Not to be confused with the ’80s thriller starring Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell, The Hitchhiker was a popular HBO series in the network’s earlier years. An anthology series in the tradition of The Twilight Zone – but with nudity and swearing – the show had a total of 85 episodes. Unfortunately, in the United States, HBO only released three volumes on DVD. And of those three volumes only included a total of 30 of the 85 episodes.
Canadians fared a little better. Back in 2004, Koch (now eOne) released both Season 1 and Season 3. The second season was unreleased because the rights for that year weren’t part of the studio’s licensing agreement. Now all versions are out of print and can only be found used or on Ebay.
But there is a silver lining for fans of this anthology series (which included guest stars like Kirstie Alley, Karen Black, Gary Busey, Peter Coyote, Willem Dafoe, Brad Dourif, Louise Fletcher, Elliott Gould, Bruce Greenwood, C. Thomas Howell, Helen Hunt, Lauren Hutton, Margot Kidder, Lorenzo Lamas, Kelly Lynch, Virginia Madsen, Darren McGavin, Belinda Montgomery, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jerry Orbach, Joe Pantoliano, Bill Paxton, James Remar, Tom Skerritt, Gene Simmons, Shannon Tweed, and Robert Vaughn, among others). Amazon.ca has a new pre-order listing for The Hitchhiker – The Complete Collection. It will be available in beginning May 24th courtesy of Alliance Films Media. Though the studio hasn’t formally announced the release, Amazon.ca is showing a list price of CDN$57.99 (but is currently taking orders for it at CDN$40.49).
The good news for those in the states, the DVDs will work fine since both Canada and the United States have Region 1 players.
And if anyone needs a refresher to The Hitchhiker TV series, check out the series intro with a pitch-perfect music score.
