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 video production on a 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 ...

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 television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'', 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 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 withdra ...

, "

The Richard Boone Show ''The Richard Boone Show'' is an anthology television series. It aired on NBC during the 1963-64 season. Synopsis Richard Boone hosted the series and starred in about half of the episodes, garnering an Emmy nomination for himself and a Golden G ...

" (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 1990) 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 pub ...

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. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, 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 by William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore in Widow Letterman's home on the campus of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pen ...

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, along with his close friend and classmate

Horace Hahn Horace L. Hahn (July 23, 1915 – January 31, 2003) was an American actor best known for working with Cecil B. DeMille on several films as a young man, including a supporting role in '' This Day and Age'' (1933). He also served in the Office of ...

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 Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

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

* 1915 births 1999 deaths Television producers from California Deaths from emphysema Deaths from motor neuron disease Neurological disease deaths in California 20th-century American businesspeople University of California, Los Angeles alumni Los Angeles High School alumni {{US-tv-producer-stub