First broadcast in 1978 ('77?), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a Comedy/Sci-Fi radio drama from the late great Douglas Adams.
The series was adapted into multiple other formats, most notably novels, a 1981 TV series, a 2005 feature film, and a 1984 Text adventure game (which is playable on the BBC website)
The series is probably the single piece of media that’s shaped my sense of humour more than anything else, and if you like Adams’ work on Doctor Who, I highly recommend giving it a try.
Was it a radio drama before it was a book? (I’ll Google this and report back.) (Edit: yes it was! Interesting.) I’ve read the book, at the time it didn’t really get me but I keep meaning to reread just to see if I’m more compelled now I’m older.
I read the first three or four books years ago. I love it. It’s so whimsical and strange and fun. The 2005 movie doesn’t quite capture the essence of the book, but then again, it’s quite hard to do. I should give the series a re-read!
If I remember correctly (please correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been a while)
The first series of the radio drama came out first, then the first book, which went a little further after the end of the first radio series. The second radio series then came out adapting the end of the first book and telling a new story, followed by the second book which ended in a completely different place to the second series (and also adapts some stuff from the first series that the first book skipped over).
The third book came out next, and when it came to the third radio series, they decided to just adapt the third book and ignore that the second series ended differently to the second book. The fourth book then came out, and the fourth series adapted it. The fifth book came out, and Adams was working on a 6th book, but it was never finished, but the fifth series adapts the fifth book, and some of the things from the unfinished 6th book.
Then there’s the TV show which adapts the first radio series and the first two books
And the Movie which…
Well, the movie’s better forgotten (despite its incredible casting)
EDIT: Watch the video I sent below, it’s a better explanation, I got some of the ordering wrong
Was right on books/series one and two, but I said the series then each came after their respective books, when books three, four, five, and what we know of six were all done before any other series, and the series were all made after Adams’ tragic death (hence them deciding to just adapt them rather than change to work with the second series)
Douglas Adams was very much into computers, and had written a fair number of articles about them, mostly Macs. He actually walked into Infocom, said that he’d been playing their games for a while, and wanted to work on one.
He got paired up with Steven Meretzky, and the two of them worked on it together, made a bit difficult because of Douglas being in England and Steven being in the US.
Afterwards, he also made a text adventure game with them called Bureaucracy.
Work was actually started on a “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” text adventure game as well. These days, the source code to all of Infocom’s games can be found on github, and that includes the incomplete code to restaurant…
(Also, Douglas Adams did a graphical adventure game, not with Infocom, Starship Titanic.)
Admittedly, I found that out originally because I loved it as Hitchhikers opening theme (and I may have obsessively found out everything I could about Hitchhikers at one point), but it’s definitely one I enjoy.
Here I am outside Arthur Dent’s house with Arthur himself, Simon Jones. A long, long… long time ago, before my hair turned grey and my eyebrows started to resemble small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.
