Max Headroom: Rakers

Max HeadroomThe second episode of the American-made Max Headroom series premieres on ABC, starring Matt Frewer and Amanda Pays. (This is the the American-made drama series, not the music video/talk show series featuring the same character.) Howard Sherman and Wortham Krimmer guest star. Read more


Max HeadroomAs Max grows paranoid thinking that a napalm-kerosene-and-testosterone soaked kids’ show called “Missile Mike” is an actual news report about a man who goes around shooting things and blowing them up, things blow up in Theora’s personal life. She receives a rushed phone call from her sister-in-law Winnie, who warns her that her brother Shawn has taken up the dangerous sport of raking. An illegal underground sport with a high body count, raking combines jet-powered skateboarding with no-holds-barred unarmed combat. Theora sets Edison onto the case, but to break into a raking arena – let alone stop a match in which an already-injured Shawn is scheduled to fight – Edison will be risking life and limb. And while Edison thinks raking should be outlawed altogether, Zik Zak is considering both legalizing and sponsoring it.

written by James Crocker and Steve Roberts
story by James Crocker
directed by Thomas J. Wright
music by Cory Lerios

Cast: Matt Frewer (Edison Carter / Max Headroom), Amanda Pays (Theora Jones), George Coe (Ben Cheviot), Chris Young (Bryce Lynch), Jeffrey Tambor (Murray), Virginia Kiser (Formby), Hank Garrett (?), Lee Wilkof (Pat Zein), J.W. Smith (Rick), Howard Sherman (Simon Peller), Lee DeBroux (?), Joseph Ruskin (Promoter), Wortham Krimmer (Jack Friday), Wynn Irwin (?), Arsenio “Sonny” Trinidad (?), Ricardo Gutierrez (Martinez), B.L. Collins (?), Ron D. Ross (?), Kimberly Delfin (Winnie), Peter Cohl (Shawn Jones), Tain Bodkin (?), Brian Libby (?), Doug Hale (?), Bobby Brett (?), Kawena Charlot (Rick’s bodyguard), Kedren Zadikov (?), Jeffrey Weisman (?), Tabi Cooper (?), David Preston (?), Lorilyn Huckster (?), Heath Jones (?)

Notes: This is the first episode in which it’s hinted that televisions can no longer be turned off. The “Missile Mike” gag is a slight swipe at one of Max Headroom’s real-life TV contemporaries, The A-Team.

LogBook entry by Earl Green