At the VMAs, a major popstar pulled out a reference SEEMINGLY to a hijacking, right...? WRONG. At least how Pop Base put it. Let’s use this as an excuse to talk about the cassette future icon; Max Headroom and the hijacking and I guess Mario.

[Max Headroom; the real one, and his actor; Matt Frewer] Max Headroom is hard to describe well, he is a multimedia character created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton [if those last two sound familiar, hold on.] for orginally, a TV Movie called "Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future" that aired on Channel Four [the UK "alternative" commerical broadcaster] in 1985.

This was a good enough success [in 80s C4 terms] that he got his own MUSIC show called, creatively, The Max Headroom Show in 1985.

He started to gain steam in "america" , where Cinemax starting airing Max's show... This spawned the musical collective Art Of Noise to collaborate with him on the song "Paranoimia" [at this time, I believe Matt was able to actually say he was Max because many, due to his NDA, thought Max was purely AI and CG] ...

That spawned to a global audience as the New Coke Ad mascot!

He was an ICON! but if you’ve seen Max, you know he’s a pirate basically, playing a pirate of course. This is around the time that a real actual hijacking appears, except kind of not. The hijacking was news definitely, but more effected things in the industry itself and grew out after the internet. [the laws in "america" at the time, were a ticking time bomb, I feel. It’s just this was the thing to hijack was a doctor who ep and the rubber mask of Max.]

I don’t feel like I, myself need to extend too much effort into explaining it or anything, as Oddity Archive [good channel btw, get in now before he gets a Catravision and tries to repair it, I feel like his ending wisecrack will become reality then.] and many others have already done the job.

After getting canceled on Channel Four, Max moved to "america" with ABC's Max Headroom series in 1987! This was a return to the dramatic origins of the TV Movie. At this time, Annabel and Rocky were looking for more than Max and they latched onto Child's Play as directors... but didn’t get it so they worked on D.O.A instead, then as directors of 1993's Super Mario Bros.

Both Rocky and Annabel went back to smaller productions, separately, like Advertising and Music Videos [where they both started] and eventually, some movies since like Annabel's Tell It To The Bees in 2018. But did Max ever return? Obviously there are many cooks in the kitchen, I didn’t mention that Rocky and Annabel were married when they created Max but divorced in 2005, that’s because its messy even before you mention that, NOT TO MENTION the fact there’s a whole TWO other people [George and Matt] who need to approve. But, yes, some how! Max reappeared in Channel Four PIFs to promote the Digital Switchover, made to look like he was dying, yeah. Also in Pixels...

To wrap this all nicely, remember kids [i am 21, i don’t know why im saying "kids"], Max Headroom is more than just a Peoria based [where the transmitter is based... i think.] hijacker! And is pretty cool actually. I'm glad music people can be nerdy like this and make cool metatextual allegories by doing things like this! ----- While you are here! I'd love you to support Paul Silva who is a Dunghutti man in a really rough patch at the moment, he does a shit ton for his community and if you could support him that would be great, if you like what I do here, channel that energy to him as I don’t need your money or time. His pay ID: 0401210221 and his instagram is here:

This song, with an introductory interview, is from 1985. This shit legit rocks.

Suffering from dwarfism, he had to learn to play stringed instruments with them lying flat.

He died in 2011 at 60, and there is virtually zero information about him online.

Thanks to the Oddity Archive, once again, for shining a light on a forgotten American artist (and a legit GOOD one, for once).

⚪️ Taken