| Genre: | Anthology Horror Mystery |
| Starring: | Page Fletcher Nicholas Campbell |
| Composer: | Paul Hoffert Shuki Levy Michel Rubini Haim Saban |
| Country: | United States Canada France |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 6 |
| Num Episodes: | 85 |
| Executive Producer: | Lewis Chesler (1986–1987) Riff Markowitz (1986–1987) Richard Rothstein Jeremy Lipp Jacques Methe David Perlmutter |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes (approx) |
| Company: | Chester/Perlmutter/Markowitz Productions |
| Channel: | HBO (1983–1987) First Choice (1983–1987) USA Network (1989–1991) La Cinq (1989–1991) |
The Hitchhiker (also known as Deadly Nightmares in the United Kingdom and Le Voyageur in France)[1] is a mystery horror anthology television series. It aired from 1983 to 1987 on HBO, and First Choice and NTV in Canada. The series later moved to the USA Network from 1989 to 1991.
Each episode is introduced and concluded by a mysterious wanderer known only as "The Hitchhiker", and explores the foibles of humanity and its dark spirit. The title character was played by Nicholas Campbell from 1983-1984 (3 episodes), and Page Fletcher from 1984-1991 (82 episodes). There were a total of 85 episodes over six seasons (39 first runs on HBO and 46 first runs on USA).
The series was a United States/Canada/France co-production. It was filmed in Vancouver and Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Paris, France. The show was produced by Corazon Productions (Season 1 for a total of three episodes), Quintina Productions (Seasons 2-4 for a total of 36 episodes), and La Cinq, Atlantique & Quintina Productions (Seasons 5-6 for a total of 46 episodes).
The Hitchhiker was created by Lewis Chesler and Riff Markowitz, later joined by Richard Rothstein. The pilot episode consisted of three stories. Richard Rothstein wrote two and Jeph Loeb and Matt Weissman wrote the third.
Paul Hoffert created the theme music for the show.[2]
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Network | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 3 | HBO | |||
| 2 | 10 | ||||
| 3 | 13 | ||||
| 4 | 13 | ||||
| 5 | 26 | USA Network | |||
| 6 | 20 | ||||
Like the much earlier Twilight Zone series, with which it had a lot of other commonalities, The Hitchhiker served as starting point for many actors, some of whom would go on to gain greater recognition elsewhere. Notable cast members (in alphabetical order):
In 1995, The Hitchhiker entered syndication. To make the HBO episodes suitable for US broadcast television, edits were made, both for content (to remove nudity/gore/adult language) and for running time, to get them down to the standard 22-minute length needed to insert commercials. Reruns in foreign markets, such as Canada and Europe, often still contained the nudity/language/gore.
After 1983, (but prior to the 1995 syndication), the first three episodes had footage edited and/or re-shot to replace Nicholas Campbell with Page Fletcher, in order to preserve continuity during reruns. The Hitchhiker was syndicated by Rysher Entertainment (since absorbed by CBS Television Distribution) up until 2000.
Lorimar Home Video released four VHS volumes of HBO episodes to the rental market in 1987 (a trade ad for the first two volumes confirms those were also released on Beta format). Volume 1 contained "W.G.O.D", "The Curse" and "Hired Help". Volume 2 consisted of "Nightshift", "Dead Man's Curve" and "Perfect Order". The third volume had "Ghostwriter", "And If We Dream" and "True Believer". The final Lorimar tape had "Videodate", "Man's Best Friend" and "Face to Face". These four volumes were also issued on laserdisc the following year.
Budget label Goodtimes Home Video also released a single VHS volume containing three of the USA Network episodes in 1989. That tape contained "Her Finest Hour", "In Living Color" and "My Enemy".
HBO Home Video released a three-volume set on DVD between 2004–2006, featuring various episodes from the series. The two-disc, three-volume sets contain a selection of 30 episodes, most from the HBO-produced episodes but also including some that were made for the USA Network.[3] [4] [5]
In Australia, Volumes 1 and 2 were issued together in a single set, but instead of 20 episodes, the Australian set consists of only 17, leaving out "The Legendary Billy B.", "A Whole New You" and "Dead Heat".
In the United Kingdom, only the first HBO volume was released. This particular release contained nine episodes instead of 10. As with the Australian set, "The Legendary Billy B." is omitted from this release.
In Canada, Koch Entertainment (now known as Entertainment One) released Canadian seasons 1 and 3 (which correspond to US Seasons 1-3 and 5, respectively) on DVD in 2004.[6] [7] On October 18, 2005, Koch released The Complete Fourth Season (which corresponds to US Season 6).[8] According to Koch, the reason Canadian Season 2 (US Season 4) was not released was due to them not being able to find out who owned the Canadian distribution rights to those particular episodes.
Alliance Home Entertainment released The Hitchhiker: The Complete Collection on DVD in Canada for the very first time on October 11, 2011.[9] "The Complete Collection" is a bit misleading in that this does not contain all episodes (or even all of the HBO episodes). What is "complete" is that this release combines the three previously-released HBO Home Video volumes into one set.
Between the three HBO volumes and the Canadian season sets, all episodes of the show were released on home video except for "Minuteman" and "Doctor's Orders" (both of which came from US Season 4).
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Recipient | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Nominated | Actress in a Dramatic Series | Jenny Seagrove (For episode "Killer") | ||
| Actress in a Dramatic Series | Kirstie Alley (For episode "Out of the Night") | ||||
| Actor in a Dramatic Series | Michael O'Keefe (For episode "Man's Best Friend") | ||||
| Won | Actor in a Dramatic Series | Gary Busey (For episode "WGOD") | |||
| 1999 | Nominated | Best Sound in a Dramatic Program or Series | Tim Archer, W. Michael Beard, Rick Ellis, Thomas Hidderley, and Anthony Lancett |