Douglas Adam's Birthday

Today is the birthday of author Douglas Noël Adams
(born March 11, 1952 died May 11, 2001) — author, most notably of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Adams was born in Cambridge and educated at Brentwood School, Essex. Adams attended St. John's College. In 1974, Adams received a BA (and later, an MA) in English Literature. After graduation he spent several years contributing material to radio and television shows as well as writing, performing, and sometimes directing stage revues in London, Cambridge and at the Edinburgh Fringe. He has also worked at various times as a hospital porter, barn builder, chicken shed cleaner, bodyguard, radio producer and script editor of Doctor Who. Some of his early work appeared on BBC2 (TV) in 1974, in an edited version of the Footlights Revue from Cambridge, that year. This led to Douglas being "discovered" by Graham Chapman. This led to a writing credit in one episode (episode 45: "Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Liberal Party") of Monty Python's Flying Circus; in the sketch a man who had been stabbed by a nurse arrives at his doctor's office bleeding profusely from the stomach, when the doctor makes him fill out numerous senseless forms before he can administer treatment. Douglas also (supposedly) has two "blink and you miss them" appearances in the fourth series of Monty Python. Douglas and Graham also attempted a few non-Python projects, including Out of the Trees. In 1979 Douglas Adams and John Lloyd together wrote the script for two half hour episodes of Doctor Snuggles, one of them called "The remarkable fidgety river". John Lloyd was also co-author of two episodes the original "Hitchhiker" radio series (Fit the Fifth and Fit the Sixth (aka Episodes Five and Six - see explanation below)) and of "The Meaning of Liff". The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was originally a six-part (each part titled a "Fit" after Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark) radio series broadcast in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4 in 1978. Following the success of the show, there was a 'Christmas special' broadcast at the end of 1978, and a second series which was broadcast one per night, during the week of the 21st January 1980. The radio programme served as the basis for the first two novels of what eventually became a "trilogy in five parts". It was also the basis for a six-part BBC television series in 1981. Adams was never a prolific writer and usually had to be forced by others to do any writing. This included being locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks to ensure that So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish was completed. He has been quoted as saying, "I love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they go by." Adams once described the Hollywood process as "trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people come into the room and breathe on it." His official biography shares its name with a song by Pink Floyd. Adams was friendly with their guitarist David Gilmour and, as his 42nd birthday gift, was allowed to make a guest appearance at one of their 1994 concerts in London, playing rhythm guitar on the songs "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse". Adams had named their 1994 album, The Division Bell by picking the words from the lyrics to one of its tracks. Pink Floyd and their reputation for lavish stage shows were also the inspiration for the Adams-created fictional rock band "Disaster Area", renowned as the loudest band in the universe. Adams died of a heart attack at the age of 49, while working out at his gym in Santa Barbara, California. He had moved to Santa Barbara in 1999.