Episode CH4.0.1: The Origin Telefilm
| Episode CH4.0.1 | |
|---|---|
| Title | Max Headroom
Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future Max Headroom: The Original Story |
| UK Air Date | 4 Apr 1985 |
| US Air Date | 14 Apr 1985 |
| Length | 57 minutes |
| Creative | Screenplay by Steve Roberts
From an original idea by George Stone, Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel Directed by Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel Edited by Michael Bradsell |
| Crew | Telefilm Crew |
| Watch for... | The computer map locating the city as London, England.
"Securikams" - changed to Securicams in the US remake. Apartment 42 and Channel 42. Carter's sexual harassment line. Bryce using his computer while in the bathtub - a safety no-no-no that was corrected in the US remake. Bryce correctly pronouncing "data." Breugal quoting Shakespeare. Theora parking in her bedroom. No mobile phones...? A final Max Headroom sign. An early example of a post-credits scene. |
| Actor | Role |
| Matt Frewer | Edison Carter & Max Headroom |
| Nickolas Grace | Grossman* |
| Amanda Pays | Theora Jones |
| "Morgan Shephard" (William Morgan Sheppard) |
Blank Reg |
| Hilary Tindall | Dominique |
| Paul Spurrier | Bryce Lynch |
| Hilton McRae | Breugal |
| George Rossi | Mahler |
| Roger Sloman | Murray |
| Anthony Dutton | Gorrister |
| Constantine Gregory | Ben Cheviot |
| Lloyd McGuire | Edwards |
| Elizabeth Richardson | Ms. Formby |
| Gary Hope | Ashwell |
| Joane Hall | Body Bank Receptionist (Florence) |
| Howard Samuels | Patrick (ENG reporter) |
| Roger Tebb | Helipad Reporter |
| Val McLane | Eyewitness |
| Michael Cule | Exploding Viewer |
| ? | Other Board Member (Female) |
| ? | Other Board Member (Male) |
| * As credited; it's "Grosman" in all other written references.
Unknown roles represent credited cast members with no certain matching role. | |
The MaxRchives include a complete recording of this telefilm.
The history of this production alone could fill many pages.
Synopsis
(Note: This synopsis is written to be completely "standalone" and is without reference to the very similar US pilot synopsis. For a comparison of the two shows, see the Essays page.)
In a bleak, dystopian future where a downtrodden underclass is ruled by warring television networks and their advertisers, one tough investigative reporter, Edison Carter, strives to make a difference. He is one of the best-known on-air personalities, and "satellites globally" for what has long been the top-rated among thousands of television channels, Network 23.
Like all television reporters, he works solo with a minicam linked back to the network via his base "controller." While in the field on a hot lead, the network executives inexplicably can the story. His controller, Gorrister, commits the error of leaving him cut off and vulnerable in the field, and Carter punches him out on his battered return. Carter then demands a new controller, "the best," and "one he can trust," and gets "the best," the beautiful and skilled Theora Jones, hired away from World 1.
When he tries to continue investigating the story, Carter is blocked at a high level. With Theora's skilled system cracking skills, he eventually learns that the Network 23 executives know something about the mysterious event, and confronts board member Ben Cheviot.
Then, with Theora's help, he breaks into the lab of Network 23's teenaged technical genius Bryce Lynch and discovers a secret "Rebus tape" that shows how a new form of compressed commercial, a "blipvert," designed by Lynch and exclusive to Network 23, causes extremely slothful viewers to explode.
Grosman and most of the Network 23 board, driven by ratings and advertising revenue issues tied to their biggest advertiser, the powerful global corporation Zik-Zak, want the profitable and compelling blipverts to continue, despite the risk.
While Carter is viewing the secret tape, Bryce Lynch sends two thugs, Breugal and Mahler, to capture him and he is sent running for his life. In an epic computer command battle between Bryce and Theora (one of the centerpiece scenes of the movie), Lynch manages to force up an exit barrier that knocks Carter from his speeding motorcycle. The last thing he sees before unconsciousness is the clearance warning on the exit gate: Max Headroom 2.3m. Theora comes running to the rescue, but Carter, his camera and the motorcycle are gone, swept up by the thugs.
When it becomes critical to keep Carter on ice, Grosman allows Bryce to perform a cerebral scan of the unconscious Carter, transferring his memory into an AI program that theoretically could impersonate Carter on television. When the AI clone is started up, all it can remember at first is "Max... Max Headroom." Grosman is disappointed and angry; the simulation is far too crude to pass for Carter.
To keep the secret of the Rebus tape and the blipvert problem, Grosman decides to have Carter disposed of and the useless "Max," with its copy of Carter's memories, hidden away. Lynch turns both of them over to the thugs, who deliver Carter to a "body bank," a wrecking yard for human parts, instead of killing him. Max, in a portable video unit, is delivered to Big Time Television, a pirate television network run from a huge battered pink bus.
Carter regains consciousness and escapes from the body bank, sending the thugs after him again. With Theora's help, he eludes them and hides in her apartment.
Meanwhile, the anchor, VJ and technical whiz - and burned-out ex-heavy metal fan - Blank Reg of Big Time Television has started Max up and discovered, to his and the (improbably elegant) network owner Dominique's delight, that Max is self-aware and interactive. Big Time's ratings soar within hours of putting Max on their broadcast.
Carter corners Bryce Lynch in his studio and leaves him tied up as the ratings surge of Big Time TV - and Grosman's recognition of Max thereon - causes chaos to erupt. Grosman pays the thugs to take him, Lynch and two network security goons to find Big Time TV, Max, and Carter. After Breugal and Mahler turn the goons into body parts, Carter appears and corners Grosman on live global TV to questions him about the blipvert problem. The final decision to go live with the story comes from Network 23 board member Ben Cheviot.
Grosman and Lynch are quite evidently out - perhaps even delivered to the body bank by Breugal and Mahler - Cheviot takes over Network 23, and Blank Reg and Dominique drive off into the hazy sunset with their new ratings booster, Max Headroom, on board. They knock one of its antennas off the bus as they pass under an underpass labeled... Max Headroom 4m.
Notes & Commentary
This telefilm was created to explain the origin and backstory of Max, who was conceived as a talking-head host and VJ for a British Channel 4 music program - sorry, programme. The ending of the film, with Max in the hands of Blank Reg and Big Time Television, was the final setup for Max's position as the music programme's host. The ending of the US remake is different, to better set up the series.
Extended Telefilm: There is also an 83-minute extended version of this film, created by Cinemax to introduce the new US talk and music show. It combines the original telefilm with about 25 minutes of extended Max riffs and introductions to videos, and then several complete videos as well. All of this material is apparently taken from the UK talk and music show and intended to more fully introduce Max and his show. A separate entry includes a complete listing of the new material and some additional quotes and screen captures.
When Lorimar picked up the rights to continue the story as a series, they completely recast the show, keeping only Matt Frewer and Amanda Pays, with William Morgan Sheppard brought on in later episodes. Of the creative team, only producer Peter Wagg and writer Steve Roberts were brought over to the new show (a few of the special effects people were brought in as well).
The title of this production varies with the setting. The only title within the film is the opening "Max Headroom," but most promotional materials and the official "picture book of the film" extend it to "Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future."
It takes careful viewing to determine the city in which the story is set. A prominent computer generated map zooms in on the US, with a blinking dot near New Orleans. Close examination shows that this represents a satellite, and the footprint of the satellite is shown covering the southeastern US. The point of this is unclear, as the subsequent zoom onto Carter's position clearly shows it to be in or near London (a single-frame freeze is needed to resolve the fast moving image). Is the earlier image intended to blur the location in viewer's minds?
The exploding viewer is captured on a "Rebus tape," which becomes a pivotal object in the story. It appears that "Rebus" was intended to represent the possibly secret "two way" nature of the television system, whereby the networks can spy on viewers. Although viewers must be aware that the link is two-way sometimes - as for the "Dr. Duncan Show" - they may not be aware that it can be used all the time. References in the series are to the "two way sampler."
Among the news summaries that flash past on Theora's console are:
- Whites should be permitted the same access to South African public areas as the majority population.
- Top secret prototype missile stolen from AKG by terrorists.
- Nuclear waste disposal space shuttle DMP.5 in difficulty over failed computer link; controller was watching the Polly Show at the time.
- Bolivian freedom fighters killed a 20-person medic team trying to reach starving peasants.
- Colonial USSR government in New Delhi ordered military suppression of food riots.
- Tokyo TV assembly workers threaten strike.
The Polly Show, also mentioned later as a possible Max-ratings killer, appears to be the most popular program on television.
Bryce Lynch's birthdate is given as October 7, 1988 (European style: 7/10/88). If his age is 18 or thereabouts, this places the story in 2006.
Theora's decoding of Bryce's door password is strictly Sherlock Holmes-style ratocination, unlike the technically assisted technique in the US remake.
Bryce's exit code is BZ2VH. His entry code is IJ2FI.
Theora says, "I know all about little boys." Carter turns it into an innuendo, but Theora clearly means something else. Is she referring to her younger brother, a subject not raised until the second US episode?
Breugal and Mahler are a riff on the 19th century Scottish body snatching team of Burke and Hare, who started off stealing newly buried bodies for physicians to use in anatomy lessons, and graduated to delivering still-warm corpses. (Mahler thinks this "has great potential.") Burke was hanged after Hare turned King's evidence. Hare died some 25 years later, a pauper.
Carter's personal ident code is 74928BDG6629.
The nurse receptionist at Nightingale's Body Bank is not identified by name. In the US remake, the joke is completed by calling the character (played by a nearly identical actress) "Florence." (Florence Nightingale? Famous nurse? Get it?)
The relationship between Blank Reg and Dominique (Blank Dominique?) is fuzzy (and remains so in the US series), but it can be discerned that it's Dom's business, and Reg is her unruly but necessary (for technical services) and popular (with Big Time's small audience) employee. Note, for example, Dominique's sour reaction when Reg introduces her to Max as "his partner," and her mention that he might get paid this month.
While chasing Carter the second time, Breugal quotes Shakespeare - Hamlet, to be precise: "Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes [out] contagion to this world..." Since they are hunting Carter to kill him this time, the unspoken completion of the line that's clearly on his mind is noteworthy: "...now could I drink hot blood, and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on."
The head of the network is listed in the end credits as "Grossman." In all other written references including the picture book novelization of the telefilm (written by teleplay author Steve Roberts), it's "Grosman." I have elected to use this latter spelling as the canonical one throughout the site contents.
 Performance of "Seven Little Girls" by Paul Evans. |
While transporting Grosman and Bryce Lynch to "find Big Time TV," Mahler sings a creepy snippet of a song. The complete lyrics can be found here, and a performance by the original artist can be found at the YouTube link at right.
Among the networks shown on the ratings graphic of stations at the top:
- TKO TV
- Channel 28
- Primetime
- Pornovision
- Channel 42
- Global
- BBC 126
- and, of course, Network 23
And among the networks shown on the ratings graphic of stations with ratings "in the thousands":
- Planetwide
- Channel 1111
- Flicks
- Bigtime TV
- Fantasm
- Horrorviz
- RUBB18H TV
- BBC DIY TV
William Morgan Sheppard, often credited as W. Morgan Sheppard or Morgan Sheppard, is miscredited as "Morgan Shepherd" in the final credits.
The two BBC channel references appear to be British viewer in-jokes. Channel 42, one of two "42" references in the show, is a nod to the contemporary "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Edison Carter never encounters his AI alter-ego Max Headroom.
Quotes & Caps
- Theora Jones: "Hi. Oh, how's the head?"
- Edison Carter: "It's fine. How's yours?"
- Max: "Hih-hih-hih Max Headroom."
- Bryce Lynch: "This is the future: people translated as data."
- Coffee Machine: "Stinks. Odorous. Pungent. Offensive. Offense. The guilty party will be reported to network president Mr. Grosman. This is an automatic complaint system."
- Grosman: "I do so hate wasting an employee."
- Breugal: "Hey hey hey, silly boy... who's a silly boy, eh? Hands are rare and expensive items - worth more than cameras. Luddite."
- Blank Reg: "Right. Great. Wonderful. You're tuned into the wired society. This is Big Time Television, day after day, making tomorrow seem like yesterday. You know we said, ah, there's no future? Well, this is it. This is Blank Reg, talkin' to the blank generation, hot and live from Big Time Television. And next up... more of the same. Have a nice day."
- Dominique: "What is... a 'crosshatch generator'?"
- Blank Reg: "Dunno."
- Dominique: "We've been billed for one."
- Blank Reg: "Oh, yeah. Ah, they'll stick anything down. I think it was some bent, uh, cabling gear that Pancho slipped me."
- Dominique: (coughs)
- Blank Reg: "You smoke too much, Dom."
- Dominique: "Reg, if you didn't nail your jeans to the floor every night, they'd escape... so don't talk to me about personal habits."
- Dominique: "We have just got to find something better than those bloody old videotapes."
- Blank Reg: "Dom!"
- Dominique: "Just because they're free doesn't mean to say they're good, you know."
- Blank Reg: "I like 'em!"
- Dominique: "Max is making this station."
- Blank Reg: "And what if the real owner wants him back?"
- Dominique: "Over my dead body!"
- Blank Reg: "It might be. I'm gonna put the wheels of the bus back on, just in case."
- Phone Ad Spokeswoman: "Digital watch tunes - you can enjoy them all on this cassette. Remember (tune) and (tune) and the classic (tune)? Plus many, many more on 'Digital Watch Tunes, Volume 2.' Available now from Zik-Zak."
- Phone Ad Spokesman: "Hello, there. Call this number and find out what an incredibly nice guy God is. He won't keep you waiting on the line, he won't hang up on you... -click-"
- Max Headroom: "Enter data."
- Max Headroom: "B-B-B-Big T-T-Time. Hi. Both of you. Welcome t-t-to Big Time. You want to check these ratings? I seem to have an audience of two."
- Max Headroom: "Hello, and welcome to Big Time Television. Live and direct, it's Big Time Television - the station where two's company and three's an audience."
- Grosman: "Chaos is not helpful!"
- Grosman: "We buried that kind of crap decades ago. I am not prepared to risk my network over it."
- Grosman: "Ben, I'm talking ratings!"
- Cheviot: "And I'm talking people!"
- Grosman: "Same thing!"
- Theora: "I nearly lost you."
- Carter: "Well, you're going to get a chance to lose me again tonight, 'cause I'm going to go back to Bryce's studio."
- Max: "Big Time Television: ratings, 1000... ratings, 1000."
- Dominique: "Reg, this is incredible... over a thousand viewers. You might get paid this month."
- Dominique: "What the hell is that?"
- Blank Reg: "His ratings?"
- Dominique: "You're kidding!"
- Blank Reg: "Well, why not? Max Headroom, 2.3 million, well, that's what you want, idn'it?"
- Dominique: "...Max Headroom... he could have his own show!"
- Max: "This is Max Headroom on Big Time Television, and what I want to know is: don't Eskimos ever get bored with their weather forecast?"
- Max: "If you're all watching me, who's watching Network 23 - a network with a great future behind it? As they say when you're buying suppositories, with friends like those, who needs enemas?"
- Breugal: "Probably just a grilled microchip."
- Bryce: "Soon I'll be able to reconstruct anybody on the screen - so accurately that even your own Mum would know it was you."
- Breugal: "You might care to call it the Phoenix, Mr. Bryce. My word, you could have all your politicians in little boxes. It's very handy."
- Cheviot: "It's only two percent."
- Grosman: "Two percent is 26 million consumers, Ben! Once they start switching channels, it's war! You know that!"
- Cheviot: "It happens all the time. We're used to it."
- Max: "Now, I understand why people prefer watching television to the radio. They've worked out how boring it is watching the radio."
- Murray: "What do I do, Ben?"
- Cheviot: "Do what you have to, Murray."
- Network Announcer: "We interrupt this programme for a special news flash. For the details, over now live and direct to Edison Carter."
- Carter: (on screen) "Tell me, sir, when did you first learn that blipverts caused people to spontaneously explode?"
- Blank Reg: "What a load of -click- bollocks!"
- Max: "I had to spend a little time recently with a parrot. (It's true.) I won't tell you why, but what amazes me is why anybody would want to spend any time at all sitting at home teaching a bird to talk - I mean, what's wrong with the rest of the family, huh? And of course they teach it something really interesting like, 'Who's a pretty boy'"
- Max: "Parrots are only one rung above politicians, though. You'll always know when they're lying: their lips move."
