The Original Talking Head

Max Headroom: sci-fi history’s only avatar with a speech impedement

Poor Max Headroom. There just hasn't been much work for a pseudo-human who stutters like an irritating, digital-age Porky Pig (Rush Limbaugh seems to have that niche locked up for the foreseeable future). Even so, Max is set to invade the small screen once again. His short-lived television series was history’s first cyberpunk TV show. Which is why it’s worth picking up the new Max Headroom: The Complete Series DVD set, a release loaded with new interviews from the creators and cast.

Set in a dystopian near-future, Max depicted a world that was controlled by corrupt corporations and pulsating with doom. (Back then this was called "fiction". Nowadays we call it "the 24 hour news cycle"). Street gangs kidnapped pedestrians to harvest their organs. Super-effective commercials had the unfortunate side effect of causing people’s heads to explode. Meanwhile, Max himself was the mouthy alter ego of a crusading reporter who, after a life-threatening accident, had his personality downloaded into a computer. That alter ego soon escaped into the wider, wired world, where it wreaked havoc, spoofed our media culture and, sadly, got canceled after 14 episodes.

Afterwards, Max was re-animated to star in those commercials for New Coke. Let’s be clear: Not Coke Classic—New Coke. That was the beginning of the end. We asked Max why we should buy his new DVD set. "I live in a one-room walk-up with The Noid and Joe Iss-Iss-Isuzu," said Mr. Headroom. "It's either that, or I de-de-lete myself."

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