1987 Max Headroom TV Series Episodes

The 1987 Max Headroom TV series was an American satirical cyberpunk drama that aired on the ABC network from March 1987 to May 1988. It was an adaptation of a British TV film, Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future, and focused on a dystopian future ruled by powerful television networks. The series stars Matt Frewer in a dual role: as Edison Carter, a crusading investigative journalist for the powerful Network 23, and as the titular character Max Headroom, a computer-generated alter ego of Carter's mind. The story begins when Carter uncovers that the network's high-speed "Blipvert" advertisements are physically harming viewers. After a motorcycle accident leaves Carter unconscious, a hacker (Bryce Lynch) creates a digital copy of his mind. The resulting A.I. character, with his stuttering speech and pixelated appearance, is given the name "Max Headroom" (after the last thing Carter saw before his crash: a parking garage sign reading "Max. headroom"). Max Headroom, a wisecracking and anarchic figure, works with Carter and his team (including controller Theora Jones, played by Amanda Pays, and producer Murray McKenzie, played by Jeffrey Tambor) to expose corruption and challenge the control of the media oligarchy. Themes and Impact The show was considered groundbreaking and prophetic, exploring themes such as corporate control, media manipulation, identity theft, and the fusion of media and government, years before many of these issues became mainstream. It has been called the "first cyberpunk television series". Despite critical acclaim for its witty and subversive nature, the series struggled in the ratings against established hits like Dallas and Miami Vice and was canceled partway through its second season. The "Max Headroom Incident" The show's legacy is also tied to a real-life unsolved mystery: the "Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion". On November 22, 1987, the signals of two Chicago television stations, WGN-TV and WTTW (PBS affiliate), were hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask. The intruder broadcast a bizarre, distorted video for several minutes across both stations. The perpetrators were never identified, and the incident has since become a notorious piece of internet lore and broadcast history.