William Froug was born May 26, 1922, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was raised by his adoptive parents, Bill and Rita Froug, in Little Rock, first residing in Hillcrest and later in the Quapaw Quarter. In Little Rock, Froug attended Rightsell Elementary School, East Side Junior High School and Little Rock Senior High School (now known as Central High School).
At the age of four, Froug’s parents took him to his first movie, and a passion for the movies and family tradition were born. Going to the movies became the family’s Friday night ritual.
In his youth, Froug spent his summers at Arkansas Travelers baseball games and in Pine Bluff and Little Rock helping with the family business, Froug’s Department Stores.
During his high school years, Froug was a member of the glee club and pep squad. In 1939, after graduating from high school, he enrolled in the school of journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. His love for storytelling grew as he served on the staff of the school’s SHOWME magazine and co-wrote the school’s play each year.
In 1943, Froug graduated from college, but he missed his graduation ceremony to attend the Navy V-7 officer training program at Columbia University in New York. Froug received his commission as ensign and then began training at the Submarine Chaser Training Centers in Miami and San Francisco. He was later assigned to the naval vessel Sub Chaser (PC 1077) at Pearl Harbor for duty in the Central Pacific in World War II.
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In 1945, he became the youngest captain in the U.S. Navy after he was given command of the PC-800. During this time, Froug honed his writing skills in his off-duty hours. In 1946, he was honorably discharged and published his first novella in True Detective magazine.
Froug became a press agent and radio writer before moving into writing, producing, adapting and directing for radio while he was in the U.S. Naval Reserves. By 1956, he had transferred those skills to Hollywood, becoming the vice president of programs for CBS Radio. At CBS Radio he produced “The Green Lama,” “The Hallmark Hall of Fame” and an acclaimed adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World.”
Froug later moved into television. In 1958, he won an Emmy Award and a Screen Producers Guild (now known as the Producers Guild of America, or PGA) award for the production of “Eddie” starring Mickey Rooney at the Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre.
Froug wrote and produced several television series, including “Playhouse 90,” “Adventures in Paradise,” “The Twilight Zone,” “The Dick Powell Theatre,” “Bewitched” and “Gilligan’s Island.” He was nominated for the Emmy Award four times for his work on “Bewitched.” He received three more nominations for the Producer of the Year awards by the PGA for his series “Mr. Novak,” “Playhouse 90” and “The Twilight Zone.”
He also wrote more than 200 scripts for other series like “Bonanza,” “Quincy M.E.,” “Paper Chase” and “Charlie’s Angels.” His shows were must-see TV and were viewed by millions of fans. In 1964, Froug became executive producer of drama at CBS.
On Nov. 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Froug and Rod Serling, both producers on “The Twilight Zone,” received a call from the United States Information Agency (USIA) asking them to write and produce a documentary introducing the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson. Serling and Froug quickly completed a film titled “Let Us Continue,” which was praised by USIA director Edward R. Murrow.
In 1968, Froug became an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. In 1975, he joined the Department of Motion Pictures, Television and Radio at the University of California at Los Angeles. He updated the screenwriting program and created graduate coursework, elevating it to one of the best programs in the nation. In 1987, Froug retired as a full professor. Many of his students became successful filmmakers and writers in television and motion pictures.
Froug was one of the founders of the PGA and was a founder, chair and co-chair of the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors. For many years, he served as a board member of the PGA and the Writers Guild of America, West. In 1987, he received the prestigious Valentine Davies Award from the Writers Guild of America, West. In 2011, the Archive of American Television selected Froug as one of the Emmy Legends of Television.
Froug wrote several educational best-sellers, including “Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade,” “Zen & the Art of Screenwriting: Insights & Interviews” and “The Screenwriter Looks at the Screenwriter.” He also wrote an autobiography titled “How I Escaped from Gilligan’s Island … And Other Misadventures of a Hollywood Writer-Producer.”
Froug’s reputation and work in Hollywood earned praise from late film critic Roger Ebert, who said, “I know an old writer. His name is William Froug. He lives in Florida, and if you look him up on Amazon, you will see he is still writing brilliant and useful books.”
Froug is yet another connection to the rich cinema legacy embedded in Pine Bluff’s soil that has produced many creative talents who have impacted the world for the better.
On Aug. 25, 2013, Froug died in Sarasota, Fla., at the age of 91. He was survived by his wife, Christine Michaels; his children: Suzy Allegra, Nancy Earth, Lisa Froug-Hirano and Jonathan Froug; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
This article is from ExplorePineBluff.com, a program of the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission. Sources: www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net — William (Bill) Froug (1922–2013); www.swtimes.com — History Minute: William Froug; www.wikipedia.org — William Froug; www.variety.com — Writer-Producer William Froug Dies at 91. Image Credit: www.variety.com.
Ninfa O. Barnard wrote this article for ExplorePineBluff.com.