| Max Headroom | |
|---|---|
 Max Headroom in a commercial. | |
| Format | television series |
| Creator(s) | George Stone, Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton |
| Company | Channel 4 (UK), Cinemax/ABC (USA) |
| Run dates | 1985-86 (UK), 1987-88 (USA) |
| Genres | science fiction |
| Country of origin | UK, USA |
Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his surreal wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. The character was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton. Max Headroom was featured in a music video programme, a feature film, a dramatic television series and television commercials.
Notwithstanding the publicity for the character, the real image of Max was not computer generated. Computing technology in the mid-1980s was not sufficiently advanced for a full-motion, voice-synced human head to be practical for a television series. Max's image was actually that of actor Matt Frewer in latex and foam prosthetic makeup with a fiberglass suit. This was then superimposed over a moving geometric background, which was originally hand-drawn cel animation, though computer generated in the American television series.
The background story provided for the Max Headroom character presents a dystopic look at a run-down near-future dominated by television and large corporations. Max Headroom was created from the memories of a reporter, Edison Carter, who was injured in an accident that put him into a coma. The character's name came from the last thing Carter saw before the accident: a bar with a sign warning of low clearance, marked "Max. Headroom: 2.3 meters".
Max Headroom was originally created for a non-fiction entertainment show, a British music video show called The Max Headroom Show. This was developed into a television movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future that presented the character's backstory. This in turn became the pilot for an American series, whose first episode was presented in an extended edition to American audiences in 1986 on Cinemax. The series ran on ABC from 31 March 1987 to 5 May 1988—officially for two seasons, though only fourteen episodes were made. The American series expanded on the cyberpunk themes of the British TV movie but otherwise had no connection to the British music video show.
- Adapted from two Wikipedia articles on the character and the television series, both named Max Headroom.