Fame Is the Name of the Game

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Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966) was ostensibly the first TV-movie, although technically the much earlier movie-length pilot of 77 Sunset Strip actually takes that title. Endlessly promoted by the network (NBC) as television's first "World Premiere" of a "major motion picture," Fame Is the Name of the Game involved an investigative reporter played by Tony Franciosa and featured the screen debut of 20-year-old Susan Saint James.

The TV-movie garnered a phenomenally huge audience and served as the pilot for a later series of 90-minute shows, The Name of the Game, that featured a rotating cast of leading men and usually Saint James, who was brought into the series along with Franciosa. The most famous episode of the TV series was "L.A. 2017," a science fiction episode directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Philip Wylie. Other actors playing rotating leads in the series included Gene Barry, Robert Stack, and after Franciosa's departure at the beginning of the third season, Peter Falk, Darren McGavin, Robert Culp, and Robert Wagner.