colors didn't return until the early 80s.
It would make an interesting study to find out why.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I'm not sure what caused the change. I sort of always enjoyed the bright colored 60s as well. It certainly made the shows stand out. Sometimes it seemed to go a bit overboard on reds, but still enjoyable. I always thought Room 222 was rather colorful. At least in the fashions the kids wore. All In The Family has always looked dreadful. The most colorless show ever put on TV. You're right. Just down right depressing.

Maybe it was an effort to make TV look more 'life like' or realistic.

It's been said, by Lear himself I believe, that he originally wanted to do AITF in Black and White. Of course, CBS said no, so he made the set a brown, almost sepia tone-like affair.

As for the other shows, like Bob Newhart... it was the 70s. Those colors scream the 70s. Look at the original set of The Price is Right from 1972...

it was brown and yellow and earth tones all over. You'd never think that of the most colorful gameshow around since the 80s, but that was the fashion at the time.

 

[Ron1973]

I know the early 70s marked a clear change in the colors used in films as well. They went from that bright technicolor Disney look of the mid to late 60s to that drab colorless stuff in the early 70s. I remember how drab Love Story (71) looked in particular and many other films of that era. TV of that era followed suit. The Lear shows, MTM, Bob Newhart, Barney Miller,etc. It seemed bright colors didn't return until the early 80s.
It would make an interesting study to find out why.

Barney Miller almost looked "dirty." I don't know how to put a finger on what I'm trying to say exactly, but it was just a grungy, dirty feel.