"Hitchhiker's Guide" The Other Adaptations and the Original *Potential Spoilers*

[Kim]

A lot of people may not know but The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy did not start as a book. It was a originally a radio series broadcast on the BBC in 1978. The first novel followed the year after. A second radio series aired in 1980.

A TV series aired in 1981 featuring a lot of the same cast as the radio show after which there was a large gap until series 3-5 of the radio show was created in 2004. Then of course there was the 2005 film, the less said the better.

There have also been stage shows and an old text-based adventure game (I kept dying), and a load of other adaptations.

What was your favourite/least favourite and why?

For me it was the TV series. It just work so well and everything seemed to fit. I have fond memories of listening to the radio show on cassette but the TV show trumps it.

[Margaret]

I like the original radio series best, but that's probably because it was the first format I encountered. The books run it a close second. I guess I like imagining the visuals for myself!

[Trike]

I'm also a fan of the original radio broadcast over every other version.

I grew up just at the end of the era of radioplays and some of my favorite memories are of lying in the backseat of the family station wagon as we drove through the night across NY, PA and OH listening to shows on the radio.

That's one of the reasons why I don't like audiobooks: I was spoiled by wonderful radio shows which featured full casts, music and sound effects.

At some point in the late 70s one of the local radio stations broadcast BBC productions, including Hitchhiker's Guide and Star Wars, and it was wonderful to lie there in the living room listening to them.

So the first version has always been my favorite. A joke is never as funny the second time, and a first kiss can never be topped.

[Margaret]

...and of course that means I associate the "Journey of the Sorcerer" music strongly with HHttG!

[Micah]

Overall I prefer the radio show, though I first came in contact with this series from the TV show. I love the TV show, too.

The original radio show was better on the music side of things--for which, I understand, they got into a bit of copyright trouble. They used a lot of the '70s alternative music I was into at the time, like Terry Riley. That added a whole other layer of enjoyment for me.

BUT...let us not forget that there was also the vinyl double LP, which predated the TV show by about a year or two. Pretty much the same cast as the radio plays (Trillian was voiced by a different actor). I really think the 2005 movie would have done well to have taken the LP version as a jumping off point for its script.

Pt 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo2Y9...
Pt 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qkcJ...
Pt 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oW9P...
Pt 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG00R...

[Stephanie]

I've never heard the radio version but I'll never forget the TV version! I was entranced! It was like nothing I'd ever experienced. It quite possibly was my entrance into sci-fi!

[Pat]

Overall, I'd say the original T V show was my favourite - brilliantly cast and having those wonderful low budget production values that you used to get from the BBC back in those days. They managed to capture the all the charm and humour of the series perfectly.

I re-read the books (again) a couple of years ago & I have to admit that I've fallen out of love with them and with Adams in general as I've got older. He comes across as a pompous ass who was a bit too wrapped up in his own cleverness.

[Micah]

Pat wrote: "...having those wonderful low budget production values that you used to get from the BBC back in those days..."

I remember hearing somewhere that the prosthetic remote controlled second head for Zaphod was spookily real looking when seen live, but once they looked at it on screen it appeared so horribly cheap that they decided to have it basically zonked out all the time.

I do agree, though, that the books can come across as very "Oh, I'm so superior, look at how very clever I am; I think I just LOL'd myself...demurely, don't you think?" self-satisfied and smug.