Hi everyone,

If you happen to be in LA next Monday evening, don’t miss MAX HEADROOM: 20 minutes (and 40 years) into the future, a screening and discussion hosted by me, Joanne McNeil.

You’ll hear from screenwriter Michael Cassutt about his work on this enormously influential and prescient series. Plus, you’ll get an early look inside THE LOVED ONE, a brand new bookstore and gallery founded by J. C. Gabel, publisher of Hat & Beard Press. The bookshelves haven’t even been installed yet, while J.C.’s already planning a full calendar of events that will continue what Hat & Beard does best: putting books in conversation with music and film and art and subcultures (and publishing books that bring the best of these cultures and subcultures to the page).

The event is FREE!

The Loved One, 1634 Temple St,

March 23rd at 7:30

Here’s more about the talk and screening. You can RSVP on Eventbrite or at rsvp@hatandbeard.com

Screening selections from the television program (1987-1988) followed by a conversation with writer Michael Cassutt moderated by Joanne McNeil

Max Headroom was a fauxtomation CGI icon in the 1980s and the center of an ABC series set in a dystopian media hellscape that our reality increasingly resembles each passing year. The character, by then familiar to audiences as a proto-meme in Coke commercials and music video interstitials, came to life over the course of two seasons that explored then-nascent concerns like artificial intelligence, hacking, targeted ads, and data privacy.

In the series, the memories and consciousness that bring Max Headroom to life have been uploaded from a comatose investigative reporter (both roles played by Matt Frewer). The megacorp TV network where Edison Carter works (also the subject of his investigation) copies his brain to see how much the journalist learned about their lethally addictive new forms of advertising. Against the odds, Carter survives the accident and now has to contend with the glitchy digital twin the network has created of him.

Joining us will be Michael Cassutt, a writer for the Max Headroom and a stalwart of science fiction literature and TV. He’ll discuss inspiration for the program set “20 minutes into the future,” and its legacy.