Yahoo Lifestyle Glenn Padnick Dies: Castle Rock Co-Founder & TV Chief Who Helped Shepherd ‘Seinfeld’ Was 77
Glenn Padnick, who co-founded Castle Rock Entertainment, served as its TV president and was a key player in bringing its crown-jewel sitcom Seinfeld into existence, has died. He was 77.
His reps told Deadline that Padnick died February 27 of complications from Erdheim-Chester disease, a rare illness he lived with for a quarter-century.
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Padnick shepherded the Jerry Seinfeld-fronted comedy juggernaut into being and produced and oversaw the NBC series through all nine seasons, making an uncredited on-screen cameo in the Season 4 episode “The Pilot.”
Alan Horn, who co-founded Castle Rock in 1987 along with Padnick, Rob Reiner, Martin Shafer and Andrew Scheinman, said of Padnick: “We found ourselves having a phenomenal run with what is unquestionably one of the most famous situation comedies in television, Seinfeld. And he was the point person as president of Castle Rock Television.”
During his career as a TV executive, Padnick also produced several hit comedies of the 1980s and ’90s including NBC’s Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, ABC’s Who’s the Boss? and Fox’s first primetime series and breakout hit Married … with Children. During the ’80s, he also worked on NBC’s Silver Spoons, CBS’ Square Pegs and the last three seasons of Norman Lear‘s groundbreaking comedies One Day at a Time and The Jeffersons.
His distinctive laugh can be heard in the background in most episodes of the shows. His also wrote episodes The Facts of Life, Silver Spoons, Diff’rent Strokes, Who’s the Boss? and Hello, Larry.
Born in 1947 in Brooklyn, Padnick moved west in 1974 to work in O’Melveny and Myers’ entertainment department after graduating from Harvard Law School. After a year of working almost entirely on contracts related to Lear’s series, Padnick was recruited by Horn to serve as head of business affairs at Tandem Production as its in-house legal counsel. He agreed on the condition that at some point he be given an opportunity to work on the creative side of television production.
By 1977, Padnick had transitioned to being a full-time television executive. After co-founding Castle Rock a decade later, he served as its president until 2003, when he had to retire early because of his illness.
Former Warner Bros president and CEO Horn added: ““I’ve known Glenn for more than 50 years, and the first thing I learned about him was that he was a brilliant lawyer. He was a person of enormous intellect but even more humility. He had a great laugh and he was a great partner.”
Padnick’s son Robert, a TV writer-producer known for The Office, Miracle Workers and Big Mouth, said: “The best part of my career has been meeting people who worked with my dad. They all say he was the nicest guy in television, which is really saying something in this industry.”
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The family said the elder Padnick loved National Parks, baseball and poker and had an almost savant-like knowledge of classic movie trivia. Watching black-and-white films with his dog at his feet was another favorite pastime.
Along with son Robert and daughter-in-law Sarah Wick, Padnick is survived by his wife, Eleanor; daughter Susan (Chris Cohen); son Steven (Sara Hames); six grandchildren; and sisters Dale Braunschweig and Jill Martin.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Padnick’s honor to the National Parks Conservation Association or the Erdheim-Chester Disease Global Alliance.
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