New Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy TV show for Hulu

With the not-Lindelof Lost showrunner involved. But more importantly, no Max Landis.

https://deadline.com/2019/07/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-tv-series-in-works-at-hulu-from-carlton-cuse-jason-fuchs-1202652440/

Maybe it’ll be good. There’s plenty of reasons why they should be able to do a good adaptation.

name one

i actually really liked the Dirk Gently adaptation, but yeah it's really tainted now by the Max Landis association.

TV series could be decent if they can nail the pacing/tone (though haven't been impressed by anything Cuse has done since LOST). The HHG2G movie had the right cast, but all the wrong energy.

the radio show by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd is great

the LP series by Douglas Adams and Geoffrey Perkins is great

the novels by Douglas Adams are mostly great

the computer game by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretsky is great

the TV series by Alan JW Bell, Douglas Adams and John Lloyd is OK

--

the novel by Eoin Colfer is useless

the radio series by Dirk Maggs are unnecessary-to-dire

the film by Hammer & Tongs is awful

the comic by Steve Leialoha and.... [googles] John Carnell? (wtf) is atrocious

--

I'm prepared to believe that the stage adaptation by Ken Campbell was good. I'm never going to listen to the audio of the stage adaptations by Dirk Maggs And His Amazing Beard.

if only there were some hint of what makes versions of Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy worthwhile. some common point, some indicator... hmmm.

More importantly, does the story and the jokes even work in the current state of madness? I love Adams' writing, but a 2020-era Arthur Dent would have voted for Brexit.

Hotblack Desiato are still fleecing* people in north London so there’s one joke that will still work.

https://hotblackdesiato.co.uk/

*No personal experience here I’m just going on the assumption that estate agents=they are fleecing people

One thing forgotten in sic's list up there -- the spoken word/books on tape versions. Strangely, I still never have heard Adams's own readings, but Stephen Moore (original Marvin) did the first four books over the eighties, and even though they're all abridged one way or another they might almost be my favorite versions of the story -- thanks to some extra production his Marvin for those readings is arguably even more electronically zoned and depressed, while he gives every character his own spin and, great as Peter Jones was, may rival him as the best narrator/voice of the guide.

Steven Moore's reading of So Long And Thanks For All The Fish is one of my favourite things of all time.

I treasure, honestly, the way he talks about how the sun shone down on the burglars of Islington.

I used to use that exact bit on mixtapes!

Memorably one for a girl who lived in Islington

Love the TV show, flaws and all

I Googled what Dirk Maggs looks like and fucking yikes

More importantly, does the story and the jokes even work in the current state of madness? I love Adams' writing, but a 2020-era Arthur Dent would have voted for Brexit.

It's been years since I read or thought about the book but isn't Arthur's thing basically an extreme dislike of any form of disruption? Without going into the world of fanfic I find that pretty unlikely.

i'm not usually given to parochialism but an adaptation of this material by americans feels... wrong

I Googled what Dirk Maggs looks like and fucking yikes

how bad could it be, i thought

this bad, turns out

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dirkmaggs.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2FDirk-Lecturing-at-Bournemouth-University-945x576.jpg&f=1

More importantly, does the story and the jokes even work in the current state of madness? I love Adams' writing, but a 2020-era Arthur Dent would have voted for Brexit.

It's been years since I read or thought about the book but isn't Arthur's thing basically an extreme dislike of any form of disruption? Without going into the world of fanfic I find that pretty unlikely.

― Matt DC, Thursday, July 25, 2019 9:50 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah i mean, arthur dent definitely doesn't vote at all, not even to prevent his home from being bulldozed.

Never heard any of the audiobooks! Bootleg streams of the decades-out-of-print Moore versions here.

I thought the Dirk Maggs-produced radio dramas of the last three books were amazing, listen to them all the time. Movie was flawed but is so watchable. Eoin Colfer's book was so bad it was offensive.

I like the movie. Not as much as the original BBC TV series but as onscreen adaptations go I thought it was fine.

Can't see how they can possibly cast the new TV show was well as the movie though, Mos Def is the Jeremy Brett of Ford Prefects.

I also thought the movie was fine.

I had all the Stephen moore read audiobooks as a kid and it is the canonical version as far as I am concerned. It’s how I first encounters the series. I’m going to enjoy listening to those bootlegs. I was very disappointed I couldn’t find anything but there Stephen fry read versions recently.

I ripped copies of my cassette versions of the Moores a while ago, and very glad I did.

wow, was very excited about the Stephen Moore audiobooks but immediately hit a close-mic'd saliva and prominent breathing roadblock

(admittedly maybe i'm outing myself as a non-regular audiobook guy here and/or some sort of ASMR phobic)

TV series could be decent if they can nail the pacing/tone

The ancient BBC adaptation did pretty well on this front right? (admittedly my memories of it are dim)

Sort of, in that they copied the radio show exactly. Sort of not, in that the cheesiness of the live-action production is a bit distracting.

the radio show by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd is great

the LP series by Douglas Adams and Geoffrey Perkins is great

the novels by Douglas Adams are mostly great

the computer game by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretsky is great

the TV series by Alan JW Bell, Douglas Adams and John Lloyd is OK

--

the novel by Eoin Colfer is useless

the radio series by Dirk Maggs are unnecessary-to-dire

the film by Hammer & Tongs is awful

the comic by Steve Leialoha and.... (googles) John Carnell? (wtf) is atrocious

--

I'm prepared to believe that the stage adaptation by Ken Campbell was good. I'm never going to listen to the audio of the stage adaptations by Dirk Maggs And His Amazing Beard.

if only there were some hint of what makes versions of Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy worthwhile. some common point, some indicator... hmmm.

― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 25 July 2019 06:51 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This is all really otm imo. My bugbear in particular is how terrible the radio adaptation of my favourite novel (SLATFATF) is.

It's been years since I read or thought about the book but isn't Arthur's thing basically an extreme dislike of any form of disruption? Without going into the world of fanfic I find that pretty unlikely.

Of course it's fanfic, but my real fanfic is a 67 year old Adams who is still around to write a third or fourth sequel to Last Chance To See while also taking apart the techbro libertarians who loved Hitchhikers, Bureaucracy, Hyperland, and grew up to smash the state.

I would like to think that he would have turned on Richard Dawkins, hate to see him talking about "my friend Douglas" all the fucking time.

TV series of Last Chance To See with Stephen Fry was truly abysmal, even in the first episode it had turned into "Stephen being scared of creepy crawlies in the Amazon"

no thanks!

disagree strongly about SLATFALF radio show, it is my favorite out of all them (that book is too, but that just means I had really high expectations for the radio show, which it exceeded)... and Mostly Harmless radio show was better than the book, which I found excessively grim.

SLATFALF is IMO clearly the best book of the series as much as Harmless is the worst. I haven't listened to either the audiobooks or the radio adaptations of either, and havne't listened to the original radio show in over 25 years (probably been that long since I saw the TV series too). I thought the movie was just a really missed opportunity; the jokes didn't work for whatever reason, and it was just joyless. What I'd like to see is a remake of the original series, using as much of the original scripts as possible, with embellishments and modern production values. I'd be totally fine if they were able to get Mos Def back to redo Ford too...why not?

Apart from WW, everything Fuchs has been involved in looks terrible.

https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140518/18050/10-facts-about-disney-s-big-thunder-mountain-tv-series-almost-was

I thought Mos Def was dreadful, proper panto acting

Taking LCTS on holiday next week - apparently it’s good?

The books are like Python shows IMO - lots of all-time solid gold bits in the middle of long dry stretches. Ive never read SLATFATF though - maybe I should!

SLATFATF is the one that is most like an actual novel and less like a lot of little bits strewn together.

SLATFATF -- which as a term sounds like Slartibartfast's name drunkenly slurred -- will always now sadly miss out on the fact that Wonko the Sane was clearly meant to be played BY David Bowie in some sort of adaptation.

I've just remembered how shit Mostly Harmless was

Lots of Adams fans in my family. I spent a summer holiday in 1992 avoiding telling them that I’d finished Mostly Harmless because the ending bummed me out too much

Read SLATFATF after the recommendations in this thread - yes, it’s very silly, but also lovely, and would’ve made an infinitely better conclusion than Mostly Harmless - the ending is just as bleak and nihilistic, in a way, but much less cheap. I loved this, too:

<I>But his smile when he turned it on you was quite remarkable. It seemed to be composed of all the worst things that life can do to you, but which when he briefly reassembled them in that particular order on his face made you suddenly feel “Oh. Well, that’s all right then.”</i>

I always saw it as the conclusion. When I first encounters the books there were four of them. Those other books have never counted.

Yeah I have an omnibus with the first four and "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" -- all I need, really.

Mostly Harmless is quite good, it's just really dark... like, I remember being both appalled at the choices he'd made (making the guide evil, annihilating Fenchurch) but also admiring how cool the story concept was. Also to be fair, if I recall at the time he was heartily sick of writing Hitch-hiker's novels, so he decided to end things decisively. Spiritually, SLATFATF is the conclusion.

Mostly Harmless was awful! A bitter, annoying book.

The only bit I liked was the sandwich making

I think of Hitchikers/Restaurant as one book, and the best one.

Mostly Harmless came so long after the others... if he was sick of Hitchhikers, and (seemingly) hated writing novels, I’m not sure why he didn’t... not write it?

Meaning of Liff is Adams’ best book imo

Haven’t read L Chance... though

Mostly Harmless came so long after the others... if he was sick of Hitchhikers, and (seemingly) hated writing novels, I’m not sure why he didn’t... not write it?

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewrap.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F04%2Fsimpsons-memes-money-can-be-exchanged-for-goods-and-services.jpg&f=1

Last Chance is good but original radio series is better, much like first HHGTG books.

An animator has started doing his own version and putting it on youtube. It's pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qWjTkrzVk4

the dirk gently thing was so shockingly bad and annoying it was as well to be dr who

better or worse than the Dr Who serials Douglas Adams wrote

dr who cares

Dr 42

dr shruggles

mostly charmless