Bad power outage indicates "Life, The Universe and Everything" are doomed!

[Tusk]

RE: Douglas Adams/ Monty Python et al.

What I appreciated about their humor was, most of the time, it required a modicum of thought and a wider perspective than the societal morays of the States would allow. Their humor went beyond, set-up then punch line (and maybe a prat fall and a pie in the face). George Carlin and Richard Pryor come to mind as exceptions to that though....

Of Course the Brits had Benny Hill too, so were not beyond pratfalls and pretty girls for a laugh

I actually 'discovered' Douglas Adams, originally, by listening to the BBC radio Broadcast (I found out these were done, BEFORE, the book was published, and the original BBC TV Show). We were not well off and this was free entertainment.

Adams later published the story, and there have been different iterations of the original story performed on radio. (He also wrote episodes for Doctor Who, which, as a kid in the UK, I was a HUGE fan of)

(Trivia...the Muppet Show actually started in England, Jim Henson's Idea for the show was rejected by the TV producers in the States, so he went to the British and they accepted him...I believe it was ITV and not BBC....We had 3 stations then, BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV.)...That means The Muppet shows I was watching were the original airings .

I actually found the radio show posted on youtube (although I suspect it's not the 'original' broadcast because it sounds like they use different 'actors' than I remember). I was going to post them, but figured most would find them uninteresting or too 'different' aka boring. As you say, an 'acquired' taste for anglophiles. Also, the days of listening to 'radio shows' have long passed and 'boring' for most nowadays.

If you're interested, and a fan of Adams, it's a fun listen (I'll post them in order, the uploader has them listed out of order on his channel) Adams does some of the intro narration.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjMqoLBIaek&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGLFweev_iI&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kzrqfF4wEc&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XtOfCFS8Lk&feature=plcp

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvQvsWXNouk&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvQvsWXNouk&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glgh9smNAmA&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetOltoX7rQ&feature=plcp

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetOltoX7rQ&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetOltoX7rQ&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetOltoX7rQ&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetOltoX7rQ&feature=plcp

Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetOltoX7rQ&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetOltoX7rQ&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdmq23M9cpM&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zCCpeGjAJw&feature=plcp

Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7U0XvQmJmI&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WXHoF9--as&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pa-AZBK0mM&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVuMarAB95c&feature=plcp

Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_6-8BDm3-g&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sorl5jhBNNk&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32FCR7esarM&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLeBn2_W42U&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Me670UQ5QQ&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Me670UQ5QQ&feature=plcp


The actor playing Zaphod is terrible...I think he's trying to affect an American accent (He overdoes his '....errrrs") ...that's why I said I'm not sure this was the version I listened to years ago. I haven't listened to the whole thing, though so the list may be incomplete

Another piece of trivia: The music Adams chose, and has now become synonymous with the Hitchhiker's series, was a composition by the American group, The Eagles..."Journey of the Sorcerer" .

So typical that Adams would use an instrumental banjo composition by an American rock/country group as the theme song for his story about Hitchhiking Englishmen in Space



Incidentally, I also found a full version of the recent movie version of HHGTTG on youtube



A piece of Trivia about the movie: In the original tracking, "Deep Thought" reveals the answer to the question of "Life the Universe and Everything" at the 42 minute mark of the movie...clever (It's a few seconds off in this youtube). The movie obviously had to be compressed and cut a lot out of the story. It's a little too Americanized for me, and not enough British, nevertheless, a valiant effort.