Max: Shows & Episodes
From The Max Headroom Chronicles
Revision as of 15:39, 14 April 2015 by Max Headroom (Talk | contribs)
Max Headroom has appeared in several different television productions, all of which are loosely linked and part of the same general continuity.
This list does not include any of Max's many television appearances in advertising or as an interview or cameo guest.
Show & Episode Listing
- A Note on Show Numbering: This site uses a consistent numbering system for all of the commercially-produced shows starring Max Headroom. This system is intended to simplify references and citations and is an attempt to replace 30 years of inconsistent and erroneous information.
- Show numbers in bold indicate completed listings. Updates are always possible, but "completed" entries contain all available information.
- A Note on Show Air Dates: All dates given in this page are premiere dates in either the US (on Cinemax) or UK (Channel Four). Many shows were re-shown across both channels, and in the US at a much later date, on the Bravo and TechTV cable channels.
- Thanks to some new and diligent research, all show and date listings below can be considered authoritative. Also, as all shows (except for the first 12 of season 1) are in the MaxRchives, all show descriptions, guest lists and video content can be considered definitive.
| Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 57-minute origin telefilm, shown on the UK's Channel Four on 4 April 1985 (4/4, get it?) | ||||
| Episode | Title | UK Air Date | US Air Date | Notes |
| CH4.0.1 | "Max Headroom" | 4 April 1985 | 14 Apr 1985 | |
| The origin telefilm with 26 minutes of added videos and scenes, shown in segments on Cinemax in 1986. | ||||
| Episode | Title | UK Air Date | US Air Date | Notes |
| CMX.0.1 | "Max Headroom" | NA? | 16 Oct 1986 | Shown as four episodes (16, 23 & 30 Oct; 6 Nov) |
| Max Headroom: The Max Headroom Show | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The very first season of the UK show on Channel Four had no set and consisted of music videos presented (and frequently interrupted) by Max. This show is the original purpose for which Max was created: to serve as a bizarre, attention-getting host and "talking head" VJ for a video show on the then-new Channel Four. The first episode ran two days after the premiere of the origin telefilm.
There is very little information about this 13-week season except the air dates, especially as the first 12 shows are considered "lost," with no recordings (even bootleg) readily available. Many prior listings and show sites are blank about any shows before the second season (which is thus usually referred to as the first.) | ||||
| Episode | Guests | UK Air Date | US Air Date | Notes |
| CH4.1.1 | None | 6 Apr 1985 | NA | Season 1 shows 1-12 are not available for review. |
| CH4.1.2 | None | 13 Apr 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.3 | None | 20 Apr 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.4 | None | 27 Apr 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.5 | None | 4 May 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.6 | None | 11 May 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.7 | None | 18 May 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.8 | None | 25 May 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.9 | None | 1 Jun 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.10 | None | 8 Jun 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.11 | None | 15 Jun 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.12 | None | 22 Jun 1985 | NA | |
| CH4.1.13 | Sting | 29 Jun 1985 | NA | Includes first version of Sting interview. |
| The second season of the UK show on Channel Four, identifiable by its "junk room" set, evolved to have guests along with the videos. Some of these shows may have re-used material from the first season, especially the first, which essentially reprised the show of just two weeks previous. The shows were edited slightly in some places for their later UK run. | ||||
| Episode | Guests | UK Air Date | US Air Date | Notes |
| CH4.2.1 | Sting | 15 Jul 1986 | 13 Nov 1985 | Revised version of Sting interview. |
| CH4.2.2 | (No guests) | 29 Jul 1986 | 20 Nov 1985 | Shows 2.2 and 2.3 were shown in reverse order in the UK. |
| CH4.2.3 | Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes | 22 Jul 1986 | 27 Nov 1985 | LeBon & Rhodes of Duran Duran were appearing to promote music from their follow-up band, Arcadia. |
| CH4.2.4 | Roger Daltrey | 5 Aug 1986 | 4 Dec 1985 | |
| CH4.2.5 | (No guests) | 12 Aug 1986 | 11 Dec 1985 | |
| CH4.2.6 | Boy George | 19 Aug 1986 | 18 Dec 1985 | |
| The third season of the show, now a formal joint production of Channel Four and Cinemax, is identifiable by its much larger "talk show" set and its slightly extended title. The show's repertoire was also extended by having Max regularly sing songs. As with the second season, the shows premiered in the US and ran later in the UK.
(Note: Identification of this or any other season as "The Max Talking Headroom Show" appears to be in error.) | ||||
| Episode | Guests | UK Air Date | US Air Date | Notes |
| CH4.3.1 | Michael Caine | 6 Jan 1987 | 1 Aug 1986 | |
| CH4.3.2 | Vidal Sassoon | 13 Jan 1987 | 15 Aug 1986 | |
| CH4.3.3 | Oliver Reed | 20 Jan 1987 | 29 Aug 1986 | |
| CH4.3.4 | Tracey Ullman | 27 Jan 1987 | 12 Sep 1986 | |
| CH4.3.5 | Rutger Hauer | 3 Feb 1987 | 26 Sep 1986 | |
| CH4.3.6 | David Byrne | 10 Feb 1987 | 10 Oct 1986 | |
| CH4.3.7 | Howie Mandel | 17 Feb 1987 | 24 Oct 1986 | |
| CH4.3.8 | Jack Lemmon | 24 Feb 1987 | 7 Nov 1986 | |
| CH4.3.9 | Jackson Browne | 3 Mar 1987 | 21 Nov 1986 | |
| CH4.3.10 | Jackie Collins | 10 Mar 1987 | 5 Dec 1986 | |
| Max Headroom's Giant Christmas Turkey | ||||
| The full-length Christmas special. It premiered in the US as "The Max Headroom Christmas Special" but retained the UK title within the show. | ||||
| Episode | Guests | UK Air Date | US Air Date | Notes |
| CH4.3.11 | Dave Edmunds, Bob Geldof, Robin Williams, Tina Turner | 26 Dec 1986 | 18 Dec 1986 | |
| The Original Max Talking Headroom Show | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The talk/video/interview show as ported to Cinemax in the US. There was one season of these original shows for Cinemax that followed the three seasons of shared material from Channel Four. The later shows overlapped in the same season as the ABC series. This series never aired in the UK. | ||||
| Episode | Guests | US Air Date | UK Air Date | Notes |
| CMX.1.1 | Jerry Hall, Penn & Teller | 23 Jul 1987 | NA | |
| CMX.1.2 | Mary Tyler Moore, Robin Leach | 6 Aug 1987 | NA | |
| CMX.1.3 | Ron Reagan Jr, Paul Shaffer | 20 Aug 1987 | NA | |
| CMX.1.4 | Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Bobby McFerrin | 3 Sep 1987 | NA | |
| CMX.1.5 | Don King, Emo Philips, Madeline Kahn | 17 Sep 1987 | NA | |
| CMX.1.6 | William Shatner, Grace Jones, Gilbert Gottfried | 1 Oct 1987 | NA | |
| Max Headroom | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The most famous and widely known appearance of Max, in an ABC series that ran for 14 episodes, most of which were eventually shown at the time. | ||||
| Episode | Title | US Air Date | UK Air Date | Notes |
| ABC.1.1 | "Blipverts" | 31 Mar 1987 | An almost shot-for-shot remake of the original telefilm, but with some surprising differences to accommodate the story line to a new setting. | |
| ABC.1.2 | "Rakers" | 7 Apr 1987 | Production number 1.3. (Easily the weakest of the ABC episodes.) | |
| ABC.1.3 | "Body Banks" | 14 Apr 1987 | Production number 1.2 | |
| ABC.1.4 | "Security Systems" | 21 Apr 1987 | Production number 1.6 | |
| ABC.1.5 | "War" | 28 Apr 1987 | Production number 1.4 | |
| ABC.1.6 | "Blanks" | 5 May 1987 | Production number 1.5 | |
| ABC.2.1 | "Academy" | 18 Sep 1987 | Production number 2.3 | |
| ABC.2.2 | "Deities" | 25 Sep 1987 | ||
| ABC.2.3 | "Grossberg's Return" | 2 Oct 1987 | Production number 2.1 | |
| ABC.2.4 | "Dream Thieves" | 9 Oct 1987 | ||
| ABC.2.5 | "Whacketts" | 16 Oct 1987 | The last episode shown in the original run. | |
| ABC.2.6 | "Neurostim" | 28 Apr 1988 | Shown as late-season filler. | |
| ABC.2.7 | "Lessons" | 5 May 1988 | aka "Lost Tapes"; Shown as late-season filler. | |
| ABC.2.8 | "Baby Grobags" | 10 Sep 1995 | Never shown on ABC. Premiered on TechTV/G4. Date not verified. | |
