Max Headroom was the first, and so far the only, cyberpunk TV series. It was characterized by intelligent scripts, a quirky sense of humor, some serious speculation about the power and ethics of television, and a slightly satirical but intricately realized vision of the future with a gritty, "Brazil"-like, "retro-tech" style. It had frequent references to traditional cyberpunk concepts such as "ice," "flatline," and "nanotechnology," and some very good computer-generated special effects (mostly done on Amiga 1000s). Although the Max Headroom character seemed convincingly computer-generated, this was not the case. Max was actually actor Matt Frewer wearing latex makeup, with some video-editing trickery lending him his herky-jerky mannerisms.  

In 1987, Lorimar in the United States acquired the rights to the character and the series was sold to the ABC Television Network. Max Headroom was a critical success, but unfortunately, the less cultish members of the TV nation were a bit puzzled.When the executives at ABC finally realized that they were among the network television executives being lampooned on the show, it was cancelled after only 14 episodes, two of which were never aired.