The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series)

The very first version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was conceived as a science-fiction comedy series for radio. It was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom over the BBC, soon followed by global short wave broadcast over the BBC World Service, in 1978. Broadcasting by National Public Radio (one of their first to occur in stereo) in the USA followed in March, 1981, with a repeat broadcast in September.

Early Development

Douglas Adams had contributed comedy sketches for BBC radio programmes produced by Simon Brett (including The Burkiss Way and Week Ending, among others). The two of them came up with an idea for a radio science-fiction comedy series in early 1977.

Related Topics:
Douglas Adams - Simon Brett - The Burkiss Way - Week Ending - 1977

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Originally to be called The Ends of the Earth, each episode would have ended with the planet Earth meeting its demise in a different way. While writing the first episode, Douglas said that he needed a character who knew what was going to happen and provide a point of view. Douglas decided to make this character an alien, and, remembering an idea he supposedly had had while laying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria in 1971, decided that this character would be a "roving reporter" for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Later recollections by his friends at the time (see Hitchhiker by M.J. Simpson) indicate that Adams first spoke openly of the idea of "hitch-hiking around the galaxy" while on Holiday in Greece, in 1973.

Related Topics:
Innsbruck - Austria - 1971 - 1973

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Douglas wrote his first outlines (which are republished in the book Don't Panic by Neil Gaiman) in Spring 1977. A pilot episode was commissioned on 1 March 1977, and the recording was completed on 28 June 1977. Simon and Douglas both later recounted different parts of the process for getting the pilot episode recorded, including having to convince the BBC that such a programme could not be recorded with a studio audience, and their desire to record in stereo sound. In fact, to win this latter argument, Hitchhiker's was briefly classified as a Drama instead of a Comedy, as Drama programmes were allowed to be recorded in stereo, and Comedy programmes were not, in 1977.

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A full series of six episodes (five new episodes, plus the pilot) were commissioned on 31 August 1977. However, Douglas had in the meantime sent a copy of the Hitchhiker's pilot episode to the BBC's Doctor Who production office, and was thus commissioned to write a four part Doctor Who serial (The Pirate Planet) a few weeks later. In addition, Simon Brett had departed the BBC, and the final five episodes in the first series were produced by Geoffrey Perkins.

Related Topics:
Doctor Who - The Pirate Planet - Geoffrey Perkins

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With conflicting writing commitments, Douglas brought his friend John Lloyd in for writing assistance on what are known as "Fit the Fifth" and "Fit the Sixth." Aside from the later Infocom computer game, (and, one could argue, the movie screenplay), this is the only instance of any form of Hitchhiker's having a co-writer credit. All of the episodes, including those completed after Douglas' death, are referred to as 'Fits,' after Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony, in Eight Fits." Production of "Fit the Second" was done in November, 1977. The script of the last episode of the first series (later retitled "The Primary Phase") was completed in February 1978, and production (including sound mixing and effects) was completed on 3 March 1978.

Related Topics:
Lewis Carroll - The Hunting of the Snark - 3 March - 1978

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