Hi all, Getting a bit off-topic, but I'm a big Max Headroom fan and heave a heap of trivia in my head about him, so just thought I'd put in my two bob's worth:
I actually loved that show, one of the first Sci-fi Post-Apoc series I really got into. Too bad you can't get anyone to play the episodes any more, although Understand you can still buy the UK TV show pilot-movie on VHS...
I'd say it was the first Sci-fi Post-Apoc show ever. It was "cyberpunk" before the word had even been invented! It is also a show with a long and complicated history... The UK's Channel 4 was creating a video clip show and wanted a "digital host" to introduce them and to tell jokes, so the idea of Max Headroom was born. The original idea was to have the story of how Max Headroom was created to be broadcast as 5 minute slices during the video clips, but that was eventually deemed too difficult so instead they commissioned a movie (well, it was only a 60 minute show actually) to introduce the character. It was a very dark bit of Sci-Fi and was definitely very British in it's feel, despite having Canadian Matt Frewer as the lead. The movie ends with "Big Time Television" (who specialised in broadcasting old rock videos) driving off with Max, and thus Max's role on the clip show was set. I'm not sure how many video clip shows Max hosted on Channel 4, but I suspect it wasn't that many. Incidentally, the "computer graphics" for the movie were done by Rod Lord, who also did the animations/computer graphics for The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. He won a Bafta for each of them. (www.rodlord.co.uk) Anyway, then Lorimar (I think) decided to make a TV series using the character. They commissioned 6 episodes originally. Matt Frewer and Amanda Payes reprised their roles but all other actors were replaced. The show also had a bit more comedy and the future was a little less "dark". The first episode was basically the original Channel 4 movie rewritten and it now ended with Max staying with Network 23. Some of the original animation was reused, but subsequently all graphics were done using Commodore Amigas. (Amiga fans out there therefore love this TV series.) Lorimar then commissioned another 8 episodes but only broadcast 6 of them before the show was cancelled. (No idea if the reason was entirely down to ratings or not. It was probably a fairly expensive show to make too.) The remaining 2 episodes were eventually broadcast by the Sci-Fi channel many years later. The original TV movie was released on video in the UK but has been deleted for 10 years. The first 6 episodes of the TV series have also been released on VHS, but have also been deleted for a long time. You can often find copies of eBay though. I'm not sure if any videos were ever released in North America. There are currently no plans that I know of to release DVDs of any episodes, so if you are a fan the best place to look is the net. The "Digital Archive Project" have made available eDonkey/eMule links to nice high-quality encodes of all episodes plus the Art Of Noise video clip. http://www.dapcentral.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=MasterList2&file=i ndex&show=13 Here endth the history lesson of life "20 minutes into the future". Michael