Pricked Official Pilot, August 2026.

The Art of Reinvention

After decades in technology and entrepreneurship, Chris Muller is finally turning a lifelong passion into an animated new chapter

By Adriana Falco
November 11, 2026 • 9 min read

A Story Worth Telling

Chris Muller carried a conversation with his grandfather for nearly 40 years. As a teenager, he often found his grandfather, who had suffered several strokes, sitting in a wheelchair beside a large glass window. One day, curious about what occupied his thoughts during those quiet hours, Chris asked him.

“I’ve had so many things happen in my life, you know, that I just think back and rewatch the movies,” his grandfather replied with nostalgia.

The answer stayed with Muller. He began thinking about his own life as a collection of experiences, the people who shape us and the moments worth remembering. He and his closest friends eventually adopted the phrase “wheelchair stories” to describe experiences they hoped would be worth revisiting later in life.

Nearly four decades later, Muller is creating a new collection of those stories. After building a career in technology and pursuing numerous entrepreneurial ventures, he has returned to the creative ambition he discovered as a young man. As founder of HEADRIOT, an independent entertainment company, he is developing original animated programming, including PRICKLED, a comedy inspired by the personalities and social dynamics of pickleball.

For Muller, the series represents an opportunity to pursue the career he once imagined but set aside in favor of financial stability. His journey through tech, advertising, motorsports and entrepreneurship has contributed to the storyteller he has become.

“While I can look back and wish I would have done this sooner, hey, I’m doing it now,” Muller gratefully said. “And so, I won’t be having a wheelchair moment regretting that I never got into storytelling like I wanted to.”

A Childhood That Shaped a Storyteller

Growing up in Byram, a blue-collar section of Greenwich, Connecticut, Chris Muller experienced a side of the affluent town that rarely made headlines. His family operated a water well business, drilling wells and maintaining pumps and tanks. From the time he could carry a wrench, he accompanied his family on service calls.

The work exposed him to people from different backgrounds. He attended school with children from prominent families while working at homes belonging to well-known individuals. Moving between those worlds taught him to look past wealth and reputation.

Outside work, Muller played football, baseball and hockey. He also developed a talent for observing people and recounting experiences in ways that made his friends laugh. Ordinary encounters became entertaining stories.

“I was always a good storyteller,” he recalled. “I think that’s how I kind of coped and spent my time and kept myself busy.”

His first encounter with animation came in sixth grade, when his class produced a stop-motion film about endangered animals. Each student was assigned a character, but Muller drew the bulldozer responsible for pushing the animals toward a cliff. While his classmates moved individual figures, Muller had to reposition the bulldozer and every animal, one painstaking movement at a time.

He laughed recalling how much more work he had than his classmates. The boy responsible for moving an entire cast of characters would eventually grow up to create one of his own.

After graduating high school, Muller found his direction at Quinnipiac University. While studying mass communications with a concentration in film, he discovered a passion for writing, editing and production.

He envisioned a career bringing stories to the screen. But after graduating in 1992, practical considerations intervened. Muller married young and needed a dependable income. Freelance production offered little financial certainty, and he chose technology instead.

“Back then, I didn’t have the guts to freelance,” he admitted. “I probably should have.”

A Different Career, the Same Creative Instincts

A career in tech offered the financial stability filmmaking could not guarantee. Muller worked in sales and customer success for software and cybersecurity companies, along with digital marketing optimization, engaging with organizations including McKinsey, IBM and Hyatt.

Outside his corporate responsibilities, he continued developing businesses. He organized three-on-three basketball tournaments, invented a portable Wiffle ball strike zone and hosted tournaments along the East Coast. His passion for motorsports led him to create CHCKRD, a social media application for racing enthusiasts.

Entrepreneurship taught him the challenges of financing, marketing and attracting customers. Some ventures provided valuable experience. Others became expensive lessons.

“The biggest thing about starting companies is that you can have the greatest idea in the world, but if nobody knows anything about it, you’re dead,” he explained.

Muller never stopped imagining television programs. One opportunity brought him remarkably close to the entertainment industry. Through Hollywood contacts, he learned that a production group developing programming for a proposed country music channel needed show concepts. When someone asked whether he had ideas, Muller answered enthusiastically.

“Hell yeah, I do,” he recalled saying.

There was one problem. He didn’t actually have any.

Muller headed to Panera Bread, where he spent five days drinking coffee and developing approximately 18 television concepts. He knew arriving with a single idea was risky. If executives rejected it, the conversation could end immediately.

Armed with 18 one-page pitches, he flew to California for a meeting in Manhattan Beach. He remembers a beach house, a beautiful sunset and an executive evaluating his ideas as quickly as he presented them.

Five concepts remained under consideration, two advanced to budgeting and one secured a two-year holding agreement. The proposed show was a humorous variation on MTV Cribs, touring trailer park homes rather than celebrity mansions. A member of the country duo Big & Rich was considered as a host.

Although never produced, the project demonstrated Muller’s ability to develop an original concept and secure a commercial agreement. Yet animation remained financially out of reach, requiring artists, specialized skills and lengthy production schedules. Then digital technology began changing the economics of animation. New tools offered faster, more affordable ways to develop characters and produce content.

“Technology has caught up to my brain,” Muller said.

For the first time, he could envision building the entertainment company he had imagined for decades.

Turning Frustration Into Opportunity

Years of spending money on Facebook and Instagram ads without achieving the returns he expected left Muller questioning traditional approaches to reaching customers. He envisioned combining original entertainment with a more effective way for brands to connect with audiences.

In January 2025, he founded HEADRIOT around that concept. Rather than interrupting programs with commercials, brands could be incorporated naturally into stories, with QR codes and links allowing viewers to learn more or make purchases. But Muller knew the entertainment had to stand on its own. Nobody wanted to watch an extended advertisement.

His first hire was Jay Wilson, a traditional 2D animator who now leads HEADRIOT’s animation work. Together, they developed a hybrid approach combining conventional animation expertise with AI-assisted tools. Muller believes technology can make production more accessible while preserving the creative details that bring characters to life.

With the company taking shape, he needed an original series to demonstrate its capabilities. The inspiration came from an unexpected place.

Finding Comedy on a Pickleball Court

Pickleball was hardly an obvious source of inspiration for an animated sitcom. Chris and his tennis-playing wife occasionally played, but the sport was not a major part of their lives.

During a visit to his brother-in-law in Tucson, Arizona, Muller passed local pickleball courts and was struck by the landscape. The desert colors and expansive skies seemed ideal for animation, and the people surrounding the sport proved even more intriguing.

He began researching pickleball and discovered an enthusiastic community whose members discussed equipment, tournaments, personalities and everyday experiences. Its social nature brought together people of different ages and backgrounds, creating friendships, rivalries and occasional disagreements.

“Pickleball is a microcosm of society,” Muller explained.

He envisioned a comedy about those personalities, with pickleball serving as the setting rather than the central subject. The concept became PRICKLED, an animated sitcom set in Arizona. Its central character, Harry, loses his job and marriage within 24 hours, prompting him to move west for a fresh start. There, he discovers pickleball and joins a residential community filled with colorful personalities.

“This show is not about pickleball playing,” Muller explained. “It’s more about the community and the people in the pickleball world.”

The Personalities Behind PRICKLED

The humor of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm has long appealed to Chris, particularly Larry David’s ability to find comedy in uncomfortable social situations. Harry shares some of those qualities. He is outspoken, socially awkward and often responsible for his own problems, yet Muller wants viewers to recognize something familiar beneath his flaws.

“He’s his own worst enemy,” Muller said, describing Harry as an everyman audiences can understand and root for.

The supporting cast draws heavily from people Muller has encountered. Roxy, a sharp-tongued woman from South Philly, reflects his appreciation for outspoken Philadelphia sports fans. Muller has spent summers in South Jersey since the late 1980s and developed an affection for the region’s humor.

He recalled leaving a Philadelphia Flyers game with friends who supported the New York Rangers when an elderly woman approached them outside the arena. Despite her frail appearance, she delivered a memorable insult about the Rangers missing the playoffs. Muller still laughs at the contrast between her appearance and her unapologetic attitude, which helped inspire Roxy.

Other characters include Russell, a former college professor from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Harvey, whose Chicago background adds another perspective. Muller enjoys combining regional personalities, believing their distinctive attitudes create natural comedic tension.

The Arizona setting brings them together within a planned community, complete with homeowners association politics, neighborhood disputes and the social rituals familiar to recreational pickleball players.

Although the show is a comedy, Muller takes authenticity seriously. Having watched motorsports productions where technical inaccuracies undermined credibility, he does not want pickleball players to have a similar experience. In one scene involving a disagreement over how loudly a score is announced, he carefully reviewed the players’ court positions to ensure the action reflected the rules.

Muller prefers subtle jokes, cultural references and callbacks over predictable physical comedy. He wants PRICKLED to entertain enthusiasts without requiring audiences to know the sport. The game provides the setting, but the characters carry the story.

Building an Entertainment Company

Bringing PRICKLED to life required more than a clever premise. Creating the approximately 28-minute pilot involved character design, animation, voice performances and script revisions. Although technology has made production more accessible, Muller emphasizes that quality entertainment still demands talent, time and money.

Rather than wait for a TV network to approve the concept, Muller released the pilot directly on YouTube, reaching audiences independently.

The company has developed additional storylines, including an episode in which Harry searches for a mixed doubles partner in a scenario inspired by Love Connection. Another introduces a social media influencer, exploring generational differences and online culture.

At the time of our interview, Muller said the team had outlined the first season and anticipated releasing episodes approximately every 30 days once financing and brand partnerships were secured. He also reported a nonexclusive agreement for the first season to appear on PickleTV, with other distribution discussions underway.

But PRICKLED is only one part of his vision. Muller is developing Marbles, an animated motorsports project, and educational programming. Stackers focuses on financial literacy for teens, Current explores ocean and environmental awareness, and Gear Up Guardians promotes powersports safety for kids.

“If I can do good and help people through storytelling, that to me is a good life,” he said.

Balancing creativity with running a company remains challenging. Muller would rather develop characters and write scripts, but securing sponsors, negotiating partnerships and financing production require considerable attention.

“The splitting your mind between business and creating stinks,” he admitted.

He has explored bringing additional business development support into HEADRIOT to concentrate on creating entertainment. For someone with no shortage of ideas, finding the resources to bring them to life may be his greatest challenge.

A Story Worth Remembering

There is a certain irony in the timing. Muller once considered the entertainment business too uncertain to support a young family. Today, he is building a company in that same industry, using business knowledge he acquired while working elsewhere. Although he occasionally wonders what might have happened had he entered entertainment earlier, he no longer sees the intervening years simply as missed opportunities.

His grandfather’s words continue to influence that perspective.

“Just because you haven’t done something yet, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Recognize regret, harness it, and use it as motivation,” Muller said.

Nearly 40 years after watching his grandfather replay the memories of his life, Muller is making new ones. The sixth grader who once moved a miniature bulldozer frame by frame is now creating characters, writing scripts and building an entertainment company around the stories he has always wanted to tell.

When he eventually looks back on the movies of his own life, he will have one more worth replaying: the story of finally giving himself the chance to pursue his dream. ●

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