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"We're going to have riots out there. We should distribute emergency video players immediately!"
  - from Max Headroom, Episode 6: Blanks

...which is the real reason why the 2009 US DTV translation was delayed - after years of delay - by yet three more months.

I miss Max Headroom.  It's the series that will never be legitimately re-released on DVD, because just about every episode has appeared on the evening news in the intervening 25 years.  Some of the most subversive programming ever written.

Blipverts: We now have commercials designed to be viewable when DVRs fast-forward through 30-second commercials in 3 seconds.
Rakers: As if American Gladiator wasn't enough, we now have Wipeout!.
Body Banks: You can now go to China and get organs harvested from executed prisoners.  If there's no donor available, pay enough and one will be found for you.
Security Systems: Own a company that controls access to information, create the news, trade your portfolio accordingly.
War: When your embedded reporters aren't getting enough pictures of stuff blowing up, you make stuff blow up.  20 years before "embedded reporter" entered the lexicon.
The Blanks: Called Real ID 20 years early, and nailed every modern political campaign. 
Academy: 1985's real-life Captain Midnight inspired the episode, but it's still being done in Brazil
Deities: It's a cross between a certain UFO cult and "Second Life"...
Grossberg's Return: What if someone compromised the Neilsen boxes?  This was an episode about click fraud, 20+ years before "click fraud" existed, and 10+ years before the Internet became mainstream.
Dream Thieves: OK, we've got one episode that hasn't come true yet due to lack of technology.
Whacketts: Every reality TV show out there.
NeuroStim: OK, two episodes... but it's not like someone's not working on it.
Lessons: About P2P, copyright, and textbooks, ten years ahead of The Right to Read.
Baby Growbags: OK, three episodes, but this is also a work-in-progress.

11 out of 14 episodes is pretty damn good shooting.

It's all floating around out there on the 'net, and it's all worth watching, but if you watch only one episode, watch Blanks.  I'm an Art of Noise fan, and I drink my share of Coca-Cola products, but Max Headroom was about far more than selling Coca-Cola and being sampled in Paranoimia.

Wow, the show was truly ahead of it's time.

thanks for bringing back good old memories! :)

Wow, the show was truly ahead of it's time.


Every episode said it was set "20 minutes into the future"... it's not like we weren't warned.