Archible Ernest "Buck" Houghton (May 4, 1915 – May 14, 1999) was an American

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acce ...

and writer best known for producing the first three seasons of ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

'', as well as many other television programs and independent films from the 1950s through the 1990s. He first entered the film industry as a reader and story editor for David O. Selznick in the 1930s. He moved over to Paramount, working his way up to the casting office and then to the budget department. During World War II, he helped make films for the Office of War Information. Following the war, Houghton assisted executive producers at RKO, and had a two-year stint as a story editor for MGM. He soon became involved in producing early TV dramas such as “China Smith,” “Meet McGraw,” “Yancy Derringer” and “Man with a Camera.” Houghton reached a pinnacle in his career when he was hired by

Bill Self Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball, Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Self has held various coaching roles at the collegiate level an ...

at CBS to produce the first 39 episodes of Rod Serling's “The Twilight Zone” in its original half-hour format. When the network insisted the fourth season consist of hour-long shows, Buck decided it was time to move on. His subsequent collaboration with dramatist

Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize–winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withd ...

, " The Richard Boone Show" (1963–64) was the only repertory company on television, in which a resident cast of actors played different roles in a TV play every week. It was nominated for the Outstanding Dramatic Series Emmy Award in 1964. Other credits include seasons of “High Chaparral,” “Harry O.,” “Hawaii 5-O” and the

American Zoetrope American Zoetrope (also known as Omni Zoetrope from 1977 to 1980 and Zoetrope Studios from 1980 until 1991) is a privately run American film production company, centered in San Francisco, California and founded by Francis Ford Coppola and Georg ...

film, "The Escape Artist."

Early life

Houghton was born in Denver, CO. His parents moved to Los Angeles because of his mother's ill health; she died when he was eleven years old. He graduated from

Los Angeles High School Los Angeles High School is the oldest public high school in the Southern California region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are royal blue and white and the teams are called the Romans. Los Angeles High School is a publ ...

in 1933, where he was known as Arch Houghton. He attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, where he was a member of the

Phi Kappa Psi Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1852. The fraternity has over ninety chapters at accredited four-year colleges and uni ...

fraternity, majored in Economics and English and lettered in varsity track and field as a high-jumper. While attending high school and college, he helped out backstage on several films by

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...

, along with his close friend and classmate Horace Hahn.

Family

He and Wanda Jackson were married in 1946 and remained so until his death. He was the father of Jim Houghton and Mona Houghton.

Death

Houghton died in Los Angeles at the age of 84 on May 14, 1999. He was suffering from emphysema and

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and lo ...

Filmography, Producer/Writer

Filmography, Actor

Published works

* ''What a Producer Does'' (Samuel French) is a primer for would-be film and television producers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Houghton, Buck 1915 births 1999 deaths Television producers from California Deaths from emphysema Deaths from motor neuron disease in California 20th-century American businesspeople University of California, Los Angeles alumni Los Angeles High School alumni