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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. "

3 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. 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...