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)