All episodes Season 1 S01E04 1987-04-21 60 min 1980s ABC

Max Headroom

Security Systems

TV Flash files “Security Systems” as hour 4 of 14 in the TV Flash guide — Max Headroom (1987–1988) on ABC, season 1, episode 4, aired 1987-04-21, 60 min.

From the desk

How this hour is filed

This leaf is S01E04: listed hour 4 of 14 in the Max Headroom guide, hour 4 of 6 in season 1. It aired 1987-04-21 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Body Banks” (S01E03). Next is “War” (S01E05).

Max Headroom — Security Systems (S01E04)

Catalog log

Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.

Carter attempts to uncover the identity of the unknown buyer attempting to acquire Security Systems, the biggest security company in the world, but soon finds himself on the run from the police when his identity profile is erased from the government databanks and he is charged with credit fraud, a crime punishable by death.

Viewer FAQ

Where does Security Systems sit in the Max Headroom guide?

S01E04 is listed hour 4 of 14 — hour 4 of 6 in season 1, season 1 episode 4.

When did Max Headroom S01E04 air?

Security Systems aired 1987-04-21 and is listed at 60 minutes.

Is Max a real CGI character?

Stuttering computer-generated host as the 1980s sold it — Frewer in a dual role, chrome as aesthetic. The ads sometimes outshone the ABC series. The blipverts are the sting.

In the series

Why this series still plays

Twenty minutes into the future: stuttering computer-generated host, TV-news as authoritarian weather, and cyberpunk chrome on ABC of all places. Matt Frewer's Max became a Coke pitchman who sometimes outshone the series. Brief, glossy, and still the weirdest primetime warning about media monopolies America accidentally aired. The blipverts still sting.

Two seasons. Fourteen hours. ABC, 1987–1988, after Channel 4 U.K. origins: investigative reporter Edison Carter and his digital alter ego expose corporate media dystopia — twenty minutes into the future. That is the window, not a chrome souvenir. Max Headroom, from George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton, put Matt Frewer in the dual role of Carter and the stuttering computer-generated host, with Amanda Pays and Chris Young. Cyberpunk visual language on American network primetime, however briefly. TV-news…

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Filed against

Also in season 1

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