olivia_sutton | Entries tagged with british comedy tv

Ah - hitch-hiker's guide - something everyone in my high school read, not just SF fans and geeks (geeks being a GOOD thing here, 'kay?) but everybody. And since there are several versions of Hitch-hiker's Guide, let's go thru that now.

Originally, Douglas Adams (a British gentleman, who studied at Cambridge) wrote a radio series for the BBC called "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", which he adopted into two books - "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "The Restaurant at the End of Universe". The books *may* have come first, then the radio series, but I think it was actually radio then book. Both the radio series and the books were very popular and a third book quickly followed - "Life, the Universe and Everything" and a few years after that a fourth book appeared - "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish", and eventually along came "Mostly Harmless".

Meanwhile, with the first two books very popular, and the radio series a huge success, the BBC made a television series of books 1 and 2. The TV series was 6 half-hour episodes (the radio series in total was 12). As was typical of BBC SF - the special effects weren't great, but it was funny!

Recently, a movie version was made of Hitch-hiker's Guide. Now, imo - it was OK, I actually liked certain things about it (the movie's Trillian was much better than the TV series, again imo). But - whoever made the movie had a tendency to START one of the running lines or running jokes and not finish it. I mean, I was finishing lines in my head - 'cause I've memorised large sections of HHG (mostly the book version) but it was annoying. (As a side note - if you like *Monty Python*, *Fawlty Towers* or *Red Dwarf* - you'd like the original BBC TV Series version of Hitch-hiker's Guide - it's worth getting the DVDs).

All five books are also highly recommended. For the third one, it helps if you know something about cricket (don't ask). (I ended-up looking up cricket in an encylcopedia when I re-read "Life, The Universe and Everything").

ALL QUOTES ARE FROM THE BBC TV SERIES - Don't yell at me that I "got it wrong", there are differences between the different versions!

These are small pearls of wisdom and humor from copyrighted sources, however they are presented for your amusement and are not meant to infringe on any copyrights/trademarks/servicemarks or other legal stuff.

Quotes are not meant to infringe on any copyrights/trademarks/ or servicemarks.

Quotes from the BBC's The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy mini-series

"He no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company," narrator

"It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinent, in a disused lavatory, with a sign on the door saying --'Beware of the leopard'." --Arthur Dent

"Time is an illusion -- lunchtime, doubly so." --Ford Prefect

"This must be Thursday -- I never could get the hang of Thursdays." --Arthur

"Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word, 'safe', that I hadn't previously been aware of." --Arthur Dent

"I've got a headache -- I don't want to go to heaven with a headache, I'd be all cross and I wouldn't enjoy it!" --Arthur

"You know, it's times like this, when I'm stuck in a Vogan airlock with a man from Betelgeuse about die from aphisixation in deep space that I really wish I listened to what my mother told me when I was young." --Arthur
"Why-- What did she tell you?" --Ford
"I don't know -- I didn't listen!" --Arthur

"We will be restoring normality as soon as we are sure what is normal, anyway." --Trillian

"Probability factor of one to one. We have normality. I repeat, we have normality, anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem." --Trillian

"But that's incredible!" --Zaphod
"No. Just very, very, improbible." --Trillian

"We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys." --newscaster

"If there's anything more important than my ego around here, I want it caught and shot now!" --Zaphod

"What are you doing here?" Arthur
"Same as you, I hitched a lift. After all, with a degree in maths and another in astrophysics, it was either that or back to the dole queue on Monday." --Trillian

"Trillian, is this sort of thing going to happen every time we use the infinite improbablity drive?"--Zaphod
"Very probably, I'm afraid." --Trillian

"In those days, spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small, furry creatures from Alpha Centuri, were real small, furry creatures from Alpha Centuri." --narrator

"To boldly split infinitivies that no man had split before!" --narrator

Enjoy! -- Olivia