Although dated by any standards, this episode of the popular NBC show "The Name of the Game" still stands up relatively well. It is my hope that Universal will repurpose this content and release it to DVD.
LA 2017 differed from the other episodes of Name of the Game, in that it was a science fiction episode. The episode represents the first screenplay written by Sci Fi Author Phillip Wylie. Steven Spielberg directed the episode.
Publisher Glenn Howard is returning in his car from the Sierra Pines Conference on world ecological issues. It is a smoggy day in Los Angeles, and exhaust backs up in his car, knocking him out. His car drives off the side of the road into a dirt bank.
When he awakes, he discovers that a time warp has transported him from 1971 to the year 2017. An ecological disaster which occurred in the 1980s and 1990s has wiped out all life on the surface of the earth, interfering with the oxygen cycle and rendering the atmosphere deadly to even breathe.
Los Angeles is now an underground city of some 10,000 people. It has survived along with similar cities in perhaps a dozen locations around the world. The government has been replaced by a shareholder's democracy established by the wealthy businessmen who funded building of the original underground cities.
The shareholder's democracy is structured to favor the corporate elite. It is extremely heavy handed and is more or less a totalitarian state. Psychologists are now the police, and they are oriented towards thought control and mind control. Privacy does not exist.
This is an excellent episode. I last saw it aired on television in 1981.
