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Max Headroom

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I seem to remember being quite unsettled by the original Max Headroom film. I think it was a Channel 4 project, set "20 minutes into the future", and was actually rather a sharp satire on consumerism and broadcast media. In a bid to retain viewers and sell maximum advertising space TV execs develop "blipverts", intensely concentrated subliminal adverts that cause some viewers to.. er.. explode. In a bid to uncover this to the public, a young reporter breaks into TV offices to gather evidence. While escaping he is knocked unconcious, the last thing he sees being a carpark sign with the words "Max Headroom".

On waking, he discovers the TV network have downloaded his personality and made a "virtual" presenter, named after his last recollection.

The TV series off the back of this, however, dispensed with most of this back story, instead becoming a glorified music video clip show, presented by the glitchy, stuttering "computer generated" host.

Of course, not a single pixel came anywhere near Max, the show makers instead encasing actor Matt Freuer's head with latex make-up and plonking him in front of a blue screen.

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Do You Remember Max Headroom?

Do You Remember Max Headroom?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    I'm lucky enough to have both the original film and TV shows on tape - alas no DVD release any time soon it seems. The TV show sticks to backstory with the exception that Bryce, child hacker, is now on their side. The show touched on some interesting subjects that have become a little closer to reality with time such as selling of body parts, media company manipulation of the population, hacking and viruses and everything networked together....
  • Anonymous user
    on
    OK, if we're going into details.. ;) After picking up the character for a few Coke adverts in the US towards the second half of the 80s, a US series based on the show was put together. About a dozen episodes were made with some of the original cast (including Amanda Pays), and it did have a similar tone to the original UK pilot. Channel 4 in the UK however decided to make more use of Max in other areas, including a chat show and a christmas special (The Max Headroom X-Max Turkey), and lightening the tone considerably. This is the bit I remember more vividly than the other series :)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Hm, I have to say I don't remember this: "The TV series off the back of this, however, dispensed with most of this back story, instead becoming a glorified music video clip show..." The series was mostly a gritty show about a few rebels running a pirate TV station called Big Time TV and rooting out scandals. I think there were only six episodes. They had a unique look, being shot on film but at 30 frames per second I believe. Amanda Pays acts as Matt Frewer's inside source of information. As I remember, she spends most of the time in front of a computer, digging up information and relaying it to Frewer's character over the phone.

Do you remember these?