Shark Bytes

A number of posters don't seem aware that there have now been FIVE radio series, all based on the five books, although the last one, based on "Mostly Harmless", was getting a bit out of hand, as Arthur had a daughter, and it featured separate characters called Trillian and Tricia McMillan.
The true magic was of course in the radio series, where you can just let your imagination take you on the journey. It was hard for the TV series to follow that, but some of the graphics, like Peter Jones's interventions were done spectacularly well.
As for the film, I was delighted that Martin Freeman's portrayal of Arthur Dent was up to the standards set by Simon Jones, and the ever reliable Bill Nighy did a brilliant turn as Slartibartfast. However, I was sad that the film was so blatantly aimed at an American market that so many characters were played by Yanks (Mos Def as Ford Prefect?????). Where the film made me throw my hands up in horror, and thus where it REALLY jumps the shark, was the revelation that Trillian is in love with Arthur, thus losing an essential dynamic of the whole story (Trillian's fierce independence).

To the poster two down -- Yes, I know that those ideas were created by Adams. The problems aren't with the actual ideas, but with the execution. Compare the dialogue of the radio/television/novel version with the movie, and you'll see what I mean.

Fortunately, I've heard nothing further about a sequel to the movie, so perhaps we have been spared. Maybe in twenty years or so, someone else will take a crack at making a movie out of HHGG. I hope they do a better job.

what a dopey show for dopey aliens

To the last poster: Douglas Adams really wanted to get the movie made. So he wrote a few scripts himself. He came up with the idea for the point-of-view gun and the crazy priest (John Malkovich).

Douglas Adams did write at least some of the Hitchhiker’s movie (however much I might wish otherwise). However, the movie didn’t go into production until three years after his death, so the final movie script incorporates at least three years worth of tinkering by someone else. Given that the movie was nowhere near going into production at the time of his death, and given Adams’ well-known propensity for procrastination until the last possible moment (and beyond), I don’t think there’s any way it can be claimed that the script in existence at the time of Adams’ death was the finished product. It may be noteworthy that the movie version was in ‘production hell’ for almost twenty years until Adams’ death – this may not be a coincidence…
I didn’t expect the movie to be a rehash of the TV series – If you compare the TV series with the radio version, you will find that the TV version includes a substantial portion of the original six episodes of the radio series, some extracts from the second six episodes of the radio series, some items that were freshly written for the novelizations, and some entirely new stuff, such as visual jokes that obviously couldn’t be done on radio. As a result, the TV episodes aren’t a total rehash of the radio episodes, and I still enjoy these two variations of HHGG immensely (I also enjoyed the computer game and the first three novelizations).
I will grant that the movie wasn’t a total rehash one of the previous incarnations of HHGG – most notably by having most of the finely honed dialogue/monolog from the original taken out, and replaced with sophomoric cr*p. The movie certainly isn’t a rehash of the other forms of HHGG in one very important fashion – it isn’t funny. I’m not going to go on at length about why I feel this way – M. J. Simpson’s review says it all. Truly a train wreck of a movie, and hopefully it wasn’t profitable enough for the same crew to attempt a sequel. Stick to the TV series (On DVD so you can stop-frame all the funny stuff in the animation…!).

MOVIE SUCKED!!!!!!

Brilliant show, never even close to the tank. Also, to the above poster who commented on the movie making Douglas Adams rolling in his grave. Think about this. How could Douglas Adams be that insulted by this movie when HE WROTE IT. The movie was great. It captured the essence of the series without being a total rehash and/or clone of the series. Once again, never jumped

This jumped with the recent movie, which probably made Douglas Adams roll over in his grave. The TV series was a mostly enjoyable adaptation of the original radio series (similar to other adaptations into books, stage plays, text adventures, etc.), but the movie just >sucked< so badly. What a waste of money and talent.

Never jumped. Stayed true to the original radio series. Didn't stay true to the books, mainly because only the first of the books had been published at the time.

About 20 years ago the local PBS station ran a marathon of The Hitchhiker's Guide and my brother and I were glued to our chairs; getting up to pee only during the pledge breaks. The Hitchhiker's Guide never jumped! A good story made up for any technical deficiency of the admittedly low-budget production. I'm not a Sci-Fi geek but give me a good engaging plot and I'll watch it.

Probably, bringing Hitchhikers Guide to television was a little too ambitious for the early eighties. The flights of fancy that are possible in a radio series (and which can be accomplished there by reasonably simple sound effects) can be much harder to realize on the screen, and in some cases (specifically the second head for Zaphod), it just wasn't possible to do it convincingly. As previously mentioned, there was also some less than inspired casting that spoiled the realization of some characters (relative to the original radio series). However, some things were very well done - the 'computer' graphics for the book (actually done through a clever conventional animation technique, as contemporary computers weren't up to the job) were very well done indeed, and mostly make up for the other lapses. Considering how far off the mark that adaptations into other media can sometimes be, this series actually works pretty well. If you like this, get the DVD -- It's great to be able to freeze frame the animations, and see some of the interesting things that you might otherwise miss. Also, the DVD includes a wealth of other information about the series and its late creator, Douglas Adams.

Jumped the shark on the first day of shooting. This is a brilliant and witty story, and the books are wonderful. The actual TV series was, in all fairness, garbage. If it wasn't for Simon Jones and the animation there would be no redeeming features for it at all. Alas no movie either now that Mr Adams has passed. Most people tend to place the TV series last in their order of preference for the format of this story.

Never jumped! A true classic in the best of BBC style.. the 'book' sequences with the animation and Peter Jones inimitable voice-over truly elevated the show to classic status.. "... but due to a terrible miscalculation of scale, the entire battle-fleet was swallowed by a small dog."

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is my all time fave series of books. It is so difficult to think of an original sci fi story, if you try to you will end up subconsciously nicking plots from Star Wars, Star Trek ect. Douglas Adams however managed to do this - Hitchhiker is pure genius and he will be sorely missed. The TV version failed so badly because how can you possibly try and visualize the world Douglas Adams created with cheap special effects and a bad cast!! I really hope they don't turn this masterpiece into a film as condensing even one of the books into a 2 hour film would be impossible let alone all 5 of them!! If you want to enjoy this fantastically funny story please, please, please read the books and avoid this shoddy cardboard set, plastic alien copy!!!

In the beginning was the first radio series. The first radio series had an *ending* (Beeblebrox, Trillian, and Marvin eaten by the Blugblatter Beast, Ford and Arthur marooned on the prehistoric past of planet Earth) because it wasn't thought that there would be a second series. Then when there was a second series it was necessary to re-incarnate half the characters and unite them with the others, which took an entire episode (actually a Christmas special). So the second radio series was left open-ended ready for the third series - but of course there never was a third series. The TV series followed the first radio series, except that it was necessary to use the Disaster Area rock group instead of the Hagumennon invasion fleet as the device for the escape from the Resturant at the End of the Universe for the simple reason that the Hagumennons (super-evolutionary beings) would have been impossible within the budget. Overall, the radio series was better, but that doesn't mean that the TV series was bad. The poor special effects (even by the standards of the time) were part of the charm, except for Beeblebox's second head, which was pathetic. OTOH the "computer" graphics were brilliant, and the character of Max Quadrulpreen as the compare at the Resturant was much better on the TV (on the radio Roy Hudd didn't really get the point that he needed to be played totally OTT).