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Captain Nice
Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1967
5 people want to read
About the author
William Johnston
106 books16 followersLibrarian note: William Johnston has also written under the pseudonyms Susan Claudia, Willa Jay, Heather Sinclair, Ed Garth, Alex Steele, and William Howard.
William Johnston joined the Navy in 1942 and served in the Pacific. He worked as a disc jockey, advertising executive, magazine editor, and PR man before his writing career took off in 1960 with The Marriage Cage, a comic mystery that earned him a Best First Novel Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. He followed that book with a slew of pulp titles for Monarch Books, ranging from light comedy (The Power of Positive Loving) to medical romance (the Doctor Starr trilogy) to soft-core erotica (Save Her for Loving, Teen Age Tramp, Girls on the Wing).
Johnston’s medical novels dovetailed with his first tie-in assignments -- original novels based on the TV series The Nurses, Doctor Kildare and Ben Casey. Those books, published between 1962 and 1964, were so successful that his next original medical romance, Two Loves Has Nurse Powell, was presented as “From the author of Ben Casey.”
In 1965, Johnston wrote an original novel based on the TV comedy Get Smart. The book was a huge success, leading to nine more novels over the show’s five-season history and making him the “go-to” guy for sitcom-based tie-ins. He wrote books based on Captain Nice, Room 222, Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter, The Flying Nun, The Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor, The Munsters, Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched, The Monkees and F-Troop, among others.
But his TV tie-in work extended far beyond sitcom adaptations. He wrote books based on Ironside, Dick Tracy, The Young Rebels, The Iron Horse, Then Came Bronson, and Rod Serling’s The New People, to name a few. He even adapted the cartoon characters Magilla Gorilla and Snagglepuss into books for children.
Johnston also penned many novelizations, including the pilots for the 1930s-era private eye series Banyon and the high school drama Sons and Daughters. His feature film novelizations include Klute, The Swinger, Echoes of a Summer, The New Interns, The Priest’s Wife, Lt. Robin Crusoe USN and his final tie-in project, Gore Vidal’s Caligula (under the pseudonym “William Howard”).
After retiring from fiction writing, he opened his own bar, which he operated for many years. He resided in San Jose, California prior to his death in 2010.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
William Johnston joined the Navy in 1942 and served in the Pacific. He worked as a disc jockey, advertising executive, magazine editor, and PR man before his writing career took off in 1960 with The Marriage Cage, a comic mystery that earned him a Best First Novel Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. He followed that book with a slew of pulp titles for Monarch Books, ranging from light comedy (The Power of Positive Loving) to medical romance (the Doctor Starr trilogy) to soft-core erotica (Save Her for Loving, Teen Age Tramp, Girls on the Wing).
Johnston’s medical novels dovetailed with his first tie-in assignments -- original novels based on the TV series The Nurses, Doctor Kildare and Ben Casey. Those books, published between 1962 and 1964, were so successful that his next original medical romance, Two Loves Has Nurse Powell, was presented as “From the author of Ben Casey.”
In 1965, Johnston wrote an original novel based on the TV comedy Get Smart. The book was a huge success, leading to nine more novels over the show’s five-season history and making him the “go-to” guy for sitcom-based tie-ins. He wrote books based on Captain Nice, Room 222, Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter, The Flying Nun, The Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor, The Munsters, Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched, The Monkees and F-Troop, among others.
But his TV tie-in work extended far beyond sitcom adaptations. He wrote books based on Ironside, Dick Tracy, The Young Rebels, The Iron Horse, Then Came Bronson, and Rod Serling’s The New People, to name a few. He even adapted the cartoon characters Magilla Gorilla and Snagglepuss into books for children.
Johnston also penned many novelizations, including the pilots for the 1930s-era private eye series Banyon and the high school drama Sons and Daughters. His feature film novelizations include Klute, The Swinger, Echoes of a Summer, The New Interns, The Priest’s Wife, Lt. Robin Crusoe USN and his final tie-in project, Gore Vidal’s Caligula (under the pseudonym “William Howard”).
After retiring from fiction writing, he opened his own bar, which he operated for many years. He resided in San Jose, California prior to his death in 2010.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 21, 2024
Mild-mannered and incompetent klutz Carter Nash has invented a secret formula. When he drinks it, he becomes the mild-mannered and klutzy superhero Captain Nice.
William Johnston was really good at tie-in novels of sitcoms that depended on absurdist humor. His Get Smart books, for instance, are unfailingly laugh-out-loud funny.
He accomplishes the same thing in this tie-in novel to a short-lived 1967 TV series that was a parody of superheroes (trying to cash in on the success of Batman). I've never seen more than a few clips of the show, but the novel is often hilarious.
A villain is kidnapping city officials and sending them to "Nowhere" with a time machine that moves people sideways through time. When a mail-in campaign and ticket sales from a hastily organized policemen's ball only nets $12.74 of the billion dollar ransom, its up to Captain Nice to track down the kidnapper. In doing so, he inadvertantly destroys a lot of property and often gets fooled by the bad guys very easily. At one point, for instance, they demand he prove he's the real Captain Nice by flying around the world before arresting them. He obliges, only to discover that the crooks have fled the scene when he gets back.
Every joke is dumb, but most are stll funny. Every character is either an idiot or simply nuts, with Johnston milking the absurdist dialogue and situations for one silly joke after another. It's pure slapstick from start to finish and extremely fun to read.
William Johnston was really good at tie-in novels of sitcoms that depended on absurdist humor. His Get Smart books, for instance, are unfailingly laugh-out-loud funny.
He accomplishes the same thing in this tie-in novel to a short-lived 1967 TV series that was a parody of superheroes (trying to cash in on the success of Batman). I've never seen more than a few clips of the show, but the novel is often hilarious.
A villain is kidnapping city officials and sending them to "Nowhere" with a time machine that moves people sideways through time. When a mail-in campaign and ticket sales from a hastily organized policemen's ball only nets $12.74 of the billion dollar ransom, its up to Captain Nice to track down the kidnapper. In doing so, he inadvertantly destroys a lot of property and often gets fooled by the bad guys very easily. At one point, for instance, they demand he prove he's the real Captain Nice by flying around the world before arresting them. He obliges, only to discover that the crooks have fled the scene when he gets back.
Every joke is dumb, but most are stll funny. Every character is either an idiot or simply nuts, with Johnston milking the absurdist dialogue and situations for one silly joke after another. It's pure slapstick from start to finish and extremely fun to read.
August 25, 2019
It's slightly fascinating. I have never before found a book where I could not find a single sympathetic character.
Literally every single person in this book was either an idiot, incompetent, an unpleasant bully, thoroughly dishonest, or, most frequently, a combination of some of the above traits. I gather this book was based on a TV series which lasted six months back in the sixties. It leaves me with no desire to watch it.
Literally every single person in this book was either an idiot, incompetent, an unpleasant bully, thoroughly dishonest, or, most frequently, a combination of some of the above traits. I gather this book was based on a TV series which lasted six months back in the sixties. It leaves me with no desire to watch it.
November 14, 2015
Even given the age of this book and being an adaptation of a TV show, this was an extremely mediocre book. It seems like the author either watched the pilot and wrote the book or was only given script treatments to base his work on. Carter Nash is way more clumsy than he usually was in the show, and Mrs. Nash was far more domineering than she was portrayed by Alice Ghostley. I've recently watched most of the series on the internet over the past year and this was NOT a good depiction of a light-hearted sitcom.
The story was fairly well-written, and there were a few chuckles amid the dated humor, but it was all far too repetitive - like this was written for a comic book instead of a proper novel.
The story was fairly well-written, and there were a few chuckles amid the dated humor, but it was all far too repetitive - like this was written for a comic book instead of a proper novel.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews