Ned Grossberg
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Ned Grossberg is the name of a recurring villain on the Max Headroom TV series.
Grossberg is played by Charles Rocket.
In the UK telefilm "Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future" upon which the American series was based, the character was called Grosman and was played by Nickolas Grace. Rocket's Grossberg was an American yuppie version with a characteristic facial twitch.
In the pilot episode, Grossberg is the chairman of Network 23, a major city television station with the highest rating investigative news show in town, hosted by Edison Carter. In the Max Headroom world, real-time ratings equal advertising dollars, and advertisements have replaced stocks as the measure of corporate worth.
Grossberg, with his secret prodigy Bryce Lynch, develop a rapid-speed advertising delivery medium known as Blipverts, which condenses a full advertisement into a few seconds. When Carter discovers that Blipverts are killing people, Grossberg orders Lynch to prevent Carter from getting out of the building. Knocked unconscious, Carter's memories are extracted into a computer by Lynch in order to determine whether Carter uncovered Grossberg's knowledge of the danger of Blipverts.
In the end, Grossberg is publicly exposed as responsible for the Blipverts scandal, and is removed as chairman of Network 23.
A few episodes later, Grossberg reappears as a board member of Network 66. Again, he invents a dubious advertising medium and convinces the chairman of the network to adopt it. When the advertising method is shown to be a complete fraud, the resulting public reaction against the network leads to the chairman being removed. Grossberg manages to take over the position.
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