George Clayton Johnson

George Clayton Johnson was interviewed for five hours in Pacoima, CA.  Johnson chronicled his career as a fiction, television, and movie writer.  He talked about his association with the original Oceans 11 (1960) feature film for which he was the original co-screenwriter and received co-story credit on the movie.  He detailed in depth his association as one of the key collaborators on The Twilight Zone (1959-64) for which he contributed to eight series episodes including the classics “Nothing in the Dark,” “A Game of Pool,” and “Kick the Can.”  He described The Twilight Zone’ s place in television history and talked about producer Buck Houghton, creator Rod Serling, and writers Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont.  Johnson spoke in depth about Star Trek, for which he contributed the teleplay to what would become the premiere episode: “The Man Trap.”  Johnson also talked about his teleplays for such series as Route 66, The Law and Mr. Jones, and Kung Fu.  He also discussed the classic science fiction novel Logan’s Run, which he co-authored with William F. Nolan.  The interview was conducted by Gary Rutkowski on September 16, 2003.