William Froug

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William Froug is an Emmy award-winning American television writer and producer. His producing credits include the series The Twilight Zone, Gilligan's Island, and Bewitched. In addition he wrote teleplays for The Dick Powell Show, Charlie's Angels, and The New Twilight Zone. He has written numerous books on screenwriting, including Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade, Zen and the Art of Screenwriting I and II, The Screenwriter Looks at The Screenwriter and How I Escaped from Gilligan's Island: Adventures of a Hollywood Writer-Producer, published in 2005 by the University of Wisconsin Press. Froug founded the writing program at UCLA film school, and finished his teaching career with screenwriting workshops from 1994-1995 at Florida State University's film conservatory, then located in Sarasota.

One of Froug's students, Dan O'Bannon, included a shout-out in Dark Star. O'Bannon's character, Sergeant Pinback, claims that his real name is "Bill Froug."

PERSONAL

William Froug was born in Brooklyn, New York in May of 1922 and placed for adoption through the Louise Wise agency. He was adopted by William and Rita Froug of Little Rock, Arkansas where he spent his childhood before the family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma (Froug's Department Stores).

Froug attended, and graduated from, the renowned Journalism School at the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1943 before enlisting in the U.S. Navy. He served as a Lt.(jg) before taking command of the sub chaser, the USS PC 800, stationed at Pearl Harbor.