Max Headroom (character)
| Max Headroom | |
|---|---|
| Max Headroom character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | The Max Headroom Show |
| Last appearance | Pixels |
| Created by | George Stone Annabel Jankel Rocky Morton |
| Portrayed by | Matt Frewer |
| Voiced by | Matt Frewer |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Artificial intelligence |
Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence (AI) character, known for his wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. He was introduced in early 1984. The character was created by George Stone,Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton in the mid-1980s, and portrayed by Matt Frewer as "The World's first computer-generated TV host," although the computer-generated appearance was achieved with prosthetic makeup and hand-drawn backgrounds, as the computer technology of the time was not sufficiently advanced to achieve the desired effect. Preparing the look for filming involved a four-and-a-half-hour session in make-up, which Frewer described as "grueling" and "not fun," likening it to "being on the inside of a giant tennis ball."
The classic look for the character was a shiny dark suit, which was actually a fibreglass mould, often paired with Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses. Only his head and shoulders were depicted, usually against a "computer-generated" backdrop of a slowly rotating wire-frame cube interior, which was also initially generated by analogue means — in this case traditional cel animation, though later actual computer graphics were employed for the backdrop. Another distinguishing trademark of Max was his chaotic speech patterns — his voice would pitch up or down seemingly at random, or occasionally get stuck in a loop. These modulations, achieved with a harmonizer, also appeared when the character was performed live.
The character's personality was partly intended as a satire of insincere and egotistical television personalities — what Rocky Morton described as the "very sterile, arrogant, Western personification of the middle-class, male TV host" — but also was "media-wise and gleefully disrespectful" which appealed to young viewers.
Matt Frewer was chosen for his ability to improvise, and — according to producer Peter Wagg — his "ideally exportable" mid-Atlantic accent. The actor decided to model Max's personality after what he saw as the smarmy, self-important goofiness of The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Baxter. In a 1986 interview, Frewer said: "I particularly wanted to get that phony of Baxter ... Max always assumes a decade long friendship on the first meeting. At first sight he'll ask about that blackhead on your nose."
...
Wikipedia