The Hitchhiker

Plot synopsis:
While travelling through Utah, Jack Carter picks up a hitchhiker, but kicks him out after a few minutes due to the man hitting on him. Hours later, Jack stops in a secluded area, and begins digging a grave for the woman he had bound and gagged in the back of his pickup truck.
Four women (Melinda, Patty, Kristina, and Denise) from Colorado Springs are driving through the area on their way to a nurse's conference in Las Vegas. Spotting Jack hitchhiking, the quartet pick him up, and soon after experience car trouble, forcing them to stop at a roadside motel. The manager tells the group that the nearest service station does not open until the morning, so they elect to stay. During the night, Jack shows interest in Melinda, and has rough sex with Kristina, who has a fiancé.
In the morning, the mechanic arrives, and is shot to death by Jack after the two travel to Jack's abandoned truck. Jack returns to the motel, where he murders the manager and takes the women captive after drugging them. Jack gives a misogynistic speech, and implies he is doing this due to having been "betrayed" by his girlfriend or wife. While sexually assaulting Denise and Melinda, Jack is knocked out by the latter, who tries to escape with her friends. The vehicles will either not work, or are missing their keys, so the women decide to kill Jack, who awakens while being attacked, and fatally shoots Kristina. The others are recaptured, and while Jack is binding Melinda (who he has developed a fondness for, and regards as "special") a married couple arrives, looking for a room.
After giving the couple a room, Jack kills the husband when he goes to investigate noises coming from the room Melinda and the others are in. Jack places the man's wife, Susan, with the other captives, and shoots Patty in the head after Denise goes on an insult-laden rant against him. As Jack sleeps, Susan uses her cellphone to repeatedly dial 911, prompting a pair of police officers to stop by in the morning. Jack gets into a shootout with the officers, who he kills while Melinda, Denise, and Susan drive off in their patrol car. A chase ensues, during which Susan is shot in the head, and Jack is run over.
Weeks later, Denise visits Melinda, and it is revealed that Jack had survived, and is being tried in Wyoming, where he murdered at least two women. That night, Jack, who had escaped from custody and hitchhiked his way to Colorado, breaks into Melinda's home, and ties her husband to a chair. Jack declares his love for Melinda, who responds by rejecting him, shooting him in the stomach, and then in the face.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
One of the best suspense and thriller series in TV history..
"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.
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.
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.
If you are an enthusiast of the series, buy the DVD and maybe there will more to come..
Nostalgia Aside, Still a Good Watch on a Saturday Night.
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.
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)..
This old 1980's show from HBO is 10 times better than the stuff the studio puts out today, like Sex in the City and Sopranos.
The problem is it was well ahead of its time as proven by the success of a similar show, the X-Files.The series was basically a set of independent shows, the only common them was the pre- and post-show dialogue from a mysterious hitchhiker who passes through each episode.
Creepy and sexy, each show had its own moral as some (usually more than one) character would get their come-upance in the end.
All sorts of Hollywood stars signed up for guest appearances, Gary Busey, Harry Hamlin, Kirstie Alley, Willem Dafoe, even KISS lead singer Gene Simmons, and many many more.I've caught rebroadcasts recently on one of the gazillion HBO channels now being broadcast (HBO Zone is what I think it is called), so it is out there someplace.
The last poster and I agree on one episode "The Legend of Billy B." was my favorite too.
If I remember right, it starred Kirstie Alley as a reporter trying to track down an Elvis-like rock star who was supposedly dead.Catch this show if you can..
One Of The Most Underrated Shows In Television.
The Hitchhiker was a television series that was truly imaginative with every episode.
Each episode was unique in that you as the viewer did not know what to expect.
This series also launched many successful acting careers such as Helen Hunt, Gary Busey and others.
"The Hitchhiker" was a series that was ahead of its time.
It is certainly one of the most underrated shows that I know of....not to mention the most frightening opening songs which helped set the tone for the viewer and the "hitchhiker's" journey in each episode..
It kept audiences hooked, and you never could predict exactly how the episodes would turn out.
With a style somewhere between The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, everything about this show from the opening theme and hitchhiker's opening monologue to the final shocking scene was first-rate.
Try either to catch it on tv or the episodes available in the video store.
When I was living in Barbados, CBC used to carry this anthology series in its late night (and by late, I mean around 10:30) Tuesday slot - they definitely didn't show all the episodes of this, or "Tales From The Darkside" (which replaced it).
Not a patch on "The Twilight Zone," this anthology of tales about people who either got what they deserved or met their doom - and the two weren't always the same - was still effectively creepy, if a bit morbid, viewing.Some of the most notable tales topped and tailed by Page Fletcher's wandering man: a story with Michael O'Keefe's dog getting revenge on his enemies, and driving him to his death when his girlfriend told him he was his own worst enemy; a tale with a man who thought his girlfriend was an escaped mental patient, and ended up getting killed by the real loony; "One Last Prayer," with Lisa Blount as a singer who invented an image for herself that was guaranteed to succeed, but worked TOO well and ended up replacing the singer in real life; and an episode with Harry Hamlin as a developer under a curse, which stood out as one of the few stories with a happy ending.And yes, that music is very memorable.
"The Hitchhiker" was (still is) one hell of a TV series; much better than the junk currently being released in movie theaters.
Luckily, one can find reruns of it on HBO Zone.
As good is the ending-credits music found only in the 1987 season.This show was bold, thrilling, imaginative and sexy while at the same time more intelligent and relevant than most TV shows/movies released.
Some episodes had nudity and (strong) violence, but it was all at the service of the enormously talented writers and directors.
In general, episodes created mood and atmosphere without gore or anything shocking on-screen at all.Almost any episode of this show is great:"Killer" and "Homebodies" had story structures similar to M.
"Killer" opened with a long, unbroken tracking shot much later popularized in some movies from the mid-90's on up ("Boogie Nights," for example).
"Why Are You Here?" was shot entirely by the actors -- a precursor to the style of film-making found in the movie "The Blair Witch Project," however made 12 years before.Also great were religious-themed episodes like "W.G.O.D.", about a born-again preacher with a terrible secret, and "True Believer," where a detective confronts his own demons while trying to solve a murder case involving an "infested" convent.I can't say enough how wonderful this show is.
It's sometimes tough to watch, but there are many rewards to be found at the end.
Some episodes improved with repeated viewings.
Catch this show on HBO Zone while you still can..
"Tales from the Crypt" seemed like it was on longer, while this one to me seemed like it was on for only a brief amount of time in the 1980's.
A bit more adult oriented than say a "Tales from the Darkside" this one was on HBO so there was quite a bit of nudity to be found.
The episodes I am afraid though were not always that memorable, as I have a hard time remembering the plots to most of the ones I saw.
I also seem to mix up shows from "Tales from the Crypt" with this one too.
It did have a similar setup to that show, however, as each episode was introduced and then summed up by a sort of host...in this case the enigmatic hitchhiker character.
However, it was unlike Tales in that the show was usually more suspense and thriller oriented rather than horror oriented like both crypt and the host of other weekly shows that tended to focus on creepy things.
Still, I wish I could find this on DVD and watch them again and see them uncut as most of the episodes I saw were on USA..
Until the past few years, the only thing I had remembered about this series was the haunting opening theme song.
I have since watched many of the episodes, and I have a mixed review.
The early episodes were often great, and almost every episode was clever, imaginative, and at times, somewhat creepy.
For whatever reason, the later episodes just don't interest me the same way.
But whether you watch an early show or a late one, this is a program that should be checked out, if only to hear that theme song....
I never saw the HBO episodes unedited (My parents refused to get HBO).
However, I began to date a girl who liked shows like this and I became hooked.At one point in the series the hitchhiker seem to be Paris.
My only problem with the show was Page Fletcher--well not so much Page Fletcher but a particular part of Page Fletcher that the directors seem to like a lot--his butt.
Apparently a lot of women watched this show as well and liked his tight jeans shots (that's what I read).
Maybe all the directors' close up Fletcher's caboose help to introduce the sagging jeans era that rap popularized!
Hopefully if the sells of the DVD goes well the show will be put back into late-night syndication..
OK, I admit I have a misguided, nostalgic affection for this 80's anthology series because it was on HBO back when I was a young impressionable teenager, and the episodes always had a dose of gratuitous nudity back in the days before I had too much knowledge of real women (or had gotten Cinemax).
The series is loosely tied together by the most blow-dried and handsome hitchhiker you've ever seen (Page Fletcher), who narrates to the camera, cocking his head slightly back and making portentious and often non-sensical comments that usually only peripherally connect to the story he's apparently narrating.
He also never actually seems to get a ride, or really interact with anyone in the world of the series at all.(He has some great theme music though).The stories are an uneven mixture.
Some of the best are "Man's Best Friend" with Michael O'Keefe, "WGOD" with Gary Busey, and "Face to Face" with Robert Vaugn and Sybil Danning in red lingerie (the better for Vaugn, playing a hedonistic plastic surgeon, to cut off with a scalpel so he can snort cocaine off her breasts).
Both the good and bad episodes contain a lot of second-tier stars mercilessly chewing the scenery and sometimes each other (i.e. Vaugn and Danning).
If you look closely you'll also recognize some name directors in the credits like the Australian Philip Noyce back in his pre "Dead Calm", pre-Hollywood days.The best way to see this series ironically is to buy the used, out-of-print VHS copies which mostly focus on the early seasons; the three US DVD compilations are totally random and have a pretty sorry good episode/lame episode ratio.
The show was apparently Canadian and is also available there, but--buyer beware--the Canadian DVD seasons are completely different than the American ones (although I guess if you ARE Canadian you don't really need to beware).
Not recommended for everybody, but you know who you are..
Started off terrible then got better.
Anthology series from HBO.
Each episode started with a hitchhiker (a young hunky man) talking to the camera and introducing characters and tales.
There were all horror stories which didn't shy away from nudity or explicit gore and violence.The first season was wretched.
The stories were painfully obvious, the acting was terrible, there was non-existent production values and every episode had pointless female nudity--it seemed like a Playboy version of "The Twilight Zone".
Things changed the second season.
They got a new hitcher and went out of their way to show what a nice butt he had:) The female nudity was toned down.
The stories got better, they got some top-rank film directors (Paul Verhoeven directed one) and even the acting improved.
It ended up being a pretty good series.
But if you're into horror stories this is for you.
This was one of those shows that SHOULD come back.American Horror Story tires to do it, only on a much larger scale with a new story each season that is supposed to be connected in a grandiose way...and that is fine but...Like Tales From the Crypt, the Hitchhiker, just offered a new and unique story each week, written and directed and acted by some very talented people.
Some are science fiction, some were westerns, some were monster stories, some were comedies, but all were exceptionally well crafted.Part of the draw to it was that missing a week didn't mean you had to catch up at all.
And part of it was that, if you didn't like a particular episode you could come back next week and see something entirely different.The quality never failed and it allowed for an absolute originality..
Do this show, with a female with a cute butt and new stories..
A really disturbing and sick series from HBO that ran forever it seemed (1983 through 1990 actually).
"The Hitchhiker" was "The Twilight Zone" for the sex- and stomach churning gore-starved public as the titled character (originally played by Nicholas Campbell, but replaced early on by Page Fletcher) walked around and told short 30-minute tales of terror that always pushed the envelope on anything ever seen on television before or since.
The casts usually included has-beens and never-will-bes that struggled to carry tele-plays that were motivated in getting women naked and making its audience physically sick with unnatural causes of death.
Still one of those things that holds a strong candle in some circles, "The Hitchhiker" is best if left alone.
Very dark and adult cable TV anthology series.
Mainly notable as the HBO Network's first foray into making its own TV series, this nifty little show tended to adhere to the following strict formula: Bad people do something bad and something bad happens to them in kind, thereby confirming that cruel and evil actions often result in wickedly dire consequences.
What gave this program an extra potent and startling impact was that practically every episode ended on a brutal downbeat note in which the frequently rotten main character wound up on the receiving end of a usually bleak, yet still fitting comeuppance of some kind or another.
Sure, there was the occasional upbeat conclusion to an episode, but by and large this series kept things remarkably grim and negative.
In addition, a majority of the episodes fall into the gritty thriller category, with only the sporadic foray into more fantastic horror or sci-fi territory.
Of course, the other big draw back in the 80's was the fact that the show when it first aired on pay cable television certainly didn't skimp on the tasty gratuitous nudity, sizzling soft-core sex, and grisly violence.
Alas, the show lost its uniquely harsh identity when it was picked up for commercial television by the USA Network, but the first four strong pay cable TV seasons are well worth checking out for fans of decidedly dark and edgy adult omnibus fare..
A smarmy, badly written TWILIGHT ZONE retread..
I've only seen 10 episodes of THE HITCHHIKER, but they were on a DVD anthology.
If that's the case, then I would hate to see the worst episodes.
THE HITCHHIKER was a smarmy, badly written TWILIGHT ZONE retread.
It even took its name from a classic TZ episode.
Payola?I assumed each episode would begin with the Hitchhiker (Page Fletcher) getting out of the car of that week's main character and delivering his narrative.
And his monochromatic, soundbite-length attempts at profundity always fell short, particularly if one compares him to THE TWILIGHT ZONE'S Rod Serling.THE HITCHHIKER focused on bad people getting their comeuppance, either by natural or supernatural means.
Alas, the bad people in question are so one-dimensional, I didn't give a damn what happened to them one way or the other.
The writing here is surprisingly weak for a show that lasted six years on a major cable network (HBO).
While THE TWILIGHT ZONE frequently served up timeless morality plays, THE HITCHHIKER, in a fashion typical of the 1980s, offered style over substance.
While it may have been a stepping stone for up-and-comers like Willem Dafoe, Helen Hunt and Kirstie Alley, it was a decided low point for established performers like Darren McGavin, Peter Coyote, Margot Kidder and Gary Busey.If you want an anthology series that appeals to the intellect and not the prurient interest, eschew this crap for THE TWILIGHT ZONE or THE OUTER LIMITS.