M-M-Max
Remember Max Headroom?
Over 20 years ago, you could not escape him. Originating in the UK, he arrived in the US via commercials at first and then in his own short-lived ABC series. Matt Frewer portrayed the square-jawed, computer-generated antihero. Actually, the technology to make Max a true CGI character wasn't yet available, so Frewer was filmed wearing heavy makeup and prosthetic bits. Max became popular enough to be satirized (in "Doonesbury," Garry Trudeau depicted Reagan as "Ron Headrest"; a hacker called "Captain Midnight" protested the scrambling of satellite TV signals by breaking into HBO's signal wearing a Max mask).
In the series, set in the now-cliché dystopian-urban-hellhole future, Frewer portrayed Edison Carter, reporter for a TV network whose personality somehow uploaded into the city's intranet and became Carter's alter ego, Max Headroom, who appeared only on TV screens and computer monitors.
The fictional network gaged its viewership through instant ratings, constantly monitored by executives. Advertising played to viewers' shortened attention spans in the form of "blipverts" - where products flash by in a couple of seconds.
The show had fun satirizing the pervasiveness of the media and often bit the hand that fed it - at the end of the first episode, Max joked, "How can you tell when our network president is lying? His lips move."
Thinking about this show recently, I realized how prophetic it was for the most part.
Now, networks and advertisers are actually using the blipvert concept, flashing messages that can only be seen when they are recorded and played back frame by frame (e.g., GE's "One Second Theater")
Edison Carter's show involved him going live with a camera during his investigations - a concept which would be put to use years later.
In one episode a "geek" working for Carter was experimenting with incorporating CGI into live action footage. It couldn't be done in '87 but it's possible now.
Unfortunately, "Max Headroom" was canceled after a few episodes. Matt Frewer later did a sitcom called "Doctor, Doctor" and was little heard from since. A pity.
Over 20 years ago, you could not escape him. Originating in the UK, he arrived in the US via commercials at first and then in his own short-lived ABC series. Matt Frewer portrayed the square-jawed, computer-generated antihero. Actually, the technology to make Max a true CGI character wasn't yet available, so Frewer was filmed wearing heavy makeup and prosthetic bits. Max became popular enough to be satirized (in "Doonesbury," Garry Trudeau depicted Reagan as "Ron Headrest"; a hacker called "Captain Midnight" protested the scrambling of satellite TV signals by breaking into HBO's signal wearing a Max mask).
In the series, set in the now-cliché dystopian-urban-hellhole future, Frewer portrayed Edison Carter, reporter for a TV network whose personality somehow uploaded into the city's intranet and became Carter's alter ego, Max Headroom, who appeared only on TV screens and computer monitors.
The fictional network gaged its viewership through instant ratings, constantly monitored by executives. Advertising played to viewers' shortened attention spans in the form of "blipverts" - where products flash by in a couple of seconds.
The show had fun satirizing the pervasiveness of the media and often bit the hand that fed it - at the end of the first episode, Max joked, "How can you tell when our network president is lying? His lips move."
Thinking about this show recently, I realized how prophetic it was for the most part.
Now, networks and advertisers are actually using the blipvert concept, flashing messages that can only be seen when they are recorded and played back frame by frame (e.g., GE's "One Second Theater")
Edison Carter's show involved him going live with a camera during his investigations - a concept which would be put to use years later.
In one episode a "geek" working for Carter was experimenting with incorporating CGI into live action footage. It couldn't be done in '87 but it's possible now.
Unfortunately, "Max Headroom" was canceled after a few episodes. Matt Frewer later did a sitcom called "Doctor, Doctor" and was little heard from since. A pity.
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