The Hitchhiker

The Hitchhiker, a man of mystery traveling the land and being the Rod Sterling of the 1980's introducing stories that have great twists. I love HBO's first series that titillated and terrified. Great writing and one of the eeriest theme songs of all time.

I remember being eight years old and would wait till my mother went to bed. I really like the show. I use to get goosebumps just listening to the intro. Page Fletcher was the best doing the intros. The stories would keep you on your seat. Second guessing. Best show on USA Network next to La Femme Nikita, USA Saturday Nightmares, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Swamp Thing. Best thing about these shows was the fact they were made in the 80s. Best decade ever.

"The, Hitchhiker" had it all mixed into every episode a little suspense, drama, terror, revenge, sex, and fun. This series always kept you on the edge of your seat you never knew what was going to happen, every episode was well written and the acting was clever the series featured many movie stars and stars of other series. I remember watching most of my episodes of "The, Hitchhiker" in the early 90's on the USA Network it became an every Friday and Saturday night thing with me that was to tune in and watch "The, Hitchhiker". I remember that HBO originally started this series in the mid 80's and it lasted until 1989. Each episode starts out with the eerie theme music which in my opinion was one of the best in TV history. Then Page Fletcher who was just great as the hitchhiker starts each episode off with an introduction speech and then summarized the story with a closing speech in the end. Each episode was full of mystery and suspense one of my favorite was "The, Legendary Billy B." with Kirstie Alley as a nosy reporter who gets what she deserves. Almost every episode featured beautiful women and it's bulk of sexy moments. My favorite and most remembered was "Videodate" with the hot and sexy Shannon Tweed. I miss this series so much I wish that some network would once again start showing reruns. To my knowledge no network shows "The, Hitchhiker" reruns, I was told that certain episodes are available on VHS volume tape I wish I could find the tapes or someone would let me know where I could find the tapes at. "The, Hitchhiker" was one of my favorite series of all-time I suggest you watch many episodes if you haven't, you will be glad you did.

To get right down to it, this show makes Tales From the Crypt look like a Disney series. The main character almost always dies. It is hilarious to see them so arrogant and ignorant in the beginning and then have all of this horrible stuff eventually happen to them. Some of the episodes are a bit corny, but they are so in that bizarre, remote 80's way. I remember watching the re-runs on USA when I was in grade school (that song gave me nightmares), and those showings were edited. The unedited episodes are the real deal, but unfortunately only a few are for sale on VHS and they are no longer shown on any HBO channel. A DVD with ten episodes is due in March 2004, but with only ten episodes. If you are an enthusiast of the series, buy the DVD and maybe there will more to come.

This series played on Friday and/or Saturday nights through my youth and so it shaped me every bit as much as Tales From the Darkside, Ray Bradbury Theater, Friday the 13th the Series, Monsters, and other such programs. To my surprise, I recently found season one and two of The Hitchhiker on DVD at a local video store. I rented and re-watched them after more than a decade and found them to be not only happily nostalgic, but generally very entertaining (some, of course, being much better than others). There isn't much available on television any more that has the offbeat, cathartic campiness of every episode being taken from some short story of the horror or thriller genre. The Outer Limits is still on, but that's about it. While we're all in this dry spell of such programming, it is wonderful to find something like The Hitchhiker return on DVD (if not on TV).