Max Headroom

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Debuting in 1985, Max Headroom was the first computer generated television personality. Headroom emerged from a dystopian future dominated by advertising-based television controlled by a small conglomerate of large tech corporations dubbed The Network, an entity oft compared to SkyNet. The Network functioned with full governmental authority, passing laws against turning off television sets and using various forms of cathode ray technology to monitor viewers movements and communication. Headroom's A.I. system was generated from the memories of activist journalist Edison Carter, the only dissenting voice from within the Network and the public's sole source of unadulterated information. Headroom's name was auto-generated from Carter's last memory before perishing in a suspicious accident in a parking garage: the sign "MAX HEADROOM, 2.3H" (delineating an overhead clearance of 2.3 meters). On November 22, 1987, the Max Headroom A.I. was used to hijack the signal of two television stations in Chicago during an airing of the Dr. Who serial "Horror of Fang Rock" in an act of video piracy. Throughout the 83-second intrusion, Max Headroom displayed cryptic and erratic behavior, repeatedly degrading New Coke singing "I Know I'm Losing You" by the Temptations, whistling the Clutch Cargo theme and later referencing its final episode, "The Big X" . The intrusion culminated in Headroom's bare buttocks being struck repeatedly with a fly swatter. A reward of $100,000 was offered by the FCC for any information regarding the incident, but the culprits behind the hijacking and their methodology remain, to this day, unidentified. The incident was anchored around Network 23, a number referenced repeatedly in the intrusion, perhaps as a nod to the 23 Enigma.