Ogden Stiers) works with a five-piece Chinese or-
chestra, which is subsequently killed in a truck
bombing as they leave for an anticipated prisoner
exchange.
Impact MAS*H’s finale was the most-viewed epi-
sode of a regular television series in history. It en-
joyed a Nielsen share of 77, meaning that 77 percent
of the televisions that were switched on at the time it
was broadcast were tuned to the program. The finale
was seen by more than 60 percent of American
households. Not willing to squander this soapbox
on fictional drama alone, the show’s producers in-
cluded statistics on the Korean War as part of the epi-
sode. As the cease-fire took effect, the camp’s public
address system announced that 2 million people
were killed or wounded in a war that cost $22 billion.
It also listed U.S. military casualties and missing-in-
action totals.
Further Reading
Hooker, Richard.MASH.New York: William Mor-
row, 1968.
Kalter, Suzy.The Complete Book of MASH.New
York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988.
Randy Hines
See also Sitcoms; Television.
Max Headroom
Identification Futuristic television series
Creators Annabel Jankel (1955- ) and Rocky
Morton (1955- )
Date Aired from March 31, 1987, to May 5, 1988
Max Headroom, a biting satire of the state of television,
journalism, and popular culture in the 1980’s, was the
first American television show to depict postmodern cyber-
punk culture.
Based on a television movie that aired in England in
1984,Max Headroomdebuted in the United States
on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in
- The show was set “twenty minutes into the
future,” and it featured television news reporter
Edison Carter. Played by the Canadian actor Matt
Frewer, who also starred in the earlier British pro-
duction, Carter works for a major television chan-
nel, Network 23, in a future society defined by class
disparity, violence, powerful corporations, and total
dependence on credit. Television is pervasive in this
culture, as it is illegal to equip a television with an
“off ” switch, and networks see their ratings in real
time, so they know second by second if they are gain-
ing or losing viewers and act immediately in re-
sponse to such changes.
People in this future society are tracked through
massive databases that catalog their every purchase
and every movement, and those few who have es-
caped being tracked by the system are called “blanks.”
The blanks live on the fringes of society, inhabiting a
nearly post-apocalyptic inner-city slum and trading
for the commodities they need to survive on a low-
tech black market. Carter is assisted in his field as-
signments by his “operator,” Theora Jones (Amanda
Pays), who generally remains at the network offices,
where she uses her computer hacking skills to allows
Carter access to restricted areas to obtain news sto-
ries.
The first episode of the series set the tone of
pointed satire directed against television networks.
It deals with “blipverts,” split-second advertisements
that pack a full commercial’s worth of information
into the blink of an eye, so viewers have no time to
change channels before the commerical ends. The
blipverts have the minor side effect of causing some
viewers to explode. While investigating these myste-
rious deaths, Carter has a motorcycle accident and
goes into a coma. The last thing he sees before losing
consciousness is a warning about low clearance on
an exit barrier: “Max Headroom 2.3 Meters.” In an
attempt to discover what secrets Carter knows about
Network 23, Bryce Lynch (Chris Young), the boy ge-
nius behind research and development for the net-
work, uploads a copy of Carter’s brain into a com-
puter. Thus Max Headroom, a cybernetic version of
Carter, is born. Max is sentient and able to roam at
will around cyberspace—an extremely important
skill in a world completely controlled by databases.
Max Headroom was represented as a stylized, ani-
mated version of Frewer’s head, which appeared on
screens within the show against a background of an-
gled neon lines. His characteristic stuttering speech
represented glitches in the computer system. Max
became a sort of agitator, questioning the practices
of the network and passing along sensitive informa-
tion he discovered in cyberspace to Jones and the
fully recovered Carter. Subsequent episodes chal-
lenged television staples such as game shows, adver-
tising, ratings, and televangelism.628 Max Headroom The Eighties in America