GARY JOHNSON
Gary Johnson headed to California intent on writing the Great American Novel. Instead, he built an award-winning career writing the Great American Game Show. A 1967 UNO graduate, Johnson won nine Emmy awards during his career writing and producing an assortment of television game shows, including a 14-year run with “Jeopardy!” His extensive association with network game shows began in 1970 shortly after he and his wife, fellow UNO graduate Michele Vaughn (1968) moved to Venice, California. That same year he began writing for “Hollywood Squares,” for which he won a 1974 Emmy for “Best Writing for a Game Show.” Johnson later wrote for and/or produced other game shows, including NBC’s “Scrabble,” PBS’ “Think Twice” and the Family Channel’s “Jumble,” “Boggle” and “Shuffle. He also was head writer and producer and appeared on-air for Dick Clark’s syndicated game show “The Challengers.” Johnson’s longest tenure, though, was with “Jeopardy!,” where he began in 1997. Michele was one of the show’s original writers when it debuted in 1984 and wrote for “Jeopardy!” at various times over seven years (she received an Emmy for “Outstanding Achievement in Writing — Special Class” for the show’s 1990-91 season). Gary Johnson eventually became head writer and supervising producer for “Jeopardy!” He was nominated for 20 Emmy awards with the show and won eight before retiring in 2011. He finally got around to that novel, too, publishing “Zipper” in 2014 and “Head Trauma,” a collection of poems and sonnets.