Product Description
-------------------
Television networks battle one another in an unrelenting ratings
war. Whoever controls the airwaves controls the dystopic world in
which they broadcast. So when Network 23s star reporter, Edison
Carter, uncovers a deadly secret that could shake up the dominion
the station has over its viewers, the only option is to eliminate
Carter before he can make his story public. After his “accident,”
his mind is uploaded to create the world’s first self-aware,
computer-generated TV host: Max Headroom! But will Max bow to his
creators? Or will he be the key to his human alter ago bringing
down a network superpower?
Able to boast his own international talk show, music videos,
countless endorsements and merchandising, the puckish Max
Headroom became more than just a character on television. He was
a decade-defining icon, never better represented than in this
sardonically witty, adventurous look at society and the place of
media within it. Now all 14 uncut episodes — starring Matt Frewer
(Watchmen), Amanda Pays (The Flash), Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested
Development) and Morgan Sheppard (Star Trek) — are finally
available together in one long-awaited DVD collection!
.com
----
Max Headroom is the stuff that cult followings are made of. Max,
indelible '80s icon, began his stuttering, glitchy
computer-generated existence as the host of a British music video
showcase. He went on to shill for New Coke, and then got his own
ed-out back-story in a British TV movie. Credit ABC for
taking the bold leap to give Max his own prime-time series in
1987. "What kind of show is this anyway?" Max asks early on.
What, indeed? It's Blade Runner meets Network, a bleak comedy and
cyber satire that, even decades later, one can't watch without
marveling how something so off-center ever get on the air. Max
Headroom's pop culture cachet (featured on the cover of Newsweek,
parodied in the comic strip Doonesbury) did not translate into
ratings. The show was cancelled after 14 episodes (an unaired
episode is included in this set). Decades later, society has
caught up to the show that was ahead of its time. The series is
set "20 minutes into the future" in a dystopian landscape where
instead of a chicken in every pot there is a TV in every homeless
tent. Evil and corrupt television executives, in consort with
advertising agencies, will literally kill for ratings. In the
pilot episode, intrepid investigative reporter Edison Carter
(Matt Frewer) discovers his own network is behind blipverts, a
potentially lethal brand of advertising that compresses a
30-second commercial into three seconds, causing more-vulnerable
viewers to explode. Carter survives an attempt on his life by
network goons, but not before Bryce (Chris Young), the network's
resident boy genius, downloads Carter's memory into a computer to
see what he knows of the scheme. A star is born: Max Headroom
(Frewer again), who escapes into the system and pops up at will
onscreen to offer wisecracks ("You know how you can tell our
network president is lying? His lips move.") and Mork-like
societal observations. In one episode, he confuses Missile Mike,
a -toting character in an ultra-violent children's show, for
an actual rampaging killer. "Who introduced [kids] to this?" Max
asks. Meanwhile, Carter, with invaluable assistance from his
newsroom controller Theora (Amanda Pays reprising her role from
the British movie) and incorruptible producer (Jeffrey Tambor),
uncovers venal conspiracies such as an attempt to legalize a
vicious sport that exploits children so it can be broadcast. It's
frightening at times how prescient this show was. This set's
bonus features are exhaustive but are missing some key
Max-abilia. The British pilot that started it all is absent, as
is Frewer from a cast reunion. But talking heads segments with
the show's creators, writers, and designers offer a thorough,
inside retrospective look at the series. Welcome back, Max. Boy,
do we need you now. --Donald Liebenson