Max Headroom (character)

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Max Headroom is the name of a fictional artificial intelligence, known for his surreal wit and a stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled delivery. The character was created by Peter Wagg, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton and performed by Matt Frewer.

The Max Headroom character originated in 1985 as an announcer for a music video programme on the British television channel, Channel 4, called The Max Talking Headroom Show. The intent was to portray a futuristic computer-generated character. Max Headroom appeared as a stylized head on TV against harsh primary color rotating-line backgrounds, and he became well known for his jerky techno-stuttering speech, wisecracks, and malapropisms ("Like they say when you're buying suppositories, 'With friends like that, who needs enemas?'").

Max's fictional genesis was documented in the original UK movie 20 Minutes into the Future, and re-presented--slightly modified--in the first episode of the American Max Headroom television series from 1987. In both versions Max Headroom was shown to have been created from the memories of Edison Carter.

Contents 1 Production notes 2 Other appearances 3 Possible Future 4 Trivia 4.1 References and homages to the character 5 External links

[edit] Production notes

Notwithstanding the publicity for the character, the real image of Max was not computer generated. 3-D rendering and computing technology in the mid-1980s was not sufficiently advanced for a full-motion, voice-synched human head to be practical for a television series. Max's image was actually that of actor Matt Frewer in latex and foam rubber prosthetic makeup with a fibreglass suit, superimposed over a moving geometric background. (Even the background was not actual computer graphics at first; it was hand-drawn cel animation like the "computer-generated" animations in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series. Later in the U.S. version they were actually generated by a Commodore Amiga computer.) But when these things were combined with clever editing, the appearance of a computer-generated human head was convincing to many.

[edit] Other appearances

Max became a minor celebrity outside the television series. He was the spokespersonality for Coca-Cola (specifically New Coke after the return of Coke Classic), using his trademark staccato to deliver the slogan "Catch the wave!". In that capacity, he generated more interest from viewers than any previous spokesman for the company. In the UK, Max starred in television commercials for Radio Rentals . He also hosted an interview show on the Cinemax cable TV channel, and performed vocals (as well as appeared in the video) for the pop single "Paranoimia" by Art of Noise.

Art of Noise featured an overdubbed Max on the song [1]Paranoimia. Max was also featured on a single titled Merry Christmas Santa Claus (You're a Lovely Guy) released by Chrysalis Records[2].

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 bad guys with guns, whilst rescuing Max Headroom.

[edit] Possible Future

In a 2002 web chat with Scifi.com, Matt Frewer expressed pleasant surprise at Max's continued popularity, and informed fans that he had a new Max Headroom project "in the deal-making process." [3] [4] No further information is known on this project.

[edit] Trivia

• In the Cinemax talk show version, there was a running joke where Max would ask his guest what they thought about golf. Boy George replied, "I've got better things to do with my balls."
• A sign ("MAX HEADROOM 2.3m"??) above the entrance to the Wivenhoe station car park inspired then resident film director Steve Roberts to create the series.^{[citation needed]}
• "Max Headroom" is not the only character in the series to have a name taken from a road sign. The president of the ZikZak Corporation is named "Ped Xing", a truncation of "Pedestrian Crossing" and used on road signs in the USA., which is another Robert Anton Wilson reference. Music hall performer Nosmo King took his name from a "No Smoking" warning across a set of swing doors.

[edit] References and homages to the character

• In his comic strip Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau parodied President Ronald Reagan as a Max Headroom-like character called "Ron Headrest".
• The 1989 film Back to the Future Part II features several parodies of Max Headroom. In the movie, main character Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels to the year 2015 and enters the "Cafe '80s", a "retro" diner furnished entirely with highly-stylized elements of 1980s pop culture. The diner's wait staff is made up of Max Headroom-esque AIs modeled after the likenesses of Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and the Ayatollah Khomeini.
• The German internet service provider T-Online used a character strongly reminiscent of Max Headroom named "Robert T-Online" in a 2000 advertising campaign.[5]
• The 1997 movie Batman & Robin featured an AI based on Alfred the Butler, manifesting itself as a computer-generated head with a stutter.
• On November 22, 1987, two Chicago, Illinois television stations had their broadcast signals hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask. The first attack 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-TV Channel 11 for about 90 seconds during a broadcast of the science fiction series Doctor Who episode Horror of Fang Rock. The second disruption also included the masked Max Headroom getting smacked on his buttocks by a fly swatter. The identity of the culprit was never determined. The term given to this act is broadcast signal intrusion. The incident is similar to an occurrence in the comedy film Used Cars and the "Academy" episode of the Max Headroom series itself. (See Max Headroom pirating incident)
• In the animated children's series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?, The Chief is depicted as a fully sentient, wild-haired, joke-cracking digital head, very similar in appearance and function to Max Headroom.
• A parody character called FAX HEADFULL was used in short segments on the PBS educational math show for children Square One.
• In a Season 4 episode of the sci-fi series Farscape, main character John Crichton appears as a Max Headroom parody, who controls an elevator in a strange video game.
• The January, 1987, edition of Playboy magazine featured a centerfold spotlighting Maxine Legroom, a female parody of Max, played by model Sondra (Sandy) Greenberg.
• Sum 41 have a song entitled "Second Chance For Max Headroom" on their debut "Half Hour of Power" album.

• In 1985, UK television station ITV broadcast a Max Headroom parody as part of the Bobby Davro show.

• The TV series Sledge Hammer! also parodied Max Headroom in one episode.

• "Eerie, Indiana" (1991) [TV-Series 1991-1992] also had a spoof of Max as a head in a bank cash machine. Matt Frewer also starred in a later episode.

• The 1987 film Spaceballs featured a stylized TV news reporter who resembled Max, and an android character named "Vinnie" who occasionally exhibited similar mannerisms to Max.
• On a 1987 episode of D.C. Follies, a puppet caricature of Katharine Hepburn was seen on a television exhibiting Max-like behavior, and calling herself "Kate Headroom."

[edit] External links

• Max Headroom Information and Fan Club