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I first uploaded these to Soundcloud in 2016. Blogged about that here I used HappyScribe to transcribe.

artlung · Douglas Adams interviewed by Larry King, 1987

Larry King: The Larry King show features interviews with interesting guests, telephone calls from across North America, and is a presentation of the Mutual Broadcasting System. And now the host of the program, here's Larry. Thanks very much, Paul. Welcome back to another hour, the Larry King Show. And they're starting to call in already, folks. If you'd like to get in early to talk to our next guest, we'll meet Douglas Adams in a moment, the man who has sold 10 million books, who wrote that incredible trilogy, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a new one. It's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, published in the United States by Simon and Schuster. If you'd like to talk to Douglas Adams, want to call in early, the number is 703-685-2177. Our guest in the first hour was Princess Allen in a fascinating study of espionage in World War II. Tomorrow night, that wonderful actress and president of Actors Equity, Colleen Dewhurst, will be our special guest. This is the Larry King show in Washington. We welcome to our microphones Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and now Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Have you toured America before?
Douglas Adams: Oh, over and over, yeah.
Larry King: This is a regular trip because we have not met.
Douglas Adams: Right.
Larry King: And ask you to move. How did this whole thing come about for you? What?
Douglas Adams: Well, Hitchhiker. Hitchhiker actually started on radio, I have to say. I mean, I was. I only reckoned I was going to be a script writer. I mean, that's what I intended to be. Well, actually, originally I wanted to be a writer, performer, because I'd. When I started, when I was at Cambridge University, I reckon my role models were really. I mean, I was very. I was a great fan of the Pythons, you see, and I'm sometimes associated with them, I should say is not the case because they're 10 years older than me.
Larry King: And Hitchhiker's was a radio show?
Douglas Adams: That's right. And so I. It was, I think, a couple years after I left university, I've been working. I've been doing bits and pieces on radio here and there and a few sketches here and there. And really, it hadn't. Hadn't gone too well, actually. And I'd had to sort of eke out a living doing various odd things, like being a bodyguard for an Arab royal family and this kind of stuff. And then I'd had the idea, actually, for ages of doing that comedy, sound fiction was a good thing to go for, but it was hard to get anybody interested in doing it. You know, you'd go to one department at the BBC and they'd look at the idea and say, well, this has got jokes in it. Okay. This is for the comedy department, you know, if you'd gone to the drama department, so you'd go along to the comedy department and they say, well, look, this has got robots and spaceships in it. That's drama. You have to take it down the corridor to them. And eventually I found a producer who was interested and it started going out on radio. And I'm certainly in England, although a lot of people listen to the radio.
Douglas Adams: You never really know who is listening or if there is anybody. You know, you get a couple of letters.
Larry King: Was it called the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ?
Douglas Adams: That's right, yeah.
Larry King: What's called that?
Douglas Adams: And so it was about 18 months after that that the book came out.
Larry King: Who decided? Was that your decision? Let's make it a book.
Douglas Adams: Well, a publisher came to see me and sort of took me out to the pub for lunch, gave me a pint of beer and said, you know, I heard the show, I thought it was quite good, you know, how do you fancy doing a book? You know.
Larry King: Did the book take off right away?
Douglas Adams: Yes. I mean, this was. This is the big breakthrough. This was what really sort of caught everybody by surprise, particularly me, because it went into the national bestseller list on its first week at number one and.
Larry King: Just stayed there and right over to the United States as well.
Douglas Adams: That took a couple of years longer.
Larry King: Why?
Douglas Adams: Well, I think it was after we'd done a television series based on it that it actually began to break over here. It started out, you know, it did get on a few National Public Radio stations over here and caused a little sort of local interest here and there. But it was only when it got on television over here that it really began to take off.
Larry King: The book. Took off here as well, right, yes. And then that followed with. You've done how many books altogether?
Douglas Adams: This is the fifth one. So the first one was the trilogy and then, yeah, it was a four part trilogy. I mean, it was a trilogy for enumerates. I lost count.
Larry King: Doug's a little weird. And then, so long. Thanks for all the fish.
Douglas Adams: That was the fourth one.
Caller: Yeah.
Douglas Adams: So it was like Restaurant at the End of the Universe was the second one. Life, the Universe and Everything was the third and so long. Thanks.
Larry King: And now have you come back to Earth with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency?
Douglas Adams: Well, it is back to Earth. Frequently. I sort of get asked by people, you know, who want to be Writers, have I got any advice? And my advice always is very, very simple, which is do not blow up the world in chapter one, because you're going to need it later. And, you know, this is the one I do in Hitchhiker.
Larry King: And so what is Dirk all about?
Douglas Adams: Well, it's. I ended up wanting. Because I'd done Hitchhiker, which was science fiction for about 10 years, I wanted to do something very different. First I decided I wanted to do a detect story because one of the things I think I have a lot of fun with is doing the sort of ambiguity between something which is apparently a very, very small detail which turns out to be of sort of immense consequence, and on the other hand, something which is apparently sort of catastrophic, a huge event which turns out to be completely irrelevant. And that kind of thing actually is very much a stock in trade. The detective novel. Then the next day I thought, actually, what I'd really like to do is a ghost story. But I'd like to do a ghost story from the point of view of the ghost, because ghost of get bad press. I mean, they're true, they're maligned. Right. And then the next day I thought.
Larry King: I wanted a horror story.
Douglas Adams: That's right. And then I wanted to do a. A computer thriller. And in the end, by the end of the week, I'd had a lot of different ideas and I thought, well, I'll put them all together. And I.
Larry King: Are they correct in describing it as a ghost, horror, detective, time travel, romantic comedy, epic?
Douglas Adams: That's right. It's a new genre. And this is the only book in the genre, so.
Larry King: A new genre. This is the beginning of the genre. Okay, explain what in all of this holistic has to do with. Well, holistic is a form of healing, is it not?
Douglas Adams: Well, if you put a W in front of it, you begin to get a sense of what the word actually means.
Larry King: I see you've formed your own word, then. No, no, you don't mean.
Douglas Adams: The word is genuine, to be whole. Yeah. Yes, but for some reason, I don't know quite why, the word seems to have found its way into the dictionaries without a W on the front. But if you put a W in the front, you understand what the word means. It's a. It's a way of looking at things as holes rather than in parts. Jerk is the hero of a kind. Yes, he's the. He's a. He's a kind of detective. The.
Larry King: What do you mean kind of detect.
Douglas Adams: Well, there is a great tradition of detectives, and Dirk does Not belong to it.
Larry King: I see he's made this new genre. How would you describe him?
Douglas Adams: Well, Sherlock Holmes said that in an investigation, if you. Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the case. Dirk Gently does not like to eliminate the impossible. This is actually where he likes to get started.
Larry King: Our guest is Douglas Adams. Now, I will tell you, he's with us for only an hour. We're being flooded with calls. People called me a year ago, are you ever gonna have Douglas Adams on? So he's here. So I'm going to do something we don't normally do, folks, and we're going to bow to the audience. I'm going to let you talk to Douglas Adams immediately following these messages. The Larry King show is taking your calls now at 703-685-2177. That's 703-685-2177. Let the connection ring. We'll answer when it's your turn. And now, live from Washington D.C. here's Larry. Critics have described him everywhere, from wild, hysterical, imaginative, wacky, riotous and off the wall to irreverent and whatever else you. The man makes up genres. Douglas Adams is his name. He wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a four part trilogy, and now Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, which. Is this the start of a. Yeah.
Douglas Adams: Well, there's going to be at least one more. Who knows, I may be doing more after that.
Larry King: All right. To the cause. Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Hello, Douglas.
Caller: Are you going to do any more Doctor who? And I heard that you could do A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie.
Douglas Adams: Well, the hitchhiker, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie is definitely going into production next week. I should point out this is the same next week that it's been about to go into production for the last four years.
Larry King: You're lying about it, Right? Okay.
Douglas Adams: Well, I've been told for four years, I was told it's about to go into production. We're definitely making it. Definitely making it. But we don't have a director. A couple of weeks ago I was told. We've now got the director. We've definitely got the director, but we're no longer making the movie.
Larry King: Olympia, Washington. Hello.
Caller: Hi, Mr. Adams.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Caller: 2 quick questions. I saw some of the episodes on Public tv. How far did the series go and are they on cassette?
Douglas Adams: They're not on cassette. That's because of the film. Right. Situation. There were just six television episodes which More or less correspond very roughly with the first six radio episodes.
Caller: Okay. And circularity to the stories where you have the seemingly smallest incident may become major importance later on in the story. Do you know all of that in advance? I mean, how do you keep all of that straight?
Douglas Adams: Well, it's the first time anybody said I have managed to keep it straight. No, usually I try and know it all in advance, but by the time it actually gets written, it's gone on in a lot of different directions.
Larry King: It goes crazy.
Douglas Adams: Yeah. Right.
Larry King: Westfield, New Jersey. Jersey, for Douglas Adams. Hello.
Caller: Hello, Mr. Adams. Yeah, thank you for. I've read all your Arthur Demp books.
Douglas Adams: Yeah, they have.
Caller: What drawn me into science fiction and now I'm sort of a writer, but I'm only a student. I plan to be a writer when I grow up.
Larry King: What's the question?
Caller: And my question is I've noticed a lot of sneaker shops showing up around here and I was wondering what economic implications you see in that.
Douglas Adams: Obviously imminent collapse. Imminent collapse.
Larry King: Memphis, hello.
Caller: I have two quick questions. Where did you get the idea for the storyline for Hitchhikers? And are you planning to do any more work with Infocom?
Douglas Adams: Infocom? I'm going to be doing another computer game based on the second Hitchhiker book. I also want to do a computer game based on how to get your movie made in Hollywood, which I think will be the sort of greatest fantasy of the lot.
Larry King: Thank you. Memphis, hello. Or Green River, Wyoming. I'm sorry. Hello.
Caller: Hi, Larry Douglas. I'm a big fan of your books. My question for you is if you in fact do get around to making a movie next week.
Douglas Adams: Yeah.
Caller: Where exactly you'll be shooting it and if you need any help from a, well, an ex radio board operator.
Douglas Adams: Well, I think if it's about to be. To be made, then I will be involved on premiere night because I should be turning up, you know, with my black tie on between now and then. I'm not sure I will be that much involved. So I don't think I'm in the position to be able to employ people. But thanks for the offer.
Caller: Okay.
Larry King: Thank you. Seattle. Hello.
Caller: Hi, Douglas.
Douglas Adams: Hello. Hi.
Caller: At the end of the second radio series you just. You left the storyline wide open. I was wondering if you were going to continue that.
Douglas Adams: There are no plans at the moment. In fact, we have vaguely talked about doing life, the universe and everything on radio, but I think we would just sort of start at the beginning of the book and end at the end of the book and leave the second series just exactly where it was I Unsatisfactorily unfinished.
Larry King: We'll be right back with Douglas Adams. The new one is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. First these messages. Live from Washington D.C. here again Larry King with the famed, successful, erudite and genre forming novelist Douglas Adams, author of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Sylvan Lake, Michigan. Hello.
Douglas Adams: Good evening, gentlemen.
Larry King: Hi.
Caller: I was wondering if you could clear up a persistent rumor about the super ultra mega group Danger Zone. That they have kind of got caught in a seriously unstable time warp and they've totally blown themselves out of proportion, are currently playing 50s revival music in Ramadan.
Larry King: I think that's completely true, isn't it?
Douglas Adams: Something like that, yes.
Larry King: I think that is. That was reported though in the papers. Sir, please bring up something new. Philadelphia hello.
Caller: Hello, Mr. King. I think your show is really informative and you probably don't get too many 14 year old callers, but all right. Hello, Mr. Adams.
Larry King: We don't get a lot of 14 year old callers, so we welcome you to our improving list as you bring our age group down. Yes, sir, go ahead.
Caller: Thanks a lot, Mr. Adams. I've read everything that has to do with the Hitchhiker series. I just bought your new book and I'm also a big fan of Doctor who. You were the script editor for a short time.
Douglas Adams: I was the script editor for a season, yeah. It's funny. I mean, it's funny to see Doctor who having sort of caught on in this country just so recently because it started. And here's a piece of trivia for you. Do you know what else happened on the day that Doctor who first started going out in England? Do you know this?
Larry King: No, what?
Douglas Adams: It's also the day that President Kennedy was assassinated. It's an old show, so I was 11 when I started watching it. And then I started working on it, you know, when I watched it.
Larry King: 25 years next year. What's the question, sir?
Caller: All right. You wrote the story called Shot up, but it was finished because of a strike by the BBC.
Douglas Adams: That's right, yep.
Caller: Is that the end of it or will?
Douglas Adams: Yeah, that's the end of it.
Caller: Shown.
Larry King: Yep, that's the end. Brooklyn, New York hello, Douglas, this is.
Douglas Adams: Your old classmate from Brentwood, Matthew Matt Kimbrough.
Larry King: You bet.
Douglas Adams: Good heavens. Hello, Matthew. Hi, how are you?
Caller: How you doing?
Larry King: You guys went to school together?
Douglas Adams: Yeah, that's right, Yes.
Caller: I just called to find out first of all whether you got our wedding invitation or not.
Douglas Adams: No, I didn't because I sent it.
Caller: To Your agent and they didn't and they must not afford it to you. So next time you're in New York, give me a call.
Douglas Adams: Well, I had your number and you never answered it.
Caller: Huh?
Douglas Adams: Well, well, look, give. You leave. Leave a number with the radio station.
Larry King: I'll put you on hold and leave the number with our producer.
Caller: Oh, sure.
Douglas Adams: You okay? Matthew?
Larry King: Hold on, Matthew. All right, we go to St. Angelo, Texas. Hello?
Caller: Hello? Hi, Doug.
Douglas Adams: Hi, how are you doing? I'm very well. How are you?
Caller: Good. I enjoyed the Hitchhiker series very much. I'm looking forward to your. Your next books. I was wondering, since the Hitchhikers trilogy turned out to be a four part series, how much was. Was it for the writing or.
Douglas Adams: Ah, fair question. Going straight for the jugular here, eh? Well, there were a number of reasons why I did a fourth book and it was largely, if you really want to know, it was because I'd gone over to Los Angeles for a year to work on the movie, which then didn't happen. And it was actually the first really sort of dispiriting thing ever happened to me actually over there. And I came back to England really with tail between my legs and having sworn I wouldn't do another Hitchhiker book. I did it, I think slightly because I was running for cover, because I wanted to do something I thought I could do. It wasn't my favorite book, I have to admit that. And that was why I then took a break, did a number of different things, and then came back with a complete new book.
Larry King: All right. And that book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Brookvale, Connecticut.
Douglas Adams: Hello, Mr. Adams. Hello.
Caller: I just wanted to make. Well, I want to make a comment and a question. The first comment was that I started to read your books to get hints on the computer game.
Larry King: Didn't help?
Douglas Adams: No, no, absolutely not.
Caller: The question I had was are the audio tapes available from the BBC or whatever of the show?
Douglas Adams: Oh, well, that' interesting you should ask that because BBC Enterprises, which is one of the great, best, one of the worst misnamed organizations in the world, it's one of those kind of sort of self contradictory phrases like military intelligence. And anyway, BBC Enterprises have finally found out about the series. You know, they have a 10 year sort of gap, you know, before they find out about things. And we think they are now seriously intending to put out the whole 12 episodes on cassette. I don't suppose you'd be able to.
Larry King: Buy it anywhere but Saugus, Massachusetts. Hello.
Douglas Adams: Hi, Larry.
Caller: Hello.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Larry King: Great.
Caller: And Doug, I want You. For all the laughter you've given me, I have a two question, two part question.
Douglas Adams: The first one you mentioned Monty Python.
Caller: Was one of your favorite influences. Yeah.
Larry King: I was wondering if you ever planned.
Caller: To do anything with them. Especially Terry Gilliam.
Douglas Adams: Not Terry Gilliam.
Larry King: I love Terry. Well, you and he would be wild together.
Douglas Adams: Yeah, well, Terry Jones, actually is a great friend of mine. We see each other a great deal. And every now and then we think, why don't we do something together? And we do. We have lunch and we talk about what we might do together. And what we do together is. What we decide to do then is have lunch again. And it's, you know, it's a very happy professional relationship.
Larry King: That's where it stands, sir. Austin, Texas, with Douglas Adams.
Douglas Adams: Hello.
Caller: Yes, I'd like to ask Mr. Adams, if he. If they do get a movie into the works, how are they going to fit the whole Hitchhiker series into a short movie?
Douglas Adams: They won't. They won't.
Larry King: They're a long movie.
Douglas Adams: Not only will they not fit all of the Hitchhiker books in it, they said, I don't think they'll fit any part of any one of them in because of all the extra stuff they're putting in, which doesn't seem to have anything to do with what I write. But anyway.
Larry King: So you're not very confident that this epic will ever be filmed, are you? I don't know. Will it ever be filmed?
Douglas Adams: I don't know. I wouldn't. I don't know. I really don't. I mean, as I say, they've been promising me for four years it'll. It'll be made. It's funny, when I was out there, you know, I mean, it's. They. They said everybody in Hollywood is either up for a part or is writing a screenplay. Well, anyway, I was out in Hollywood to do this screenplay. That was what I'd moved out there for. Anyway. I bough a car and the salesman I bought the car from was saying, well, you know, I'm working on a movie, on a screenplay. And I found it very hard not to be a little patronizing, you know, because everybody was doing that. And that was what I was actually out there to do. But guess whose movie got made first?
Larry King: Holmes the Salesman.
Douglas Adams: Yes. When I tried to get the car service, I was told, no, he's left. He's gone to get his movie made.
Larry King: How about Kubrick directing it? He just finished.
Douglas Adams: I just see he got a new movie out. That's the first for years and years. I Didn't know anything about it.
Larry King: And he's your countryman. He doesn't fly. Goes see him. Douglas Adams is our guest. His new one is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It is billed for your reading pleasure as a ghost, hard detective, time travel, romantic comedy, epic and is a new genre, the first of its genre as Mr. Gently is the first of a new detective genre, therefore impossible to explain. We'll be back with our special guest, Douglas Adams. And more calls on the Mutual Broadcasting System. This is the Larry King show live from Washington, D.C. here again, Larry King. Thanks, Paul. Our guest is Douglas Adams. The book. His new one is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. He wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And we go to Adrian, Michigan. Hello.
Caller: Hello. I've been reading and listening to and playing and watching several different versions.
Douglas Adams: Sounds to me like you haven't got hold of the book. Bathtub. There was a hitchhiker bathtub.
Caller: No, I don't have that yet.
Larry King: What's the question?
Caller: Yes. All these different versions contradict each other.
Douglas Adams: Oh, yes.
Caller: And themselves.
Douglas Adams: I felt that was a very important thing that they should do.
Caller: Yes. And I was wondering which version, if any, you consider to be the real version.
Douglas Adams: The real version is the one I didn't write.
Caller: Oh, okay.
Larry King: Thank you. Good answer. Phoenix. Hello?
Caller: Hello? Yes, Mr. Adams, hello.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Caller: Hi. I've been a big fan of yours ever since the Trip TV program premiered here.
Larry King: And I've read all of the books.
Caller: And I have two questions for you. Number one is, where do you get the ideas for, like, the sub Eartha Machines, the Babel Fish, and characters like Zaphoid Beetlebrocks. And two, are you planning on making another book for the Hitchhiker's Guide?
Douglas Adams: No, there won't be another Hitchhiker book. I did one too many already. As for where the ideas, well, the ideas come from a mail order company in Indianapolis.
Larry King: So the secret is out. Thank you. Thank you. Arcane pies that Rochester, New York. Hello.
Caller: Pleasure to speak with you. After the sixth part of Hitchhiker's Guide that I heard on the radio, I knew there was going to be a seventh part the next week, but the announcer said it was the final episode. And I couldn't for the life of me think of how you could possibly get the characters out of that situation. I was really impressed.
Douglas Adams: Well, yeah. At the end of the first series, I mean. I mean, I only ever intended there were going to be six. So starting the seventh episode was extremely difficult.
Caller: Yeah. And I've Got one other question for you. You're of course the author of two of my favorite Doctor who episodes. When are we going to see those novel?
Douglas Adams: I don't think you are.
Caller: For shame.
Larry King: Major fruitions don't happen for you, right? I mean, you write your books, they don't get into films. Doctor who won't be a book, right?
Douglas Adams: Well, no, it would be a very, very minor fruition. That's the point.
Larry King: Kansas City, Missouri. Hello.
Caller: Yes, I have a couple of questions for Douglas.
Douglas Adams: Hello.
Caller: I was wondering if you ever get into the movie, actually, Are you planning on keeping the same actors that you had in the TV show?
Douglas Adams: I would love to. It's not actually to do with me, though, I'm afraid.
Caller: Okay, Just how much did you have to do with the Meaning of Lif with John Lloyd?
Douglas Adams: Well, I co authored it.
Caller: Did you just split it half and half or.
Douglas Adams: Pretty much. I would say it was about 50. 50. Yeah.
Caller: Okay.
Douglas Adams: And then I'm very glad to hear from anybody in the States who's actually heard of that book because it was one of my favorites and it really didn't sort of do do much over here.
Caller: Yeah, it took me a while to get it. I had to track it down.
Douglas Adams: Right. And then, well, everyone should go to the bookstore and demand a copy. Then maybe they'll get it back into print again.
Larry King: Thank you. Warren, Ohio. Hello.
Caller: Hi, Douglas.
Douglas Adams: Hello. Hi.
Caller: Look forward to the Hitchhikers movie. Out of the characters from the Hitchhiker's Gu to the Galaxy, is there any one character that has maybe some of your personality in it?
Douglas Adams: Yeah, Marvin.
Caller: Oh, great. And one last thing. My friend Diana up in Albany, New York was treated by gag. Hellfront hasn't been the same since.
Douglas Adams: Oh, dear. Oh, I'm sorry.
Larry King: We go to Albany. Hello.
Caller: Hi. That was an interesting start there. But my question is, in the recording of the Hitchhiker's Guide and the other books by the Library of Congress for the blind and visually handicapped, did they ever ask you even to read it for them?
Douglas Adams: No, they didn't, but the new book, Dirk Gently, I'm actually doing the reading for the cassettes.
Caller: You have any idea when it's going to be out?
Douglas Adams: I think. Well, I'm recording it towards the end of July, and I think they're having to get it out sometime. September, October. Great.
Caller: Thanks a lot.
Larry King: Okay, thank you. Lines open now. If you'd like to talk to Douglas Adams at 703-685-2177, the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Has a new one, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, published in the United States by Simon and Schuster. Lines open if you want to get in now. Los Angeles. Hello.
Caller: Yeah, hi, Douglas.
Douglas Adams: Hello.
Caller: I'd like to know where your towel is right now and where you got your favorite wine.
Douglas Adams: Where I got my what, sorry?
Caller: Your favorite towel.
Douglas Adams: Where I got my favorite towel. Well, I have no idea where my towel is. And this is actually where the phrase originated, because I was on holiday a few years ago with some friends in Greece, and every morning we would set out to go to the beach, and then there would be a long delay because Douglas could not find his towel. And I began to realize this is symptomatic of somebody who is an extreme disorganized character. And I actually evolved the phrase there that, you know, somebody who is an organized and together person. Somebody really knew who their tal was. And because that seemed to sort of strike a chord with people that ended up in the books, but I still never found out.
Larry King: Thank you very much To Clayton, New Mexico.
Douglas Adams: Hello.
Caller: Hello.
Douglas Adams: Hello. Hi.
Caller: I've been a very serious follower of.
Douglas Adams: Yours, of your serious one.
Caller: And I've even played your software computer game, which I think is excellent. And some people in my circles that I've discussed would say you're warped. I was just curious how you thought you were.
Douglas Adams: Would say I was what?
Caller: Warped.
Larry King: Warped.
Douglas Adams: Warped. Um, yes, probably a little. A little?
Larry King: You'd accept that?
Caller: Yeah.
Larry King: Oh, yes, Complimentary. Okay. Lowell, Massachusetts. Hello.
Caller: Yes, I have two questions for Douglas Adams. One, when does he think that his new book will be in America?
Larry King: It's Here now, twice on this show.
Caller: All right. And second one, what is one word that you would describe the whole Monty Python troop?
Douglas Adams: Uh, silly.
Caller: All right, good enough.
Douglas Adams: Okay, bye.
Larry King: Nice call. This is the Larry King Show. Our guest is Douglas Adams. The book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. He also wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Restaurant, the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe, and Everything is so Long. And thanks for all the Fish that Comprise the Galaxy trilogy. And now the Dirk Gently book, published by Simon and Schuster. Back after these messages. You're listening to the Larry King show live from Washington, D.C. here again, Larry King. Rome, Georgia, for Douglas Adams.
Douglas Adams: Hello, Larry.
Caller: I mean, Douglas.
Larry King: Hello.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Caller: I've read all four of your books. I love them. I think they're great. But I have one question.
Douglas Adams: Yeah.
Caller: In your fourth book, he lands back on Earth, but in the first book, you say that the Earth was destroyed.
Douglas Adams: That's right. You have to read the fourth book very carefully, to find out how it comes to be there again.
Caller: Okay. So thank you.
Douglas Adams: Okay. All right.
Larry King: Thank you. We go to Peterborough, New Hampshire. Hello.
Caller: Hello, Douglas.
Douglas Adams: Hello. Hi.
Caller: I just wanted to let you know that there's a lot of people up here in New Hampshire that love you.
Douglas Adams: Oh, it's not nice.
Caller: There's even people walking into school with towels under their arms. I just wanted to say that I really love your book. I think you're totally brilliant.
Douglas Adams: Oh, well, that's very nice of you. Thank you very much.
Caller: Thank you.
Larry King: Thank you. Love Letters in the Sand San Jose, California. Hello.
Caller: Hi. I'm basically a Lost in space man myself. But that two headed rocker character in the TV series with the one inflatable head, did you see any similarity between that character and Fon Hahn and Ollie.
Douglas Adams: North and what character?
Caller: You know, the inflatable head character. I think he was like a rocker type. He had real long dark hair.
Douglas Adams: Ziphod Bieber.
Caller: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw Ollie north and Fawn Hahn in that character. Did you see any similarities?
Douglas Adams: I can't hear the second name you're saying.
Caller: Fawn hall, secretary of Lieutenant colonel.
Douglas Adams: Oh, I beg your pardon. Yeah, well, I hadn't actually heard of Porn hall when I was writing that character. So I'm not. I don't immediately see the. See the similarity, no.
Larry King: Thank you. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hello.
Douglas Adams: Hello.
Larry King: I'm sorry? Vienna, Virginia. Hello.
Caller: Yes, I'm interested in knowing what part of Scandinavia should I go to to find Slaughter Barfast Name?
Douglas Adams: I don't know. I've never been to look for myself, so I haven't been to Scandinavia. So I just. I think you just sort of start at the southernmost tip and just walk your way up. It's a long.
Caller: What does his name mean exactly?
Douglas Adams: Slaati Maatfast? Well, I couldn't actually tell you live on the radio, I'm afraid, because I was actually trying to. When I was inventing his name, I was trying to come up with the rudest sounding name that would actually be broadcastable. And I started out with something which is extremely unbroadcastable. So I can't tell you what it is on the grounds that we are currently broadcasting and just sort of tweaked it a little bit till it became something that sounded rude but was actually broadcastable.
Caller: Great, thank you.
Larry King: Thank you. Grand Rapids. Hello.
Caller: Hi.
Douglas Adams: Hello.
Caller: I just wanted. I don't really have a question. I just wanted to tell you that I first heard Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy on the BBC on a little short rave radio I have about 10 years ago or so. I've loved it ever since.
Douglas Adams: Oh, on the World Service. All right.
Caller: And I got a letter from a friend of mine in England the other day with a little PIA saying, have you ever heard of Hitchhiker's Guide?
Douglas Adams: Right.
Caller: I laughed. I just wanted to know that. I really love your books.
Douglas Adams: Oh, good. Oh, thanks.
Larry King: Thank you. That's really nice. Fredericksburg, Virginia for Douglas Adams. Hello. Hello.
Caller: Hello, Mr. Adams.
Douglas Adams: Hello. Hi.
Caller: Yes, sir. I've read all your books. I love them. I put you right up there with Lord Gary gygax of the AD&D series.
Larry King: I have a question for you.
Douglas Adams: Yep.
Caller: Earth technology being what it is. Excuse me. You can't really go out and get one of these. I'm wondering, what would Zaphod be Brock's recipe be for his Pan Galactic?
Douglas Adams: Well, the trouble with the Pan Galactic Goggleblaster and I do actually print the recipe for this thing in the book, but it's not possible to mix it under Earth atmospheric conditions. I think the best way is actually to get. Is to take one major off license store and pour it. Pour the contents of the entire shop into a bucket and see what it tastes like.
Larry King: If you'd like to talk to Douglas Adams, we have lines open as the initial rush dies down and more come in. 7036-852177-70368-52177. The new book is Dirk Gently's Holistic detective agency. Victor New York. Hello.
Caller: Hello, Mr. Hello.
Larry King: Hi.
Caller: Hi. There was a 17th century obscure preacher who wrote.
Douglas Adams: I know what you're going to say. Yes, yes.
Caller: A plain man's pathway to heaven.
Douglas Adams: Right.
Caller: His name was Arthur Dent. Yes, you got your Arthur Dent.
Douglas Adams: No, this was the most extraordinary coincidence, actually. I was first told about it by some guy in England who was doing a postgraduate research course in the English Puritan writers. And a number of people have said, I mean quite correctly, that there's a basic form of hitchhiker. I mean, followed there's a very, very old one that goes back through Gulliver's Travels, Pilgrim's Progress, the Everyman plays. I mean, it's the. It's the innocent abroad, if you like. And then he pointed out this thing about the plain man's pathway to heaven having been written by the English Puritan writer called Arthur Dent. Whether the name was something I had heard at some point lodged at the back of my memory, I don't know. But I mean, it was a quite Extraordinary coincidence, but I mean. But unfortunately, this guy who got in touch with me had written a sort of huge thesis comparing the two works, which just goes to show you can prove anything.
Larry King: I is Douglas Adams. The book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. And we go to Yakima, Washington. Hello.
Douglas Adams: Hello.
Caller: Hello, Doug.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Caller: I was wondering, in the first book, did the world really blow up?
Douglas Adams: Yes, it did.
Larry King: Yep, it did. Cleveland, Ohio. Hello. Hi.
Douglas Adams: Hello, Cleveland. Hi.
Caller: Hi, Douglas.
Douglas Adams: Yes.
Larry King: Hi.
Douglas Adams: This is.
Caller: My name is Pam and I'm in Cleveland, Ohio, and my friend and I, we just located your game. Yep.
Larry King: The library.
Douglas Adams: Yep.
Caller: And we're having an awful time figuring out how to get Arthur Dent out of his house without being slammed by a brick.
Douglas Adams: Ah, now you've got stuck on the easy bit. I'm afraid that is the very, very, very, very easy bit. It gets more difficult later on if you've got stuck there. I suggest I would actually give it up because.
Larry King: Malden, Massachusetts, for Douglas Adams. Hello.
Caller: Yes, Douglas, I want to have any opinion in the new Mel Brooks science fiction movies. Baseball.
Larry King: Have you seen Space?
Douglas Adams: I haven't seen it, but I can have an opinion if you like.
Larry King: Well, sure you have an opinion.
Douglas Adams: I think it's startling.
Larry King: Yes. And funny at the same time.
Douglas Adams: It's got a certain sort of je ne sais quoi, but I don't know quite what.
Larry King: Stratford, Virginia. Hello.
Caller: Hi, it's Stafford, but that's okay.
Larry King: Okay.
Caller: This is a real treat for me because I'm usually not anywhere I can get close to a phone, and so I'd like to say I enjoy the show and I'd like to ask Mr. Adams just a couple of questions, if I could. Mr. Adams, I must be the only person in this country who hasn't read all four of your books.
Douglas Adams: Well, shame on you.
Caller: Well, I feel very bad about it, and I was wondering if you could provide me with a little bit of impetus to go out and purchase the other three, assuming I can save up enough money over the next few years.
Douglas Adams: Well, I shall be just very hurt and offended and upset if you don't. I mean, it's that.
Larry King: Then why would you want to depress a friend? We beat them in war. Be humble to the victors. Our guest is Douglas Adams, and Mr. Adams new book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Get to as many calls as we can reach in our remaining moments, right after these messages. Live from Washington, D.C. here again, Larry King with Douglas Adams. Woodland Hills, California. Hello.
Caller: Hi. Hi, Douglas.
Larry King: Hello.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Caller: I've read all Your. All your books, and I thought Dirk Gently, the day it came out and read it. I have a question concerning Dirk Gently, and that is the Gordon character, the ghost.
Douglas Adams: Yeah.
Caller: Is he going to be showing up again in the second book or.
Douglas Adams: I don't think so. No. I think the second book will be, you know, a completely new set of characters, but Dirk will come in about halfway through again.
Caller: Okay. And another question concerning the Hitchhikers books, and that is your bistro math theory. Did you come up with that on your own or did you.
Douglas Adams: No, I came up with it in a restaurant.
Larry King: What do you think?
Caller: And did you?
Larry King: I gotta move along. Boston. Hello.
Caller: Yeah, hi. Two very quick questions.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Caller: Well, Douglas, as your books became a little more popular, did you change your sense of humor a little bit so that it would be as funny to Americans as it seemed to be to people in England?
Douglas Adams: Oh, no, I don't think so. No, Absolutely not.
Caller: Yeah, I didn't notice it, but I wondered if you thought of that at all.
Douglas Adams: No, no.
Caller: Mentioned before. What wasn't your favorite book. Well, which was your favorite book and why?
Douglas Adams: Oh, boy, it's hard to say. It either be the second one or the third one. I mean, there are just. I think the. I think the best passages are actually in the third one.
Larry King: All right. Austin, Texas, Hello.
Caller: Yes, I was wondering if you could tell us who your mentors were.
Douglas Adams: Well, as a comedy writer, I think the funniest guy who ever wrote is PG Wodehouse, and I'm. He's a very great influence. Python, I've already mentioned. I don't know. Evelyn War. Kurt Vonnegut, to a lesser extent. That's about it, I think.
Caller: And do you think there's any overall truth to some of your ideas about the universe as a whole?
Douglas Adams: No, they're jokes.
Caller: Okay.
Larry King: They have no meaning at all. Sir? Arlington, Texas, Hello.
Caller: Yes, I don't have a question. I just have. You need to explain to Larry and to America the true nature of Unidentified Flying Objects. And that's it. Thank you.
Larry King: Okay. Will you explain it?
Douglas Adams: I have no explanation for Unidentified Flying Objects. It's funny, people keep on saying to me, you know, do you believe in people from other planets? I've no idea. I mean, we don't know. I mean, it's level.
Larry King: Why they never land?
Douglas Adams: Why do they always just talk to people, you know, who read National Inquiries? That's right.
Larry King: They go and meet farmers in Wakakee, Wyoming. They never land.
Douglas Adams: Right. Well, I actually. Well, I actually do have a theory about that in Hitchhiker. Which is that they actually deliberately go and find people that no one will ever believe and strut up and down in front of them. They're called teasers.
Larry King: Temple City, CA hello.
Caller: Hello. A comment and two questions regarding hitchhiker's Guide. I noticed that the records that were made were somewhat different from the BBC presentation. In fact, I noticed that the first few episodes, it seemed kind of stilted in the radio presentation, whereas the records just seemed to really have a lot of life to them.
Douglas Adams: It was simply that having made the radio series, we, for copyright reasons, weren't able to put that radio series out on record. We had to record it again. And recording it again, obviously, you know, we brushed up a bit, a few bits here and there, and, you know, it probably was slightly better in some ways. Other people preferred the radio. You know, it depends what you heard first, I think.
Larry King: Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Hello.
Caller: Hi. I have two things. First, why do your brilliant guests only get one?
Douglas Adams: I. Sorry, I can't hear you.
Larry King: Why only one hour? They scheduled two guests tonight. It wasn't my fault.
Caller: Okay. Secondly, was the Meaning of Lyft actually published in the States?
Douglas Adams: Was it published? It was published in the States, yes.
Larry King: Thank you. New York City. Hello.
Caller: Yeah, I heard that, Douglas, actually, you did your own typesetting on your latest book.
Douglas Adams: That's right.
Caller: Can you go through that again?
Larry King: Explain that.
Douglas Adams: Well, I was using a word. I was using Apple Macintosh to write it on. And towards the end, I mean, I was getting a little behindhand. The publishers were getting a little reluctant to change the publication date if it could be avoided. So since the Apple Macintosh is widely used in desktop publishing, which is current sort of buzzword, it occurred to me that, I mean, I could actually sort of print it out myself and give them camera ready copy, which is what I did. And it saved five weeks.
Caller: Would you go through all the travail of doing that again?
Douglas Adams: It was very interesting, actually. I mean, I learned an awful lot about typography and stuff. I mean, it's like if you're a musician finding out about, you know, how the. How the mixing desk works in a recording stud.
Larry King: Glad you did it.
Douglas Adams: No, yeah, very much.
Larry King: Phoenix, hello.
Caller: Hi, Mr. Adams.
Douglas Adams: Hi.
Caller: Is there some place where we could write to put some pressure on the people in Hollywood so we can get your movie made? I've been waiting for years to see it.
Douglas Adams: Well, yes, you could write to Ivan Reitman at Columbia.
Larry King: That's the guy to buck. Ivan. It's spelled W R I G H.
Douglas Adams: C M A R E. I T.
Larry King: M A N S Ivan Reitman. R E I T M A N at Columbia in Hollywood. Just bomb him to make his will. Do a stuff, send telegrams, make.
Caller: I think all of us can do it. We want to see this movie.
Larry King: All right, with all the fanatics out there, just say, refer to this program so Ivan will have a reference when he calls here to sue somebody. Just bug Ivan. And we want to, you know, we don't want to get anybody else in trouble. Just wire Ivan Reitman at Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles and say, make the hitchhiker movie. Give Douglas Adams a break. All right, we got Montreal, Canada. Hello.
Caller: Hi. I just wanted to know something regarding the one thing I really don't understand in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Douglas Adams: Just the one.
Caller: But the big thing I want to know is just what is a biro from Zaphod Beavelbrock's used biro business?
Douglas Adams: Ah, it's a ball pen.
Caller: It's a ball.
Douglas Adams: Yeah, Biro. We call them biros in England. Named after Monsieur Biro, who was the Frenchman who invented the thing in the first place. Ah, well, it's just what you call a ball pen.
Larry King: What?
Douglas Adams: Ball pen. A ball pen? Yeah, a ballpoint pen.
Caller: My brother thought it was an umbrella.
Douglas Adams: No, no, no. Ballpoint pen.
Larry King: Are you already at work on the next novel?
Douglas Adams: Um, I would be if I wasn't doing an author tour at the moment. Yes.
Larry King: You already know where you're going with and. No, you have no idea.
Douglas Adams: I know I have. I have a lot of the peripheral ideas I don't have.
Larry King: Dirk won't come in until somewhere midway about halfway through.
Douglas Adams: Yeah, just when things have got really confusing.
Larry King: Now that he's a hero. You're gonna have a bestseller. Why not bring him back earlier?
Douglas Adams: Well, because I want each. I want each story that I do. I mean, maybe it'll just be two. Maybe it'll be more than that to be a completely separate story, which he will come in and sort out if Dirk makes film.
Larry King: Who would be a good Dirk?
Douglas Adams: Oh, boy. I can't. I can't think of an American actor. I could think of one English one who nobody would ever have heard of, called Robert Longd. I think he'd be very surprised to hear me say that. If he heard that, he probably doesn't even know that I know him.
Larry King: Doug, I. Thank you very much. Great talk.
Douglas Adams: Thank you, Larry.
Larry King: Douglas Adams, he wrote the enormous bestseller. He sold 10 million books. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the four part trilogy. And now the new one is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It is published by Simon and Schuster. We're gonna pause for news on the hour. A word from your local stations. We'll be back with open phone 87. Anything you want to talk about at 703-685-2177. If you were calling specifically to talk to Dou, please release the line so that others can get through.