William Johnston Books In Order

Publication Order of Flying Nun Books

Publication Order of Happy Days Books

Publication Order of Lancer Brady Bunch Novelizations Books

Publication Order of Max Smart Books

Publication Order of The Munsters Books

Publication Order of Welcome Back, Kotter Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

William Johnston was one of the popular authors from America who has written a number of highly successful novels in his career. He was born on January 11, 1924 in Lincoln, Illinois, United States, and died on October 15, 2010. Johnston has many of his novels under a number of pen names such as Willa Jay, Alex Steele, Susan Claudia, William Howard, Ed Garth, and Heather Sinclair. Before becoming a full time author he was involved in a variety of activities. In the year 1942, he joined the American navy and went on to serve in the Pacific Ocean, Later, he worked as an advertising executive, PR man, disc jockey, magazine editor, as well as a number of other jobs. Eventually, he began his writing career in the year 1960 with his first novel, The Marriage Cage. It was a comic mystery and helped him to earn an Edgar Award nomination in the category of the Best First Novel by the MWA. Following that, he wrote a number of pulp titles for the publishing house Monarch Books which ranged from medical romance to light comedy and soft-core erotica.

The medical novels written by Johnston were based on his initial tie-in assignments which were originally based on a hit television series. The books under this genre were published between the years 1962 and 1964. They became extremely successful and allowed author William Johnston to use a tag line for his future novels. During the following year, he wrote a novel based on the hit television comedy show Get Smart. It also became a huge success, due to which he was allowed to write 9 more novels based on the same TV series over the course of its next 5 seasons. Johnston’s writing career became so much popular that he began to be called as the go-to man for his original tie-in works. Following that, Johnston wrote many hit novels based on TV series such as Happy Days, The Flying Nun, The Munsters, The Brady Bunch, etc. The television tie-in works of author Johnston were extended beyond the sitcom adaptations. He wrote novels that were adapted from the famous cartoon characters Snagglepuss and Magilla Gorilla which were released especially for children. Over the course of his successful writing career, author Johnston has penned down many novelizations like the pilots for the private eye series, Banyon as well as the Sons and Daughters during the time of the 1930s era. Finally, Johnston retired from his writing career and started a bar of his own, which he ran for a number of years. Just before his death, Johnston was living in San Francisco, California.

The Get Smart series of novels written by author William Johnston consists of a total of 9 books published between the years 1965 and 1969. The first novel of the series was published under the title ‘Get Smart’. It was released by the Grosset and Dunlap publishing house in the year 1965. The plot of this novel revolves around the main character Fang or agent K-13 who works for a spy network called FLAG. The plot of the novel also shows the character of Chief of Control, however, he seems to be a bit different in personality than the one from the television show. Actually, all the characters in the novel seem to be a little bit different and wackier the one depicted in the television series. Overall, there is a mixture of characters in the novel, including the good guys and bad guys as well as the ordinary civilians who stand by. All these characters together work at the same level in the novel and so the character of Max does not seem to be alone in ineptness. The author has described Max as being familiar with jig-Jitsu, with the help of which he can subdue people. He immediately walks into the locked closets and gets stuck over there, waiting for some help. On the whole, the novel featured campy and satirical spy stories which seem to be very serious. Agent 86 Maxwell Smart is shown as living in the New York City along with his faithful friend Agent K-13, also called as Fang. The two are assigned the job of finding a computerized robot that was built by a woman, known by the name Blossom. The computer is named Fred by Blossom after her deceased dog. Even though it was built accidentally, Fre was the most important machine in the world. That is why the secret agency named FLAG as well as another named Control try to find it out and take it under their control.

One of the other novels of the Get Smart series written by author William Johnston was published in the year 1966 by the Tempo Books publishing house. It was titled ‘Get Smart Again’. The plot of this novel continues to deal with the main characters like agent Maxwell Smart and other agents, who were depicted in the initial novels of the series as trying to find the computerized robot named Fred, as it was considered to be the most superior machine present in the world. In this novel too, Maxwell Smart goes on to a strange adventure. The secret agency KAOS seems to have a Dooms Day Plan, which it is about to execute. Now, agent Max is the only person who can stop the execution of the KAOS and save the day. The plan of the KAOS seems to be in his hands, and it will stop at nothing to track down Max and get back the plan from him, even if it means to kill him. In place of Agent K-13 or Fang, there is agent 44 in the plot of this novel, who makes a number of appearances with Max and Agent 99. The Chief continues to depict his character in a similar way as in the previous novels. With the success of the initial novels of the series, it seems that author Johnston has captured the spirit as well as the tone of the original television series very well. Just like the previous novels of the series, this novel too became extremely successful and helped author Johnston to establish himself as a noteworthy author. It proved to be a light read, but provided all the entertainment that a comedy novel should provide. Many readers also found it to be a quick read and its interesting plot helped them to keep reading it till the very end in a single stretch.