The Max Headroom Show (1987)
Max Headroom is a British-produced American satirical science fiction television series by Chrysalis Visual Programming and Lakeside Productions for Lorimar-Telepictures that aired in the United States on ABC from March 1987 to May 1988. The series was based on the Channel 4 British TV pilot produced by Chrysalis, Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. The series is often mistaken as an American-produced show due to the setting and its use of an almost entirely US cast along with being broadcast in the USA on the ABC network. Cinemax aired the UK pilot followed by a six-week run of highlights from The Max Headroom Show, a music video show where Headroom appears between music videos. ABC took an interest in the pilot and asked Chrysalis/Lakeside to produce the series for US audiences. The show went into production in late 1986 and ran for six episodes in the first season with eight being produced in season two.
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Episode 1 - Academy
Release Date: 1987-09-18Network 23 becomes the victim of signal zipping - illegal interruption of their satellite feed. When Bryce tracks the zipping to Big Time Television, Reg is arrested and sent for trial by gameshow on ""You the Jury"". Meanwhile Edison and Theora trace the real zippers to the Academy of Computer Sciences, and Bryce's old schoolfriends.
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Episode 2 - Deities
Release Date: 1987-09-25The Vu-Age Church is running a phony resurrection service, claiming to be able to store cortical scans of its members and keep them on-line for the day when cloning is perfected and their personalities can be placed in new bodies. Edison is reluctant to pursue the story because Vu- Age's leading televangelist, Vanna Smith, is an old flame.
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Episode 3 - Grossberg's Return
Release Date: 1987-10-02Rival Network 66 attempts to defeat Network 23 in a ratings-based election by introducing a ""watch while you sleep"" device into its programming to cause people to leave their TV sets on all night.
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Episode 4 - Dream Thieves
Release Date: 1987-10-09Some shady entrepreneurs are stealing people's dreams and selling them to the highest bidders. Edison goes undercover to expose their lethal business.
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Episode 5 - Whackets
Release Date: 1987-10-16A video narcotic is causing people to leave their TVs tuned to Big Time Television twenty-four hours a day.
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Episode 6 - Neurostim
Release Date: 1988-04-28Zik-Zak introduces Neurostim, a device to directly stimulate the brain and bypass the need to use television for advertising.
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Episode 7 - Lessons
Release Date: 1988-05-05Network 23 censors go a step too far when they try to shut down a secret school in the fringes, because it's using pirated Network 23 instructional programming.
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Episode 8 - Baby Grobags
Release Date: 1998-05-12Edison Carter is on the trail of some rather dark people who are stealing babies from the baby pods where they are grown while Bryce carefully considers working for Grossberg and channel 66.