The Hitchhiker (30 min.) HBO
Season 1 episodes 1-26 Nov 1983 to Apr 1986
Season 2 episodes 27-39 Feb - May 1987
Season 3 episodes 40-65 Apr-Dec 1989
Season 4 episodes 66-85 Sept 1990 - Feb 1991
This set, (Volume One) has 10 episodes:
24 Last Scene
14 Nightshift
46 The Miracle of Alice Ames
19 Ghostwriter
18 Man's Best Friend
17 W.G.O.D.
33 The Legendary Billy B.
31 Homebodies
30 Why Are You Here?
34 In the Name of Love
This series continued the 'wandering adventurer' style of storytelling wherein the main character is only a witness sharing his experiences. Like Route 66, The Fugitive, or The Incredible Hulk, to name a few, each story is unrelated to any other except by the conceptual vehicle of the perpetual wanderer. Like One Step Beyond or The Twilight Zone, The Hitchhiker himself is not a player in the tales. Occasionally stories involved supernatural forces, but most plot twists stemmed from the dark side of the human spirit.
In 1996, The Hitchhiker entered into syndication on the USA Channel and so was re-edited to remove the violence and/or nudity and sexuality that were featured on the HBO runs (and to make room for commercials). Originally the Hitchhiker was cast with Nicholas Campbell as the host, but Campbell was quickly replaced with Page Fletcher. In order to preserve continuity during the syndication runs, Campbell's scenes in the first three episodes were later re-shot with Fletcher. But because the character of the Hitchhiker initially had more interaction with the people in the stories, this caused certain scenes to appear very choppy.
There is a little confusion as to how many seasons the show actually ran since season one ran for two and a half years! The Hitchhiker ran for a total of seven and a half years with a ten month break between season one and two, and a two year break between two and three. There were a total of 85 episodes over four seasons on HBO (six seasons on USA Channel). The series is available on DVD in two different versions. The HBO two-disc sets for sale in the US contain episodes that are out of sequence to their original US broadcast order. The Canadian DVD box sets by Alliance Atlantis have the episodes arranged by season in the same order in which they were broadcast in Canada. The Hitchhiker, Volume 1 (HBO TV Series)
This was a spooky, gory and weird series that truly pushed the limits of HBO at the time. Kind of like The Outer Limits mixed with Tales From The Crypt, it features a hitchiker that kind of "introduces" a new story every episode. Many famous faces and directors got a start on this series. HBO used to run this show at about 11:00 at night to make sure all the kids were asleep!
Wow, there's a great collection of talent there! With episodes featuring award-winning actors such as Helen Hunt and Joe Pantoliano, and participation from fan-favorite director Paul Verhoeven, this surely is a must-have for any DVD collectorKoch Canada will release The Complete First Season on DVD April 20th. This 3 disc set will contain 26 episodes The show must have aired differently in Canada because what Koch considers the first season is actually the first 3 seasons according to the episode guide at EPGuides.com. It's not all good news though; the people at Koch Canada said that they don't own the Canadian rights to the second Canadian season so they're unable to release those episodes.
What a great volume and for the price it's available it's a steal!!!!
Well of course had to wait a year or two for it but I am a very patient person.
I remember this show briefly way before HBO was known as it today for their cable programs. This DVD set looks great the episode looks crisp and clear. The special features could have been better but we do get director's commentary on several episodes.
All the episodes were memorable. I liked the Paul Verhoeven episode, the Kirstie Alley episode "Legend of Billy B" I think it was called was a laugh a minute. I also loved the episode with Helen Hunt a pretty clever use of moving the camera on and off. What else the episodes with James Remar "Home Bodies" was also memorable. The episode with Joe Pantoliano "Miracle of Alice Ames" about the phony preacher was great. Margot Kidder as the diabolic nurse in "Nightshift" was also funny, realistic and entertaining. All the episode feature first rate actors who went on to do bigger things. I really do hope they continue to release more volumes.
I remember seeing this late at night on HBO, and not really liking or understanding any of the stories. I just tuned in to see some naked women. The stories? It was stuff that was over my head. I just didn't get how anybody could shoot this stuff, and why on earth anyone would make up these awful stories.
In retrospect it's a kind of criminal-drama meets the Twilight Zone. It shows people acting just plain wacky and insane. Driven way beyond sanity by something I don't think the lay audience member, me included, understand.
At least with Rod Serling you understood that normal people were in over their heads in extraordinary circumstances. In The Hitchhiker, it's like these people make these really psychotic circumstances for the sake of it.
Fond memories of naked women from my youth, but beyond that I think the drama is just out there. I bought the DVD set some years back thinking to relive some memories, and watching it with a more intelligent and critical eye I'm a little baffled as to who the target audience is. But, whatever. I tuned in for the naked babes, not the wackos which creep me out even more now than then.
In retrospect some of it is kind of hammy as well. An erotic thriller series, to me, wouldn't involve nut-cases and psychos. But I guess someone had to do it. - 1980s - Horror Anthology - Gary Busey - Tv Series'
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