- #Max headroom incident 30th anniversary movie#
- #Max headroom incident 30th anniversary series#
- #Max headroom incident 30th anniversary tv#
However impressed someone might be by the trick itself, nobody could call the stream of consciousness coming out of that kid deep enough to constitute a real message - if one was intended, it missed its mark, as no one knows even now what the point was, if any. Could have had a high IQ/ fascination with tech AND a mental condition of some sort. But the tech skills suggest someone behind the camera more experienced and likely quite a bit smarter than onscreen Max II. The latter's largely scatological humour, though, makes it seem like the work of someone early 20's or under, likely under. Max 1 was, at least in the beginning, making fun of society as was his signal-jacking copycat. I did know a few guys who were fascinated by the character, though - alas, none in Chicago, lol. He'd fully sold out, perhaps, in some true believers' minds, although by the time the show hit the US, Max was already making the chat circuit and seen as more amusing/annoying (depending who you asked) than truly subversive on any obvious level.
#Max headroom incident 30th anniversary series#
Max Headroom the character mixed the talking-head-shallow shtick with some pointed social commentary, and his stutters made it seem like something subversive was trying to break through, a ghost in the machine, in a sense.īut the US series got way lost in the hype, and the New Coke ads both were and were not Original Max - were in that Original Max ended up being used as a cog in a corporate wheel, were not in that OM was not mocking his corporate masters in the Coke ads.
#Max headroom incident 30th anniversary movie#
Original Max in the movie was born of a truth-seeking, power-defying mind. But it also mocks Original Max (not unlike Classic Coke) bowing down to the market. Motive - maybe just to show it could be done. (Goes back to the since-rejected theory posted on reddit years ago with the 2 brothers, kind of interesting.)īest bets on Max: 1) a broadcasting insider at one of the stations, disgruntled or ex-employee 2) the kid(s) or younger sibling(s) of an insider (possibly with the insider filming/broadcasting it all) 3) at least one college student in broadcasting/AV engineering with equipment access 4) phreakers with money or jobs allowing them access to quality equipment. If you play with the sound to reduce the noise, you get it down to what definitely sounds like a young person's voice, probably a teen, not likely more than mid-20s unless they had some (develop)mental issue. Was he mocking WGN, or his home city in general? Sounds angst-y. Cola Wars.) I think the girl was also wearing one of those festival outfits like you see in the parade in Ferris Bueller. (Except the glove, likely a ref to Michael Jackson, cf. One consistent thing about the incident was that ALL Max's references were from Chicago pop culture.
#Max headroom incident 30th anniversary tv#
TV signals are protected now in ways that render this all but impossible, but this incident is such an encapsulation of that scary and kind of thrilling idea.
Cable TV piracy was a real thing (as was the truly bizarre Wild West of public access television, where any nutbar with a soapbox could and would put themselves out there for the world to see), and - as David Cronenberg has remarked, when discussing the inspirations for Videodrome - there seemed a real possibility that an unwary viewer might stumble across something forbidden, something they weren't really meant to see. It's also a real and valuable glimpse into a now-long-gone era when television, as a medium, actually felt as though it could potentially be dangerous, that it could be (and, here, was) harnessed for culturally subversive means. (The statute of limitations for any legal repercussions elapsed back in 1992, so there's really no reason for anyone with any knowledge not to come forward save for the fact that it's just more interesting if they don't.) This is honestly the best kind of unsolved mystery, something legitimately weird and silly and a little bit creepy in which nobody got hurt and anybody who knows anything - and, surely, there must be somebody out there who does - also knows well enough to keep their trap shut.
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