The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC Radio 4 between 1978 and 1980, it was soon adapted to other formats, including both novels and comic books; a 1981 BBC television series; a 1984 text adventure game; stage shows; and a 2005 feature film. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an international multimedia phenomenon; the novels are the most widely distributed, having been translated into more than 30 languages by 2005. The first novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), has been ranked fourth on the BBC's The Big Read poll. The sixth novel, And Another Thing..., was written by Eoin Colfer with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams. In 2017, BBC Radio 4 announced a 40th-anniversary celebration with Dirk Maggs, one of the original producers, in charge. The first of six new episodes was broadcast on 8 March 2018. The broad narrative of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follows the misadventures of the last surviving Earth man, Arthur Dent, following the demolition of the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Dent is rescued from Earth's destruction by Ford Prefect—a human-like alien writer for the electronic travel guide The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy—by hitchhiking onto a passing Vogon spacecraft. Following his rescue, Dent explores the galaxy with Prefect and encounters Trillian, another human who was taken from Earth (before its destruction) by the President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Marvin the Paranoid Android. Certain narrative details were changed among the various adaptations.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.