Guest Lead episodes...

while normally it's Gene Barry, Tony Franciosa, Robert Stack who alternately star in TNOTG, there were, however, a small number of notable episodes that featured a 'Guest Lead' star instead.

mostly it was due to the three special guest lead actors 'subbing' the remaining four episodes of the abruptly departed Tony Franciosa's third season segment playing other Howard publications star reporters (thus creating the impression it was a far bigger overall concern with many top reporters besides Jeff Dillon of 'People' & Dan Farrell of 'Crime' magazines working for Glenn Howard)

however three other episodes in season one & two also featured Guest Leads and each of these three all featured cameos by Gene Barry 'as Glenn Howard' & were put under the GB segment (possibly two of these in the second season were potential spinoff 'series pilots' ?)

Season One:
1) 'Pineapple Rose' - Guest Starring Cliff Potter (Potts) as 'Andy Hill' - Howard's first season assistant Andrew Hill gets a 'one off' lead role here searching for Peggy Maxwell (Susan Saint James) who has been kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity as she resembles the wife (Susan Strasberg) of a pop star (Don Stroud)...but is the kidnapping all it appears to be ?

Note this was produced by Tony Franciosa segement producer Leslie Stevens - and might have originally been written as a TF segment story ?

Season Two:
2) 'Goodbye Harry': - Guest Stars Darren McGavin as cynical but witty freelance journalist 'Sam Hardy' - an old friend/associate of Glenn Howard's to whom he always gives 'first refusal' of any stories he digs up - Hardy is a 'Columbo-ish'/ more serious 'Kolchak' type doggedly determined figure (much like a 'less stylish' version of Franciosa's 'Jeff Dillon') here Hardy investigates the disappearance of a scientist Harry Rourke (James Whitmore)

3) 'Man of The People': - Guest Starring Vera Miles as 'Hilary Vanderman' - Howard's top female reporter, here she is digging into a political figure who may not be all he appears...

Season Three:
4) 'Cynthia is Alive And Living in Avalon': Guest starring Robert Culp (of 'I Spy' fame) as 'Paul Tyler'(subbing for TF) - another of Howard's top reporters here looking for a missing witness...

5) 'Little Bear Died Running' : - Robert Culp reprises his 'Paul Tyler' character for the second & final outing looking into the mysterious death of a native American

6) 'A Sister from Napoli': - Guest starring Peter Falk (of 'Columbo' fame) as Howard's reporter 'Lewis Corbett' seen here in a 'one off' lead investigating a story with mafia connections.

7) 'The Man Who Killed A Ghost': - Guest starring Robert Wagner (of 'It Takes A Thief' & later 'Hart To Hart') as Howard's reporter 'David Corey' in a 'one off' lead looking into a story re famed actor figure whose true character might not be all his legend claims...

These four episodes featured a still colour picture of each respective guest lead star (taken from the episode itself) as the closing caption over which the credits rolled & theme tune played as opposed to the normal 'opening graphic' faces of either TF, GB, or RS...

Robert Culp, Peter Falk, & Robert Wagner...plus Darren McGavin & Vera Miles were all major guest stars who disinguised themselves in many other shows & films, most having several hit TV shows of their own thus did an excellent job of playing special guest leads' (Universal probably knew season three was the final season thus 'special guest leads' for just four remaining TF segement episodes made sense, thus they could put in the three episodes TF had already filmed & leave his face up on the 'opening graphic')

One other episode - season two's;
8) 'The King of Denmark' had a interesting variation too
That episode co-starred Tony Franciosa and Susan Saint James as 'Jeff Dillon' & 'Peggy Maxwell' - in fact TF appears for the first scene giving Peggy a research assingment for a story he's working on re theatre....Peggy then stars in the bulk of the episode re a lost Shakespeare manuscript - TF reappears as Dillon arrives on the scene looking for her for the final 25 minutes as they then co-lead to the end, thus Susan Saint James' character 'Peggy Maxwell' for once has the main onscreen role in an episode (probably as a reward for her being the main continuity link as supporting semi regular role in all three stars episodes - for which Susan won an award) - this story is put under TF segement.

All the remaining TNOTG episodes star either Robert Stack, Tony Franciosa, or Gene Barry as the normal rotating three leads.