1987’s Max Headroom delivered television’s first cyberpunk series along with a wicked social satire, and the show still stands up well today.
What Is It?
This series takes place in a dystopian, near-future setting where mega-corporations control the world and keep the public distracted with television shows that live or die by up-to-the-minute ratings results. While trying to uncover corporate corruption, investigative reporter Edison Carter–who works for a megacorp himself, Network 23–is involved in an accident that leads to the creation of his AI alter ego Max Headroom. Together, the two team up and fight to expose the sinister undertakings of their corporate-dominated world.
Aired: ABC, 1987-88, Two Seasons Totaling 14 Episodes
Cast: Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays, W. Morgan Sheppard, Chris Young, Charles Rocket
Crew: George Stone (Creator), Rocky Morton (Creator), Annabel Jankel (Creator)
Legacy:
This spunky and subversive show gave television its first cyberpunk entry taking place in a corporate and technology-controlled world that provided a biting satire on its era and which is still relevant today.
It had only a short tenure, but its influence has lasted much longer.
A Closer Look:
Max Headroom first appeared in the Channel 4 telefilm Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future which was designed to introduce the character to audiences before he started hosting the music video program The Max Headroom Show. The AI character became an immediate hit and it was not long before he was sponsoring products like New Coke (C-c-c-c-atch the Wave!). His popularity led ABC to greenlight an ongoing television series that more or less followed the 20 Minutes into the Future film, making a few changes here and there for American audiences.
And while the concept for Max Headroom may have seemed like a one-note show, it transcended its limitations and delivered some pretty biting satire on television and technology run amok in a world controlled by mega-corporations. (Wait, isn’t that the world we live in today . . . ?) Edison Carter is the crusading investigative reporter eager to expose corruption while acting as the voice of the everyman. Max Headroom is the trickster in the machine who helps Edison in his endeavors while s-s-s-snapping off witty remarks with his glitchy stutter and generally causing trouble for all who encounter him. Carter also gets plenty of help from his network controller Theora Jones along with the child-genius Bryce Lynch, the anarchist Blank Reg, and others. The actors definitely played their roles over-the-top, but that lended itself to the underlying satire that the show delivered.
Max Headroom borrowed liberally from Blade Runner for its visual style, though it added plenty of its own originality that was later borrowed by other notable genre shows. The gritty look and feel along with the persistent, dark ambient music in the background got its start with this show, though it would later get much more exposure when Chris Carter adopted it for The X-Files. The corporate dystopia that the show offered certainly rang true in the ’80s, a time when the mega-corporations were making their presence felt, and it has since become a common theme in science fiction. Much of Max Headroom was in fact prescient, and that likely made it too heady for television audiences and certainly ahead of its time. It disappeared from the tube after a brief, two-season run, but the show left its mark as a Black Mirror of its day with a sense of humor, and is still well-remembered today.
Cancelled Too Soon?
Yes. As mentioned above, Max Headroom may have been too smart and forward-thinking for its own good, leading to its demise. It proved quite popular when it bowed in 1987 for a short, six-episode run, though it definitely helped to have hit series Moonlighting as its lead-in. For its second season, ABC moved it to Fridays at 9 PM EST where it had to contend with stiff competition against popular shows Dallas and Miami Vice. The ratings plummeted as the viewing public chose to tune into soap operas and glitzy cop dramas instead of wicked satire. And that resulted in Network 23 . . . err . . . ABC responding immediately to the overnight numbers (driven by their own poor scheduling decisions) and cancelling the series early in the season (after only eight episodes had been produced). And thus, Max Headroom ultimately fell victim to the very thing it satirized.
Should It Be Rebooted?
Yes, and that may very well be happening. This is most certainly a series that is still relevant today and a revival/reboot could certainly work. And since Matt Frewer is still alive and kicking, now is the best time to move forward with a new version of the show. AMC has put that into development and Frewer will be onboard as the voice of Max Headroom. I would also assume he will return as an aged Edison Carter, but they may get a younger actor to act as the series lead with Carter as more of a background character. There is no word yet on whether the other actors from the original series will return, and whether this will be a continuation or a complete reboot. The announcement came in July 2022 and there has been no update since then, so it is unclear where the production stands, especially with the current strikes in place. But we can only hope that this goes forward as planned.
Interesting Fact:
After the series was cancelled when it failed to stand up to Dallas and Miami Vice on Friday nights, the Max Headroom character gave the following speech (aping the infamous words of Winston Churchill): “We will fight them on the streets of Dallas… We will fight them on the streets of Miami… Vice… and if the ratings book lasts for a thousand years, they will say this is Max Headroom’s finest hour.”
While Max Headroom did use some computer-generated graphics, the technology of the time was not advanced enough to bring its title character to life in digital form. Matt Frewer was wearing layers of latex and foam prosthetic makeup which took several hours to apply. And the shiny suit that we only saw the top half of was actually just a fiberglass mock-up that Frewer wore. Even the background animation seen along with Max Headroom, meant to look like computer graphics, was generated with old-style, hand-drawn cell animation.
Where Can You Watch It?
The entire series has been released on DVD, but it has not received the Blu-ray treatment yet. It is not currently available for streaming, but you can purchase it VOD from providers like Amazon.com.
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