The dates given are those for the first U.S. broadcast. The short entries are borrowed from the faq, either because I haven't done them yet or because I don't have thay episode. (I'm missing 2 or 3) I'm revising them all and adding commentary...

To appease its corporate god ZikZak, Network 23 creates "Blipverts" - commercials condensed into a few seconds to prevent channel changing and cater to the split-second attention spans. Unfortunately, these commercials occasionally cause certain sedentary viewers to explode. Network 23's star reporter, Edison Carter, is hot on the trail of the story, but after viewing a tape of the damning evidence he is knocked out after flying face-first into a sign reading "Max Headroom 2.3m."

The network's ruthless CEO, Ned Grossberg, decides to have child genius Bryce Lynch make a computer simulation of Carter's mind to find out what he knows, but winds up deciding to let Carter die. However, both the real Edison Carter and the simulated version, Max Headroom (the sign Carter saw right before he blacked out when he was injured) turn out to be more than Grossberg bargained for, and the Blipverts scandal blows up in the CEO's face.

Commentary:

Television audiences, meet cyberpunk: like it or not, the future is only twenty minutes away. Aside from introducing the main characters and creating Max, this pilot episode (available in some video stores as a stand-alone movie) immediately unleashes some heavy concepts: artificial intelligence, corporate government, a world where computers are the fabric of society and television is the interface between the fabric and the people.

We see a fawning public floundering at the feet of corporate gods with television networks performing the role of ministry. We see the ruling class deciding the fates of their subjects with a blinder to morality and a hungry eye focused on the bottom line. In short, we are introduced to the dystopian backdrop which is to become one of the two main themes of this brief but brilliant series.

It should be noted that when viewed with a modern eye, some of the technology displayed, especially in Theora's contolling sequences, may not look too realistic. On the other hand, a lot of the tech in this and future episodes is amazingly similar to modern concepts of computer processes. This is especially true considering that this was all done in 1987, when technology was about an order of magnitude less complicated than it is today. Above all else, the Max Headroom series was excellent in its predictive qualities concerning technology and society.

Random Notes

Edison's Ident code is 74928B DG6629.

Theora finds some kind of password matrix for Bryce's door as she and Edison try to break into Net 23's R&D division. It is:

   B R Y C E 
   L Y N C H
   7 1 0 8 8
   L I B R A
   1 2 6 R D

So what? Well, not only does this establish Bryce's sign as a Libra, it establishes his birthdate as Oct 7, 1988 (Libra is 23 Sep - 23 Oct, so 7/10 cannot mean July 10th). Bryce's age is never mentioned in the TV series, but the novelization of the British pilot by Steve Roberts gives his age as 16, placing the Max Headroom genre in the year 2004.

Incidentally, since the whole Max Headroom project began in Britain in 1984, perhaps "20 minutes into the future" was sort of a joke, meaning in reality 20 years, but perhaps suggesting that this sort of future was closer than it seemed.

In this episode, someone (Edwards?) points out that a two percent drop in ratings is six million viewers. This suggests a viewing audience in the neighborhood of 300 million. Not really that many, these days, but who knew global network monopolies would do so well? (heh)

The latest fad is the illegal sport of "raking" or "rakeboarding" - gladiator-style combat on powered skateboards. The promoters want raking legalised so they can sell it to Network 23's sports channel; meanwhile, Theora's long-lost brother Shawn has got involved. Theora is looking for her brother, Edison is looking for Theora, Murray is looking for Edison, and Network 23 is looking for something to replace everyone's favourite children's show, "Missile Mike".
----sorry, no commentary, I don't have this episode.... -fen

Somewhere out on the edge of the sprawl, fringers are disappearing. A very rich old woman is on the verge of dying, and to keep going she needs glands from much younger women. The trouble is, the young women kind of needed them as well. But nobody is going to notice a couple of fringers dying for the greater good, right? Wrong. The boyfriend of one of these victims finds help from Edison Carter. However, when the rich woman's son decides that instead of saving his mother's body, he can just save her mind with the Max Headroom process, and blackmails Julia Formby into getting it for him, Both Edison and Max have their work cut out for them. But with a little help from some seedy characters, (and some headbutting by Reg) the greed of the rich turns into a great expose' for the Edison Carter show.

Commentary

One of the show's most common themes is the basis for this episode: Everyone wants Max. Early on, Net 23's corporate overlord Zik Zak wants to buy Max as their exclusive spokesman, though Max is as usual less than cooperative. And the evil unscrupulous rich want Max to replicate the Max Headroom process on one of their own. Unfortunately, they have one of Net 23's board in a convenient vicegrip; they threaten to expose Julia and Ben's earlier involvement (which took place before the series). So we see that, though generally goodhearted, Julia is not made of the moral stuff of Cheviot or Edison.

Incidentally, the theme of this episode was paralleled rather closely by the movie Freejack (1992), where the evil rich were going back in time to steal healthy bodies to transport their consciousnesses into.

Of note in this episode was at least one technical bit. Theough remote keyless entry was a thing of the far future in '87, it found its way into Max Headroom. Also, this episode marks the introduction of Dom and Reg, and Rick the Rickshaw driver makes an appearance. Also, Edison meets Breughel and Mahler for the second time, though he wasn't conscious the first time they met, and even enlists their help (with the proper recompense of course). The two thugs show themselves to be entirely without loyalty, agreeing to betray their employers for Edison's cash.

Random Notes

In this episode, Edison is mentioned to be 27 years old.

Someone is taking over Security Systems, the largest private security firm in the world. SS is kind of like a government, but more powerful. It has influence over every aspect of modern life, so naturally Edison Carter wants to know into whose hands it is passing. So he and Net 23's chopper pilot Martinez pull a clever stunt to gain access to the home of Security Systems' CEO, Valerie Towns. Unfortunately she's not talking.

So the only recourse is for Bryce Lynch, research and developer extoardinaire, to hack his way into the most spectaculalry well guarded computer system in the history of well guarded computer systems. No problem, right? Unfortunately, even Bryce is unable to get past SS' private Artificial Intelligence, A7.

But he does manage to get them inside, which gives Max Headroom a chance to break a few hearts. Though Bryce and Edison end up facing the big chill at the hands of SS' new leader, Max turns out to be too irresistable for even an AI to pass up.

Commentary

This episode has a lot of hacking, a lot of technical stuff, and a lot of very forward-thinking predictions about modern technology. For example, the term ICE was hardly common knowledge in the late eighties (for all I know, this show may have made it up), though it came in to usage as the cyberpunk genre developed. (I think Bryce explains it as Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics.) There are also some interesting ideas here about extensive visual interface to the global computer network, what has become best known as "the Matrix" otherwise known as cyberspace. (I believe most or all of these terms originated with William Gibson's landmark book "Neuromancer." (1984))

This episode also contains a clever rant by Max on security guards, which perhaps I'll type in someday. For now, make due with the one I have typed in, the car rant from episode 5.

Fortunately for Reg, Edison believes him and smells a coverup. So Theora does some tracking of her own and finds that Bryce has another glitch in his conscience subroutines- he has been fibbing out of allegiance to his alma mater: ACS, Network 23's own computer academy for pre-pubescents. But could 23's own whiz kids be zipping the network? And can Bryce let an innocent Blank go down for a crime he didn't commit?

Commentary

There is one primary theme to this episode: morality, and how it fits into a world of technology, information, and absolutes, specifically for Bryce. The conflict comes from the face that Bryce's expedient plan to protect ACS neglects to take into account right and wrong, and the fact that it accuses an innocent man. To Bryce, these "non-empirical concepts" are irrelevant, as long as no-one gets hurt. However, Bryce fails to take into account two things:

First, anyone who ignores right and wrong is just begging for Edison Carter, moral crusader for the ages, to pop the tab on a philosophical can of whoopass. Second, what with Video Courts where the audience decides the verdict, and the use of computers to assign guilt for unsolved crimes to Blanks, there is a real possibility that Reg could be convicted of the zipping (and the punishment is death).

This brings us to the sub-theme of this episode. Max Headroom often depicts the future as a time when news has become entertainment (even more so than now), but here the writer suggests that the justice system may go the same direction (even more so than now). Thus, in keeping with the series' videotic dystopian feel, Reg's trial takes place on a goofy wacky judicial gameshow called "You the Jury." I wish I could say that a show where the audience decides the guilt of the contestants was a laughable future, but I hear that it already exists in America and elsewhere. Just another reason to sell your TV.

Random Notes

Dom's tv show offers a gift to the first 23 callers, and Reg is held in Metro Jail 42. Is it Erisian when meaningless numbers are meaningful?

One more thing- I like that this episode has very little Max in it, and that he is completely incidental to the plot. It is good that an episode can survive without every little bit focusing on Max.

A secret school, using pirated Network 23 educational programmes to taech the children of the Fringe, is raided by the Metrocops. Edison and Theora help one of the children to escape, and try to track down her mother and find out why Network 23's chief censor was involved in the raid. The censor appears to be getting ideas above his station, but he's underestimated Edison's stubbornness and Bryce's ingenuity ("Extremely difficult. Virtually impossible. However, it should take me only about ten seconds.").

Ovu-Vat offers the latest in high-tech pregnancy - you supply the genes and they'll grow the baby for you; no pain, no inconvenience, no risk, and no surprises. Theora isn't very impressed, especially when her friend Helen Zeno's baby disappears just before the "birth". Meanwhile, Network 66 has a new, high-rating show about child prodigies. Grossman is trying to lure Bryce away from Network 23, Edison is trying to find out what's going on, and Murray is trying to find an excuse to avoid visiting anything resembling a hospital ("Why are men so infantile about biology? I mean, mine is much more of a nuisance than yours and I never complain.").