It was a normal night of Chicago television on November 22nd, 1987 – well, at least, right up to 9:14 PM. A sportscaster was breaking down the Bears’ victory over the Lions when, all of a sudden, the signal went out. Producers and technicians were baffled, and later realized that the signal had been hijacked.

All of a sudden, a bizarre man appeared on the screen. He was dressed in a suit and glasses, wearing a mask with a creepy frozen grin. He looked like some sort of scary character from the Batman series. Instead, he was dressed as Max Headroom, a fictional British intelligence character that was popular in the 1980s. People were glued to their screens, wondering what was going on.

Max Headroom actually disrupted two stations that night. The other was during an episode of Dr. Who. As you can imagine, phones starting ringing off the hook at these two studios from viewers who were completely baffled by what was going on. The studios could not provide any answers, because they were just as baffled.

Federal investigators were called on to figure out just what happened and who was responsible. Various people over the years claim to have known who has done this. Ultimately, leads fizzle out. In a way, it’s sort of fun to not know who was responsible. It is just a part of Chicago lore.

If you weren’t around when this incident happened or want a refresher, someone actually put a copy of this event on YouTube:

Have any leads?

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