Trivia / The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981)

• Ability over Appearance: Douglas Adams himself liked Sandra Dickinson in the role of Trillian despite having a different appearance and accent as originally written, simply because he thought she was suited to the role.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Peter Davison came up with the idea for the Ameglian Major Cow to speak in a West Country accent, after concerns were raised in rehearsals that Davison's and Simon Jones' normal speaking voices sounded too similar.
• Budget-Busting Element: The TV adaptation had two disproportionately big spends on relatively small elements.
  • Firstly, the prosthetic second head for Zaphod Beeblebrox, which only intermittently worked, consumed more time and money than had been budgeted for.
  • Secondly, the animation sequences representing The Guide itself. These were done with conventional cel animation, to represent CGI which would in 1980 have been way ahead of what computing could actually do. This also cost a bomb — but did work.
• Corpsing: Simon Jones is fighting back laughter when yelling at the council workers demolishing his home.
• Looping Lines: As shown in the "making of" special, Arthur and Ford looped the lines when the Vogon fleet shows up because the wind machine made too much noise. In the outtakes, they have trouble understanding each other.
• The Other Darrin: The series retained almost all the cast from the radio series with two exceptions - David Dixon replaced Geoffrey McGivern as Ford because McGivern did not suit the role visually and Sandra Dickinson replaced Susan Sheridan as Trillian when she became unavailable.
• The Other Marty: Douglas Adams made a cameo as the man who walks naked into the ocean when the original actor called in sick.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The background characters in the restaurant at the end of the universe are equipped almost entirely with costumes recycled from earlier episodes, and in particular from the various Guide entries, thus helping justify the expense of items which otherwise would have appeared on screen for only a few seconds each.
  • The leader of the G'Gugvunts is a Foamasi costume from the Doctor Who serial "The Leisure Hive" reused.
• Real-Life Relative: Sandra Dickinson's then-husband Peter Davison plays the Dish of the Day.
• Recycled Set:
  • The Vogon spaceship interiors were from Alien.
  • Part of the Heart of Gold bridge was from Blankety Blank.
• Throw It In!: The scene with Arthur and Slartibartfast in the pod-vehicle was shot in a tunnel with overhead lights that unavoidably reflected in the pod's windshield. Someone on the production crew had the brilliant idea of pairing a science-fictionish sound effect to each reflection as it slowly slid into view, perfectly disguising their mundane origin.
• Troubled Production: Douglas Adams described the creation of the series as "not a happy production. There was a personality clash between myself and the director. And between the cast and the director. And between the tea lady and the director." Said director, Alan Bell, puts the blame on Douglas, claiming they used to make lists of his ridiculous unfilmable ideas, to which Adams would reply that Bell "cheerfully admits he will say what suits him rather than what happens to be the case. And therefore there's no point in arguing." John Lloyd, the producer and co-writer of the radio show, was annoyed that he was made "associate producer" (he felt that the fact his credit literally explodes in the ending credits was a comment on how meaningless it was) and thought Bell was too concerned with getting things done efficiently, rather than getting them done right. The second series simply didn't happen: Adams wouldn't do it without Lloyd or Geoffrey Perkins; Bell wouldn't do it with them. It was suggested that Perkins could be script editor (since this would minimise his interaction with Bell), and he viewed the possibility of trying to wring scripts out of Adams under these conditions with horror. Adams then suggested replacing Bell with Pennant Roberts, who had directed several of his scripts on Doctor Who, but this was declined on the grounds that a writer having any say in the choice of director (or, for that matter, a drama director handling what was classed as a sitcom) simply wasn't done in those days. Nobody would back down, so...
• What Could Have Been:
  • At one point a second series was planned which would've been based on the unused Adams Doctor Who story idea that later formed the basis of Life, the Universe and Everything.
  • The BBC originally wanted the series to be filmed before a live studio audience, but it was pointed out that the volume of effects work required would have made this impractical. They then instead decided to dub a Laugh Track onto the series, going as far as recording one by showing the first episode at a science fiction convention, but were eventually talked out of it by Adams.

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