Culturebox: Max Headroom

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dvd extras Max Headroom It was ahead of its ti-ti-time. By Patrick Cassels Posted Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010, at 10:02 AM ET There's a scene in Back to the Future Part II in which Marty McFly, having traveled to the year 2015, walks into a retro diner. Marty is greeted by a digital maitre d' with white hair, a gentle voice, and smooth, almost plastic skin. "Welcome to the Cafe '80s," he says, "where it's always morning in America, even in the afternoo-noo-noon," the final word skipping out of his mouth as though recorded on a scratched CD. The maitre d' was a mashup of two signifiers that Hollywood, in 1989, imagined would come to represent the decade. "Morning in America," of course, belonged to President Ronald Reagan. The plastic skin, skipping voice, and pixilated appearance belonged to Max Headroom, the hyperactive, square-jawed computer program and titular star of the ABC series Max Headroom, which arrived on DVD this month, its first time on any home-video format. To continue reading, click here. Patrick Cassels is a staff writer for College Humor. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Applebaum: Five Ways the Iraq War Weakened America Does the Imam Behind the "Ground Zero Mosque" Have Any Regrets? Ruth Bader Ginsburg Was the Original Mama Grizzly	Advertisement
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