After a TV movie (1985), and a talk show (1985 - 1986), the first episode of the Max Headroom TV series aired in the US on March 31, 1987. The first episode was a remake of the TV movie, however only Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays, and William Morgan Sheppard appeared in both. The episode served as an origin story of how reporter Edison Carter was granted a CGI (not actually done with CGI which was too primitive and expensive at the time of production, and what computer graphics that were used were created by a 1987 Commodore Amiga) alter ego Max Headroom (both Frewer) by the wiz kid Bryce Lynch (Chris Young, taking the place of Paul Spurrier in the original). Some internet detectives had taken Bryce's birthday to determine the "20 minutes into the future" time line to take place between 2005 and 2006. Carter worked at the TV station with Ben Cheviot (George Coe, Constantine Gregory in the original), Murray (Jeffrey Tambor, Roger Sloman in the original), and Theora Jones (Pays), with Grossberg (Charles Rocket, played by Nickolas Grace in the original) being his foe. The name Max Headroom came from the last thing Carter saw before Max was created (a Maximum Headroom warning bar). With the series being a head of its time and up against ratings power houses Dallas and Miami Vice, it only lasted 14 episodes and two seasons. ("Blipverts", Max Headroom, TV Event)
A classic and interesting horror story starring Katharine Ross and other wonderful actors. My grandmother, mother, and father all agree that this movie was terrifying when they first saw it.
That being said, something about the story just isn’t told in that compelling of a manner, it had trouble keeping my attention. I still enjoyed it though and think it is worth the watch.
⭐⭐⭐.5
Trigger Warning Domestic Abuse
We meet a family leaving the big city to move to a smaller town of Stepford (Joanna, Walter, and their kids). Walter joins the town's men's association but he acts very strange about it, telling Joanna he loves her very much after his first night of joining. Joanna makes a new friend, Bobbie, who read about her in the newspaper, they become fast friends! Walter brings over the men’s association to his home to meet Joanna and she doesn’t get a good first impression of them. She is surprised that Walter likes them at all but he is adamant about the group and fitting into this town. They go to a party and one of the wives starts to act strangely, afterward she comes to Joanna’s house to apologize for some reason. Apparently the boys made her apologize which is pretty wack and Joanna and Bobbie think so too. They decide to try and make their own girls club but none of the other women in town want to join. They are all too busy with their wifely duties! It isn’t until they find a friendship with a woman named Charmaine that they are able to start their club and with Joanna’s intelligence working the men she is able to get the women some time off their chores so they can join the group! The main three (3) want to talk about real things while the rest of the girls just want to talk about chores…
There used to be a women's group with over fifty (50) members but it disbanded, when Joanna and Bobbie went to get more details on it the old president just says she is happy with her life now, doing chores and keeping house. While out looking for Joanna’s dog, Fred, they notice Charmaine is bulldozing her tennis courts. But that is strange because Charmaine loves tennis. Turns out her husband hated it so she let him bulldoze it and she was all creepy calm about it. Joanna and Bobbie look on while Charmaine talks about this wonderful weekend she had with her husband that just did her right and made her want to please him. The whole thing is wack. Bobbie begins to think there is something in the water and she starts to gather some semi-credible evidence. They decide they need a scientist to test the water and Joanna happens to know one who she dated about twelve (12) years ago. They show up out of the blue and he just says he will help them. Neat! There is nothing in the water, though! Bobbie and Joanna (respectfully) want to move out of Stepford anyway. Joanna talks to Walter that night about leaving and he agrees, just says it will take some time, but Joanna is so happy she doesn’t care how long it will take.
Later, Joanna slips that the dog is dead, meaning they never did find him. Joanna visits Bobbie to tell her the good news but Bobbie’s house is perfectly clean and Bobbie isn’t acting like herself. Nearly injuring herself running home to tell Walter, Joanna wants to move the date of the move up. Walter thinks that Joanna is crazy and wants her to see a psychiatrist. At her psychiatrist Joanna tells the truth like it is and her psychiatrist suggests that she takes the kids and runs away. That night when Joanna is attempting to do just that she finds that Walter has sent the kids to a friend’s house. When Joanna tries to assert herself Walter grabs her and fights with her. She runs away to Bobbie’s house hoping that she can talk any sense into her this time. While yelling at Bobbie, Joanna cuts herself with a knife claiming that she bleeds and asks if Bobbie does too. This question results in Bobbie getting stabbed in the gut (ouch). But Bobbie does not bleed! In fact she pulls the knife out of her and then malfunctions in her kitchen like a robot… Yikes. Joanna returns home and bludgeons Walter with a fire poker and demands to know where the kids are. He tells her they are at the association. She goes there (with her iron fire poker) and tries to find her crying kids, turns out it is just a recording. The head of the association is there. He talks to her, gets her poker, chases her to a room that has Fred in it! But, wait, who is that in the back with the black eyes and perfect tits? It is Joanna’s robot replacement! And she kills Joanna! The next scene we see is all the ladies shopping at the store like perfect little robots, Joanna walking blank eyed because it is no longer Joanna. Sad!
Matlock (TV Series)
S4/E12 ’The Buddies’ (1989) - Andy Griffith
I use to love watching Matlock back in the day and this episode was pretty memorable. Must have been this sauna scene because everybody here, Hugh Gillin, Fritz Weaver and George Coe could have gotten a courtesy tap.
