MAX HEADROOM - "Your Body - Be Glad You Have One" (1985)

The man of the hour on this Weird Ass Wednesday was the man of the year in 1987, Max Headroom! The movie titled "Max Headroom," came out in 1985, and was later edited and became the pilot episode for the TV show of the same name.

Max Headroom is quite fascinating on a number of different levels!

Not wanting to get too carried away, it's set "20 minutes into the future!"

So here's what's so interesting! Home computing is still not a thing to any degree in 1985, so all the computer looking graphics are...............analog!

In 1975, a 24 year old man by the name of Steven Sasson working for Kodak, invented the first digital camera. It was patented in 1978, but commercial digital photography was still years away!

This is Matt (Dr. Aldous Leekie in Orphan Black) Frewer as investigative reporter Edison Carter! Matt also plays the so-called computer generated Max Headroom!

This is the problem the network is facing! Some TV ads target sloth-like humans!

The ads blow out their guts, and in a matter of seconds, they completely explode! The world is already super overpopulated, so it's really no big deal, but it is bad P.R. for the television network!

I understand that this scene of a Blipvert in action was cut when it aired as a TV show!

The Mastermind behind the whole Blipvert revolution is a 14 year old kid named Bryce Lynch! In this scene, he's telling the Board of Directors how the whole thing is going to work!

Bryce controls everything from the comfort of his bath tub, and a disgustingly gross computer! Bryce Lane was played by Paul Spurrier, who stopped acting in 2005, and has since spent his time successfully writing, directing and producing movies in Thailand!

Ever wonder how Max Headroom got his name? Edison Carter was fleeing on a motorcycle in a parking garage, and this sign saying what the maximum clearance was, was the last thing he saw!

For me the best part of the story is that since they didn't have the technology to really create Max Headroom.........

Latex and foam prosthetic makeup that took four and a half hours to put on was what they had to do! None of it was computer animated! Even the back grounds were hand drawn!

Max Headroom was born to die, and in the space of a couple of years, and a couple of music videos, he basically disappeared as fast as his star had risen, but for us true believers, he'll always be an influence on our life, just like Bob!

There have been a couple of resurgences of Max on Bravo, and SyFy TV, in the mid 90's, but basically, when home computers started becoming commonplace, the fake computer generated Max Headroom had no where else to go, except away! He was way too much work anyway!

Max's personality is said to be based on the character of wise-crackin' Ted Baxter on the 1970's smash series "Mary Tyler Moore." And here's the last word from the man himself  "I know I'm impossible, I have my ups and downs, forgive Me, of course you will, I'm so good to have around, True genius must have it's flaw you see, I'm rumbustious, I'm devil-may-care, I'm just-swagger-Me!"
 Thanx Max, Bon Ton Roulet!!