The original post: /r/television by /u/DonatCotten on 2026-04-12 03:24:47+00:00.
I discovered this one a few years ago and since it was from before I was born I obviously never saw it during it’s initial run so I can’t really gage how this show was viewed at the time, but in spite of some flaws and weak episodes (not a deal breaker because seriously what anthology series didn’t have those lol) I found the series to overall be very good on the whole.
It seems the earlier seasons on HBO were a lot more “adult” in terms of it’s depictions of sex and violence especially compared to the later seasons which were on a basic cable channel (I think I read it was either AMC or USA network) were the censorship was more strict and they couldn’t get away with that. I still enjoyed episodes from the beginning and later seasons.
I’m actually surprised other weaker anthology series from the time like Tales From the Darkside are better remembered than this because not only did The Hitchhiker have much better production values and actors (like the original TZ did) but a lot episodes were very atmospheric and fell into either the horror (more psychological) or morality type of episodes. I don’t think there were many sci-fi episodes, but if anyone remembers any please let me know. Although they could be corny at times I still enjoyed Paige Fletcher as The Hitchhiker and his commentary and appearances at the beginning and end of each episode never struck me as overbearing.
Does anyone else here have any familiarity with this series or saw it when it first aired and can shed some light on how popular it was? What do you think are the best episodes? Like I said I thought it was pretty good and since this show was from before I was born and I watched it decades after it aired I’m not biased or blinded by nostalgia