4 ms·

Max Headroom was an extremely subversive program and I continue to be amazed it was actually greenlit, produced and broadcast on mainstream television - in the

Max Headroom was an extremely subversive program and I continue to be amazed it was actually greenlit, produced and broadcast on mainstream television - in the United States for primetime broadcast, even!

teddyh 8y ago
It was canceled rather abruptly – the last recorded episode was never aired, and there was still one whole fully scripted episode which was never produced.
teddyh 8y ago
I will provide some speculation, but first some back story, as I recall it: Max Headroom was, to start with, a collection of special effects to make a British talk-show host seemingly generated by computer, but still able to interact live with guests, etc. (A little bit of the same niche which the early muppets occupied, actually. See the early appearances of Rowlf the Dog on American talk show TV, for instance.) Anyway, the effect proved so captivating and convincing that the show became hugely popular, and a TV Movie was made (still in England) which provided a sci-fi style origin story for the (ostensibly computer generated) Max Headroom character. The character’s popularity was still rising, also in the USA (Coca-Cola famously used Max Headroom for their campaign for the now infamous New Coke), so an American TV series was proposed and made, with most of the same cast reused in the same roles, and the story of the TV movie was used (IIRC) as the two first episodes, except for a slightly happier ending to set it up as an ongoing TV series. The problem, I guess, was that probably none of the U.S. people greenlighting the TV series had actually watched the original British TV movie; they probably only thought about getting such a popular character. They probably did not know that things like 1984, Judge Dredd and V for Vendetta are all very distinctly British things. The Max Headroom TV movie, as well as the TV series, are both essentially very dark cyberpunk; acerbically critical of prevailing trends in technology and also scarily prescient for 1987. It was also very critical of television itself as a phenomenon, which was probably what ultimately killed it, and by that time the huge fad for the character had passed.
- lixtra 8y ago
  Or they just saw huge amounts of advertiser’s money and didn’t think about the content as long as advertisers didn’t object.
fenomas 8y ago
There was a great article some time back about the hisstory behind it. A lot of the episodes satirized the show's own network and specific network executives - some of which flew under the radar and some of which probably hastened the show's demise, etc. Fake edit: I think this is it: https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8285139/max-headroom-oral-history-80s-cyberpunk-interview https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8285139/max-headroom-oral-...
- gdubs 8y ago
  Just read the whole thing, thanks for sharing. Interesting story in many ways, particularly the wrestling for ownership of the show, and how they recreated it as a carbon copy for the American market. I remember hearing years ago that he wasn’t actually CG, which made a lot of sense — but as a kid I definitely thought he was. The subversiveness of the show is great; but it’s particularly amazing how accurately they saterized the future.

teddyh 8y ago

It was canceled rather abruptly – the last recorded episode was never aired, and there was still one whole fully scripted episode which was never produced.

teddyh 8y ago

I will provide some speculation, but first some back story, as I recall it: Max Headroom was, to start with, a collection of special effects to make a British talk-show host seemingly generated by computer, but still able to interact live with guests, etc. (A little bit of the same niche which the early muppets occupied, actually. See the early appearances of Rowlf the Dog on American talk show TV, for instance.) Anyway, the effect proved so captivating and convincing that the show became hugely popular, and a TV Movie was made (still in England) which provided a sci-fi style origin story for the (ostensibly computer generated) Max Headroom character. The character’s popularity was still rising, also in the USA (Coca-Cola famously used Max Headroom for their campaign for the now infamous New Coke), so an American TV series was proposed and made, with most of the same cast reused in the same roles, and the story of the TV movie was used (IIRC) as the two first episodes, except for a slightly happier ending to set it up as an ongoing TV series. The problem, I guess, was that probably none of the U.S. people greenlighting the TV series had actually watched the original British TV movie; they probably only thought about getting such a popular character. They probably did not know that things like 1984, Judge Dredd and V for Vendetta are all very distinctly British things. The Max Headroom TV movie, as well as the TV series, are both essentially very dark cyberpunk; acerbically critical of prevailing trends in technology and also scarily prescient for 1987. It was also very critical of television itself as a phenomenon, which was probably what ultimately killed it, and by that time the huge fad for the character had passed.

lixtra 8y ago
Or they just saw huge amounts of advertiser’s money and didn’t think about the content as long as advertisers didn’t object.

fenomas 8y ago

There was a great article some time back about the hisstory behind it. A lot of the episodes satirized the show's own network and specific network executives - some of which flew under the radar and some of which probably hastened the show's demise, etc. Fake edit: I think this is it: https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8285139/max-headroom-oral-history-80s-cyberpunk-interview https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8285139/max-headroom-oral-...

gdubs 8y ago
Just read the whole thing, thanks for sharing. Interesting story in many ways, particularly the wrestling for ownership of the show, and how they recreated it as a carbon copy for the American market. I remember hearing years ago that he wasn’t actually CG, which made a lot of sense — but as a kid I definitely thought he was. The subversiveness of the show is great; but it’s particularly amazing how accurately they saterized the future.