Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his wit and stuttering,
distorted, electronically sampled voice. He was introduced in early 1984. The character
was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton in the mid-1980s, and portrayed
by Matt Frewer as "The World's first computer-generated TV host" although the computer-generated appearance
was achieved with prosthetic make up and hand-drawn backgrounds, as the computer technology of
the time was not sufficiently advanced to achieve the desired effect. Preparing the
look for filming involved a four-and-a-half hour session in make-up, which Matt Frewer
described as "gruelling" and "not fun", likening it to "being on the inside of a giant tennis
ball".
Creation The classic look for the character was a shiny
dark suit—which was actually a fibreglass mould—often paired with Ray-Ban Wayfarer
sunglasses. Only his head and shoulders were depicted, usually against a "computer-generated"
backdrop of a slowly rotating wire-frame cube interior, which was also initially generated
by analogue means—in this case traditional cel animation, though later actual computer
graphics were employed for the backdrop. Another distinguishing trademark of Max was his chaotic
speech patterns—his voice would seemingly randomly pitch up or down, or occasionally
get stuck in a loop. These modulations, achieved with a harmonizer, also appeared when the
character was performed live. The character's personality was partly intended
as a satire of insincere and egotistical television personalities—what Rocky Morton described
as the "very sterile, arrogant, Western personification of the middle-class, male TV host", but also
was "media-wise and gleefully disrespectful" which appealed to young viewers.
Matt Frewer was chosen for his ability to improvise, and his—according to producer
Peter Wagg—"ideally exportable" Mid-Atlantic accent. The actor decided to model Max's personality
after what he saw as the smarmy, self-important goofiness of The Mary Tyler Moore Show '​s
Ted Baxter. In a 1986 interview, Frewer said: "I particularly wanted to get that phony bonhomie
of Baxter ... Max always assumes a decade long friendship on the first meeting. At first
sight he'll ask about that blackhead on your nose."
The background story provided for the Max Headroom character in his original appearance
comes from a dystopian near-future dominated by television and large corporations. The
AI of Max Headroom was shown to have been created from the memories of crusading journalist
Edison Carter. The character's name came from the last thing Carter saw during a vehicular
accident that put him into a coma — a warning sign marked "MAX. HEADROOM: 2.3 M" suspended
across a car park entrance. TV history
Max Headroom originally appeared in the British-made cyberpunk TV movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes
into The Future which was broadcast in 1985. After its success, the titular character was
spun off into a veejay in the British music video program, The Max Headroom Show, whose
first episodes unusually featured no introductory title sequence or end credits. The spin-off
show was an immediate cult hit, doubling Channel 4's viewing figures for its slot. A second
season was ordered in 1986, which broadened the original concept to include celebrity
interviews and a studio audience, and was renamed to The Max Talking Headroom Show.
A further spin-off from the original film was the dramatic television series, Max Headroom,
which was British produced, but broadcast in the United States, running for two seasons
from 1987 to 1988. The first episode was presented in an extended edition to American audiences
in 1986 on Cinemax. The original movie was rebroadcast on More4
on 21 October 2007 as part of the 25th birthday celebrations of Channel 4.
Shout! Factory released Max Headroom: The Complete Series on DVD in the United States
and Canada on August 10, 2010. Other appearances
Max became a celebrity outside the television series. He was the spokesman for New Coke,
delivering the slogan "Catch the wave!". In the UK, Max appeared in television commercials
for Radio Rentals. He also hosted an interview show on the Cinemax cable channel, called
The Original Max Talking Headroom Show. In 1987, Frewer appeared as Max Headroom in
a segment for Sesame Street. He recites the alphabet with selected commentary on some
of the letters. An older-looking Max has been used in a campaign
to inform UK households of the impending digital TV switchover. As he is looked after by a
caretaker, he moans about being with the other "relics", and then talks about digital TV.
He says that Channel 4 is now suddenly "20 years into the future", making a subtle reference
to 20 Minutes into the Future. His sense of humor remains intact.
Musical performance Art of Noise featured an overdubbed Max on
the song "Paranoimia". Max was also featured on a single titled "Merry Christmas Santa
Claus" released by Chrysalis Records. Max Headroom also showed up at the 1988 Winter
Olympics. Video game
In 1986, Quicksilva released a Max Headroom game, which was sold in the UK for the Sinclair
ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The game's plot was to protect Edison Carter from criminals
armed with guns, whilst rescuing Max. The NewTek "Demo Reel One" featured a Max
Headroom grab. Newtek was a company that developed Commodore Amiga hardware and software, including
a digital video sampler. Production notes
Notwithstanding the publicity for the character, the real image of Max was not computer-generated.
Computing technology in the mid-1980s was not sufficiently advanced for a full-motion,
voice-synchronized human head to be practical for a television series. Max's image was actually
that of actor Matt Frewer in latex and foam prosthetic makeup with a fiberglass suit created
by Peter Litten and John Humphreys of Coast to Coast Productions in the UK. This was then
superimposed over a moving geometric background. Even the background was not actual computer
graphics at first; it was hand-drawn cel animation produced by Rod Lord, who created similar
"computer-generated" images for the TV series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Later, in
the United States version, the backgrounds were generated by a Commodore Amiga computer.
The series pilot won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for graphics.
The rights to the Max Headroom character are currently held by All3Media.
Signal intrusion event
On November 22, 1987, two Chicago television stations had their broadcast signals hijacked
by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask. The first incident took place for 25
seconds during the sportscast on the 9 O'Clock news on WGN-TV Channel 9 and two hours later
around 11 o'clock on PBS affiliate WTTW Channel 11 for about 90 seconds during a broadcast
of the Doctor Who episode "Horror of Fang Rock". The hacker mumbled nonsense during
his interruptions, including the phrase "The Greatest World Newspaper nerds", a reference
to WGN's call letters, standing for World's Greatest Newspaper. A homemade Max Headroom
background rocked back and forth as he talked. The video ended with a pair of exposed buttocks
being spanked with a flyswatter. The culprits were never identified.
Proposed film In late 1987, following the cancellation of
the American TV series, it was announced that a feature film titled Max Headroom for President
would be produced. Frewer, quoted in a Marilyn Beck column in December 1987, indicated the
plan was for the film, which at that point had no finalized script, to be shot in early
1988 in order to capitalize on the 1988 United States presidential election. The film was
never made, possibly due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike which erupted three
months later. In popular culture
Late Night with David Letterman regular Larry "Bud" Melman parodied Max Headroom phenomenon
with a "Larry 'Bud' Headroom" segment. In the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II,
in a scene set in the year 2015, the main character Marty visits a stylized 1980s-themed
diner. The "waiters" are interactive electronic monitors showing the faces of Michael Jackson,
Ronald Reagan and Ayatollah Khomeini, portrayed in a Max Headroom-like manner, notably pitching
Pepsi products, in response to Max Headroom's Coca Cola spots.
The comic strip Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau had a character fashioned after Max Headroom
named Ron Headrest. He was to be a temporary replacement for a vacationing or napping Ronald
Reagan. The season 4 episode of Farscape, "John Quixote"
featured the actor Ben Browder appearing as a Headroom-type version of his character,
John Crichton. The Canadian rock band Sum 41 wrote a song
called "Second Chance for Max Headroom" for their album Half Hour of Power.
In the 1987 film Spaceballs, a parody of Max Headroom appears as the character Vinnie,
henchman of mobster Pizza the Hutt. Vinnie also appears in 2008's Spaceballs: The Animated
Series, but without Max Headroom's characteristic stutter.
In the music video for Italian DJ Gigi D'Agostino's song "Another Way", the main character bears
Max Headroom's appearance, stuttering and robotic motion.
During the final season of the educational television series Square One Television, another
parody of Max Headroom named FAX HEADFUL had his own segment. FAX's monologues typically
involved statistics and estimation, such as his musing on population density, or average
yearly doughnut consumption. Channel 8 of Sirius Radio, which features
songs from the 1980s, will sometimes have a character called "Less Headroom" between
songs. He is billed as Max's "younger, more sophisticated brother".
Usher's video for OMG pays homage to him in the beginning scene.
In the music video of Selena Gomez's song, "Love You like a Love Song" she appears in
Max Headroom-like scenes. In the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline,
the main character uses Max Headroom as the avatar and personality representation of his
personal assistant. Within the episode "A Clockwork Hammer" of
the Sledge Hammer series, there's a fake Max Headroom Sledge Hammer lookalike.
In the YouTube video series titled "Baby Cakes" by Neely Comics, Max Headroom is mentioned
in Diary #4 In the late 1980s, activists in the Social
Democratic Party re-cut a video interview with the Right Hon David Owen MP in Max Headroom
style, presumably in the hope of attracting the interest of young voters.
50 Cent appeared as a Max Headroom character in Tony Yayo's video for Pass the Patron.
The video for Eminem's single Rap God has him portraying Max Headroom.
A CinemaSins YouTube video based on the film Batman and Robin included a reference to Max
Headroom, replacing Alfred's appearance as a computer generated AI triggered by Barbara
Wilson's discovery of the bat cave. In a Nostalgia Critic review of Captain N:
The Game Master, Doug Walker makes fun of a CGI character seen when the main character
crosses from real life to animation, saying it is like "Max Headroom meets Kermit The
Frog". A MH ad is then seen, with the voice of Doug imitating him, saying, "It's not easy
being g-g-g-g-green!" References
External links Interview with Matt Frewer
Max to promote Digital TV — The Times Online Video of the Art of Noise featuring Max Headroom
singing Paranoimia the Max Headroom project - Comprehensive Max
Headroom information site