The long-awaited DVD release of the original 1981 BBC series, chronicling the first two books of the "trilogy," was released on May 2, 2002 as a 2-disc set.
Disc 2 contains the following:
- The Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Kevin Davies' hour-long documentary from 1993. Packed with unbroadcasted and archive material, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Mark Wing Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Sandra Dickinson (Tricia "Trillian" McMillan), Douglas Adams (author) and Alan J. W. Bell (director).
- Don't Panic!: Kevin Davies revists his footage from "The Making of..." documentary, to bring together a further 20 minutes of interviews and other material that didn't make it into the final program.
- Douglas Adams Omnibus: A profile of the late Douglas Adams - creator of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Features contributions from many of his famous callaborators and friends, such as Stephen Fry, Terry Jones, Clive Anderson and Griff Rhys Jones.
- Introduction by Peter Jones: The first episode was screened to a selected audience at the National Film Theatre, and features a specially recorded introduction by voice-of-the-book Peter Jones - his only on-screen appearance in his "Hitchhiker's" capacity. (The "laughter-track" idea was dropped after this one episode experiment.)
- Communicate!: As part of a BBC Education program, cameras were given access to the radio studios of "Hitchhiker's" during the production of the second series, just in time to record things going not-terribly-well with the Nutrimatic Drink Dispenser scene... share and enjoy!
- Original Trailer: The BBC2 trailer for the first episode of "Hitchhiker's."
- Deleted Scene: A short sequence cut from Episode Two prior to transmission.
- Behind-the-scenes: The final minutes of studio recording for Episode Two on Saturday, November 8, 1980 were a fraught affair, with time seriously running out. A 15-minute overrun was formally agreed to but it still meant lights-out at 10:15PM, whether the scene was completed or not. Watch the timecode as it counts down towards the cut-off point of 22:15:00 and you'll begin to feel some of the tension experienced by all concerned...
- Tomorrow's World: At the time, Zaphod Beeblebrox's second head was at the cutting edge of robot animatronics. The February 12, 1981 edition of the BBC's long-running science program took a closer look...
- Pebble Mill at One: An appearance by animator Rob Lord and producer/director Alan J. W. Bell on the January 23, 1981 edition of the program, talking about "Hitchhiker's" with Donny McLoud. This footage is sourced from the only surviving off-air recording.
- Out-takes
- Photo Gallery
The aspect ratio is the same as the original broadcast (4:3), as it was never shown on a movie screen and thus, no aspect ratio modifications have ever been made on the series.
Written by Douglas Adams
Produced and Directed by Alan J. W. Bell
Starring Simon Jones, David Dixon, Sandra Dickinson and Mark Wing Davey
And Featuring the voice of Peter Jones
All of the above refers to the Region 1 DVD release, as it's all I've got access to. The individual disc infos were gathered from the inlay card and the back of the case.