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''Max Headroom'' (1987 – 1988) was a short-lived but ground-breaking American Science Fiction Television Series which aired on ABC . The series was developed from a British Television Movie , '' 20 Minutes Into The Future '', that was developed to provide background for the Max Headroom Character , originally developed for '' The Max Talking Headroom Show ''. TELEVISION SERIES In 1987, the story told in ''20 Minutes into the Future'', a made-for-television movie, formed the basis of a full-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 held the same storyline. The only original cast retained for the U.S. version series were Matt Frewer (Max Headroom, Edison Carter) and Amanda Pays (Theora Jones); W. Morgan Sheppard later joined the cast as "Blank Reg"; Jeffrey Tambor co-starred as "Murray,” Edison Carter's neurotic editor. The U.S. series expanded on the Cyberpunk themes in the British TV movie but otherwise had no other connection to the British music video show. In perhaps a unique arrangement in the history of television, the U.S. spin-off series featuring Max Headroom was a fictional drama, while its main character was originally created for a non-fiction entertainment show in Britain. The series began as a Mid-season Replacement in spring of 1987, and was sufficiently popular to be renewed for the fall television season, but the viewer ratings could not be sustained and ''Max Headroom'' was cancelled part-way into its first broadcast 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 published a graphic novel based around the story theme. CHARACTERS EPISODE LISTING Season 1: 1987 Season 2: 1987-1988 Notes
Since Bryce appears to be 16 or 17 years old, this places the show in the real-world timeframe of 2004-2005 (or 20 years after the Channel 4 film was made - "20 Years Into the Future"). IMPACT OF SHOW ON SOCIETY ''Max Headroom'' was the first . It's very rare. You should 'ave one.") Although it was not a comedy series, low-key (and sometimes dark) humor was a noteworthy part of the entire effect. Some was more overt, such as Max's wisecracking lines, while others were less obvious. The president of Network 23's largest corporate sponsor from Asia, the Zik-Zak corporation, is named Ped Xing. It could be a Chinese name, but it is also the common American traffic sign "PED XING," an abbreviation for " Pedestrian Crossing ." In similar fashion to the twisted, yet bizarrely familiar future world of Terry Gilliam 's '' Brazil '', the juxtapositions of intentional technological anachronisms were a recurring feature in the series. As Theora types in computer commands for real-time control of satellites, a tight shot shows her typing on the keys of a manual typewriter; in a similar way, some videophone calling devices featured large telephone Handset s. Cars appear to be modeled from the 1950s. In the end, the series all-too-accurately predicted its own demise. With story lines about TV ratings monitored on a second-by-second basis, and the absolute power of the corporate dollar to control what information is delivered to the people through the medium of television, the series was evidently a little too far ahead of its time. After 14 episodes, ABC canceled it. There was some talk about the character returning in a movie entitled ''Max Headroom for President'', but nothing came of it. As a Fad , Max faded from the public eye in the 1990s. 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. Some episodes can now be viewed online for free on In2TV and Joost . While the series has yet to see a formal release on DVD, the original British version of the movie was released to the Japanese DVD rental market on September 2, 2005.http://mopedronin.livejournal.com/303219.html Low-quality rough and unauthorized copies of the original shows ripped to DVD are periodically available through various sources. PREDICTIONS
PREDECESSORS In the science fiction novel, '' The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress '', by Robert A. Heinlein , the sentient computer "Mike" generates a pseudonymic, on-screen talking head named "Adam Selene,” who in ways prefigures Max Headroom. INFLUENCES The style of ''Max Headroom'' — in both the Channel 4 TV movie and the American series — is Cyberpunk , a Hyperreal Dystopic future setting, though this future is decidedly less-distant (only 20 minutes ahead). Other likely influences to the series include Post-modern science fiction works like Gibson's '' Neuromancer '' and films like '' Blade Runner '', '' The Road Warrior '' and '' TRON ''. "Network 23"'s inspiration is The 23 Enigma , with the specific, real and theoretical televisual reference derived from Genesis P-Orridge 's use of the Number 23 , as the number of the Illuminati , in his groups Psychic TV & Thee Temple Ov Psychic Youth, itself derived from Robert Anton Wilson 's seminal '' The Illuminatus! Trilogy ''. See also '' The Number 23 ''. The series' promotional material unmistakably resembles Peter Saville 's legendary designs for Factory Records' "Manchester Club" in 1981, the Haçienda, opened by Antony Wilson (Granada TV) and members of New Order , and recently was re-created for the film '' 24 Hour Party People .'' The format of ''The Max Talking Headroom Show'', in which a guest in a studio talks to an image of Max Headroom on a television, was reversed for Space Ghost Coast To Coast , which features Space Ghost in an animated studio, talking to live guests projected on a television screen. REFERENCES IN POP CULTURE
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