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6->''"This is Edison Carter, coming to you very much live and direct on Network 23."''
7
8Back in TheEighties, it looked like computers were going to be able to do just about anything. It also looked like [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japanese businessmen were going to economically conquer the world]]. And it looked like corporate greed was going to grow and grow until the average citizen was a virtual slave to the mega-corporations who would happily destroy the environment, culture, history, and basic human liberty all in the name of profit.
9
10Max Headroom, a plastic-coated stammering faux-CGI host full of sardonic wit played by the frankly underrated Canadian actor Creator/MattFrewer, made his debut in April of 1985 in a British one-hour PilotMovie entitled ''Max Headroom: TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture''.
11
12Though Max was the star of the show, he was really a very minor character. The story followed IntrepidReporter Edison Carter (also Frewer) and his [[MissionControl "controller"]] (i.e. director) Theora (Creator/AmandaPays, who later played fanfic-favorite Phoebe Green on ''Series/TheXFiles'') as he attempted to uncover a conspiracy revolving around the {{Blipvert}}, a highly compressed advertisement his station had recently adopted, which had the unfortunate side effect of causing some viewers to explode. In his daring escape from security with orders to kill, he is gravely injured when he crashes his motorcycle into a gatepost.
13
14Bryce Lynch, a totally unlikable TeenGenius, [[BrainUploading generates an AI copy of Carter's mind]] to cover up his disappearance, but the copy is somewhat unstable and has a bad stammer. He takes his name from [[LineOfSightName the last thing Edison had seen]] before his injury: a sign on the gatepost reading "MAX HEADROOM: 2.3 METERS".
15
16The pilot wasn't picked up, but the rights to the Max Headroom character were sold to the makers of a music-video program on British television, on which Max appeared later in 1985. The Max Headroom show was the first to play with the music-video format, with Max frequently talking over lousy videos and making jokes, or cutting the video off partway through, a technique later picked up by WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead and other satirical video shows. The character was later picked up by Coca-Cola, for [[CharacterCelebrityEndorsement a series of TV spots for New Coke]] and appeared on T-shirts and mer-'''''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle *BZZZZZZZZZZT*]]'''''
17
18''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdgAMYjYSs That does it! He's a freakin nerd! *giggles* Yeah, I think I'm better than Chuck Swirsky! Frickin' liberallllllllll--l-l--ll-l-l...]]''
19
20'''''*BZZZZZZZZZT*''''' Er, [[DoNotAdjustYourSet we apologize about]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking that]]. Moving on. Max Headroom was a huge hit, especially in the UK, to the extent where the show did a crossover with British InstrumentalHipHop collective Music/ArtOfNoise in 1986. But it was in the US that the pilot was picked up. [[TransAtlanticEquivalent Sort of]]. It was remade by Lorimar in 1987 as the first episode of the ''Max Headroom'' TV series, keeping only Frewer, Pays, and Creator/WMorganSheppard (Blank Reg) from the original cast, and substantially rewriting the second half of the movie (but using all the video effects so the money budgeted to effects could be used elsewhere). The TeenGenius was changed from a villain to an unwitting patsy, and Max's role was greatly increased; in the original, Max and Edison never met, and Max spent the rest of the movie as a VJ for a pirate TV station. In the series, he and Edison became partners, breaking the Blipvert story together.
21
22''Max Headroom'' straddled the line between BlackComedy and (mostly) serious CyberPunk for two half-seasons before being cancelled and largely forgotten. Many believe [[ScrewedByTheNetwork the network intentionally killed it]], scheduling it opposite two hugely popular shows, ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' and ''Series/MiamiVice'' (where, ironically, Matt Frewer played a villain in a two-parter shortly after his show was cancelled).
23
24The world presented by the show was strange and unwieldy, full of corporate greed, corrupt politics (elections to all political offices were decided by TV ratings: each network backed a candidate, and the highest rated network at the close of polling got their man installed), and a legal system that could not possibly have worked (it was illegal to turn a television off, books were banned in order to disenfranchise those who couldn't afford pay-per-view educational TV, bloodsports were mainstream, and trials for all but the rich and powerful were carried out in game show format). Also, everything had [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture silly sci-fi names]]: "Blipverts", "Baby Grobags", "Credit Tubes", "Neurostim", etc.
25
26The character was resurrected in 2008 as part of Creator/ChannelFour's marketing for the digital switchover, in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRtjEfw-mSE number of (full-length) adverts]]. In 2010, [[http://www.amazon.com/Max-Headroom-Complete-Lenticular-Cover/dp/B00005JNU5/ref=pd_bxgy_d_text_b it was announced that the US series would be getting a DVD release in August of that year, with an amusing lenticular cover.]] The DVD set includes a bonus disc with behind-the-scenes featurettes.
27
28For parodies of and homages to ''Max Headroom'', see MockHeadroom.
29
30----
31!!''Max Headroom'' is the TropeNamer for:
32 * TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
33 ** TwentyMinutesIntoThePast
34 * {{Blipvert}}
35 * MockHeadroom
36
37!!''Max Headroom'' provides ex-ex-examples of:
38* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture:
39** TropeNamer -- appears onscreen at the start of the movie and every TV episode.
40** In the TV series, Bryce Lynch was born in 1988. The teleplay book of the original movie gives Bryce's age as 16, pinning the setting down to about 2004, in the line:
41--->"The thing that even now gave them [the members of the board] a feeling of discomfort was that the face staring back at them was that of a boy of sixteen."
42* AdBumpers: As was common in one-hour primetime TV shows at the time:
43-->'''Max:''' And I'll-I'll-I'll be back in a few moments with more from Network 23.
44* AdvertOverloadedFuture: The very premise of the series.
45* AlmostKiss: At the end of ''Blanks.''
46* AmbiguouslyGay: The usher issuing tickets to human guinea pigs in ''Dream Thieves'' is this in spades.
47* ApologeticAttacker: Mel is this in ''Body Banks'' when he kidnaps Theora to force a conversation with Edison to happen.
48* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In the world of Corporate control, there's one crime you better dare not commit:
49-->'''Cheviot:''' "Credit fraud?! My God, that's worse than murder!"
50* AutoTune: Matt Frewer's voice gets electronically distorted whenever he's playing Max.
51* BigBrotherIsWatching: Insofar as the Networks have effectively become the government, Edison could often use the threat of his camera on uncooperative leads.
52** The protagonists often exploit ubiquitous surveillance to learn things their [[CorruptCorporateExecutive superiors]] want to remain hidden.
53* BlackComedy: Throughout the series.
54-->'''Breughel:''' I love babies. They're very sweet...especially with pickles.
55* {{Blipvert}}: The TropeNamer.
56* BrainUploading: How Max was created. The process was less than perfect, and Bryce only allocated enough of 23's system memory to simulate the head and shoulders. Max stutters because the 23 mainframe's video memory bus wasn't QUITE fast enough to generate the 3D image frames of Max in real time ("it takes a moment to read out the frame store"). In later episodes the "Max Headroom process" is brought up as a potential method of saving the life of a terminally ill billionaire, as well as letting those visiting graves talk to their departed loved ones via a "Max" type image in the headstone.
57* BreakTheCutie: In ''Dream Thieves'': During an assignment, Edison runs into Paddy, an old friend and colleague who lost nearly everything thanks to Edison breaking a story before him. While he feels guilty about it, Edison fully breaks that night when after reconciling with Paddy, he later finds him dead and goes on a hunt to find out why. [[spoiler: He ultimately beats up a defenseless doctor live on-air and has to be given a WhatTheHellHero speech by his producer Murray. By this point, Edison isn't so much angry about Paddy being dead, more that they only killed him so they could sell his dreams onto a subscriber network for a new show]].
58* CassetteFuturism: The TV movie and subsequent series. Even though it's the Trope Namer for TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, there's no flat-screen digital HDTV, no internet, computer graphics have a distinctly pre-Windows appearance and TV shows are still recorded on tape.
59* ChurchOfHappyology: VU-Age Church has qualities like this as well as televangelism and cryonics. They claim to be able to use technology to BrainUpload a parishioner's consciousness and then transfer it to a newly cloned body. It is, of course, an enormous scam.
60* CityWithNoName: With a small dose of WhereTheHellIsSpringfield? Both American and British accents are ubiquitous and it's ambiguous what continent the series takes place in. WordOfGod is that it is a post-apocalypse dystopian Los Angeles. This can actually be confirmed in ''The Blanks'' when we get a view of the skyline.
61* ComputerizedJudicialSystem: With floppy disks!
62* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Ned Grossberg. Many of the other network executives have their moments as well.
63* CorruptChurch: The VU-Age Church exists for the purposes of bilking parishioners of their fortunes when they die.
64* CrapsackWorld: Let's put it this way: Instead of foodstamps, the government gives the needy free TV sets. And only because the TV is used mainly for [[MoreThanMindControl population control.]]
65** To the point that it is ''illegal to turn them off.'' People resort to throwing blankets over them when they don't want to watch. There are even televisions in homeless camps.
66* CyberPunk: One of the first television shows to apply this trope.
67* DitzyGenius: Bryce Lynch. The most prominent example being when Grossberg says (over Carter's unconscious body) that they need to know how much Carter knows about the adverse effects of Blipverts; Bryce suggests they ask him when he wakes up.
68** Also when Grossberg mentions that it would be unfortunate if the public discovered that the Blipverts were making people explode, Bryce suggests they don't tell them.
69* EngagingConversation: Notable in that it's the woman who pulls out the "marry me!" gag.
70* EvenEvilHasStandards: Grossberg, on stealing babies: "Carter, you've got to believe me. What you speak of is even beyond ''me!''"
71* EverythingIsOnline: The way the internet in this show was shown to work, one could very well hack into a tree if they wanted.
72* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: The sequence from the US pilot showing the exploding blipverts viewer was ''very'' gruesome for 1980s network TV, and those familiar with the UK version, which used the same effects, were surprised to see it included in the US version virtually intact.
73* FauxAffablyEvil: Croyd Hawser in ''Wars'' initially presents himself to Edison as a friendly figure who doesn't want to harm civilians, despite being the leader of a terrorist organization. [[spoiler: It doesn't take him long to go AxeCrazy and start initiating fatal attacks once Edison realizes he's been duped.]]
74* {{Flanderization}}: A vague-but-important UK-Japan business deal in the original TV movie balloons into JapanTakesOverTheWorld in the TV series.
75* FutureImperfect: It's a Cyberpunk show, it's par for the course. TV ruling the world, a polluted, dying city, no industry, little real justice, an apathetic populace...
76* GenreSavvy: Most of the characters have their moments. in ''Baby Growbags'', Edison and Theora both assume correctly that the fact Edison was given free access into another network must mean it's a trap, especially since said network is run by Edison's old boss Grossberg. [[spoiler:It doesn't stop Edison though from going straight into it anyway for much needed answers.]]
77* GladiatorGames: In "Rakers" Carter investigates the rise of the violent sport of raking, which involves skateboard riders with weapons fighting each other.
78* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoI_clZpDCM Max certainly thinks so]].
79* HollywoodHacking: Complete with RapidFireTyping and a ShoutOut to Creator/WilliamGibson with the term "ICE" (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics).
80* HonestCorporateExecutive: A DownplayedTrope version with Ben Cheviot, verging on a DownplayedTrope of CorruptCorporateExecutive. Generally, Cheviot acts in the defense of the protagonists but he has a responsibility to the network and his sponsors who are ''exceedingly'' corrupt. As such, he mostly serves as a defense and middle-man between the cyberpunk future's worst aspects and our heroes.
81** This has a heavy dose of TruthInTelevision: The number one priority of the CEO of a publicly traded company is to increase the company's value for the shareholders. The [=CEOs=] of several large companies in the real world have told in interviews how frustrating it is to try to actually do something good and humane with the position (for example, raise the wages of low-end employees above the bare minimum you can get away with), only to have that overruled because it cuts into profits ever so slightly.
82* HotLibrarian: Theora is both smart and beautiful.
83* HumanResources: Breughel and Mahler's primary source of income is disposing of corpses for other criminals by selling them to body banks, which harvest the organs for use as transplants.
84* ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin: The episodes "Whakets" and "Neurostim" feature a game show that broadcasts an addictive subliminal signal and a bracelet that implants images of a perfect life (and the urge to buy everything to make that perfect life a reality) into wearers' heads, respectively.
85* InstantAIJustAddWater: Insufficient resources are mentioned in the episode "Deities" to be the reason that the Vu-Age Church's BrainUploading process only created an "idiot version" of the deceased that could only respond to people in a pre-programmed manner, whereas the system resources of Network 23's mainframe made Max Headroom, a complete artificial intelligence, possible.
86* InterchangeableAsianCultures: For whatever reason, the often-featured executive of the Japanese Zik-Zak corporation is Ped Xing, a Chinese man -- presumably [[PunnyName so they could work in the joke]].[[note]]Compounding this is that Xing himself was never played by a Chinese actor, but a Filipino one (Arsenio Trinidad) in the first season and a Japanese actor (Sab Shimono) in the second.[[/note]]
87* IntrepidReporter: Edison Carter (and theoretically, Max himself).
88* LanternJawOfJustice: Both Edison and Max, but the "of justice" part usually only applies to Edison, since Max generally prefers snark and mischief over heroism.
89* LowClearance: According to the movie, this is where Max Headroom's name came from--the last words seen by Edison Carter before getting clocked by the sign.
90* MissionControl: Theora, and occasionally Murray.
91* MotherlyScientist: Bryce definitely shares a familial bond with Max, his creation. The two even share a hug to the best of their ability in "The Blanks."
92* MysticalPlague: There's a throwaway joke in one episode where it's casually mentioned that there is another plague of frogs in Egypt that they could do a story about again.
93* MythologyGag: In the TV series, as Blank Reg is watching Max's telecast he notes: "What I could do with one of him." In the original movie, Max ended up at Big Time Television.
94* NewOldFlame: Vanna Smith in "Deities" is Edison Carter's girlfriend from college.
95* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Breughel and Mahler are more than willing to turn on their employers if someone else makes them a better offer.
96* PercussiveMaintenance: On a coffee maker, no less!
97* [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything The Terrorists Who Don't Do Anything]]: Deconstructed in the episode "War" where the organization White Brigade has struck a deal with a news reporter: they blow up abandoned buildings, and tell the reporter beforehand. The terrorists get publicity for their cause, and the reporter can break the news about the "terrorist strikes" before the competition without anyone actually dying. Everyone wins. Subverted in the end, as the White Brigade decides to start targeting populated places after all.
98* ProductPlacement: Max inadvertently [[https://youtu.be/IEIE2q7kvxQ plugs non-branded auto parts]].
99-->'''Max:''' Who's calling the tu-tu-tuneup? Who's in cru-cru-cru-cruise control here? I'll tell you who: Me! Me! Max Headlamp!
100* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: As president of Network 23, Ben Cheviot's top priorities are always increasing ratings and trying not to antagonize Zik Zak, their biggest sponsor. However, he does have a moral compass, and he's a tough but fair boss to Edison and Murray, which is a vast improvement over his predecessor, CorruptCorporateExecutive Ned Grossberg.
101* RepetitiveAudioGlitch: Max often repeats syllables and words he's spoken within the past three seconds.
102* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: In the pilot, Grossberg arranged for Carter to have an "accident" to cover up the death of a viewer caused by one of Network 23's Blipverts. The episode ends with Carter storming Grossberg's office with his camera in hand, just as Grossberg has finished announcing his death.
103-->'''Carter:''' This is Edison Carter, coming to you ''very much'' live and direct from Network 23.
104* SchizoTech: TropeNamer for TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, but the cars are all from TheFifties. And whenever a computer keyboard was shown, it was actually the keyboard from an antique manual typewriter. Perhaps this was done to suggest a UsedFuture?
105* SecondhandStorytelling: In "Body Banks", Edison mentions a long conversation he had with Max the night before, wherein Max asks him many questions concerning his memories and what they mean. Script-writer Steve Roberts mentions that the one thing they were unable to do in the show was actually have a real-time conversation between Max and Edison, with the two reacting to each other. (Every time someone talked to Max, they were talking to an empty screen or pre-recorded footage, unlike the video phone conversations where the actor was actually talking to another actor on another set in real-time.) Matt Frewer on his part has told in an interview how the separately filmed Max Headroom scenes had to be choreographed to match the other actors: Say the line, stay quiet while "listening", look left towards one person, look right towards another...
106* ShoutOut: [[OvershadowedByControversy Infamously]], the series received a truly bizarre one when an unknown hacker took over TV signals in Chicago and broadcast a rambling string of nonsense while wearing a Headroom mask. Read about that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion here]].
107* SoulFragment: Edison's relation to Max.
108* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Rick Ducommun wasn't able to reprise his role as Mahler for the second season, so the writers replaced him with another character, justifying the swap by having Breughel [[BusCrash kill the original Mahler offscreen]] during a slow business night, selling his corpse off, and naming his new partner "Mahler" as a mocking tribute.
109* TeenGenius: Bryce. In the TV series, Bryce is an unusually likable example of this trope in large part because of the fact that he was depicted as a normal 15-year-old boy in terms of his personality, maturity, and sense of humour who happened to be a genius. The TV movie Bryce, on the other hand, is more irritating than [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Wesley Crusher]] and [[Series/DoctorWho Adric]] combined. And, you know, evil.
110* VideoPhone: Featured several times on the show. It ''is'' TheFuture, after all.
111* VirtualCelebrity: Take a wild guess.
112* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Probably the TropeCodifier in its "with Internet" form. When the show was made, AOL was brand new, [=CompuServe=] was hip and hot, college students were just starting to get email addresses, and the Web was still years away. Nevertheless, Theora and the other controllers clearly are accessing something Internet-like and providing the info to Edison et. al.
113* WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture: Thoroughly averted. A central theme in the series is the disparity between reality and what is depicted in the media. And whether the image provided by the media is actually more real to the masses than the "real" reality. Just think about it for a while...
114* WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture
115* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: How Max is able to get Security Systems' A-7 computer to [[HeelFaceTurn turn against the corporation and help Edison]].
116* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: "For God's sake, treat A-7 with some respect-spect! She's not just a machiiiiiiine...!"
117* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Max himself is humorously treated as one during Channel 4's digital switchover ads, constantly bemoaning how he was ScrewedByTheNetwork and trying to talk to his handler in the retirement home he lives in about his GloryDays in the 80s.
118* WickedCultured: Breughel has a predilection for quoting classical literature.
119-->Physician, heal thyself! (While looking at the corpse of a dead doctor).
120* {{Yakuza}}: Revealed to be the owners of the omnipresent [=ZikZak=] Corporation.

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