It ’s kind of hard to explain Max Headroom if you did n’t experience him in the ‘ fourscore . He started as the whizz of a British made - for - TV movie calledMax Headroom : 20 Minutes Into the Future , the narrative of a hard - hit journalist whose brain is plant into a computer after he ache a serious head hurt .
The cyberpunk movie proved so democratic that in 1987 , a show by the same name was introduced in the United States . Audiences had never seen anything like the glitching , stuttering faux AI — and though the series itself only lasted two seasons , the character of Max Headroom advance near - instant status as a pop culture symbol of the ‘ 80s . His fame was cemented when he was chosen to symbolise another distinctly ‘ 80 phenomenon : New Coke . Here ’s one of his commercials :
Max was made to look computer generated , but he was actually just actorMattFrewerin a lot of froth make-up and a fiberglass case . you’re able to imagine the surprisal of Chicagoans , then , when the fictitious character took over their television system on November 22 , 1987 , apparently of his own accord .
Two stations in Chicago — WGN and WTTW — were interrupt for nearly 90 second in the middle of Sunday night programming . “ Max , ” or at least someone wearing a cheap Halloween mask and doing a adequate impression of him , spent almost a minute and a half talking gibberish and humming , then wrap up his section by present his bare butt to a woman hold a swatter .
WGN sports announcer Dan Roan , who was interrupted mid - broadcast , probably summed up the situation best : “ If you ’re wondering what ’s happened,”he saidwhen cameras were back on him , “ So am I. ”
The FCC need the whole thing very seriously , but could n’t come up with a motif , a method , or even culprits . The signals were impossible to trace , and to this day , the identities of the hackers and how they gain accessremainsa enigma .
Here ’s the creepy-crawly broadcast in its totality :
