A thread for MAX HEADROOM (now on DVD!)

Other than some random YouTube clips and best-of-decade nostalgia things, I haven't seen this stuff since it first aired. Watched the first two episodes last night and it seems to hold up well except for some cringe-making expository dialogue. Man, the '80s had post-apocalyptic dystopia down to a science, and this show has that Mad Max/Repo Man/Escape From New York/The Warriors/Blade Runner look stamped all over it.* "Futuristic" dystopia (even if it's 20 minutes into the future) as written two decades ago reads oddly today because it feels like now there's nothing evil that could happen that doesn't now exist to a certain degree. Corporate tyranny, hyper-surveillance, a culture that feeds on and regurgitates violence... it's already here.

*I know, two of these are from '79

Still can't believe that they got away with it, really, especially on the art design front. The bit that sticks with me all this time is the idea of kids not getting any educational programming if they're not rich enough.

You can still sense a little of '80s mainstream America's fear of punk/hip-hop youth culture in the episode about "raking" (a super-underground and dangerous form of motorized skateboarding, basically).

Thoughts after seeing the first two clips, also for the first time since it originally aired...

I'm alarmed at how much of it was eerily prescient: low-fi realtime video communication, constant stream of data input/sensory overload, ubiquitous technology even in the poorest regions, multiple layers of surveillance, etc.

Agree that some of the dialogue is cringe-inducingly expository and functional... Both episodes have moments where it feels like the show's ambitions are being reigned in by the restrictions of network TV in the late '80s. Something like this would have been very well suited as a latter-day HBO or Showtime original series, had such a thing existed back then.

Cute how so many people looks like an extra in an '80s Cyndi Lauper or Tina Turner video!

More as I pore through it...

Me, during some of the conversations via two-way streaming video: "They're SKYPEING!!"

Also have to add that the idea of a network TV show that portrayed network TV as the show's primary antagonist was/is pretty ballsy.

Wasn't it like Beavis and Butthead where they showed real music video clips? Or was the original Max show a different thing? I vaguely recall a kind of 'pilot' ep that was like a mini movie or same. Man Max Headroom seems a looong time ago now.

In the UK it started as a music video show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Max_Headroom_Show

First ep of the music video show in 1985:

Episode 01

Videos: Jean-Michel Jarre - Zoolook (also played over closing credits)
King Kurt - Destination Zululand
Japan - Visions of China
Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria
Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman - Kinky Boots
Sting - If You Love Somebody Set Them Free

Guest : Sting, talked about dream of the blue turtles album, Golf, Jazz, Shoes (Brown, not black),
Getting political in songs, being 33, Playing his songs in foreign countries where they
might not understand the lyrics like America, Size 7.5 shoes, Mark Knopfler, Playing Guitar,
Sandals, Film: Bride, Tennis (in Golf shoes on Sting's court), Hair Weaves.

Apparently the series pilot aired on Cinemax, but I'm not sure whether it was the pilot for the UK or US version.

It was the UK version (aired in 1985): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Minutes_into_the_Future

Me, during some of the conversations via two-way streaming video: "They're SKYPEING!!"

haha

I love to "Max Headroom" with my familie

The guy who played the punk pirate tv dude will be narrating Civ 5, fyi.

man i loved this movie, the uk version, i watched it again a few months back. and he was in the Dawn of the Dead remake !

episode 3 involved a ring of street thugs stealing jami gertz's pituitary gland... for science! at least it looked like jami gertz. can't find her in the imdb listing.

this was one of my favorite shows when it was on, I dutifully taped each episode. I guess I was in 8th or 9th grade at the time. Glad this is finally on DVD although I heard it looks pretty bad (nothing to be done about that, it was shot on video), but I'll probably pick it up at some point anyway. Pretty surprising for a series to be so influenced by Gibson, etc, and on network TV.

Episode 3 for me: genuinely disturbing on-screen violence. Seemingly more plot threads than the previous eps combined. Some seriously scenery-chewing, moustache-twirling, tying-the-damsel-to-the-train-tracks villainy. Matt Frewer deals with a ragged street urchin, who forcibly brought his producer/love interest to his front door with a syringe held to her neck, by plopping the miscreant down on his plush leather couch and having a heart-to-heart. The van-driving thug who looks like Howard Jones returns.

I dug it! And/but/because of/in spite of a great many WTF moments.

I still have a ton of The Max Headroom Show (the music show version) on VHS tapes. It was my exposure to a lot of stuff as it happens - Cab Vol, Bauhaus, Jarre, Cocteaus. Only real annoyance was the clips were all heavily edited (for time, presumably). They always picked non-obvious songs to play for a lot of bands too, so Bauhaus had "Telegram Sam" rather than "Lugosi"; Heaven 17 had "Let me Go" instead of "Temptation", etc etc. Loved it.

Never really seen much of the actual storyline show now I think on it.

luvd max headroom show

^^^^^^

I'm not sure that it will stand up enough to buy this set, but totally going to Netflix it at some point.

Man, I'd completely forgotten my flatmate named his cat (my cat's brother) Edison Carter Turnipseed.

some sort-of prescience from a 20+ year old show -- there's an episode where a terrorist organization is co-conspiring its attacks with a ratings-obsessed news network. one of the bigger stories in the left-leaning media right now is how this saudi prince (alwaleed bin talal) is the largest stakeholder of newscorp, which owns fox news. the saudi prince is also financially involved with the so-called "ground zero mosque." so, if you believe that the ground zero mosque is run by terrorists, fox news is in bed with terrorists.

the terrorists in the max headroom episode were white -- regular trashy american terrorists, not freeky muslim furriners.

http://www.dvdverdict.com/images/reviewpics/maxheadroom.jpg

zots and i agree that matt frewer rules because he has that square-jawed yet goofballish kinda indiana jones "lovable action hero" thing down pat. if someone ever remakes this series i think the rock would also be a good edison carter!

Has no one else braved the audiovisual depths of this historical artifact? Slowly working our way through it over here, and the WTF moments are aplenty...

You venture where we dare not (again).

the COMPONENTS of carter's MIND!!

two minds but with ONE single memory...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhDmYvRgAA4

It's COMPUTER-GENERATED, whatever it is! </saucy Brit accent>

thread needs more art of noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSZ_g3cUr1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEPq0FvFm3g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzxHDqUz8Sk

i adapted some of my posts from this thread to write a thing for the blog:

http://jodybethrosen.com/2014/02/07/max-headroom/

oral history

http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8285139/max-headroom-oral-history-80s-cyberpunk-interview

today's free street library find:

Thx free street library! pic.twitter.com/kdELAqAMeY

— Chief Rocketeer (@JoshuaBizabcock) August 9, 2017

flipped to a random page and first thing I saw was "ALWAYS BE YELLING" which... seems relevant to present day and age

miss this guy

he always be here(points to heart)

just got this DVD set and I am v. excited to watch it! first two eps so far are a lot of fun, could be better if they edited some dumb and useless stuff out (edison carter smelling theora's hair when they first meet is ugh and serves zero narrative purpose, there's lot of that scattered throughout) and you could probably reduce every episode by about ten minutes just with tighter cuts and a few scene removals. but some scenes are equally hilarious and vital... Max being unaware that Missile Mike is a TV show and not a real guy going around killing people works so well. god I hope Trump isn't in it

is the reason this isn't available to stream the music rights?

oh, this is the drama I'm talking about, not the UK one where's riffing on music videos. don't think they offer that in any format at all, for probably exactly the reason you name.

where he's

Someone should do a poll of sci-fi shows from this era (eg Alien Nation, V, War of the Worlds, etc). Can't wait to see how the four interested participants vote.

‘someone’ c’mon dude you know you’re gonna do it eventually, just tear off the band-aid right now

It may shock you to know that I do occasionally find myself occupied with actual work during my workday. It shocks me.

this show really does nail the demonstrative dystopia thing

more shocked that you have a job at all tbf xp

What would an office be without that one off-putting and almost entirely unpalatable guy, I ask you

Hello.

https://deadline.com/2022/07/max-headroom-reboot-matt-frewer-star-amc-networks-christopher-cantwell-amp-elijah-wood-spectrevision-1235081130/