Max Headroom (1985)

It is a post-apocalyptic, futuristic world and TV's have become more important to society than even food as the ratings is the currency of the international nations.

A crusading TV reporter, Edison Carter (Matt Frewer) investigates news stories with the all-important help from his wisecracking computer version of himself, Max Headroom.

The show begins with Edison Carter being sent on a story's trail which has been given to him by a concerned TV studio who have discovered that a new technique is up and running which prevents viewers from channel surfing which proves detrimental to couch potatoes. The studio realise that dead viewers make for low ratings, thus no money.

On the trail of this story Carter suffers an horrific motorcycle accident and, luckily, a whizz kid genius called Bryce Lynch (Paul Spurrier) preserves his mind which creates his wise cracking, computer generated alter-ego, Max Headroom.

Max Headroom soon manages to boost TV ratings, beating any live hosts.