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?