Max Headroom: The Joke That Became a Nightmare
Before Max Headroom became one of the creepiest unsolved mysteries in television history, he was supposed to be a joke.
In this video, we look back at the strange rise of Max Headroom — the fake “computer-generated” TV host who became an 80s pop culture phenomenon, a New Coke spokesman, and the star of one of the most ahead-of-its-time sci-fi shows ever aired on network television. But the story doesn’t end with commercials, music videos, or a cancelled ABC series.
On November 22, 1987, someone wearing a Max Headroom mask hijacked two Chicago television broadcasts, interrupting WGN and later WTTW during an episode of Doctor Who. The result was one of the strangest, creepiest, and still-unsolved incidents in broadcast history.
Was it a prank? A grudge against WGN? A technical stunt by someone who knew exactly what they were doing? Decades later, nobody knows for sure.
From British cyberpunk satire to Coca-Cola commercials to the infamous Max Headroom signal intrusion, this is the story of how a fake digital celebrity became a real-life nightmare.
Let me know in the comments: Do you remember Max Headroom from the TV show, the Coke commercials, or did you discover him through the hijacking footage?
@BuckarooBanzai84
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Funny story; my daycare-sitter used to turn on the TV during the daytime reruns of this show; I was WAY to young to really understand it, but I remember thinking Max was the absolute HEIGHT of Cool. 😂 (probably because of the Coke commercials too)
@BuckarooBanzai84
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
‘Max Headroom’ was seriously ahead of its time. And Matt Frewer is definitely an underrated actor. It really deserves better than to be remembered just for that pirate broadcast. 😕
@hydrotilling7043
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
You know you’re never gonna get popular making your videos because you never show any volume of the people that you’re advertising about especially this one you’re a loser and you always will be one
@Powherkrangunch
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Man, the Max Headroom story is wild! As someone who really likes the name, Max, I salute this character! I first saw him on a hacking meme video online when I was a teenager and it made me laugh so hard! He’s definitely one of the most interesting parody characters ever created. The legacy story is quite interesting! I love it when you guys cover strange tv events from the 80s like this one!
@LuxuryPossum
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
10:36 Hey Now!
@grantorino2325
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Almost everyone caught that the character's name resulted from Edison Carter's dying memory of a sign that read Max Headroom 2.3 m . 🅿️
What almost nobody caught, though, was that Network 23 was getting lavishly funded by a Chinese billionaire named "Ped Xing," which can be a proper Chinese name, but on American streets can also be an acronym for Pedestrian Crossing . 🚸
@zordmaker
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Baby Grobags exists. I have it. Oh and about the pirate broadcast? Lets just say it Gen X 🙂
@Left-handed-liberal
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I specifically remember seeing the Coke commercials on Mtv back then, and then one of the VJ's was talking about the British show and gave a brief synopsis about someone living in a computer, and I was kinda obsessed with this backstory, and wanting to see this, which was pretty impossible in 1985, but I eventually saw them on Cinemax. Then Max was in Honey I shrunk the kids. I had WGN for years with cable, but didn't see this.
@HeathCastor
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I legit have a copy of the horror of fang rock broadcast! 🤣🤣🤣
@rayceeya8659
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Didn't homeboy who did Max Headroom turn up on Star Trek TNG? I know that face.
@The_Dreaming_Dragon
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Max Headroom was a character much like Pee Wee Herman, not a corporate mascot but a celebrity endorsing a product, and the TV series was built around him.
@fightingidiocy7724
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I took TV/Radio Broadcasting…and we learned all about his, how to do it and how the FCC would arrest you instantly. I worked at tv station, and then a radio station. It was 100% someone at WGN…because the cost of the gear to break a tv signal is ASTRONOMICAL You need a $100,000k studio camera, a $100,000 remote broadcast truck or microwave transmitter, a thousand dollar microphone, a place to hide, PHYSCILALY CLOSE to the tower your are going to hack.
Also: WTTW and WGN's tv broadcast tower sare BOTH in the Sears tower, which is why it was hacked too.
It had to be someone at WGN. It had to be an employee or a broadcast engineer. They are the only ones who the knowledge of how.
Radio, on the other hand, is cheaper and easier to hack.
@Ataru320
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I forgot about the WGN version; I Know about the other version that was during an airing of Doctor Who version. And remember the TV show (oh and like the Art of Noise song; "Paranormia" is awesome)
@mikez.6309
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I only ever associated Max w/ Coke or Pepsi back then. Can't believe i was born in 1980 and knew nothing about the series. Only ever watched reruns on SciFi or BBC network(s) in the early 2000s
Matt Frewer had his own TV sitcom if anyone can remember it.
@bkjbearcat78
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I watched the TV show when I was a kid. Very ahead of its time. Satire of the modern news, entertainment and tech business that seems to be just as biting today as it was then.
@Chuc_9600
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Max Headroom deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jackson,Prince,Madrona,Hulk Hogan,Pee Wee Herman and Spuds Mckenzie as bona-fide 80s icons.
@marioaustin9312
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Catch the wave
@mugwugthemagnificful
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
He was right up there with Spuds MacKenzie, the original party animal
@nicksullivan4994
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Wait, Max Headroom was on Sesame Street? Did Nickelodeon air That episode on Noggin?🧡❤️📺🎶👍🏻
@eddiejoewalt7746
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
still thinking a episode on Salute your Shorts is A good one!
@WrestleKrysti
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Another guy decided to dust off Max the other day. This story bout as beaten into the youtube tv fanbase much as it can be. Nothing has changed. Max feels like TV version of gamer youtubers Earthbound reviews.
@sird2333
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Amanda Pays. ACTRESS. She’s a female.
@magesentron
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I worked in radio for over a decade and this was the stuff of legends among our older radio personalities and engineers. They all had theories on who it was, but I doubt we'll ever get a solid answer. It sure wouldn't have been easy, according to at least one engineer I was pals with at the time.
@michellecrocker2485
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
I have a theory that it was a high school AV prank
@AnthonyChobot-i8w
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
The max headroom was on the boy who could fly vhs
@AnthonyChobot-i8w
June 11, 2026 at 7:24 pm
It was awesome