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Back on TV: Max Headroom

Posted by chrisd on from the talkin-bout-my-g-g-g-generation dept.

infofreako writes: " Everyone's favorite 80's construct, Max Headroom, has returned thanks to the people at TechTV. According to their website, they will be rebroadcasting all 14 episodes starting this Friday! This series was doing ethics themes based on designer babies, corporate controlled media, brain scanning and more before some of us were capable of hitting record on the old VCR. "

10 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. not the original though! by cliveholloway · · Score: 5, Interesting
    rebroadcasting all 14 episodes.

    Bet that doesn't include the original Channel 4 series and the original TV movie with a much slimier Bryce. As always, US TV took a good idea and sanitised it for the masses.

    (showing age). The 15 minute entertainment show - Max + videos (zoolookology anyone?) was much sharper than anything that came later.

    "Oh to be in gay Paris, where only the river is Seine"


    .02

    cLive ;-)

    --
    -- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
    1. Re:not the original though! by usrerco · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I worked on the American version's series as one of the technical directors
      doing the on-screen graphics while at Video Image in 1986. I was one of
      two or three people who did the graphics; me and another guy did the 3D,
      and there was a mystery guy/gal who did the E.CARTER 'edison cam' overlay graphics.

      I was more impressed with the original show ("Max Headroom: The Original Story,
      Lorimar Homevideo), namely acting, directing, and casting. It seemed to really
      have that filmic quality I don't think the series achieved. And I thought
      the screen graphics in the original were better than what we did. For one
      thing, they used /real/ vector graphics in the original. We had a copy of all
      the original graphics which we used for reference. Excellent stuff. We also didn't
      have input from the original directors, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, who
      I think had a lot to do with the look and feel of the original.

      In the American version, we used a Cubicomp to do all of the 3D graphics
      vector sequences, which was a pixel based system that could do anti-aliased
      vector rendering. So we basically 'simulated' the look of vector, but didn't
      fully achieve IMHO. We used 5 1/4" floppies to save our work, and worked
      on PCs. I don't think we ever knew what system the original show was done
      on. I assumed it was a custom vector system.. anyone know?

      The original also used a great nixie-like fonts that caused me to write
      a special font program and hand-massaged bitmapped fonts just to simulate
      that look, which I think we used in the show, I can't recall.

      We re-did many of the cg sequences from the original, including the
      barrier arm, sweeps of the Network 23 building, etc. so that the overall look
      was consistent with the new sequences we added, like the spinning crypto
      graphic. (I think I may have encoded my initials into that sequence)
      Remaking the old graphics was sad, because the original graphics were
      done so well, and I didn't feel we were doing it justice. I lamented
      to my boss, but he insisted we needed to keep a consistent look,
      and I doggedly agreed, but still was disheartened (I was young).

      I'm fairly sure the original is easily available for rent.

      From what I know of Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, they were a british
      husband/wife team that directed many weird and edgy commercials & music
      videos. My favorites were the backlit graphics for the Chaz Jankel
      music video "Questionnaire" (one of the first music videos I think I'd
      ever seen that used animated graphics, circa 1981), the mixed media in a
      Joni Mitchell video "Good Friends", which featured cut outs and xerography,
      and the Donald Fagen video "New Frontier", among others.

    2. Re:not the original though! by usrerco · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >> In the American version, we used a Cubicomp to do all of the 3D graphics
      >> vector sequences [..]
      >> I don't think we ever knew what system the original show was done
      >> on. I assumed it was a custom vector system.. anyone know?
      > [..] Hint - it wasn't done with computers...

      Don't tell me it was backlit opticals.. no way! ;)

      The scenes I'm wondering about are the *3D* vector graphics scenes like the 'elevator sequence' with the vector wireframe of the Network 23 building, the bryce 'door code decryption' sequence which showed a rotating cube of letters, etc. I just can't see that stuff being backlit; trying to do 3D rotations with 2D animation is just too hard to draw, without it looking fake. I did the american show's graphics for the equivalent scenes, and studied those scenes quite hard; too fluid to be hand drawn.

      However, shots like the vector graphics of 'exploding guy' in the original /could/ have been backlit, I suppose; it was a standing 2d image, and had no 3 dimensional aspects to it. There are other similar scenes that didn't have 3D graphics that could have been backlit too. But certainly not all scenes.

      And of course Max was always live action, of him in a suit, manipulated with video editing, and other 'tricks' including the rotating graphics matted into the background.

      And the parrot we thought was a 2D paint program that was 'drawn' to look like 3D CG. Just a few frames were needed to do the "CG parrot". If anything was amiga, as the 'techtv' article mentions, I'm guessing this was. Possibly also the 'rotating grid' behind max could have been amiga as well. It aliases heavily, which helps sell the 'graphics look' of liveaction Max in the foreground. But if you look at the other sequences, such as the bryce code decryption, aliasing is not much of a component, typical of vector systems. If there is aliasing at all, I'm guessing it's because it's re-scanned off a color monitor (which can alias a little bit; remember those color vector video games aliased a little). This is all speculation regarding the Amigas. We on the american show actually knew little about how the original show's graphics were done. We didn't use any Amigas for the on-screen graphics in the american show, it was all PC hardware. Video Image specialized in presenting on screen graphics in sync with film cameras; we shot the PC graphics on film then transferred to video for on-the-set playbacks. VI modified their video hardware (decks and monitors) to run at 24x.

      I should digress; I mentioned in the above 'backlit opticals'. An example of backlit would be a black piece of paper with a hole in the middle. Put that over an animation camera's light table (similar to the florescent light tables one uses to trace artwork or look at slides). The result is a bright dot. Put a colored filter over the dot, and you now have a bright /colored/ dot. Then cover that with an 'opal glass' (which can be real frosted glass, or even a milky white 1/4" piece of acrylic) Look down at this, and you've now got a glowing dot with a fuzzy halo. Very cool look in the 80's; everything had to /glow/ ;)

      Apply the above principle to a more complex graphic, like a grid cut out of the paper, and you've got a *colorful glowing grid*, a very important graphic in those days.

      Taking it a step further, you can get a bunch of 2D effects animators to animate some nice graphics on paper, using rapidographs (accurate ink pens that draw very straight, even lines) stencils, templates, splines (drawing splines, which are bendable plastic and metal, not the mathematical kind) which are black drawings on white paper, that can then be photographed onto kodaliths, basically large, clear black and white negatives, which you can then use in place of the above 'black paper' example, to get moving, glowing artwork that looks just like a computer, assuming the 2D animator did a good job on the original artwork.

      This technique was common in the 70's and 80's for glowing logos, and on screen graphics, and could often convincingly look like computer graphics.

      For instance, the 'grid bugs' scene in TRON used this technique, a short scene that /wasn't/ CG.

      Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel's "Cucumber Productions" demo reel, which we also used for reference/inspiration had a large amount of backlit graphics; really great stuff. I still have a VHS copy of their reel with the commercials and videos I mentioned at the top of this thread.

      So I wouldn't be surprised if many of the graphics scenes were done 'traditionally' using the above techniques. But some of the vector scenes were obviously CG.. I'm wondering what equipment was used to do /those/ scenes in the original.

  2. Best Episode... by TrevorB · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Max Headroom was shown on Canada's Bravo network soon after it came out. Already have all the episodes recorded in LP for my time-shifting pleasure.

    The best episode by far was #13: Lessons, about cracking down pirated video programming. Children were not allowed to learn because the educational television wasn't paid for, and schools were not free to the public.

    SPOILERS AHOY....

    The whole thing turns out to be a cover operation for an old fashioned printing press operation, to print real books for kids to read.

    It's very 80's of Max to focus so much on how much television will change our society. Sign of the times.. The world could use a lot more freelance journalists like Edison Carter...

  3. Pirate TV by checkitout · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In protest of the show being canceled, someone in Chicago hijacked the airwaves of 2 TV stations. It's pretty amusing, unfortunately the only site that had video clips of it is down. Here's some information though:

    Google Cache with more information

    Slightly less, but more direct information

    To summarize, it involved a Max Headroom mask, a bare ass and a fly swatter, while Dr. Who was supposed to be playing.

  4. But is it on TechTV Canada? by Recovery1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    AFAICT it is not. Anyone know if it will be?

  5. Re:The 80's are BACK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I want a sequel to They Live. Now! "I came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubble gum." They just don't make movies like that any more.

    And the ending is a laugh riot.

  6. TechTV has a number of good shows by ScumSucker · · Score: 3, Interesting
    There are a lot of good shows on TechTV... it all depends on your interests. For me personally:

    Fresh Gear - gadgets galore... if you read /. you would probably like this show

    Audiofile - where tech meets music... everything from mp3s to music creation gear to the tech behind making acoutic guitars

    Extended Play - the only weekly program I know of that covers video/PC gaming (tho I'd imagine the channel G4 is offering quite a bit... wish I had that channel :)

    The Tech Of... - they pick a topic (rollercoasters, race cars, etc) and well, talk about the tech of it :P

    Yes, The Screen Savers plays a million times a day... but once you have a TiVo it doesn't matter what's on "right now" anyway! Buy a TiVo and then you can enjoy the "better programs" that apparently don't air whenever you happen to be channel surfing. :)

  7. Re:R-R-R-Rock! by Tyger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well good old trusty TiVo already had it on the to-do list by the time I found out. Can't beat that.

  8. Re:TechTV is owned by Paul Allen by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 3, Interesting


    TechTV is owned by Vulcan Inc., the Bellevue, Washington-based investment organization of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen.


    Paul Allen seems to have a rather wide interest in technology (and business). This dated article from 1997 may or may not be too accurate now (it mentions him being the 2nd largest holder of Microsoft stock - its often quoted he has a 9% share, so I'm not sure how that works out). But the article does provide an idea of how diversified Allen's interests are.


    Hmmm... is TechTV objective? Do they also have Apple and Open Source programming?

    It depends on the show and the staff. Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome fame hosts the TechTV show Call for Help and seems very pro-Microsoft/Windows. Though to be fair, I don't watch his show.


    The Screen Savers also feature a lot of Microsoft bits. But they throw a lot of other bits in there too. They did a week of shows mostly dedicated to Linux. They do "alteratips" which are tips for mostly MacOS X and Linux (although, like the Windows tips, they're pretty light-weight). They do on-air help calls for Linux and Mac issues on occasion. The show hosts occasionally grumble about Microsoft and its faults (technical and political/marketing). Tux appears in the background often. OSX's strengths are lauded. Linux is often portrayed as an OS people already enjoy, and the viewer might like to try out too. And for their daily tech news, they often quote articles from Slashdot.


    Of course, that's not to say all of TechTV is as enlightned. Sometimes TechTV Live and Cyber Crime have articles with viewpoints and/or quotes that make me cringe.


    In all, Paul Allen seems to have a fairly wide focus despite his involvement in Microsoft. And TechTV seems to harbor an environment that allows a reflection of a wide degree of the IT industry.