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Max Headroom (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Max Headroom is a British-produced American science fiction
television series by Chrysalis/Lakeside Productions that aired in the United States on ABC
from March 1987 to May 1988. The series was based on the Channel 4
British TV pilot Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. The series is often mistaken as an American-produced show due to the setting and its use of an almost entirely US cast along with being broadcast in the USA on the ABC network. Cinemax
aired the UK pilot followed by a six-week run of highlights from The Max Headroom Show, a music video show where Headroom
appears between music videos. ABC took an interest in the pilot and asked Chrysalis/Lakeside to produce the series for US audiences.
The show went into production in late 1986 and ran for six episodes in the first season with eight being produced in season two. Although each story was self-contained, most of season one was aired in the wrong order as "Body Banks" follows on from "Blipverts" which is obvious from the dialogue.
, a made-for-television movie, formed the basis of a fully-fledged drama television series. The film was re-shot as a pilot program for a new series broadcast by the U.S.-based ABC
television network. The pilot featured plot changes and some minor visual touches, but retained the same basic storyline. The only original cast retained for the U.S. version series were Matt Frewer
(Max Headroom/Edison Carter) and Amanda Pays
(Theora Jones); a third original cast member, W. Morgan Sheppard
, joined the series as "Blank Reg" in later episodes. Among the non-original cast, Jeffrey Tambor
co-starred as "Murray", Edison Carter's neurotic producer.
The series is set in a futuristic dystopia
ruled by an oligarchy
of television network
s. Even the government functions primarily as a puppet state
of the network executives, serving mainly to pass laws — such as banning off switches on televisions — that protect and consolidate the networks' power. Television technology has advanced to the point that viewers' physical movements and thoughts can be monitored through their television sets; however, almost all non-television technology has been discontinued or destroyed. The only real check on the power of the networks is Edison Carter, a crusading investigative journalist who regularly exposes the unethical practices of his own employer, and the team of allies both inside and outside the system who assist him in getting his reports to air and protecting him from the forces that wish to silence or kill him.
The series began as a mid-season replacement in spring of 1987, and did well enough to be renewed for the fall television season, but the viewer ratings could not be sustained, due perhaps to direct competition with CBS's Top 20 hit Dallas
and NBC's Top 30 hit Miami Vice
. Max Headroom was canceled part-way into its second season; leftover episodes aired in spring 1988. Plans for a cinema version titled Max Headroom for President were mentioned in the media but the film was never produced.
Comico
comics also had plans to publish a graphic novel based on the story but never fulfilled them. A few posters were produced for comic shops, with a picture of Max Headroom saying comics will never be the same again.
) was a hard-hitting reporter for Network 23
, who sometimes uncovered things that his superiors in the network would have preferred to keep private. Eventually, one of these instances required him to flee his workspace, upon which he was injured in a motorcycle accident in a parking lot. Bryce Lynch downloaded a copy of his mind into a computer, giving birth to the character Max Headroom
, as the last words seen by Edison Carter before impact were "Max Headroom," specifying vehicle clearance height in the parking lot.
The series depicted very little of the past described by Edison, though he did meet a female priest that he once dated when his reporting put him at odds with the Vu Age Church that she now headed.
Edison cares about his co-workers, especially Theora Jones and Bryce Lynch.
According to a personal statistics file displayed on a computer screen in the series, Edison is 6'2" tall and weighs 180 pounds.
and first appeared in the British-made television pilot
film for the series. Along with Matt Frewer
and W. Morgan Sheppard
, Pays was one of only three cast members to also appear in the American-made series that followed.
Theora was Network 23's star controller and, working with the network's star reporter, Edison Carter, she often helped save the day for everyone. She was also the pseudo-love-interest of Edison Carter, but that subplot was not explored fully on the show before it was cancelled.
Network 23's personnel files list her father as unknown, her mother as deceased, and her brother as Shawn Jones; Shawn is the focus on the second episode broadcast, "Rakers".
), a child prodigy
and computer hacker
, is Network 23
's one-man technology research department.
His birthdate is shown on-screen to be October 7, 1988. In the show, Bryce appears to be 16 or 17 years old. So it can be assumed that the characters are living in the timeframe of 2004–2005.
In the stereotypical hacker ethos, Bryce has few principles and fewer loyalties. He seems to accept any task, even morally questionable ones, as long as he is allowed to have the freedom to play with technology
however he sees fit. This in turn makes him a greater asset to the technological needs and demands of the network (and the whims of its executives and stars). However, he also generally does not hurt or infringe on others, making him an uncannily neutral character in the Max Headroom universe.
In the pilot episode
of the series, Bryce is enlisted by evil network CEO Ned Grossberg (Charles Rocket
, another non-original cast member) to investigate the mental patterns of unconscious reporter Edison Carter, to determine whether or not Carter has discovered the secrets of the "Blipvert
s" scandal. Bryce downloads the contents of Carter's memory into the Network 23 computer system, and manages to boot them as a computer program. The resulting personality, an unhinged and unrepressed version of Carter's personality, is dubbed "Max Headroom" after his first words (the last words seen by Carter before being knocked unconscious by a parking-garage security gate). Ironically, it had been Bryce, following orders from Grossberg, who fought a hacking battle of sorts (a la the opening scene to Hackers
) with Theora Jones that led to Edison hitting his head on a traffic barrier and falling unconscious.
After the first episode, Bryce is generally recruited by Carter and his controller Theora Jones to provide technical aid to their investigative reporting efforts.
Bryce is only seen outside of his lab in five episodes:
, one of only three cast members to also appear in the American-made series that followed.
Reg is a "blank", a person not indexed in the government's database. He broadcasts the underground Big Time Television Network from his bus. He is a good friend of Edison Carter, and saves him on more than one occasion. With cohort Dominique, he operates and is the onscreen voice of Big Time television, "All day every day, making tomorrow seem like yesterday."
He dresses in a punk
style and has a Mohawk haircut
. His personality could be considered energetic.
.
In the UK telefilm Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future
upon which the American series was based, the character was called Grosman and was played by Nickolas Grace
. Rocket portrayed Grossberg as an American yuppie
with a characteristic facial (and neck-stretching) twitch
.
In the pilot episode, Grossberg is the chairman of Network 23
, a major city television station with the highest rated investigative news show in town, hosted by Edison Carter. In the Max Headroom world, real-time ratings equal advertising dollars, and advertisements have replaced stocks as the measure of corporate worth.
Grossberg, with his secret prodigy Bryce Lynch, develops a rapid-speed advertising delivery medium known as Blipvert
s, which condenses a full advertisement into a few seconds. But when Carter discovers that Blipverts are killing people, Grossberg orders Lynch to prevent Carter from getting out of the building. Knocked unconscious, Carter's memories are extracted into a computer by Lynch in order to determine whether Carter uncovered Grossberg's knowledge of the danger of Blipverts. The resulting computer file of the memory-extraction process becomes Max Headroom
, making Grossberg directly responsible for the creation of the character.
In the end, Grossberg is publicly exposed as responsible for the Blipverts scandal, and is removed as chairman of Network 23.
A few episodes later, in "Grossberg's Return", Grossberg reappears as a board member of Network 66. Again, he invents a dubious advertising medium and convinces the chairman of the network to adopt it. When the advertising method is shown to be a complete fraud, the resulting public reaction against the network leads to the chairman being removed, and Grossberg manages to assume the chairmanship.
series to run in the United States on one of the main broadcast networks in prime time, although it was not tagged with that label until some time after its cancellation. Like other science fiction, the series introduced the general public to new ideas in the form of cyberpunk themes and social issues. The series portrayed the Blanks, a counter-culture group of people who lived without any official numbers or documentation for the sake of privacy. Various episodes delved into issues like literacy and the lack thereof in a TV-dominated culture (for example, in the episode "Body Banks", Blank Reg says: "It's a book. It's a non-volatile storage medium
. It's very rare. You should 'ave one." This statement also anticipates the mid-2000s controversy over the replacement of print by online and e-book sources.)
Of Max Headroom himself, actor Matt Frewer
told Rolling Stone Magazine that "The cool thing about playing Max is that you can say virtually anything because theoretically the guy's not real, right? Can't sue a computer!"
The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident
involved someone dressed as Max Headroom interrupting the signals of Chicago television stations WGN and WTTW. The person or persons responsible were never identified.
In the late 1990s, U.S. cable TV channels Bravo and the Sci-Fi Channel
re-ran the series. Reruns also briefly appeared on TechTV
in 2001.
Shout! Factory
released Max Headroom: The Complete Series on DVD in the United States and Canada on August 10, 2010. The set includes a roundtable discussion with most of the major cast members (other than Matt Frewer), and interviews with the writers and producers.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series by Chrysalis/Lakeside Productions that aired in the United States on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
from March 1987 to May 1988. The series was based on the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
British TV pilot Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. The series is often mistaken as an American-produced show due to the setting and its use of an almost entirely US cast along with being broadcast in the USA on the ABC network. Cinemax
Cinemax
Cinemax, sometimes abbreviated as simply "Max", is a collection of premium television networks that broadcasts primarily feature films, along with softcore erotica, original action series, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc., a...
aired the UK pilot followed by a six-week run of highlights from The Max Headroom Show, a music video show where Headroom
Max Headroom (character)
Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. The character was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton in the mid nineteen eighties, and portrayed by Matt Frewer as "The World's first...
appears between music videos. ABC took an interest in the pilot and asked Chrysalis/Lakeside to produce the series for US audiences.
The show went into production in late 1986 and ran for six episodes in the first season with eight being produced in season two. Although each story was self-contained, most of season one was aired in the wrong order as "Body Banks" follows on from "Blipverts" which is obvious from the dialogue.
Television series
In 1987, the story told in 20 Minutes into the Future20 Minutes into the Future
Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future is a 1985 cyberpunk television movie created by Chrysalis Visual Programming Ltd. for Channel 4 in the UK to provide a back story for Max Headroom, a computer generated TV host...
, a made-for-television movie, formed the basis of a fully-fledged drama television series. The film was re-shot as a pilot program for a new series broadcast by the U.S.-based ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television network. The pilot featured plot changes and some minor visual touches, but retained the same basic storyline. The only original cast retained for the U.S. version series were Matt Frewer
Matt Frewer
Matthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...
(Max Headroom/Edison Carter) and Amanda Pays
Amanda Pays
-Personal life:Pays was born in London, England, the daughter of Joan , an actress, and Howard Reginald Pays, a talent agent and former actor. She is the niece of former child actress Mandy Miller, after whom she is named. Her first marriage, from 1984 to 1987, was to Peter Kohn, production manager...
(Theora Jones); a third original cast member, W. Morgan Sheppard
W. Morgan Sheppard
William Morgan Sheppard , sometimes credited as Morgan Sheppard or W. Morgan Sheppard, is a British actor.Sheppard was born in London to an Anglo-Irish family but was educated in Ireland. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 1956-58 before spending 12 years as Associate Artist with...
, joined the series as "Blank Reg" in later episodes. Among the non-original cast, Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Michael Tambor is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development and Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show.-Early life:...
co-starred as "Murray", Edison Carter's neurotic producer.
The series is set in a futuristic dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
ruled by an oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
of television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
s. Even the government functions primarily as a puppet state
Puppet state
A puppet state is a nominal sovereign of a state who is de facto controlled by a foreign power. The term refers to a government controlled by the government of another country like a puppeteer controls the strings of a marionette...
of the network executives, serving mainly to pass laws — such as banning off switches on televisions — that protect and consolidate the networks' power. Television technology has advanced to the point that viewers' physical movements and thoughts can be monitored through their television sets; however, almost all non-television technology has been discontinued or destroyed. The only real check on the power of the networks is Edison Carter, a crusading investigative journalist who regularly exposes the unethical practices of his own employer, and the team of allies both inside and outside the system who assist him in getting his reports to air and protecting him from the forces that wish to silence or kill him.
The series began as a mid-season replacement in spring of 1987, and did well enough to be renewed for the fall television season, but the viewer ratings could not be sustained, due perhaps to direct competition with CBS's Top 20 hit Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
and NBC's Top 30 hit Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
. Max Headroom was canceled part-way into its second season; leftover episodes aired in spring 1988. Plans for a cinema version titled Max Headroom for President were mentioned in the media but the film was never produced.
Comico
Comicó
Comicó is a village and municipality in Río Negro Province in Argentina....
comics also had plans to publish a graphic novel based on the story but never fulfilled them. A few posters were produced for comic shops, with a picture of Max Headroom saying comics will never be the same again.
Edison Carter
Edison Carter (Matt FrewerMatt Frewer
Matthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...
) was a hard-hitting reporter for Network 23
Network 23
Network 23 may refer to:*Network 23 *Network 23 , a defunct British video game development company*Network 23, a fictional television network on the TV series Max Headroom*"Network 23", a song on the Tangerine Dream album Exit...
, who sometimes uncovered things that his superiors in the network would have preferred to keep private. Eventually, one of these instances required him to flee his workspace, upon which he was injured in a motorcycle accident in a parking lot. Bryce Lynch downloaded a copy of his mind into a computer, giving birth to the character Max Headroom
Max Headroom (character)
Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. The character was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton in the mid nineteen eighties, and portrayed by Matt Frewer as "The World's first...
, as the last words seen by Edison Carter before impact were "Max Headroom," specifying vehicle clearance height in the parking lot.
The series depicted very little of the past described by Edison, though he did meet a female priest that he once dated when his reporting put him at odds with the Vu Age Church that she now headed.
Edison cares about his co-workers, especially Theora Jones and Bryce Lynch.
According to a personal statistics file displayed on a computer screen in the series, Edison is 6'2" tall and weighs 180 pounds.
Theora Jones
Theora Jones was played by Amanda PaysAmanda Pays
-Personal life:Pays was born in London, England, the daughter of Joan , an actress, and Howard Reginald Pays, a talent agent and former actor. She is the niece of former child actress Mandy Miller, after whom she is named. Her first marriage, from 1984 to 1987, was to Peter Kohn, production manager...
and first appeared in the British-made television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
film for the series. Along with Matt Frewer
Matt Frewer
Matthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...
and W. Morgan Sheppard
W. Morgan Sheppard
William Morgan Sheppard , sometimes credited as Morgan Sheppard or W. Morgan Sheppard, is a British actor.Sheppard was born in London to an Anglo-Irish family but was educated in Ireland. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 1956-58 before spending 12 years as Associate Artist with...
, Pays was one of only three cast members to also appear in the American-made series that followed.
Theora was Network 23's star controller and, working with the network's star reporter, Edison Carter, she often helped save the day for everyone. She was also the pseudo-love-interest of Edison Carter, but that subplot was not explored fully on the show before it was cancelled.
Network 23's personnel files list her father as unknown, her mother as deceased, and her brother as Shawn Jones; Shawn is the focus on the second episode broadcast, "Rakers".
Bryce Lynch
Bryce Lynch (Chris YoungChris Young (actor)
Christopher Tyler "Chris" Young is an American actor, producer and director.-Life and career:Young was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the son of Judy , a teacher and librarian, and Dick Young, a businessman...
), a child prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
and computer hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
, is Network 23
Network 23
Network 23 may refer to:*Network 23 *Network 23 , a defunct British video game development company*Network 23, a fictional television network on the TV series Max Headroom*"Network 23", a song on the Tangerine Dream album Exit...
's one-man technology research department.
His birthdate is shown on-screen to be October 7, 1988. In the show, Bryce appears to be 16 or 17 years old. So it can be assumed that the characters are living in the timeframe of 2004–2005.
In the stereotypical hacker ethos, Bryce has few principles and fewer loyalties. He seems to accept any task, even morally questionable ones, as long as he is allowed to have the freedom to play with technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
however he sees fit. This in turn makes him a greater asset to the technological needs and demands of the network (and the whims of its executives and stars). However, he also generally does not hurt or infringe on others, making him an uncannily neutral character in the Max Headroom universe.
In the pilot episode
Blipverts (Max Headroom)
"Blipverts" is the first regular episode of the science-fiction television series Max Headroom.-Production details:"Blipverts" was the reworked version of the original "20 Minutes Into the Future" film. The only actor other than Matt Frewer to appear in both versions of the story was Amanda Pays ....
of the series, Bryce is enlisted by evil network CEO Ned Grossberg (Charles Rocket
Charles Rocket
Charles Rocket was an American film and television actor, notable for his tenure as a cast member on Saturday Night Live as well as for his appearances as the villain Nicholas Andre in the film Dumb and Dumber; as Dave Dennison, the father in Disney's Hocus Pocus.-Early life and career:Rocket was...
, another non-original cast member) to investigate the mental patterns of unconscious reporter Edison Carter, to determine whether or not Carter has discovered the secrets of the "Blipvert
Blipvert
In the 1985 film Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future and the first episode of the 1987 science fiction television show Max Headroom, blipverts were a new high-speed, concentrated, high-intensity television commercials lasting about three seconds. The term Blipvert was first coined by George...
s" scandal. Bryce downloads the contents of Carter's memory into the Network 23 computer system, and manages to boot them as a computer program. The resulting personality, an unhinged and unrepressed version of Carter's personality, is dubbed "Max Headroom" after his first words (the last words seen by Carter before being knocked unconscious by a parking-garage security gate). Ironically, it had been Bryce, following orders from Grossberg, who fought a hacking battle of sorts (a la the opening scene to Hackers
Hackers (film)
Hackers is a 1995 American thriller film directed by Iain Softley and starring Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller, Renoly Santiago, Matthew Lillard, Lorraine Bracco and Fisher Stevens...
) with Theora Jones that led to Edison hitting his head on a traffic barrier and falling unconscious.
After the first episode, Bryce is generally recruited by Carter and his controller Theora Jones to provide technical aid to their investigative reporting efforts.
Bryce is only seen outside of his lab in five episodes:
- In "Body Banks", he is ordered by Network 23 board member Julia Formby to accompany her to the Plantagenet residence, so he can load the dying family matriarch's brain patterns into a computer as he had done with Edison Carter's.
- In "Security Systems", he is reluctantly forced into a temporary exile with the fugitive Edison Carter when his off-hand comment that "SS even does security for Network 23" makes them realize, too late, the mistake they have made in trying to hack A7 from Bryce's lab. At first annoyed at being displaced from the safety of his hidden lab, Bryce is soon happily looking forward to slipping under Security Systems 'radar' using "a pink bus with a 5 watt UHF transmitter."
- In "The Blanks", he visits Edison Carter's apartment as an "off-system" base to find the identity of the cyber-attackers threatening to shut down all computers in the city.
- In "Academy", Bryce returns to his former college to track down a student who is committing broadcast hijacking attacks ('signal zipping') on Network 23's transmissions. Bryce's core morals, as shared with other students of the college, are discussed further in this episode. Initially Bryce resists helping track down the attacker, seeing it as harmless experimentation, even though an innocent man is framed for the crime (which is punishable by death).
- In "Lessons", he takes Theora's place in Control to guide Edison as well as disable the Censor computer—gaining him the respect of other controllers who watch him work.
Blank Reg
Blank Reg was played by W. Morgan SheppardW. Morgan Sheppard
William Morgan Sheppard , sometimes credited as Morgan Sheppard or W. Morgan Sheppard, is a British actor.Sheppard was born in London to an Anglo-Irish family but was educated in Ireland. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 1956-58 before spending 12 years as Associate Artist with...
, one of only three cast members to also appear in the American-made series that followed.
Reg is a "blank", a person not indexed in the government's database. He broadcasts the underground Big Time Television Network from his bus. He is a good friend of Edison Carter, and saves him on more than one occasion. With cohort Dominique, he operates and is the onscreen voice of Big Time television, "All day every day, making tomorrow seem like yesterday."
He dresses in a punk
Punk fashion
Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry, and body modifications of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including...
style and has a Mohawk haircut
Mohawk hairstyle
The mohawk is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair...
. His personality could be considered energetic.
Ned Grossberg
Ned Grossberg is a recurring villain on the series, played by Charles RocketCharles Rocket
Charles Rocket was an American film and television actor, notable for his tenure as a cast member on Saturday Night Live as well as for his appearances as the villain Nicholas Andre in the film Dumb and Dumber; as Dave Dennison, the father in Disney's Hocus Pocus.-Early life and career:Rocket was...
.
In the UK telefilm Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future
20 Minutes into the Future
Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future is a 1985 cyberpunk television movie created by Chrysalis Visual Programming Ltd. for Channel 4 in the UK to provide a back story for Max Headroom, a computer generated TV host...
upon which the American series was based, the character was called Grosman and was played by Nickolas Grace
Nickolas Grace
Nickolas Grace is a British actor known for his roles on television, including Anthony Blanche in the acclaimed ITV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood...
. Rocket portrayed Grossberg as an American yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
with a characteristic facial (and neck-stretching) twitch
Muscle contraction
Muscle fiber generates tension through the action of actin and myosin cross-bridge cycling. While under tension, the muscle may lengthen, shorten, or remain the same...
.
In the pilot episode, Grossberg is the chairman of Network 23
Network 23
Network 23 may refer to:*Network 23 *Network 23 , a defunct British video game development company*Network 23, a fictional television network on the TV series Max Headroom*"Network 23", a song on the Tangerine Dream album Exit...
, a major city television station with the highest rated investigative news show in town, hosted by Edison Carter. In the Max Headroom world, real-time ratings equal advertising dollars, and advertisements have replaced stocks as the measure of corporate worth.
Grossberg, with his secret prodigy Bryce Lynch, develops a rapid-speed advertising delivery medium known as Blipvert
Blipvert
In the 1985 film Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future and the first episode of the 1987 science fiction television show Max Headroom, blipverts were a new high-speed, concentrated, high-intensity television commercials lasting about three seconds. The term Blipvert was first coined by George...
s, which condenses a full advertisement into a few seconds. But when Carter discovers that Blipverts are killing people, Grossberg orders Lynch to prevent Carter from getting out of the building. Knocked unconscious, Carter's memories are extracted into a computer by Lynch in order to determine whether Carter uncovered Grossberg's knowledge of the danger of Blipverts. The resulting computer file of the memory-extraction process becomes Max Headroom
Max Headroom (character)
Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. The character was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton in the mid nineteen eighties, and portrayed by Matt Frewer as "The World's first...
, making Grossberg directly responsible for the creation of the character.
In the end, Grossberg is publicly exposed as responsible for the Blipverts scandal, and is removed as chairman of Network 23.
A few episodes later, in "Grossberg's Return", Grossberg reappears as a board member of Network 66. Again, he invents a dubious advertising medium and convinces the chairman of the network to adopt it. When the advertising method is shown to be a complete fraud, the resulting public reaction against the network leads to the chairman being removed, and Grossberg manages to assume the chairmanship.
Other characters
- Murray (Jeffrey TamborJeffrey TamborJeffrey Michael Tambor is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development and Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show.-Early life:...
), Carter's high-strung producer, whose job often becomes a balancing act between supporting Carter's stories and pleasing Network 23's executives. - Ben Cheviot (George CoeGeorge CoeGeorge Coe is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is best known for having been a cast member on the first three episodes of Saturday Night Live, as well as for his work on various television shows.-Career:...
), one of the executives on Network 23's Board of Directors. He becomes the board's new Chairman after Ned Grossberg is fired in the wake of the Blipvert incident. He is surprisingly ethical and almost invariably backs Edison Carter, occasionally against the wishes of the Network 23 board of directors. - Dominique (Concetta TomeiConcetta TomeiConcetta Tomei is an American theatre, film and television character actress, best known for her roles as Maj. Lila Garreau on the ABC series China Beach and as Lynda Hansen on the NBC series Providence ....
), co-proprietor of Big Time TV along with Blank Reg, managing the business aspects of running the station. It is implied that she and Reg are romantically involved, if not husband and wife—although, until events following Reg's arrest and imprisonment, they have never touched. Dominique may not be a blank like Reg, as she possesses credit tubes, but she behaves culturally as one. - Breughel (Jere BurnsJere BurnsJerald Eugene "Jere" Burns II is an American actor who has appeared in theatre productions and on television and is best known for his role as ladies' man Kirk Morris on the television series, Dear John.-Early life:...
), an intelligent, sociopathic criminal-for-hire who, along with Mahler, makes money by disposing of corpses for other criminals by selling them to body banks around the city. However, he is not above selling out his employers if it means a big payoff, a fact which Edison Carter takes advantage of on several occasions while working on stories. - Mahler (Rick DucommunRick DucommunRichard "Rick" Ducommun is a Canadian actor and comedian, often seen in supporting roles on both television and the silver screen.Ducommun was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan...
), Breughel's accomplice, who serves primarily as the muscle of the duo's body-harvesting operation. In "Dream Thieves", it is revealed that Breughel killed Mahler and sold off his body during a slow night of business, and replaced him with a new man whom he nicknamed "Mahler" as a mocking tribute. - Rik (J.W. Smith), a streetwise pedicab driver whom Edison Carter frequently employs when looking for information about the city's underworld.
- Blank Bruno (Peter Crook), a revolutionary Blank who works to make life better for the city's Blank population by any means necessary. He has a pet toad which he calls "Gob".
- Martinez (Ricardo Gutierrez), one of Network 23's helicopter pilots, he often works with Carter when he is out on assignment.
- Janie Crane (Lisa NiemiLisa NiemiLisa Niemi is an American actress and dancer. She is the widow of actor, singer and dancer Patrick Swayze. They were married for 34 years, from 1975 until his death in 2009.-Early life:...
), one of Network 23's second-tier reporters, who ends up breaking a few important stories of her own throughout the series. - Angie Barry (Rosalind ChaoRosalind ChaoRosalind Chao is a Chinese American actress. Chao's most prolific roles have been as a star of CBS' AfterMASH portraying South Korean refugee Soon-Lee Klinger for both seasons, and the recurring character Keiko O'Brien with 27 appearances on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: The...
), one of Network 23's second-tier reporters. She often fills in for Carter when he is indisposed. - Julia Formby (Virginia Kiser), one of Network 23's board members. In "Body Banks", it is revealed that she once had an affair with Cheviot, for which she is blackmailed by a wealthy member of the Plantagenet family into stealing Max Headroom from Network 23 in the hope that Max's program might be used to preserve the mind of his mother. She resigns from the board after the incident.
- Gene Ashwell (Hank Garrett), one of Network 23's board members, who frequently panics when the network faces a crisis. It is revealed in "Deities" that he is a member of the Vu-Age Church, and is responsible for kidnapping Max on behalf of the church's leader.
- Ms. Lauren (Sharon BarrSharon BarrSharon Barr is a Toronto based painter who attended York University, the University of Toronto and the Toronto School of Art. Her studies have focused on Visual Arts, Art History and English Literature. She also received her Bachelor of Education at the University of Toronto in 1986.- Work :Sharon...
), one of Network 23's board members. - Mr. Edwards (Lee WilkofLee WilkofLee Wilkof is an American actor and veteran of the Broadway stage. He originated the roles of Sam Byck in Assassins and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, later earning a Tony Award nomination for the 2000 revival of Kiss Me, Kate...
), one of Network 23's board members. - Simon Peller (Sherman HowardSherman HowardHoward Lee Sherman is an American actor.-Theatre:In 1989 he appeared at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. He played the title role in Hamlet and Malvolio in Twelfth Night...
), a corrupt politician who receives financial backing from Network 23. He shares a mutual animosity with Carter, who despises Peller's underhanded political tactics. - Mr. Bartlett (Andreas KatsulasAndreas KatsulasAndrew "Andreas" Katsulas was a Greek-American actor known for his roles as Ambassador G'Kar in the science fiction television series Babylon 5, as the one-armed villain Sykes in the film The Fugitive , and as the Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation...
), one of the board members of Network 66. An incautious risk-taker, he frequently becomes directly involved in the network's shady projects, going behind even Ned Grossberg's back on occasion. - Ped Xing (Arsenio "Sonny" Trinidad, Season 1 / Sab ShimonoSab ShimonoSab Shimono is an American actor who has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows in character roles.-Career:An accomplished stage actor, he has appeared on Broadway and in regional theaters including San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre...
, Season 2), the head of the Zik-Zak corporation, Network 23's primary sponsor.
Season 1: 1987
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Season 2: 1987–1988
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Impact on society
Max Headroom was the first cyberpunkCyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
series to run in the United States on one of the main broadcast networks in prime time, although it was not tagged with that label until some time after its cancellation. Like other science fiction, the series introduced the general public to new ideas in the form of cyberpunk themes and social issues. The series portrayed the Blanks, a counter-culture group of people who lived without any official numbers or documentation for the sake of privacy. Various episodes delved into issues like literacy and the lack thereof in a TV-dominated culture (for example, in the episode "Body Banks", Blank Reg says: "It's a book. It's a non-volatile storage medium
Non-volatile memory
Non-volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, NVM or non-volatile storage, in the most basic sense, is computer memory that can retain the stored information even when not powered. Examples of non-volatile memory include read-only memory, flash memory, ferroelectric RAM, most types of magnetic computer...
. It's very rare. You should 'ave one." This statement also anticipates the mid-2000s controversy over the replacement of print by online and e-book sources.)
Of Max Headroom himself, actor Matt Frewer
Matt Frewer
Matthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...
told Rolling Stone Magazine that "The cool thing about playing Max is that you can say virtually anything because theoretically the guy's not real, right? Can't sue a computer!"
The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident
Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident
The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion was a television signal hijacking in Chicago, Illinois, on the evening of November 22, 1987. It is an example of what is known in the television business as broadcast signal intrusion. The intruder was successful in interrupting two television stations...
involved someone dressed as Max Headroom interrupting the signals of Chicago television stations WGN and WTTW. The person or persons responsible were never identified.
In the late 1990s, U.S. cable TV channels Bravo and the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
re-ran the series. Reruns also briefly appeared on TechTV
TechTV
TechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming...
in 2001.
DVD release
The original British version of the movie was released to the Japanese DVD rental market on September 2, 2005.Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
released Max Headroom: The Complete Series on DVD in the United States and Canada on August 10, 2010. The set includes a roundtable discussion with most of the major cast members (other than Matt Frewer), and interviews with the writers and producers.