Nearly two years ago i published an article, which i chose as one of my all time favorites of 20, about a bizarre incident that occurred in the chicago area in november 1987. A broadcast signal hijacking of two television stations in chicago, illinois was carried out on november 22, 1987, in an act of video piracy. The 25th anniversary of the max headroom pirating incident. This time the signal had audio and viewers were witness to a unintelligble rant from the fake max headroom character. His show, cleverly titled uh max headroom, was a cult hit, and they figured hed make a great spokesperson for their flailing brand. Episode 1, polybius, told about the urban legendary arcade game that brainwashed teens for about a month in 1981. His name was max headroom, and he wasnt computer generated at all.
To many cluedin tv viewers that night, the face of max headroom would. Abc pulled max headroom before its final two episodes ran and began a ffflurry of conspiracy theories. The max headroom impersonator wasnt through, however. Max was portrayed by matt frewer and was called the first computergenerated tv personality, although the computergenerated. To know more about the mystery behind the famous max headroom incident, keep reading this article. Max headroom, security systems season one, episode four. The cyber character had a blonde plastic quiff and wore ray bans and a suit. Max headroom was first introduced on april 4, 1985 in the uk as the worlds first virtual tv personality. There are hints of a grudge against wgn but, on the whole, it seems as though this hack happened to disconcert, and to frighten. Thirty years later, max headroom tv pirate remains at. This was first published in a print fanzine in the mid1990s. The second of these incidents occured during the evening broadcast of dr who on wttw. The series is set in a futuristic dystopia ruled by an oligarchy of television networks, and features the character and media personality max.
Youtubeuploaderid thenorcam1 youtubeviewcount 22979. After the publication of the motherboardvice magazine article which talked about the incident, rick klein curator of the museum of classic chicago television. He portrayed the character of an ai with disjointed movements and an electronic voice. Perhaps what makes the max headroom incident quite so iconic nowadays is that it remains unsolved. One of them wearing a mask of fictional ai tv host and new coke spokesthing max. I believe i know who was behind the max headroom incident. Its been nearly 27 years, but the incident remains a mystery. No, its never been cracked, and to my knowledge, no one has ever credibly claimed. After the publication of the motherboardvice magazine article which talked about the incident, rick klein curator of the museum of classic chicago television and i agreed to stay in touch each other.
He was an actor named matt frewer in some latex and prosthetics with a cheap stutter effect put on his voice. The max headroom broadcast hijack incident of 1987. New developments in the max headroom incident mystery. Edison carter is an investigative reporter for network 23 seeking to free his alter ego max headroom, a cybernetic construct of his mind that was stored after edison was involved in a motorcycle accident and the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was a max headroom sign going into a tunnel. The character would become so popular that he would land such gigs as a coke spokesman, a guest host, an actor in tv show dramas and land on the cover of newsweek and mad magazine. See more ideas about max headroom, nostalgia and matt frewer. New coke was a complete failure and with no further episodes of the max headroom show or max headroom being made the worldwide phenomenon of max headroom was over.
The crazed person uttered mostly gibberish and bashed the. And then theres the direct jab at wgn, which, by the way, stands for worlds greatest newspaper max headroom hacker. Max headroom was used as the model for a famous 1987 tv piracy incident in chicago. The character was created by george stone, annabel jankel, and rocky morton. Has the max headroom wttw pirating incident 112287 incident. Its dirt cheap and a cool thing to have for fans of a cult show without many releases that still exist at all or are very collectible or like the max headroom talking head tv show are seemingly gone forever. In 1987 someone wearing max headroom mask briefly hijacked. On a sunday night in 1987, max headroom became conspiracy theory fodder, when a person wearing a mask of the iconic 80s character interrupted two tv broadcasts in chicago. Max headroom is an american satirical science fiction television series by chrysalis visual programming and lakeside productions for lorimartelepictures that aired in the united states on abc from march 31, 1987 to may 12, 1988.
The character a journalist turned into a computergenerated head following a traumatic accident was launched in the tv film max headroom. Some of you may be familiar with this one but for those that arent, heres a quick rundown of the events of sunday november 22nd 1987. He would introduce music videos and also interview celebrities over the tv the original 20 minutes into the future drama was a one shot made in 1984 that explained the origin of the character it is the same basic plot as the blipverts episode. Ads for new coke were booed at the houston astrodome, while pepsi ran ads in which a smiling firsttime pepsi drinker said now i know why coke did it. Even fidel castro weighed in, calling the change a sign of capitalist decadence. But 28 short years ago, the term hardly existedthat is, until the max headroom incident. Max headroom tshirts on redbubble are expertly printed on ethically sourced, sweatshopfree apparel and available in a huge range of styles, colors and sizes. On september 11, 2008, the internet group anonymous posted a video on youtube, continuing the project chanology attack on the church of scientology. When nuclear war threatens a post apocalyptic 2005, bryce lynch creates a time portal, bringing members of his team and an old classmate back to victorian england. With matt frewer, amanda pays, chris young, jeffrey tambor.
No one knows who the intruder was or why heshe did it. J and k have been excluded as suspects in the max headroom incident. It takes his computerized alterego, max headroom, computer specialist bryce, his controller, theora jones, his producer, murray and network 23s top pilot, martinez, to save him. Max headroom is a power trio that invites you along on a fully improvised psychedelic spacerock trip. Pail kids in print cracked magazine mad magazine, magazine covers, max headroom. The crazed person uttered mostly gibberish, crudely. Little max headroom jenny max headroom mindtransfer.
Elvis presley suspicious minds live in las vegas duration. Not long after c3po and r2d2s scenestealing turns as the bert and ernie of the star wars universe, wisecracking artificial intelligence became a standard feature of sciencefiction film and television. Local newspapers and newscasts covered the incident with a mix of. One such bizarre incident occurred on november 22 in 1987, when someone hacked through wgn and wttv broadcast wearing a max headroom mask. On a latenovember evening in 1987, two chicago television stations were victims of a broadcast signal takeover. The 3rd max headroom incident rare internet archive.
After 4 years, im happy to say that the two individuals mentioned in the article, j and k, have been formally excluded as suspects. In the near future, an intrepid investigative tv reporter does his job with the help of his colleagues and. Mystery director drops clues to the max headroom intrusion. Max headroom wttw pirating incident 112287 subtitled. The main video pirate wore a cheap rubber halloween mask of the television character max headroom. A bunch of people have been asking me about this lately, so, i figured id do a coredump amalmosta. It seems that the perpetrators of the max headroom incident used the first. Youtubeplaylistindex 4201 youtubeuploader norcam, inc. Max headroom was initially conceived as a novelty host for a pop music tv program on channel 4 in britain. It has been called most often as the max headroom incident. After an earlier hijack attempt on wgn9 during the 9. He disappeared in late 1987, never to be seen again until twenty years later when channel four used an elderly version of the character to promote the uks digital television.
Who was airing on the chicago station wttw, an unidentified person hijacked the broadcast signal and sent out a strange video image of someone wearing a mask. The perpetrator is unidentified, and there is still no obvious motive as to why the act was committed. The stations broadcasts were interrupted by a video of an unknown person wearing a max headroom mask and costume, accompanied by distorted audio the first incident took place for 25 seconds during the sports segment of wgntvs. Broadcast signal intrusion wasnt new at the time of the max headroom incident. I believe i know who was behind the max headroom incident that occurred on chicago tv in 1987.
Slim fit, order a size up if youd like it less fitting. Do not attempt to adjust your television set or, the max headroom. Illegal broadcast showing max headroom impostor doing nonsense things and obscenities, shown over sports news and doctor who episode, which became cult phenomena as culprits were never captured. The signal had no audio, but the video was of someone in a max headroom mask gesturing at the camera. On sunday night, november 22, 1987, pirates hijacked the signal of not one, but two major chicago television stations over the period of just over hours. Episode two super deluxes unknown series, the max headroom tv hijack mystery, takes a longer look into one of them. A broadcast signal hijacking of two television stations in chicago, illinois was carried out on. The first incident took place for 25 seconds during the sports segment of. Max headroom was introduced in the mid 80s as the worlds first computer generated tv host. They swore after the second incident that the signal was boobiefree when they sent it out.