This site aims to be the complete word on everything related to Max Headroom: '80s icon, TV show host & star, satirist and meme.
My special thanks to Todd Franklin from the photo of the Max Headroom cup. Welcome to the Max Headroom Chronicles You've found the home of ev-ev- everything Max Headroom. Of course Max Headroom’s appearance wasn’t just limited to television, Coke made a wide range of goodies from plastic cups to posters to skateboards: Two fiber vaults had AT&T fibers cut, and the Metcalf station was the primary source of power for the SNJSCA02 central office. This spot which was produced a bit later harkened back to Max Headroom’s talk show roots, but with the extra twist of casting him as a gameshow show host: The Metcalf attack was most likely done by CWA union employees, who were in a labor dispute with AT&T at the time. In these two spots from 19 Max Headroom refutes the infamous Pepsi challenge, which on a nerd note was created by John Sculley when he was at Pepsi before he left to become CEO of Apple Computer in 1983: What I love about this first commercial from Australia (from 1987) is that’s much more racy than this ad from the States which was made at the same time: When Coke launched their new formula they made the bold move of picking Max as their spokesperson using the tagline “Catch the Wave!” Folks loved Max but not the new Coke and the old Coke was bought back with the label “Classic Coke” (which was just recently dropped). Even though millions saw the message, authorities fined MacDougall only 5,000. This show was launched in the wake of its 60 minute British produced TV pilot that was called 'Max Headroom:20 Minutes Into The Future(called The Original Story for VHS home video release)', and also, all the Coca Cola TV commercials that Max Headroom appeared in advertising the soft drink that were shown repeatedly from 1986 to 1987. Eventually, the Max Headroom television show would be cancelled in the middle of its second season - early in 1988. MacDoughall, a satellite dish salesman, interrupted the transmission of HBO with a written message criticizing the company for preventing non-subscribers from receiving the stations transmission. Here is one such ad, where Max Headroom is interviewing a can of Coca Cola.
Of course the character of Max pre-dates that series - he got his start with a talk show in England in 1985 which in many ways inspired Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. The Max Headroom hack happened just one year after John R. As a television series Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future was one of my favorite shows from the 80s.