 | The British "virtual" TV host that first appeared in the cyberpunk TV movie on Channel 4, Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future. First broadcast in 1985, the character was so successful that he was developed into a VJ, with his own show, The Max Headroom Show, that same year. The show ran for 3 seasons, until 1987. In 1987 a further spin-off sci-fi drama series was made, which ran for 2 seasons. |
Max quickly became a cultural icon of the late 80s, with his sardonic wit and stuttering glitch. Portrayed by Canadian American actor Matt Frewer, due to the inability for computer technology to actually create Max as "computer-generated TV host", he had to endure a four and a half hour make-up session. In fact none of Max Headroom was computer generated. Even the background line graphic, that Max was superimposed in front of, was created by a traditional cel animation technique.
| Max became such a massive hit, especially among youth audiences that he began to appear everywhere. He was used to promote New Coke, he appeared on Sesame Street, he appeared at the 1988 Winter Olympics and released a song Paranoimia with the synthpop group The Art Of Noise. In 1986, Quicksilva released a Max Headroom game, which was sold in the UK for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. Max has been parodied on many occasions. From David Letterman to Back To The Future and an Eminem music video. Infamously in 1987, Max's character was hijacked as part of a TV broadcast signal intrusion prank. When a hacker dressed in a suit and wearing a Max Headroom mask, hijacked the TV signal of a Chicago TV station and its affiliate, in an incident known as the "Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion". Most recently Max was revived as an old man to promote Channel 4's digital switch-over. |  |
