Emil Rensing, photographed by Elena Seibert, 2001
My mentor: Emil Rensing
Emil Rensing changed my life. I’ve been lucky that as I’ve gotten older instead of completely settling in (though there’s naturally a lot of that too) there are folks around me that kept me from thinking “old.” Scott Webb and the Nickelodeon promo team, the Fred/Alan gang, the great artists and writers in my cartoon lives. But, I must say, I think when the consumer internet came buzzing, I was just about ready to turn off my brain to it and let the yung’uns take over. Jed Simmons tried to stop me, but I was tired, I was done. Then came Emil.
For many years, like everyone else, my mentors had been older me (excepting Bob Pittman, my original MTV boss, who was two years younger). But when I was almost 50, it flipped on me. And the first kid that started teaching me a lot of stuff was... Emil Rensing.
Emil has a number of super powers, not the least being a superior, raw intelligence. He’s a computer engineer, sure (he was one of the early employees of the then-revolutionary AOL), but... My experience has been there are engineers who know how to invent things, build things, fix things, but there are few who understand the human who use those things. On the other hand, the folks who can comprehend humans, don’t often have grasp on where technology is going, they can only figure out where it’s been (I’m probably on that spectrum). Emil, he can connect the dots. It’s seems simple when I’m writing this, but trust me it’s not. Emil appreciates, deduces, discerns, interprets, recognizes, penetrates. Emil sees.
Emil and I met in 1999, but here’s the quick backstory.
After a try at becoming a record producer, a stint in country radio and cable television, I had somehow or other found myself happily, thrillingly, in the cartoon business. Then, a few months after insisting to a friend that I was happy just learning to be an independent cartoon producer, the internet was for others, I became the first/only president of MTV Networks Online. Just like any other occupation I’ve had, I had no idea what I was doing.
A friend from the animation biz, Charlie Fink, someone always interested in ‘what’s next,’ had left Hollywood and joined the early, money losing, what-the-fuck-is-this-internet-thing. He suggested I meet a young engineer –Signore Rensing– he’d worked with. I did, and even though –maybe because!– Emil was 25 years younger, I asked him to join my team, he did.
It’s hard for me to say what happened in the next year, but for me, it was confusing. The company didn’t really want to succeed in the internet, they just wanted some of that internet moolah that was floating around, and I still didn’t know what I was doing other than occupying space. Soon enough, it was clear to me I couldn’t move the company in any useful direction, so it was equally clear I had to quit. When I told Emil I was leaving he announced he’d quit earlier that day.
Frederator/NY announcement posters by Hatch Show Print, Nashville
Spontaneously, I blurted, “let’s start a company together. You keep showing me what the internet will mean to me and I’ll you how to make TV shows.” He agreed and we were in business. Frederator Studios –Eric Homan and Kevin Kolde– kept the cartoon fires burning (My Life as a Teenage Robot, Random! Cartoons, Fanboy and Chum Chum, Adventure Time, et cetera) and we started a media/internet consultancy in New York. The details don’t matter, we did some good work, we made some TV shows, we started some of the early internet video successes, eventually we started, then sold, yet another new company that paced the world in the new vision of streaming video.
Next New Networks, founded by Emil Rensing & Fred Seibert, posters by Frank Olinsky
Most importantly, Emil kept me young, kept me smart, helped set my stage for the next 20+ years. Emil Rensing changed my life.
Thank you buddy. xxoo
I’ve posted often about my mentors, the people I’ve learned the most from. And I’ve noted how often how many of them beg to differ as to whether or not I should credit them as such. So, I’ve calmed down in my titling. But still…