Editing Douglas Adams (section)

====''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''====
{{main|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' was a concept for a science-fiction comedy radio series pitched by Adams and radio producer [[Simon Brett]] to [[BBC Radio 4]] in 1977. Adams came up with an outline for a pilot episode, as well as a few other stories (reprinted in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s book ''[[Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion]]'') that could be used in the series.

[[File:Towelday-Innsbruck.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Towel Day]] 2005 in [[Innsbruck]], Austria, where Adams conceived ''The Hitchhiker's Guide''. In the novels, a towel is the most useful thing a space traveller can have. The annual Towel Day (25 May) was first celebrated in 2001, two weeks after Adams's death.]]

According to Adams, the idea for the title occurred to him in 1971 while he lay drunk in a field in [[Innsbruck]], Austria, gazing at the stars. He was carrying a copy of the ''[[Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe]]'', and it occurred to him that "somebody ought to write a ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''".<ref>{{cite book |author=Adams, Douglas |editor-first=Geoffrey | editor-last=Perkins |others=Additional Material by M. J. Simpson |title=[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts]] |page=10 |edition=25th Anniversary |publisher=Pan Books |year=2003 |isbn=0-330-41957-9}}</ref><ref name="Deep#">{{cite web |last=Agustin |first=Francis |date=2025-03-03 |title='Lying drunk in a field': Douglas Adams on the unlikely origins of the cult space comedy that inspired Elon Musk |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250226-the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-the-quirky-radio-show-that-became-a-phenomenon |access-date=2025-03-09 |publisher=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Despite the original outline, Adams was said to make up the stories as he wrote. He turned to [[John Lloyd (producer)|John Lloyd]] for help with the final two episodes of [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Primary and Secondary Phases#The Primary Phase|the first series]]. Lloyd contributed bits from an unpublished science fiction book of his own, called ''GiGax''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Webb|2005a|p=120}}.</ref> Very little of Lloyd's material survived in later adaptations of ''Hitchhiker's'', such as the novels and the TV series. The TV series was based on the first six radio episodes, and sections contributed by Lloyd were largely re-written.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast the first radio series weekly in the UK starting 8 March 1978, lasting until April.<ref>{{cite news |last=Speed |first=Richard |date=9 March 2020 |title=Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42 |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/09/hhgttg_42/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20200321043011/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/09/hhgttg_42/ |archive-date=2020-03-21 |access-date=2025-03-09}}</ref> The series was distributed in the United States by [[NPR|National Public Radio]]. Following the success of the first series, another episode was recorded and broadcast, which was commonly known as the Christmas Episode. [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Primary and Secondary Phases#The Secondary Phase|A second series]] of five episodes was broadcast one per night, during the week of 21–25 January 1980.

While working on the radio series (and with simultaneous projects such as ''[[The Pirate Planet]]'') Adams found difficulty in keeping to writing deadlines; the problem became worse as he proceeded to publish novels. He was never a prolific writer and usually had to be forced by others to do any writing. This included being locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks to ensure that ''[[So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish]]'' was completed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Felch|2004}}.</ref> Adams was quoted as saying, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."<ref name=Simpson_236>{{harvnb|Simpson|2003|p=236}}.</ref> Despite the difficulty with deadlines, he wrote five novels in the series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992.

The books formed the basis for other adaptations, such as three-part comic book adaptations for each of the first three books, an interactive text-adventure [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (computer game)|computer game]], and a photo-illustrated edition, published in 1994. This latter edition featured a [[42 Puzzle]] designed by Adams, which was later incorporated into paperback covers of the first four ''Hitchhiker's'' novels (the paperback for the fifth re-used the artwork from the hardback edition).<ref>[http://www.iblist.com/series.php?id=2 Internet Book List] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060220065441/http://www.iblist.com/series.php?id=2 |date=20 February 2006}} page, with links to all five novels, and reproductions of the 1990s paperback covers that included the [[42 Puzzle]].</ref>

In 1980, Adams began attempts to turn the first ''Hitchhiker's'' novel into a film, making several trips to Los Angeles, and working with Hollywood studios and potential producers. The next year, the radio series became the basis for a BBC television mini-series<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081874/ |title=''The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy''|publisher=Internet Movie Database}}</ref> broadcast in six parts. When he died in 2001 in California, he had been trying again to get the film project started with [[Disney]], which had bought the rights in 1998. The screenplay was rewritten by [[Karey Kirkpatrick]] and the ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' film was released in 2005.

Radio producer [[Dirk Maggs]] had consulted with Adams, first in 1993, and later in 1997 and 2000 about creating a third radio series, based on the third novel in the ''Hitchhiker's'' series.<ref>{{cite book |author=Adams, Douglas |editor-first = Dirk |editor-last=Maggs |editor-link=Dirk Maggs |title=The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts: The Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases |publisher=Pan Books |year=2005 |isbn=0-330-43510-8 |pages=xiv |no-pp=true}}</ref> They also discussed the possibilities of radio adaptations of the final two novels in the five-book "trilogy". As with the film, this project was realised only after Adams's death. The third series, ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Quintessential Phases#The Tertiary Phase|The Tertiary Phase]]'', was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2004 and was subsequently released on audio CD. With the aid of a recording of his reading of ''Life, the Universe and Everything'' and editing, Adams can be heard playing the part of Agrajag posthumously. ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'' and ''Mostly Harmless'' made up the fourth and fifth radio series, respectively (on radio they were titled ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Quintessential Phases#The Quandary Phase|The Quandary Phase]]'' and ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Quintessential Phases#The Quintessential Phase|The Quintessential Phase]]'') and these were broadcast in May and June 2005, and also subsequently released on Audio CD. The last episode in the last series (with a new, "more upbeat" ending) concluded with, "The very final episode of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by Douglas Adams is affectionately dedicated to its author."<ref>Adams, ''Dirk Maggs'', p. 356.</ref>