Joe enters the room. The future, the past, and the present will spin today.
It’s late 2005.
Time magazine has just named YOU the person of the year.
As in Youtube.
Joe sits in Granada USA’s new headquarters in lower Manhattan — a British media empire trying to reinvent itself by Monday.
Granada is behind half of Europe’s television formats: soap operas, game shows, talk shows, reality series. They’ve cracked the code in European unscripted TV. Now they’re here to colonize American screens and have hired Joe’s firm to help flesh out their pitches.
Charles Tremain, Granada’s man in New York, enters grinning — a proper Brit fueled equally by tea and adrenaline. He’s got a hit with MTV. Room Raiders, MTV’s voyeuristic teenage treasure hunt where dating begins with a forensic search of a teen dating prospects laundry and bedroom.
For MTV, it’s an after-school sensation. For Charles, an anointment — a one-page idea turned into millions.
Joe and veteran producer Dave Nelson have been developing new projects with Charles for weeks, designing pilots, testing hosts, arguing titles.
But this morning Charles looks different; bright-eyed, conspiratorial.
“Change of plans,” he says, slinging his satchel over his shoulder. “MTV wants me uptown. They’re panicking about this new YouTube thing. They need brainstormers who understand computers.”
He points to Joe.
“You’ve been in the software trenches. You might be useful.”
Joe smiles. Useful - that lovely industry synonym for expendable genius.
“Dave, you’ve seen a few disruptive cycles in TV. Grab your coats, gentlemen. 1515 Broadway.”
The Cathedral of Screens
MTV’s headquarters looms over Times Square, he world’s loudest cathedral, every billboard a stained-glass plea for attention.
Twenty executives await in a sleek conference room overlooking the digital chaos below. They seem glad to have an orthogonal view from three outsiders.
A vice-president opens the meeting:
“We’ve got a situation. YouTube’s growing faster than expected and siphoning our audience. The data is clear: we must become the YouTube for our demo before it eats us alive.
“They’ve got a platform; we’ve got a channel. They have user-generated chaos; we have structure and story. Story wins, and we’re better at story.”
He gestures toward Charles. “We’ve invited Charles Tremain — creator of Room Raiders — for an outside view.”
Charles stands to polite applause. “Appreciate it. I’ve brought two colleagues.”
He motions to Dave. “Veteran producer, inventor of the X Games, discoverer of Geraldo Rivera, and the guy who hijacked ABC’s traffic chopper to film Woodstock from the air.”
“Old-timer, present,” Dave deadpans. Laughter.
“And this,” Charles adds, “is Joe Summerhays - award-winning software designer and interactive storyteller. He’s spent the last decade bridging education and entertainment across Mac and Windows.”
The VP nods. “Perfect. TV brains meet tech brains. Exactly what we need.”
Joe smiles politely, thinking: Deck chairs, iceberg, turn hard to starboard.
The Anxious Alchemy of Attention
The brainstorm crackles:
“We’ll hire coders.”
“We’ll build a portal.”
“Repurpose Room Raiders, Real World, Cribs into three-minute clips. Fast, disposable, viral.”
Their reflexes presage TikTok and Reels a decade early.
Joe half-listens, half-daydreams of the fourth-graders he’ll visit later — smaller humans, same fascination with screens, infinitely less budget. He wishes they could be in the room, seeing how the sausage gets made.
“Attention spans are collapsing,” someone warns.
Collapsing? Joe thinks. Maybe it’s not attention that’s collapsing but the entire 50 year old factory built to harvest it.
When his turn comes, he outlines the technical side — C++ coders, compression, cross-platform design, hosting farms — but keeps quiet about the ten-year-olds learning to edit, animate, and score films on laptops that cost less than a TV producer’s lunch tab.
When the meeting ends, handshakes are too brisk, smiles too brittle. It feels like the last confident moment before the ice starts to crack.
The Walk Back
The three men step into the cold. Broadway shimmers in daylight.
No one speaks for a block.
“That room was fear,” Dave finally says. “I’ve seen disruption before — color, cable, reality. But this time the audience gets a vote. Who knows where this is going.”
Charles shrugs. “Our research says five years till most video’s on computers. Let’s enjoy being dinosaurs while we can. Plus, the "user" in UGC has no idea how tough it is to get and KEEP attention. That's the trick.”
“Good luck turning broadcasters into programmers,” Joe adds referring to the TV execs in the meeting. “Same nouns and verbs, different syntax and grammar.”
They laugh, thinly, and keep walking.
As Times Square recedes, Joe glances back at the pulsing screens. Every image screams the same prayer: Look at me!
He wonders, When everyone’s shouting with their own media, who’s left to listen?
The Bronx River Parkway
Later that afternoon Joe drives north instead of training home. The Bronx River Parkway — narrow, wooded — unspools like a deep breath after Manhattan.
He replays the meeting. The scale of the panic. The smell of a dying empire.
They’re not wrong, he thinks. But YouTube’s the comet - they’re the dinosaurs trying to catch it with butterfly nets.
The trees blur. He thinks of his fourth-graders waiting — kids learning to storyboard, record voice-overs, make sense of their own imaginations. If I show them the machinery behind the magic, he wonders, am I inoculating, enabling them or recruiting them?
Then another thought: This morning I enable adults figure out how to keep kids in their audience. This afternoon I’ll help kids learn the same tricks they use.
He laughs out loud. At least one of us should use our powers for good.
And somewhere near Scarsdale, the laughter catches in his throat.
He pulls to the shoulder, heart racing.
His life trajectory starts connecting itself like circuitry: his own childhood obsession with the Super 8 camera, his 10 year old self projecting basement premieres on the wall, his father’s reading-literacy company, his years in software building kids apps: A to Zap, Type to Learn, Easy Book, NetExploration. Thousands of kids learning to read, write, and publish before Youtube was a word.
Now every tool once locked inside a TV studio is free, heading to backpacks and back pockets. The flip phone was turning into a full-on media machine. The alphabet of the 21st century wasn't going to be just letters; it is pixels, sound, and motion.
All the dots connect in a nano second. It's all new Literacy — but a meta-literacy if this Youtubr thing takes off. Story, sound, and motion join text as the new currency of thought, of commerce, of the populace.
He had had eyes to see, but now it all hits him like a bolt from the blue. Between the MTV meeting and the kids at school, his role is hyper-realized. Seared into his soul. Mythical. Mystical.
He exhales; his head burns; his eyes flood. He grips the wheel, laughing through emerging tears. Cars rush past, indifferent to the small combustion of purpose occurring in the shoulder lane..
This is it, he thinks. I didn’t choose it — it chose me. And I’m ready.
When the tremor subsides, he eases back onto the road, smiling like a man who’s just met his own future.
The Future.
By the time he parks at the school, the sky has turned silver. In the tiny bathroom he splashes cold water on his face, studies his reflection — eyes red, grin unstoppable.
I’m exactly where I’m meant to be, he thinks. Where it leads, no idea. But it starts here. Now is when these kids peek behind Oz's curtain. I'll be their guide.
Down the hall, laughter spills from the classroom — his young producers generating their own content, their own stories, their own motion and sound.
“Okay, Turtle group,” he calls, “let’s nail the voice-overs for the turtle-heaven scene. We want no dry eyes in the audience people!”
A girl asks, “Mr. Joe, when we’re done, can we put it on YouTube?”
Joe smiles — the most knowing smile of his life.
Last week he’d have said yes as a visiting media coach.
Today he nods as a man reborn.
Joe Animates With Kids. The Kids Are Animated1 Animating Kids indeed.
More Testimonials:
"I am impressed by...these programs, providing young people with the skills to become creative and critical thinkers...this shares my dedication to nurturing the next generation of filmmakers and visual storytellers."— Steven Spielberg - Referencing the work of Joe Summerhays“
"Joe (Animating Kids Founder) has turned the art of movie making for kids into a science.” — Jonathan Demme - Academy Award-Winning Director
“I absolutely love Animating Kids...you have no idea how amazing it is for a span of K-9. I’ve got the whole building covered and my planning was done for me. The kids LOVE the Animation Chefs. Win, win!!”— J. Tuttle - Media Specialist
"When I found Animating Kids it changed everything. Small and not so small humans became masters of sound and motion on any subject via small group PBL dynamics."— Rachel - Tech Coach - Quebec
“Animating Kids has changed everything! Fun, relevant media-making lessons for kids, and total P.D. for my non-film making teachers. A complete solution!!” — Principal - Bronx NY
"Animating Kids really helps focus our students during remote sessions…it keeps them so engaged. Your secret recipes are a life saver." — Marisol - Sacramento Ca
"The kids love the demonstrations and it is P.D. for me as I tee it all up. Animating Kids makes me the coolest educator in their lives!" — Charlotte - London UK
"This is the most important skills-based content for today’s kids. I don't think primary educators get how impactful this approach can be. It respects media content creation as the basic literacy it is for today’s kids. — Monique - White Plains NY
“We went through the entire process (PD workshop) of learning animated filmmaking with our tablets and smartphones. We could barely keep up. In the end we came away exhilarated rather than exhausted.” — Cathy S. - Librarian“
"My head was spinning. It involved: math, writing, science, team building, art, language arts, engineering, improvisation, innovation, acting, etc. Along with another dozen areas I can’t recall. Sneaky comprehensive. Mind blown. Can’t wait to use it in class.” — Marcia - 4th Grade Teacher
“Animation Chefs have created a really inspired program! My test group of (hardened gang members) like to laugh at the videos, and they love the simple clear explanations. They just have a blast...”
— G. Zucker Austin TX
"Thank you SO much for sharing your wealth of information and opening this world to every kid! I first learned about you when my husband introduced our daughter to you. Now I am bringing it into my after school program. I’m so psyched!" — Joy H. Retail After School Specialist
"Kids sign-up for robotics, coding, and stop motion sessions. After taking all three, they rate stop motion as their favorite track BY FAR. Animating Kids is key to our success." — Shane V. After School District Lead