Difference between revisions of "Douglas Adams"
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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 Lloyd contributed bits from an unpublished science fiction book of his own, called ''GiGax''.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>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>[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/09/hhgttg_42/ “Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42”]. ''The Register''. Retrieved 12 March 2020</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 developed problems keeping to writing deadlines that got worse as he published novels. Adams 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>Felch 2004</ref> He 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, Adams wrote five novels in the series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992.
Douglas Adams created an [[interactive fiction]] version of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (computer game)|HHGG]]'' with [[Steve Meretzky]] from [[Infocom]] in 1984. In 1986 he participated in a week-long brainstorming session with the [[Lucasfilm Games]] team for the game ''[[Labyrinth: The Computer Game|Labyrinth]]''. Later he was also involved in creating ''[[Bureaucracy (computer game)|Bureaucracy]]'' as a parody of events in his own life.
Adams was a founder-director and Chief Fantasist of [[The Digital Village]], a digital media and Internet company with which he created ''[[Starship Titanic]]'', a [[Software and Information Industry Association#CODiE Awards|Codie award]]-winning and [[BAFTA#Games Awards|BAFTA-nominated adventure game]], which was published in 1998 by [[Simon & Schuster]].<ref name="bbc.co.uk">BBC Online (no date) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/dna/biog.shtml "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: DNA (1952-2001)"] Accessed 9 July 2014</ref><ref>Botti, Nicolas (2009). [http://www.douglasadams.eu/en_adams_bio.php "Life, DNA & h2g2: Douglas Adams's Biography"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140901131941/http://www.douglasadams.eu/en_adams_bio.php |date= 1 September 2014 }} Accessed 9 July 2014</ref> [[Terry Jones]] wrote the accompanying book, entitled ''[[Starship Titanic|Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic]]'', since Adams was too busy with the computer game to do both. In April 1999, Adams initiated the [[h2g2]] [[collaborative writing]] project, an experimental attempt at making ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' a reality, and at harnessing the collective brainpower of the internet community. It was hosted by BBC Online from
In 1990, Adams wrote and presented a television documentary programme ''[[Hyperland]]''<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188677/ Internet Movie Database's page for ''Hyperland'']</ref> which featured [[Tom Baker]] as a "software agent" (similar to the assistant pictured in Apple's [[Knowledge Navigator]] video of future concepts from 1987), and interviews with [[Ted Nelson]], the co-inventor of [[hypertext]] and the person who coined the term. Adams was an [[early adopter]] and advocate of hypertext.
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