Cancelled Too Soon: Max Headroom (1987)

Our ongoing look back at sci fi / fantasy TV shows that were cancelled way too soon or pilots that never made it to series.

Back in the mid-80’s computer-generated (sort of) character Max Headroom became an instant cultural phenomenon and a U.S. produced series sprang from the British TV movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes in the Future which provided his origin story.  The show takes place in a dystopian, near-future setting where mega-corporations control the world and keep the public distracted with television shows live or die by up to the minute ratings results (wait, that’s our present!).  While trying to uncover corporate corruption, investigative reporter Edison Carter (played by Matt Frewer) who works for Network 23 is involved in an accident that leads to the creation of his AI alter ego Max Headroom.  Together, the two then team up and fight to expose the sinister undertakings of their mega-corporation dominated world.

Quirky, subversive, over-the-top, and the first cyberpunk TV show, Max Headroom offered a satire on television (and technology in general) run amok but may have been too smart and prescient for its own good.  It proved quite popular when it bowed in 1987 for a short, six episode run, though it definitely helped to have hit series Moonlighting as its lead-in.  But for its second season, ABC moved it to Fridays at 9 PM EST where it had to contend with stiff competition against popular shows Dallas and Miami Vice. The ratings plummeted and Network 23 . . . err . . . ABC responded immediately to the overnight ratings results (driven by their poor scheduling decisions) and cancelled the series early in the season (after only eight episodes had been produced).  And thus, Max Headroom ultimately fall victim to the very thing it satirized.  The series has been released on DVD and it is definitely worth a look.  But it will almost cetainly leave you wanting more.

Aired: ABC, 1987-88, 2 Seasons Totaling 14 Episodes

Starring: Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays, Chris Young, W. Morgan Sheppard

Created By: Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton, George Stone

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4 thoughts on “Cancelled Too Soon: Max Headroom (1987)

  1. There were eight second season episodes, but ABC only aired five of them during the original run before cancelling the series. Two more were shown when the network burned off the rerun rights in the spring, and one (Baby Grobags) was never aired by them. All fourteen episodes were shown during the original run in Australia, and later by cable networks including Bravo, Sci-Fi, and TechTV.

    Currently you can get all fourteen episodes on a DVD box set from Shout! Factory. The original pressing included a fifth disc with supplementary features and had a lenticular sleeve. Currently available copies omit the fifth disc and the sleeve; they only have the four discs with the shows.

  2. There are 14 Max Headroom episodes, not 8. Each episode is 1 hour long, 14 amazing hours of the best cyberpunk show ever made. Most today have never heard or watched the 1987 TV show which is the height of what the Max Headroom phenomenon was and is, he wasn’t invited on Letterman because he was a Coca-Cola spokesman, or because a TV hacker was inspired by the TV hacking on the 1987 TV show and wore a mask in homage of Max Headroom, it was always because of the amazing 1987 show, the movie was okay, the spin-offs were fun but nothing compares to the 14 episodes of the show itself.

    1. There were eight second-season episodes which followed the six first-season eps as mentioned in the piece. But yes, that was fourteen amazing hours of television.

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