Jerry Golod

Jerome "Jerry" Golod was an American television executive and producer whose career stretched from Madison Avenue advertising into network children's programming and, later, into independent production. He is best remembered as an executive producer of the syndicated horror anthology Tales from the Darkside, the series that carried the EC Comics and Creepshow sensibility into living rooms for four seasons in the 1980s. He died at 87.

Golod was born in the Bronx on 26 December 1938. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and from the City College of New York. He began in advertising at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, rising by the early 1970s to vice president and associate director of programming. He also spent three years heading a television production company affiliated with the agency, learning how commercials and sponsored programming moved from pitch to air.

In 1975 he joined CBS as vice president of children's programs. The slate under his oversight included Captain Kangaroo, the CBS Children's Film Festival, the CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People, the news specials What's It All About?, and the In the News broadcasts that punctuated Saturday mornings. Other projects introduced young viewers to the Alvin Ailey dance company and to the New York Philharmonic, including programs conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. After also being given oversight of primetime variety development, he moved in 1979 to NBC Entertainment as vice president and national program director, with responsibilities that covered daytime and children's programming, specials, variety, and West Coast late-night programming. He remained at NBC through 1980.

In the early 1980s Golod launched JayGee Productions and returned to making rather than commissioning shows. After George A. Romero's Creepshow (1982), written by Stephen King, became a theatrical hit, Golod approached Romero and producer Richard P. Rubinstein about bringing that tone to television. Rights issues blocked a straight Creepshow series, so the concept evolved into Tales from the Darkside. Romero co-wrote the pilot, Trick or Treat, directed by Bob Balaban. The pilot aired in 1983; the series then ran in first-run syndication for four seasons and became a cult favorite, drawing stories and scripts linked to King, Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Michael McDowell, and others. English Wikipedia lists Golod alongside Romero and Rubinstein as an executive producer, and JayGee Productions among the production companies.

Colleague Mitchell Galin later recalled Golod's pitch to a skeptical Romero: ask for creative controls, take a whack at television, and see whether buyers would say yes. The low budgets forced tight models of sets, speaking roles, and shot counts, yet the series left a lasting mark on anthology horror and helped open doors for writers and directors who went on to larger work.

While reading Elliott Baker's 1971 novel Pocock and Pitt, Golod focused on a secondary character, Adderly, an intelligence operative whose injured hand had redirected his career. That interest became the adventure series Adderly, starring Winston Rekert, produced in Toronto with Orion Television. It ran two seasons (1986-88), aired on CBS in late night and in a summer primetime run, and was an early example of original dramatic programming made in Canada at costs below typical Hollywood budgets.

Golod's executive producer credits in the mid-1980s and early 1990s also included the CBS telefilm Brass (1985), with Carroll O'Connor, Lois Nettleton, and Vincent Gardenia; Condor; the 1990 CBS reunion telefilm Return to Green Acres, which brought Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor back with other cast members of the 1960s sitcom; and the 1991-92 ABC revival of Sid and Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost, a reimagined children's adventure that introduced a new Porter family to the dinosaur-filled world and ran for two seasons. In the 1990s he was co-chairman and co-owner of the proposed Pet Television Network, a cable and satellite service aimed at animal enthusiasts.

In 2013 CBS Television Studios and The CW began developing a new Tales from the Darkside with Golod among the producers, alongside Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and writer Joe Hill. A pilot was produced in 2015; the revival was not picked up to series.

Golod died on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, after a brief battle with cancer, his daughter Dori Golod Howell told The Hollywood Reporter. Obituaries in THR, Deadline, and Variety, published on 3 October 2026, confirmed the age of 87 and the family account. He was survived by his wife of 59 years, Ruth; their children, Dori and Jason; son-in-law Doug; daughter-in-law Danielle; grandchildren Gavin, Ramey, Morgan, and Madison; great-grandsons Everett and Winslow; and nieces and nephews.

Across advertising, network development, and independent production, Golod specialized in spotting an odd idea and finding a path to air, whether for Saturday-morning education, Canadian-shot drama, Krofft dinosaurs, or late-night horror with a sting in the tale.