show name	Doug
show name 2	Disney's Doug
genre	Comedy
format	Animated series
creator	Jim Jinkins
developer	Jim Jinkins and Joe Aaron
executive producer	Jim JinkinsDavid CampbellDavid MartinChristine Martin
writer	Jim Jinkins
director	Ken KimmelmanCarol MillicanYvette KaplanAdam Pennington
voices	Billy West (1991-1994)Tom McHugh (1996-1999)Fred NewmanChris Phillips (1996-1999)Constance ShulmanBecca LishAlice PlaytenDoug PreisGreg Lee
narrated	Billy West (1991-1994)Tom McHugh (1996-1999)
theme music composer	Fred Newman
composer	Fred Newman
country	United States
language	English
num seasons	7
num episodes	117
list episodes	List of Doug episodes
producer	JoEllyn Marlow
editor	Bruce KnappAlysha CohenMeredith Jeffrey
runtime	24 minutes (11 minutes each episode)
company	Jumbo Pictures (1991-1999)Nickelodeon Animation Studios (1991-1994)Ellipse Programmé (1991-1999)Walt Disney Television Animation (1996-1999)
channel	Nickelodeon (1991-1994)ABC (1996-1999)
first aired	August 11, 1991
last aired	June 26, 1999
production website	}}

''Doug'' is an American animated sitcom created by Jim Jinkins and co-produced by his studio, Jumbo Pictures, and the French studio Ellipse Programmé. ''Doug'' centers on its title character, Douglas "Doug" Funnie (Billy West, later Tom McHugh), who takes the role of the common man who has a goal in life and a certain amount of bad luck. Many episodes center around his attempts to woo fellow classmate Patti Mayonnaise.

''Doug'' originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States. It, along with ''Rugrats'' and ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', comprised the original three Nicktoons, premiering simultaneously on August 11, 1991. After the series originally ended in 1994, production moved to Disney and the series aired on ABC as part of the Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block. The Disney version aired from 1996 to 1999 and spawned a feature film. On July 25, 2011, Jinkins' orginal version became syndicated on TeenNick as part of its The '90s Are All That block. It and ''Clarissa Explains It All'' will be replaced by ''Hey Arnold!'' and ''Rocko's Modern Life'' in their timeslot on September 6, 2011, ending Doug's first run on the block.

Plot

The series takes place in the fictional town of Bluffington - Doug Funnie and his family have moved from Bloatsburg - and deals with the exploits of the title character, grade-schooler and diarist ("It's not a diary, it's a journal.").

Nickelodeon's ''Doug'' (1991–1994)

''Doug'' premiered on Nickelodeon on August 11, 1991 where it continued until December 16, 1994, and was aired in reruns until 2003, being the first Nicktoon. ''Doug'' premiered in reruns on The N on April 2002, where it continued until February 12, 2003, and was in reruns again until September 2006. As of 2009, Nickelodeon's ''Doug'' airs reruns on MTV Tr3́s affiliates bb KBEH and KMOH-TV (as an E/I program) in the US and on Nicktoonsters in the UK.

In the first episode, Douglas Yancey Funnie and his family (Phil, Theda and sister Judy) arrive in a new town called Bluffington after moving away from their former residence in Bloatsburg. There, he meets Skeeter, Patti, Roger and Beebe, and his new life in a new town begins.

John Kricfalusi, the creator of ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', stated on a DVD commentary for his show that among the three original Nicktoons (''Rugrats'' being the other one), Nickelodeon was banking on ''Doug'' to be its major hit. This, however, was not the case; ''Rugrats'' would go on to be the biggest hit of the three original Nicktoons, going on to have the longest run of any Nicktoon to date and still airing on the channel as of 2011, where as ''Doug'' (in its Nickelodeon incarnation) had the shortest run of the three.

During the course of the show's run, it won two Kids' Choice Awards (one in 1992 and one in 1995).

Reruns of Nickelodeon's Doug began airing on TeenNick on July 25, 2011 as part of a newly-created block airing Nickelodeon's programming from the 1990s called ''The '90s Are All That''. On August 24, 2011, TeenNick announced it will be replacing the show with ''Rocko's Modern Life'' on September 5.

Disney's ''Doug'' (1996–1999)

In 1996, the series was picked up by The Walt Disney Company after Jinkins sold off his animation studio Jumbo Pictures to the aforementioned corporation, and the rights to the mentioned show with it. Disney ordered new episodes of ''Doug'' to be produced (renamed ''Brand Spanking New! Doug'', and then later ''Disney's Doug'') which was in production from 1996–1999.

Several differences between the original and Disney versions exist. The Disney episodes featured a new theme song and added a younger sister, named Cleopatra Dirtbike Funnie, into the Funnie family. Perhaps to account for time, Doug's age was changed to 12 years old. Several other minor character changes were added, including a new haircut and a darkened skin tone for Patti Mayonnaise, and Connie Benge was changed from a heavier design to a thinner one. Less noticeable than Patti's new hairdo was the change in Doug's haircut, due to trademark considerations. The original Doug has eight hairs; Disney's Doug has nine. Other changes include Roger Klotz becoming wealthy, having lived poor in a trailer park previously, the closing of the Honker Burger (a parody of the real-life In-N-Out Burger, though this would, however, be replaced by Swirly's), Mrs. Dink being the mayor (which was a change previously made during the course of the Nickelodeon series), and the Beets (a loose parody of The Beatles) breaking up. Doug's and Skeeter's clothing changed, too - Doug's t-shirt sleeves and brown shorts are extended and the lightning bolt on Skeeter's shirt became a zero, along with the colors of his clothes changing. Judy's hair also changes, being shaved on the sides in the Nickelodeon version, but not in the Disney one, and Beebe also got her bangs cut. In addition, the often mentioned but never seen Skunky Beaumont also became a prominent character.

On March 15, 1999, Disney premiered a new musical stage show, "Doug Live!" at Disney's Hollywood Studios (at the time known as Disney-MGM Studios) at the Walt Disney World Resort. The show ran until May 12, 2001. Additionally, a theatrical feature-length film, ''Doug's 1st Movie'' was released on March 26, 1999, before production on the television show ceased. Also during the time, meet-and-greet costumed versions of Doug and Patti were seen in Disney World. The characters have been retired, but sometimes make appearances (usually if one character cannot make it to their meet-and-greet). Following the stage show, a video game version for Game Boy Color was released in 2000, titled Doug's Big Game.

During the course of the show, ''Doug'' was nominated for at least two Daytime Emmy Awards.

Disney aired ''Doug'' as part of ABC's Saturday Morning lineup in 1996 (following Disney's purchasing of the network), and the show became part of Disney's One Saturday Morning block in 1997. It proved to be a very popular show, spanning a number of different types of merchandise, and was considerably the most popular show on the block, with the title quickly taken by ''Recess''.

In the Disney version, every episode was a full-length episode of about 22 minutes, split into three segments. In the Nick version, most episodes were composed of two 11-minute segments. The only exceptions are the pilot, Christmas, and Halloween episodes, which were full-length episodes split into two segments.

Creation

''Doug'' was created by former Nickelodeon artist Jim Jinkins in September 1990, and produced through Jinkins' production company, Jumbo Pictures, Inc. Originating with an unpublished book, ''Doug's Got a New Pair of Shoes'', by artist and series creator Jim Jinkins and writer Joe Aaron, the 1991 animated series ''Doug'' emerged on the Nickelodeon TV. The creator of the show, Jim Jinkins, named the main character Doug after his godson, Doug Eckhardt, currently an art history major at the University of Pennsylvania. The idea for "Quailman", an imaginary superhero whom Doug often pretends to be in the cartoon, was inspired by a similar superhero invented by Jinkins when he was younger.

Characters

Douglas Yancey "Doug" Funnie (Voiced by Billy West in the Nickelodeon series and by Tom McHugh in the Disney series): The title character. Doug is a shy, extremely insecure, somewhat clumsy, 11 (12½ in the Disney version) year old boy with a big heart, a talent for writing, and a love for music. Doug is an avid banjo player, and can often be found writing songs underneath trees about his secret affection for Patti Mayonnaise. At some point in every episode, Doug is seen writing (and dictating via voice-over) his thoughts in his personal journal, with "Dear Journal, It's me. Doug." In some episodes, his naïveté is expressed. Doug also imagines himself as several alter egos: a superhero named Quailman (parody of Superman), secret agent Smash Adams (parody of James Bond), explorer Race Canyon (parody of Indiana Jones), crime-stopper The Chameleon, cowboy Durango Doug (parody of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood cowboys), outlaw Jack Bandit (parody of Zorro), and Wafflestomper (seemingly a parody of Steven Seagal). He is left-handed.

Roger M. Klotz (Voiced by Billy West in the Nickelodeon series and by Chris Phillips in the Disney series): Doug's green-skinned rival, and first-known bully of the series, he once lived in a trailer park with his divorced mother but Disney had Roger's family become suddenly wealthy, and living in a mansion. Roger's goal is to make Doug's life miserable, especially around Patti Mayonnaise. Doug uses Roger as a villain in most of his Quailman comics, including "Klotzilla" and "Dr. Klotzenstein". Roger has a crush on Doug's sister Judy, and owns a cat named Stinky that rivals Porkchop. Roger plays lead electric guitar for his band and is also an accomplished ballet dancer, much to Doug's surprise. In the Disney episodes, while still technically a bully, he is also portrayed as being closer to Doug than in the Nickelodeon episodes, sometimes acting more as a friend. It is also shown that while Doug is a fairly creative artist, his drawing skill and painting ability pales in comparison to Roger's who was able to draw a highly detailed picture of a sunset, without looking at the paper and using only blue paint. His voice is reminiscent of Dave Mustaine, lead singer of the thrash metal group Megadeth.

Patricia "Patti" Mayonnaise (Voiced by Constance Shulman): A brown-skinned blonde athlete, with a southern accent who Doug has a crush on. Her physical talents include: basketball, baseball, ballet, bowling, weightlifting, and the fictional Beetball. She notes that for all her talents she is unable to cook. She seems to like Doug to a certain degree throughout the series, but it is unclear whether she fully reciprocates his feelings (though in one episode she does reveal that, of all the friends she has, she considers Doug the one she likes spending time with most). Her father, Chad, uses a wheelchair to get around, and her mother is deceased, as we learn in one episode after Doug causes her old house to cave in by throwing rocks at it. In some episodes of Disney's ''Doug'', she has a super heroic persona named "Supersport".

Porkchop (Voiced by Fred Newman): Doug's semi-anthropomorphic dog who, while not able to talk, helps Doug in certain situations. He lives in an igloo in the Funnie family's backyard and a teepee in the Disney series. Porkchop makes typical dog sounds. His personality is similar to that of Snoopy.

Mosquito "Skeeter" Valentine (Voiced by Fred Newman): Doug's lanky, electric blue-skinned best friend. He is famous in both versions of the series for the "honk honk" sound he frequently makes. Skeeter comes from a family who has lived in Bluffington for quite some time. He has a mischievous ten year old brother, Dale, who gives Doug a hard time when Doug babysits him in one episode. Skeeter initially helps Doug order food from the popular Bluffington restaurant "Honker Burger" (which is later demolished in the Disney version) in the series premiere (resulting in their friendship), and later helps Doug learn how to dance. He has a superhero alter-ego, whom he calls "The Silver Skeeter", based on The Silver Surfer from Marvel, and is the equal of Quailman, Doug's superhero alter-ego. It is revealed that Skeeter is highly intelligent (much to Doug's discomfort), later gaining the respect of geeky twin brothers Al and Moo. In the Disney version, the three become obsessed with catching the Lucky Duck Lake monster.

Judith "Judy" Anastasia Funnie (Voiced by Becca Lish): Doug's tan-skinned older sister, and the oddball of the family, she is obsessed with the works of William Shakespeare, and is a wanna-be actress and artist who attends a special art school (Moody School) for gifted individuals. She is a rather intelligent person, but at times is embarrassed by the banality of her family. She and Doug have normal bouts of sibling rivalry, but usually team together when faced with a problem. Her usual attire consists of her signature red hair, purple beret, an over-sized purple sweater with no sleeves, black shirt and pants, purple boots and on occasion sandals, and black sunglasses. She is a stereotypical beatnik.

Buddy "Bud" Dink (Voiced by Fred Newman): A slightly eccentric, purple-skinned, retired neighbor of Doug Funnie's. Doug frequently goes to Mr. Dink for advice (somewhat used as a reference to when Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor goes to Wilson for advice on the live-action sitcom ''Home Improvement''), particularly in the Nickelodeon episodes, but the advice Dink gives usually ends up making the situation worse for instance, in an episode where Doug fears he is going through premature male pattern baldness, Mr. Dink "assures" Doug that his own full head of hair was a toupée and that he had been bald since age 13. He is often seen with various outrageous gadgets, claiming them to be "very expensive," which is one of his signature phrases. Mr. Dink's wife also appears frequently in the series as a sarcastic but otherwise friendly counterpart to her husband's goofiness; Mrs. Dink eventually becomes mayor of Bluffington in the Disney version, defeating stereotypical politician Bob White.

Lamar Bone (Voiced by Doug Preis): Assistant/vice-principal Lamar Bone is the stereotypical "mean principal" of Bluffington Elementary School during the Nick-era episodes, then transferred over to Beebe Bluff Middle School for the same job in the Disney-era episodes. Mr. Bone is generally uptight and serious about his job. In his personal life, he enjoys yodeling and clog dancing which have earned him many accolades and trophies -- some of which he kept at Bluffington Elementary. He, like Roger, also has a number of villain alter-egos in Doug's Quailman comics, such as "The Rulemeister" or "Robo-Bone". Mr. Bone's speech mirrors that of Don Knotts character "Barney Fife" from ''The Andy Griffith Show''.

Episodes

Nickelodeon's ''Doug'' (52 episodes; 4 seasons) usually featured two 11-minute stories with a commercial break in between with rare half hour episodes. Disney's ''Doug'' (65 episodes; 3 seasons) had a single story spanning the length of each episode. Disney also produced a feature film called ''Doug's 1st Movie''.

Airings

The original version aired on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1994 and in re-runs from 1994 to 2003. Re-runs of the original version of the show also aired on Noggin from 1999 to 2002, on Nicktoons Network from 2002 to 2005, on The N from 2002 to 2006, and on MTV Tr3́s affiliates KBEH and KMOH-TV (as an E/I program) from September 2007 to 2011. These seasons were produced between 1991 and 1994. In 1996 Disney produced new episodes. The Disney version aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1996 to 1997. In September 1997, ABC started a new Saturday morning cartoon block called Disney's One Saturday Morning. Doug aired on this from 1997 to 1999, and in re-runs from 1999 to 2001. Re-runs of the Disney version of the show also aired on The Disney Afternoon from 1998–1999, on UPN's Disney's One Too block from 1999 to 2000, Disney Channel from 2001 to 2002, and Toon Disney from 2001 to 2004. On December 8, 2008, Nicktoons Network broadcast the Christmas special as part of a holiday themed day for the network, along with the Christmas episodes for Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy. On July 25, 2011, TeenNick began airing the "Nickelodeon" series as part of their The '90s Are All That block. It is be rated TV-Y7 instead of TV-Y (which later TV-G) like its original airing. The original now airs on Teen Nick at 1:30 and 3:30 a.m. EST on weekdays.

Worldwide Media release

United States

''Nickelodeon'' (1991–1994) (re-runs, 1994–2003)

''ABC'' (1996–1999) (reruns, 1999–2000)

''UPN'' (re-runs, 1999–2000)

''Nick Jr. (as Noggin)'' (re-runs, 1999–2002)

''TeenNick (as The N)'' (2002-2006, 2011-present)

''Disney Channel'' (re-runs, 2001–2002)

''Toon Disney'' (re-runs, 2001–2004)

''Nicktoons'' (reruns; 2002–2006)

''Disney XD'' (re-runs; TBA)

''KBEH'' and ''KMOH-TV'' (re-runs, 2007–2011) (as a E/I program)

Canada

''YTV (Nickelodeon version)''

''Family Channel (Disney version)''

Belgium

''Ketnet''

''Nickelodeon''

United Kingdom

''Channel 4 (1994–1996)''

''ITV (1992, 1997–1998)''

''Nickelodeon (1993–2002, 2010)''

''Disney Channel (1996–2002)''

''Disney Cinemagic (TBA)''

''Toon Disney (2003–2006)''

''Nicktoons (2002–2006, 2010)''

''Nicktoonsters (2008–2009)''

Australia

Network Ten (February 20,1997-2007)(Nickelodeon Version)

Seven Network

Nickelodeon (Australia)

Disney Channel (Australia)

Brazil

Nickelodeon (1996–2005)

TV Cultura (1992–1996, 2009–present)

SBT (1997–2001)

Band (2006)

Jamaica

CVM Television (1999–present)

France

France 3 (1995)

TF1

Disney Channel (Nickelodeon version, 1997-200?)

Italy

Rai 1 (1993)

Disney Channel (Disney version)

Toon Disney

Germany

Sat. 1

Super RTL

Poland

Canal+ (1998–2001)

MiniMax (1998–2001)

Nickelodeon on Fantastic (1998–2001)

Cartoon Network (2001–2005)

Turkey

TRT Çocuk (2008-Current)

Japan

Nickelodeon (1998–2007)

NHK (1999)

Cartoon Network

South Korea

KBS

Croatia

Nickelodeon (1997–2005)

Ukraine

TET Channel (2010)

DVD and digital releases

In 2008, Nickelodeon partnered with Amazon.com to allow new and old programming to be made available on DVD through CreateSpace. As part of the deal, Amazon.com is responsible for producing the discs (on one time burnable media) on-demand as well as cover and disc art. Seasons 3 and 4 of Nickelodeon's ''Doug'' were released on DVD on December 8, 2009, and December 22, 2009, respectively. Disney's ''Doug'' is not yet available on Disney DVD, which may be due to the poor selling of Disney's `80s and `90s cartoons on DVD.

Season 4 was supposed to be released as a complete season, like its previous editions, but Nickelodeon was unable to locate two episodes from the final Nickelodeon season of the show, and opted to rename the DVD release "Doug: The Best of Season 4". The two missing episodes of Season 4 are available at iTunes Store .

Nickelodeon episodes are available from video on demand services such as iTunes Store (all seasons) and Zune Marketplace (all seasons).

!Nick DVD name! style="text-align:center;" August 29, 2008 December 8, 2009 December 22, 2009

style="text-align:center;"	Release date!!Discs!!Episodes
Season 1 (1991)	August 29, 2008	3|| style="text-align:center;"|13
Season 2 (1992)	|	3	13
Season 3 (1993)	|	3	13
The Best of Season 4 (1993–94)	|	3	12

References

External links

Category:1990s American animated television series Category:1990s Nickelodeon shows Category:Nicktoons Category:1991 American television series debuts Category:1994 American television series endings Category:American educational television series Category:American children's comedy series Category:American Broadcasting Company network shows Category:Disney Channel shows Category:1996 American television series debuts Category:1999 American television series endings Category:English-language television series Category:Television series by Buena Vista Television Category:Television series by Disney Category:Television shows set in the United States Category:Television series revived after cancellation Category:The Disney Afternoon Category:ABC Kids Category:Surrealist works Category:Middle school television series

de:Doug es:Doug fr:Doug it:Doug pl:Doug Zabawny pt:Doug sv:Doug tl:Doug tr:Doug

birth date	September 17, 1962
birth place	Royal Oak, Michigan, US
occupation	Actor, author, director
years active	1980–present }}

Paul S. Feig (born September 17, 1962) is an American director, actor and author. Feig is known for playing Mr. Eugene Pool, Sabrina's science teacher, on the first season of ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch''. Feig also created the critically acclaimed show, ''Freaks and Geeks'' and has directed several episodes of ''The Office'' and ''Arrested Development''; plus select episodes of ''30 Rock'', ''Parks and Recreation'', ''Mad Men'' and other television series. Feig has been nominated for two Emmy Awards for writing on ''Freaks and Geeks'' and three for directing on ''The Office''. Feig directed the 2011 film ''Bridesmaids'' featuring Kristen Wiig.

Life and career

Feig was born in Royal Oak, Michigan. Feig starred in the 1990 movie ''Ski Patrol'', as well as ''Heavyweights'' with Ben Stiller. On the first season of ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'', Feig portrayed Mr. Eugene Pool, Sabrina's science teacher.

Feig created the short-lived NBC dramedy ''Freaks and Geeks''. The show aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season. Eighteen episodes were completed, but the series was canceled after only twelve had aired. Despite the short run, ''Freaks and Geeks'' has since maintained a devoted cult following. The show had a spot on Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Shows of All Time, and in summer 2008, ''Entertainment Weekly'' ranked ''Freaks and Geeks'' as the 13th best show of the past 25 years. Feig was nominated for two Emmys for writing the show's pilot and the season finale.

Directoral credits

''The Office'' (television)

*"Office Olympics"

*"Halloween"

*"Performance Review"

*"E-mail Surveillance"

*"Survivor Man"

*"Dinner Party"

*"Goodbye, Toby"

*"Weight Loss"

*"The Surplus"

*"Moroccan Christmas"

*"New Boss"

*"Dream Team"

*"Niagara"

*"Goodbye, Michael"

''30 Rock'' (television)

*"Cleveland"

''Parks and Recreation'' (television)

*"Pawnee Zoo"

''Mad Men'' (television)

*"Shoot"

''Weeds'' (television)

*"Risk"

*"He Taught Me How to Drive By"

*"The Punishment Lighter"

''Arrested Development'' (television)

*"Whistler's Mother"

*"Let 'Em Eat Cake"

*"Switch Hitter"

*"Burning Love"

*"Ready, Aim, Marry Me"

*"The Cabin Show"

*"The Ocean Walker"

''Bored to Death'' (television)

*"Take a Dive"

*"The Case of the Lonely White Dove"

''Nurse Jackie'' (television)

*"Nose Bleed"

*"Ring Finger"

*"Comfort Food"

*"Twitter"

*"Candyland"

*"Apple Bong"

*"Caregiver"

*"Bleeding"

*"Silly String"

*"Monkey Bits"

*"P.O. Box"

*"Sleeping Dogs"

*"What the Day Brings"

*"Years of Service"

''Bridesmaids'' (film)

''Unaccompanied Minors '' (film)

Bibliography

''Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence'' (ISBN 0-609-80943-1, 2002)

''Superstud: Or How I Became A 24-Year-Old Virgin'' (ISBN 1-4000-5175-4, 2005)

''Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut!'' (ISBN 0-316-16663-4, 2008)

''Ignatius MacFarland: Frequency Freakout!'' (2010)

References

External links

DC Examiner

Category:1962 births Category:Actors from Michigan Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American television actors Category:American television directors Category:American television producers Category:American television writers Category:Living people Category:People from Royal Oak, Michigan

da:Paul Feig de:Paul Feig fr:Paul Feig pt:Paul Feig

name	Douglas Adams
birth date	March 11, 1952
birth place	Cambridge, England
height	6 ft 5''
death date	May 11, 2001
death place	Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
resting place	Highgate Cemetery, London, England
religion	Atheist
occupation	Writer
genre	Science fiction, comedy, satire
influences	Monty Python, Robert Sheckley, Kurt Vonnegut, P. G. Wodehouse, Richard Dawkins
influenced	Richard Dawkins, Eoin Colfer
website	http://douglasadams.com/ }}

Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.

Adams also wrote ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (1987) and ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (1988), and co-wrote ''The Meaning of Liff'' (1983), ''Last Chance to See'' (1990), and three stories for the television series ''Doctor Who''. A posthumous collection of his work, including an unfinished novel, was published as ''The Salmon of Doubt'' in 2002.

Adams became known as an advocate for environmental and conservation causes, and also as a lover of fast cars, cameras, and the Apple Macintosh. He was a staunch atheist, famously imagining a sentient puddle who wakes up one morning and thinks, "This is an interesting world I find myself in—an interesting hole I find myself in—fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!" Biologist Richard Dawkins dedicated his book, ''The God Delusion'' (2006), to Adams, writing on his death that, "[s]cience has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender."

Early life

Adams was born on 11 March 1952 to Janet (née Donovan) and Christopher Douglas Adams in Cambridge, England. The following year Watson and Crick famously first modelled DNA in the city, leading Adams to later quip he was DNA in Cambridge months earlier. The family moved to East London a few months after his birth where his sister, Susan, was born three years later. His parents divorced in 1957; Douglas, Susan, and their mother moved to an RSPCA animal shelter in Brentwood, Essex, run by his maternal grandparents.

Adams's father married Mary Judith Stewart (born Judith Robertson) in July 1960, a marriage that produced a half-sister, Heather; his mother's 1964 remarriage to veterinarian Ron Thrift provided two more half-siblings, Jane and James Thrift.

Education

Adams attended Primrose Hill Primary School in Brentwood. At six, he passed the entrance exam for Brentwood School, an independent school whose alumni include Robin Day, Jack Straw, Noel Edmonds, and David Irving. Griff Rhys Jones was a year below him, and he was in the same class as Stuckist artist Charles Thomson. He attended the prep school from 1959 to 1964, then the main school until December 1970. His form master, Frank Halford, said of him: "Hundreds of boys have passed through the school but Douglas Adams really stood out from the crowd—literally. He was unnaturally tall and in his short trousers he looked a trifle self-conscious. "[T]he form-master wouldn't say 'Meet under the clock tower,' or 'Meet under the war memorial'," he joked, "but 'Meet under Adams'." Yet it was his ability to write first-class stories that really made him shine." Adams was six feet tall (1.83 m) by age 12 and finally stopped growing at 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m): He became the only student ever to be awarded a ten out of ten by Halford for creative writing, something he remembered for the rest of his life, particularly when facing writer's block.

Some of his earliest writing was published at the school, such as a report on its photography club in ''The Brentwoodian'' in 1962, or spoof reviews in the school magazine ''Broadsheet'', edited by Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, who later became a character in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide''. He also designed the cover of one issue of the ''Broadsheet'', and had a letter and short story published nationally in ''The Eagle'', the boys' comic, in 1965. On the strength of a bravura essay on religious poetry that discussed The Beatles and William Blake, he was awarded a place at St John's College, Cambridge to read English, going up in 1971, though in fact the reason he applied to Cambridge was to join the Footlights, an invitation-only student comedy club that has acted as a hothouse for some of the most notable comic talent in England. He was not elected immediately as he had hoped, and started to write and perform in revues with Will Adams (no relation) and Martin Smith, forming a group called "Adams-Smith-Adams," but through sheer doggedness managed to become a member of the Footlights by 1973. Despite doing very little work—he recalled having completed three essays in three years—he graduated in 1974 with a B.A. in English literature.

Career

Writing

After leaving university Adams moved back to London, determined to break into TV and radio as a writer. An edited version of the ''Footlights Revue'' appeared on BBC2 television in 1974. A version of the Revue performed live in London's West End led to Adams being discovered by Monty Python's Graham Chapman. The two formed a brief writing partnership, earning Adams a writing credit in episode 45 of ''Monty Python'' for a sketch called "Patient Abuse". He is one of only two people outside the original Python members to get a writing credit (the other being Neil Innes). The sketch plays on the idea of mind-boggling paper work in an emergency, a joke later incorporated into the Vogons' obsession with paperwork. Adams also contributed to a sketch on the album for ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''.

Adams had two brief appearances in the fourth series of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. At the beginning of episode 42, "The Light Entertainment War", Adams is in a surgeon's mask (as Dr. Emile Koning, according to on-screen captions), pulling on gloves, while Michael Palin narrates a sketch that introduces one person after another but never actually gets started. At the beginning of episode 44, "Mr. Neutron", Adams is dressed in a "pepperpot" outfit and loads a missile on to a cart driven by Terry Jones, who is calling for scrap metal ("Any old iron..."). The two episodes were broadcast in November 1974. Adams and Chapman also attempted non-Python projects, including ''Out of the Trees''.

At this point Adams's career stalled; his writing style was unsuited to the current style of radio and TV comedy. To make ends meet he took a series of odd jobs, including as a hospital porter, barn builder, and chicken shed cleaner. He was employed as a bodyguard by a Qatari family, who had made their fortune in oil. Anecdotes about the job included that the family had once ordered one of everything from a hotel's menu, tried all the dishes, and sent out for hamburgers. Another story had to do with a prostitute sent to the floor Adams was guarding one evening. They acknowledged each other as she entered, and an hour later, when she left, she is said to have remarked, "At least you can read while you're on the job."

During this time Adams continued to write and submit sketches, though few were accepted. In 1976 his career had a brief improvement when he wrote and performed, to good review, ''Unpleasantness at Brodie's Close'' at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. But by Christmas work had dried up again, and a depressed Adams moved to live with his mother. The lack of writing work hit him hard and a low confidence would become a feature of Adams's life; "I have terrible periods of lack of confidence [..] I briefly did therapy, but after a while I realised it was like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can't fix the weather - you just have to get on with it".

Some of Adams's early radio work included sketches for ''The Burkiss Way'' in 1977 and ''The News Huddlines''. He also wrote, again with Graham Chapman, the 20 February 1977 episode of ''Doctor on the Go'', a sequel to the ''Doctor in the House'' television comedy series. After the first radio series of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide'' became successful, Adams was made a BBC radio producer, working on ''Week Ending'' and a pantomime called ''Black Cinderella Two Goes East''. He left the position after six months to become the script editor for ''Doctor Who''.

In 1979 Adams and John Lloyd wrote scripts for two half-hour episodes of ''Doctor Snuggles'': "The Remarkable Fidgety River" and "The Great Disappearing Mystery" (episodes seven and twelve). John Lloyd was also co-author of two episodes from the original ''Hitchhiker'' radio series ("Fit the Fifth" and "Fit the Sixth", also known as "Episode Five" and "Episode Six"), as well as ''The Meaning of Liff'' and ''The Deeper Meaning of Liff''. Lloyd and Adams also collaborated on an SF movie comedy project based on ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', which would have starred John Cleese as the UN Secretary General, and had a race of aliens beating humans in athletic competitions, but the humans winning in all of the "absurd" record categories. The latter never proceeded past a treatment.

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' was a concept for a science-fiction comedy radio series pitched by Adams and radio producer Simon Brett to BBC Radio 4 in 1977. Adams came up with an outline for a pilot episode, as well as a few other stories (reprinted in Neil Gaiman's book ''Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion'') that could potentially be used in the series. According to Adams, the idea for the title ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' occurred to him while he lay drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, gazing at the stars, though he joked that the BBC would instead claim it was Spain "probably because it's easier to spell". He had been wandering the countryside while carrying a book called the ''Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe'' when he ran into a town where everyone was either "deaf" and "dumb" or only spoke languages he could not understand. After wandering around and drinking for a while, he went to sleep in the middle of a field and was inspired by his inability to communicate with the townspeople. He later said that due to his constantly retelling this story of inspiration, he no longer had any memory of the moment of inspiration itself, and only remembered his retelling of that moment.

Despite the original outline, Adams was said to make up the stories as he wrote. He turned to John Lloyd for help with the final two episodes of the first series. Lloyd contributed bits from an unpublished science fiction book of his own, called ''GiGax''. Very little of Lloyd's material survived in later adaptations of ''Hitchhiker's'', such as the novels and the TV series. The TV series itself was based on the first six radio episodes, but sections contributed by Lloyd were largely re-written.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast the first radio series weekly in the UK in March and April 1978. Following the success of the first series, another episode was recorded and broadcast, which was commonly known as the Christmas Episode. A second series of five episodes was broadcast one per night, during the week of 21–25 January 1980.

While working on the radio series (and with simultaneous projects such as ''The Pirate Planet'') Adams developed problems keeping to writing deadlines that only got worse as he published novels. 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 was quoted as saying, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." Despite the difficulty with deadlines, Adams wrote five novels in the series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992.

The books formed the basis for other adaptations, such as three-part comic book adaptations for each of the first three books, an interactive text-adventure computer game, and a photo-illustrated edition, published in 1994. This latter edition featured a 42 Puzzle designed by Adams, which was later incorporated into paperback covers of the first four ''Hitchhiker's'' novels (the paperback for the fifth re-used the artwork from the hardback edition).

In 1980 Adams also began attempts to turn the first ''Hitchhiker's'' novel into a movie, making several trips to Los Angeles, and working with a number of Hollywood studios and potential producers. The next year, 1981, the radio series became the basis for a BBC television mini-series broadcast in six parts. When he died in 2001 in California, he had been trying again to get the movie project started with Disney, which had bought the rights in 1998. The screenplay finally got a posthumous re-write by Karey Kirkpatrick, was green-lit in September 2003, and the resulting movie was released in 2005.

Radio producer Dirk Maggs had consulted with Adams, first in 1993, and later in 1997 and 2000 about creating a third radio series, based on the third novel in the ''Hitchhiker's'' series. They also vaguely discussed the possibilities of radio adaptations of the final two novels in the five-book "trilogy". As with the movie, this project was only realised after Adams's death. The third series, ''The Tertiary Phase'', was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2004 and was subsequently released on audio CD. With the aid of a recording of his reading of ''Life, the Universe and Everything'' and editing, Adams can be heard playing the part of Agrajag posthumously. ''So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish'' and ''Mostly Harmless'' made up the fourth and fifth radio series, respectively (on radio they were titled ''The Quandary Phase'' and ''The Quintessential Phase'') and these were broadcast in May and June 2005, and also subsequently released on Audio CD. The last episode in the last series (with a new, "more upbeat" ending) concluded with, "The very final episode of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by Douglas Adams is affectionately dedicated to its author."

More recently, the film makers at Smoov Filmz adapted the anecdote that Arthur Dent relates about biscuits in ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'' into a short film called "Cookies". Adams also discussed the real-life incident that inspired the anecdote in a 2001 speech, reprinted in his posthumous collection ''The Salmon of Doubt''. He also told the story on the radio programme ''It Makes Me Laugh'' on 19 July 1981.

''Dirk Gently'' series

In between Adams's first trip to Madagascar with Mark Carwardine in 1985, and their series of travels that formed the basis for the radio series and non-fiction book ''Last Chance to See'', Adams wrote two other novels with a new cast of characters. ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' was first published in 1987, and was described by its author as "a kind of ghost-horror-detective-time-travel-romantic-comedy-epic, mainly concerned with mud, music and quantum mechanics."

A sequel novel, ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'', was published a year later. This was an entirely original work, Adams's first since ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.'' After the book tour, Adams set off on his round-the-world excursion which supplied him with the material for ''Last Chance to See''.

''Doctor Who''

Adams sent the script for the ''HHGG'' pilot radio programme to the ''Doctor Who'' production office in 1978, and was commissioned to write ''The Pirate Planet'' (see below). He had also previously attempted to submit a potential movie script, called "Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen," which later became his novel ''Life, the Universe and Everything'' (which in turn became the third ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' radio series). Adams then went on to serve as script editor on the show for its seventeenth season in 1979. Altogether, he wrote three ''Doctor Who'' serials starring Tom Baker as the Doctor:

''The Pirate Planet'' (the second serial in the "Key To Time" arc, in Season 16)

''City of Death'' (with producer Graham Williams, from an original storyline by writer David Fisher. It was transmitted under the pseudonym "David Agnew")

''Shada'' (only partially filmed and not broadcast due to industrial disputes)

The episodes authored by Adams are some of the few that have not been novelised as Adams would not allow anyone else to write them, and asked for a higher price than the publishers were willing to pay.

Adams was also known to allow in-jokes from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide'' to appear in the ''Doctor Who'' stories he wrote and other stories on which he served as Script Editor. Subsequent writers have also inserted ''Hitchhiker's'' references, even as recently as 2007. Conversely, at least one reference to ''Doctor Who'' was worked into a ''Hitchhiker's'' novel. In ''Life, the Universe and Everything'', two characters travel in time and land on the pitch at Lord's Cricket Ground. The reaction of the radio commentators to their sudden appearance is very similar to the reactions of commentators in a scene in the eighth episode of the 1965–66 story ''The Daleks' Master Plan'', which has the Doctor's TARDIS materialise on the pitch at Lord's.

Elements of ''Shada'' and ''City of Death'' were reused in Adams's later novel ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'', in particular the character of Professor Chronotis. Big Finish Productions eventually remade ''Shada'' as an audio play starring Paul McGann as the Doctor. Accompanied by partially animated illustrations, it was webcast on the BBC website in 2003, and subsequently released as a two-CD set later that year. An omnibus edition of this version was broadcast on the digital radio station BBC7 on 10 December 2005.

Adams is credited with introducing a fan and later friend of his, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, to Dawkins's future wife, Lalla Ward, who had played the part of Romana in Doctor Who. Dawkins confirmed this in his eulogy of Adams.

When he was at school he wrote and performed a play called ''Doctor Which''.

Music

Adams played the guitar left-handed and had a collection of twenty-four left-handed guitars when he died in 2001 (having received his first guitar in 1964). He also studied piano in the 1960s with the same teacher as Paul Wickens, the pianist who plays in Paul McCartney's band (and composed the music for the 2004–2005 editions of the ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' radio series). The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Procol Harum all had important influence on Adams's work.

Pink Floyd

Adams included a direct reference to Pink Floyd in the original radio version of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', in which he describes the main characters surveying the landscape of an alien planet while Marvin, their android companion, hums Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". This was cut out of the CD version. Adams also compared the various noises that the kakapo makes to "Pink Floyd studio out-takes" in his nonfiction book on endangered species, ''Last Chance to See''.

Adams's official biography shares its name with the song "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. Adams was friends with Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and, on the occasion of Adams's 42nd birthday (the number 42 having special significance, being the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything and also Adams's age when his daughter Polly was born), he was invited to make a guest appearance at Pink Floyd's 28 October 1994 concert at Earls Court in London, playing guitar on the songs "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse". Adams chose the name for Pink Floyd's 1994 album, ''The Division Bell'', by picking the words from the lyrics to one of its tracks, namely "High Hopes". Gilmour also performed at Adams's memorial service following his death in 2001.

Procol Harum

Douglas Adams was a friend of Gary Brooker, the lead singer, pianist and songwriter of the progressive rock band Procol Harum. Adams is known to have invited Brooker to one of the many parties that Adams held at his house. On one such occasion Gary Brooker performed the full (4 verse) version of his hit song "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Brooker also performed at Adams's memorial service.

Adams also appeared on stage with Brooker to perform "In Held Twas in I" at Redhill when the band's lyricist Keith Reid was not available. On several other occasions he had been known to introduce Procol Harum at their gigs.

Adams also let it be known that while writing he would listen to music, and this would occasionally influence his work. On one occasion the title track from the Procol Harum album ''Grand Hotel'' was playing when... }}

Computer games and projects

Douglas Adams created an interactive fiction version of ''HHGG'' together with Steve Meretzky from Infocom in 1984. In 1986 he participated in a week-long brainstorming session with the Lucasfilm Games team for the game ''Labyrinth''. Later he was also involved in creating ''Bureaucracy'' (also by Infocom, but not based on any book; Adams wrote it as a parody of events in his own life). Adams was also responsible for the computer game ''Starship Titanic'', which was published in 1998 by Simon and Schuster. Terry Jones wrote the accompanying book, entitled ''Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic'', since Adams was too busy with the computer game to do both. In April 1999, Adams initiated the h2g2 collaborative writing project, an experimental attempt at making ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' a reality, and at harnessing the collective brainpower of the internet community.

In 1990 Adams wrote and presented a television documentary programme ''Hyperland'' which featured Tom Baker as a "software agent" (similar to the "Assistants" used in several versions of Microsoft Office, derived from their failed "Bob" program), and interviews with Ted Nelson, which was essentially about the use of hypertext. Although Adams did not ''invent'' hypertext, he was an early adopter and advocate of it. This was the same year that Tim Berners-Lee used the idea of hypertext in his HTML.

Personal beliefs and activism

Atheism and views on religion

Adams described himself as a "radical atheist", adding ''radical'' for emphasis so he would not be asked if he meant agnostic. He told American Atheists that this made things easier, but most importantly it conveyed the fact that he really meant it. "I am convinced that there is not a god," he said. Despite this, he remained fascinated by religion because of its effect on human affairs. "I love to keep poking and prodding at it. I’ve thought about it so much over the years that that fascination is bound to spill over into my writing."

The evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins in ''The God Delusion'' uses Adams' influence throughout to exemplify arguments for non-belief; Dawkins jokingly states that Adams is "possibly [my] only convert" to atheism. The book is dedicated to Adams, quoting him, "Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

Environmental activism

Adams was also an environmental activist who campaigned on behalf of a number of endangered species. This activism included the production of the non-fiction radio series ''Last Chance to See'', in which he and naturalist Mark Carwardine visited rare species such as the Kakapo and Baiji, and the publication of a tie-in book of the same name. In 1992 this was made into a CD-ROM combination of audio book, e-book and picture slide show.

Adams and Mark Carwardine contributed the 'Meeting a Gorilla' passage from ''Last Chance to See'' to the book ''The Great Ape Project''. This book, edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer launched a wider-scale project in 1993, which calls for the extension of moral equality to include all great apes, human and non-human.

In 1994 he participated in a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro while wearing a rhino suit for the British charity organisation ''Save the Rhino''. Many different people participated in the same climb and took turns wearing the rhino suit; Adams wore the suit while travelling to the mountain before the climb proper began. About £100,000 were raised through that event, benefiting schools in Kenya and a Black Rhinoceros preservation programme in Tanzania. Adams was also an active supporter of the ''Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund''. Since 2003, ''Save the Rhino'' has held an annual Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture around the time of his birthday to raise money for environmental campaigns. The lectures in the series are:

2003 Richard Dawkins – ''Queerer than we can suppose: the strangeness of science''

2004 Robert Swan – ''Mission Antarctica''

2005 Mark Carwardine – ''Last Chance to See... Just a bit more''

2006 Robert Winston – ''Is the Human an Endangered Species?''

2007 Richard Leakey – ''Wildlife Management in East Africa – Is there a future?''

2008 Steven Pinker – ''The Stuff of Thought, Language as a Window into Human Nature''

2009 Benedict Allen – ''Unbreakable''

2010 Marcus du Sautoy – ''42: the answer to life, the universe and prime numbers''

2011 Brian Cox – ''The Universe and Why We Should Explore It''

Technology

Adams was a serious fan of technology. Though he did not buy his first word processor until 1982, he had considered one as early as 1979. He was quoted as saying that until 1982, he had difficulties with "the impenetrable barrier of jargon. Words were flying backwards and forwards without concepts riding on their backs." In 1982 his first purchase was a 'Nexus'. In 1983, when he and Jane Belson went out to Los Angeles, he bought a DEC Rainbow. Upon their return to England, Adams bought an Apricot, then a BBC Micro and a Tandy 1000. In ''Last Chance to See'' Adams mentions his Cambridge Z88, which he had taken to Zaire on a quest to find the Northern White Rhinoceros.

Adams's posthumously published work, ''The Salmon of Doubt'', features multiple articles written by Douglas on the subject of technology, including reprints of articles that originally ran in ''MacUser'' magazine, and in ''The Independent on Sunday'' newspaper. In these Adams claims that one of the first computers he ever saw was a Commodore PET, and that his love affair with the Apple Macintosh first began after seeing one at Infocom's headquarters in Massachusetts in 1983.

As he wrote himself:

Adams was a Macintosh user from the time they first came out in 1984 until his death in 2001. He was the first person to buy a Mac in Europe (the second being Stephen Fry – though some accounts differ on this, saying Fry bought his Mac first. Fry himself claims he was second to Adams). Adams was also an "Apple Master", one of several celebrities whom Apple made into spokespeople for its products (other Apple Masters included John Cleese and Gregory Hines). Adams's contributions included a rock video that he created using the first version of iMovie with footage featuring his daughter Polly. The video was available on Adams's .Mac homepage. Adams even installed and started using the first release of Mac OS X in the weeks leading up to his death. His very last post to his own forum was in praise of Mac OS X and the possibilities of its Cocoa programming framework. He said it was ''"awesome..."'', which was also the last word he wrote on his site. Adams can also be seen in the ''Omnibus'' tribute included with the Region One/NTSC DVD release of the TV adaptation of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide'' using Mac OS X on his PowerBook G3.

Adams used e-mail extensively from the technology's infancy, adopting a very early version of e-mail to correspond with Steve Meretzky during the pair's collaboration on Infocom's version of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. While living in New Mexico in 1993 he set up another e-mail address and began posting to his own USENET newsgroup, alt.fan.douglas-adams, and occasionally, when his computer was acting up, to the comp.sys.mac hierarchy. Many of his posts are now archived through Google. Challenges to the authenticity of his messages later led Adams to set up a message forum on his own website to avoid the issue. Adams was also a keynote speaker for the April 2001 Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, one of the major technical conferences on embedded system engineering. In his keynote speech, he shared his vision of technology and how it should contribute in everyday – and every man's – life.

Personal life

Adams moved to Upper Street, Islington, in 1981 and to Duncan Terrace in Islington in the late 1980s.

In the early 1980s Adams had an affair with novelist Sally Emerson, who was separated from her husband at that time. Adams later dedicated his book ''Life, the Universe and Everything'' to Emerson. In 1981 Emerson returned to her husband, Peter Stothard, a contemporary of Adams's at Brentwood School, and later editor of ''The Times''. Adams was soon introduced by friends to Jane Belson, with whom he later became romantically involved. Belson was the "lady barrister" mentioned in the jacket-flap biography printed in his books during the mid-1980s ("He [Adams] lives in Islington with a lady barrister and an Apple Macintosh"). The two lived in Los Angeles together during 1983 while Adams worked on an early screenplay adaptation of ''Hitchhiker's''. When the deal fell through, they moved to London, and after several separations ("He is currently not certain where he lives, or with whom") and an aborted engagement, they married on 25 November 1991. Adams and Belson had one daughter together, Polly Jane Rocket Adams, born on 22 June 1994, shortly after Adams turned 42. In 1999 the family moved from London to Santa Barbara, California, where they lived until his death. Following the funeral, Jane Belson and Polly Adams returned to London.

Death

Adams died of a heart attack on 11 May 2001, aged 49, after resting from his regular workout at a private gym in Montecito, California. He had unknowingly suffered a gradual narrowing of the coronary arteries, which led at that moment to a myocardial infarction and a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Adams had been due to deliver the commencement address at Harvey Mudd College on 13 May. His funeral was held on 16 May in Santa Barbara, California. His remains were subsequently cremated and the ashes placed in Highgate Cemetery in north London in June 2002.

A memorial service was held on 17 September 2001 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square, London. This became the first church service of any kind broadcast live on the web by the BBC. Video clips of the service are still available on the BBC's website for download.

One of his last public appearances was a talk given at the University of California, Santa Barbara, ''Parrots, the universe and everything'', recorded days before his death. A full transcript of the talk is also available.

In May 2002 ''The Salmon of Doubt'' was published, containing many short stories, essays, and letters, as well as eulogies from Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry (in the UK edition), Christopher Cerf (in the U.S. edition), and Terry Jones (in the U.S. paperback edition). It also includes eleven chapters of his long-awaited but unfinished novel, ''The Salmon of Doubt'', which was originally intended to become a new Dirk Gently novel, but might have later become the sixth ''Hitchhiker'' novel.

Other events after Adams's death included a webcast production of ''Shada'', allowing the complete story to be told, radio dramatisations of the final three books in the ''Hitchhiker's'' series, and the completion of the film adaptation of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. The film, released in 2005, posthumously credits Adams as a producer, and several art design elements – most notably a head-shaped planet seen near the end of the film – incorporated Adams's features.

A 12-part radio series based on the Dirk Gently novels was announced in 2007, with annual transmissions starting in October of that year.

BBC Radio 4 also commissioned a third Dirk Gently radio series based on the incomplete chapters of ''The Salmon of Doubt'', and written by Kim Fuller; however, this has now been dropped in favour of a BBC TV series based on the two completed novels. A sixth ''Hitchhiker'' novel, ''And Another Thing...'', by ''Artemis Fowl'' author Eoin Colfer, was released on 12 October 2009 (the 30th anniversary of the first book), published with the full support of Adams's estate. A BBC Radio 4 ''Book at Bedtime'' adaptation and an audio book soon followed.

In 2011, over 3000 people took part a public vote to choose the subjects of People's Plaques in Islington. As a result, it was decided to erect a plaque in Adams's honour, on a date yet to be announced. Adams received 489 votes.

Works

''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' Episode 45, ''Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Liberal Party'' (1972)

''The Private Life of Genghis Khan'' (1975)

''The Pirate Planet'', a Doctor Who serial first broadcast in 1978

''City of Death'', a Doctor Who serial, cowritten with Graham Williams, based on a story by David Fisher, first broadcast October 1979

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (1979)

''Shada'' (1979–1980), a Doctor Who serial

''The Restaurant at the End of the Universe'' (1980)

''Life, the Universe and Everything'' (1982)

''The Meaning of Liff'' (1983, with John Lloyd)

''So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish'' (1984)

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (computer game)'' (1984, with Steve Meretzky)

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts'' (1985, with Geoffrey Perkins)

''Young Zaphod Plays It Safe (short story)'' (1986)

''A Christmas Fairly Story'' (1986, with Terry Jones), and

''Supplement to The Meaning of Liff'' (1986, with John Lloyd and Stephen Fry), both part of

* ''The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book'' (1986, edited with Peter Fincham)

''Bureaucracy (computer game)'' (1987)

''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (1987)

''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (1988)

''Hyperland'' (TV documentary) (1990)

''The Deeper Meaning of Liff'' (1990, with John Lloyd)

''Last Chance to See'' (1990, with Mark Carwardine)

''Mostly Harmless'' (1992)

''The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (1994)

''Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic'' (1997), written by Terry Jones, based on an idea by Adams

''Starship Titanic'' (computer game) (1998)

''h2g2'' (internet project) (1999)

''The Internet: The Last Battleground of the 20th century'' (radio series) (2000)

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future'' (radio series) (2001) final project for BBC Radio 4 before his death

''Parrots, the universe and everything'' (2001)

''The Salmon of Doubt'' (2002), unfinished novel manuscript (11 chapters), short stories, essays, and interviews (also available as an audiobook, read by Simon Jones)

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)'' (2005)

Works about

Articles

Herbert, R. (1980). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Book Review). Library Journal, 105(16), 1882.

Adams, J., & Brown, R. (1981). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Book Review). School Library Journal, 27(5), 74.

Nickerson, S. L. (1982). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Book). Library Journal, 107(4), 476.

Nickerson, S. L. (1982). Life, the Universe, and Everything (Book). Library Journal, 107(18), 2007.

Morner, C. (1982). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Book Review). School Library Journal, 28(8), 87.

Morner, C. (1983). Life, the Universe and Everything (Book Review). School Library Journal, 29(6), 93.

Shorb, B. (1985). So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Book). School Library Journal, 31(6), 90.

The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul (Book). (1989). Atlantic (02769077), 263(4), 99.

Hoffert, B., & Quinn, J. (1990). Last Chance To See (Book). Library Journal, 115(16), 77.

Reed, S. S., & Cook, I. I. (1991). Dances with kakapos. People, 35(19), 79.

Last Chance to See (Book). (1991). Science News, 139(8), 126.

Field, M. M., & Steinberg, S. S. (1991). Douglas Adams. Publishers Weekly, 238(6), 62.

Dieter, W. (1991). Last Chance to See (Book). Smithsonian, 22(3), 140.

Dykhuis, R. (1991). Last Chance To See (Book). Library Journal, 116(1), 140.

Beatty, J. (1991). Good Show (Book). Atlantic (02769077), 267(3), 131.

A guide to the future. (1992). Maclean's, 106(44), 51.

Zinsser, J. (1993). Audio reviews: Fiction. Publishers Weekly, 240(9), 24.

Taylor, B., & Annichiarico, M. (1993). Audio reviews. Library Journal, 118(2), 132.

Good reads. (1995). NetGuide, 2(4), 109.

Stone, B. (1998). The unsinkable starship. Newsweek, 131(15), 78.

Gaslin, G. (2001). Galaxy Quest. Entertainment Weekly, (599), 79.

So long, and thanks for all the fish. (2001). Economist, 359(8222), 79.

Geier, T., & Raftery, B. M. (2001). Legacy. Entertainment Weekly, (597), 11.

Passages. (2001). Maclean's, 114(21), 13.

Don't panic! Douglas Adams to keynote Embedded show. (2001). Embedded Systems Programming, 14(3), 10.

Ehrenman, G. (2001). World Wide Weird. InternetWeek, (862), 15.

Zaleski, J. (2002). The Salmon of Doubt (Book). Publishers Weekly, 249(15), 43.

Mort, J. (2002). The Salmon of Doubt (Book). Booklist, 98(16), 1386.

Lewis, D. L. (2002). Last Time Round The Galaxy. Quadrant Magazine, 46(9), 84.

Burns, A. (2002). The Salmon of Doubt (Book). Library Journal, 127(15), 111.

Burns, A., & Rhodes, B. (2002). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Book). Library Journal, 127(19), 118.

Kaveney, R. (2002). A cheerful whale. TLS, (5173), 23.

Pearl, N., & Welch, R. (2003). The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Book). Library Journal, 128(11), 124.

Preying on composite materials. (2003). R&D; Magazine, 45(6), 44.

Webb, N. (2003). The Berkeley Hotel hostage. Bookseller, (5069), 25.

The author who toured the universe. (2003). Bookseller, (5060), 35.

Osmond, A. (2005). Only human. Sight & Sound, 15(5), 12-15.

Culture vulture. (2005). Times Educational Supplement, (4640), 19.

Maughan, S. (2005). Audio Bestsellers/Fiction. Publishers Weekly, 252(30), 17.

Hitchhiker At The Science Museum. (2005). In Britain, 14(10), 9.

Rea, A. (2005). The Adams asteroids. New Scientist, 185(2488), 31.

Most Improbable Adventure. (2005). Popular Mechanics, 182(5), 32.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase. (2005). Publishers Weekly, 252(14), 21.

Bartelt, K. R. (2005). Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams. Library Journal, 130(4), 86.

Larsen, D. (2005). I was a teenage android. New Zealand Listener, 198(3390), 37-38.

Tanner, J. C. (2005). Simplicity: it's hard. Telecom Asia, 16(6), 6.

Nielsen Bookscan Charts. (2005). Bookseller, (5175), 18-21.

Buena Vista launches regional site to push Hitchhiker's movie. (2005). New Media Age, 9.

Shynola bring Beckland to life. (2005). Creative Review, 25(3), 24-26.

Carwardine, M. (2007, September 15). The baiji: So long and thanks for all the fish. New Scientist. pp. 50-53.

Czarniawska, B. (2008). Accounting and gender across times and places: An excursion into fiction. Accounting, Organizations & Society, 33(1), 33-47.

Pope, M. (2008). Life, the Universe, Religion and Science. Issues, (82), 31-34.

Bearne, S. (2008). BBC builds site to trail Last Chance To See TV series. New Media Age, 08.

Arrow to reissue Adams. (2008). Bookseller, (5352), 14.

Page, B. (2008). Colfer is new Hitchhiker. Bookseller, (5350), 7.

I've got a perfect puzzle for you. (2009). Bookseller, (5404), 42.

Mostly Harmless…. (2009). Bookseller, (5374), 46.

Penguin and PanMac hitch a ride together. (2009). Bookseller, (5373), 6.

Adams, Douglas. Britannica Biographies [serial online]. October 2010;:1

Douglas (Noël) Adams (1952–2001). Hutchinson's Biography Database [serial online]. July 2011;:1

My life in books. (2011). Times Educational Supplement, (4940), 27.

See also

Towel Day is celebrated by Douglas Adams's fans annually on 25 May

Notes

References

Adams, Douglas (1998). Is there an Artificial God?, speech at ''Digital Biota 2'', Cambridge, England, September 1998.

Adams, Douglas (2002). ''The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'', Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-76657-1

Dawkins, Richard (2001). Lament for Douglas Adams, ''The Guardian'', 14 May 2001.

Dawkins, Richard (2003). "Eulogy for Douglas Adams," in ''A devil's chaplain: reflections on hope, lies, science, and love''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Felch, Laura (2004). Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman, May 2004

Ray, Mohit K (2007). ''Atlantic Companion to Literature in English'', Atlantic Publishers and Distributors. ISBN 81-269-0832-7

Simpson, M. J. (2003). ''Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams'', Justin, Charles and Co. ISBN 1-932112-17-0

Webb, Nick (2005a). ''Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams''. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-47650-6

Webb, Nick (2005b). "Adams, Douglas Noël (1952–2001)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, January 2005, accessed 25 October 2005.

Further reading

Adams's official web site, established by him, and still operated by The Digital Village

Adams's .mac homepage

Douglas Adams Quotes

Douglas Adams speech at Digital Biota 2 (1998) (The audio of the speech)

Douglas Adams on Triple J Radio, Australia (1990)

Guardian Books "Author Page", with profile and links to further articles.

Douglas Adams & his Computer article about his Mac IIfx

BBC2 "Omnibus" tribute to Adams, presented by Kirsty Wark, 4 August 2001

Mueller, Rick and Greengrass, Joel (2002).''Life, The Universe and Douglas Adams'', documentary.

Simpson, M.J. (2001). ''The Pocket Essential Hitchhiker's Guide''. ISBN 1-903047-40-4. Updated April 2005 ISBN 1-904048-46-3

Parrots, the Universe and Everything, 90 min talk at University of California Santa Barbara, 2001

Category:1952 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Category:Atheism activists Category:Audio book narrators Category:BBC radio producers Category:British child writers Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:English atheists Category:English comedy writers Category:English humanists Category:English humorists Category:English novelists Category:English radio writers Category:English science fiction writers Category:English television writers Category:Infocom Category:Interactive fiction writers Category:Non-fiction environmental writers Category:Old Brentwoods Category:People from Cambridge Category:Usenet people Category:Monty Python

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Bob and Doug McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted "Great White North", a sketch which was introduced on ''SCTV'' for the show's third season when it moved to CBC Television in 1980. Bob is played by Rick Moranis and Doug is played by Dave Thomas. The duo became a pop culture phenomenon in both the United States and Canada.

The characters were later revived for an animated series, ''Bob & Doug'', which premiered on Global in 2009.

History

"Great White North" (originally known as "Kanadian Korner") was a panel show that played upon Canadian stereotypes. Bob and Doug, two dimwitted beer-swilling brothers wearing heavy winter clothing and tuques, would comment on various elements of Canadian life and culture, frequently employing the interjection "Eh?" and derisively calling each other "hoser." Among the topics discussed were snow routes, the Canadian-built robot arm on the Space Shuttle, the inappropriateness of bedtime stories about dog fights, flat tires, and "why there aren't enough parking spaces at take-out doughnut shops."

The sketch was conceived when ''SCTV'' moved to the CBC television network. Each episode to be broadcast on that network was two minutes longer than those syndicated to the United States. The CBC network heads asked the show's producers to add specifically and identifiably Canadian content for those two minutes. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas thought that this was a ridiculous request, since the show had been taped in Canada, with a mostly Canadian cast and crew, for two years. The request inspired them to create a parody that would incorporate every aspect of the humorous stereotype of Canadians.

The segments were videotaped at the end of a day's shooting, with just Thomas and Moranis and a single camera operator. The sketches were for the most part improvised on the set, after which they would select the best ones for use on the program.

Moranis recalled, "We went on the stage with no preparation, and did 15 [sketches]. Two of them were lousy, in three we cracked up and fell apart...maybe six were keepers." Added Dave Thomas in a 2000 interview, "Rick and I used to sit in the studio, by ourselves –- almost like happy hour –- drink real beers, cook back-bacon, literally make hot snack food for ourselves while we improvised and just talked. It was all very low key and stupid, and we thought, 'Well, they get what they deserve. This is their Canadian content. I hope they like it.'"

To their shock, the comedians found that this filler material had become the most popular part of the show. Though initially intended for Canadian TV only, some of the two-minute "Great White North" segments would find their way into U.S. versions of the 30-minute shows due to a shortage of content that week. When NBC ordered the 90-minute shows for the 1981 season, they specifically cited good affiliate feedback on the "two dumb Canadian characters" and requested that the characters be included in every program.

They rode the crest of a fad, peaking in 1982-83, that produced one comedy album and a movie, ''Strange Brew''. The album, ''The Great White North'', released by Polygram Records, went platinum in sales, won a Grammy nomination and broke the top ten on Billboard's Top LPs and Tapes list in March, 1982. It is noted for the song "Take Off" which featured fellow Canadian Geddy Lee of the rock group Rush chorusing between the McKenzies' banter. On this album, they also sing their own improvised version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which is frequently played on the radio around the holidays in both Canada and the United States. While hugely popular in the U.S., the album was also #1 in Canada for six weeks, suggesting that Canadians appreciated the duo as an affectionate self-parody.

The ''Strange Brew'' movie was released by MGM in 1983. While receiving only minimal praise from critics, it performed fairly well at the box office, earning $8.5 million in the U.S. alone to easily cover its skinny $5 million budget. Subsequent to its initial theatrical release in 1983 ''Strange Brew'' was released by MGM in both Beta and VHS formats and subsequently re-packaged and re-released on VHS and Laser disc by Turner which acquired the MGM library in 1985, then also several times on VHS and DVD by Warner Brothers which acquired the library from Turner in 1993. Strange Brew continued to perform for Warner Brothers as a DVD title most likely because of the strong college cult following for this movie.

A second album, a "soundtrack" to their movie ''Strange Brew'', was released in 1983. The album featured dialogue and music from the film, as well as new skits made specifically for the album that centered around the movie. The lead off track was appropriately entitled "This Isn't Our Second Album". The album sold poorly and was out-of-print soon after.

The sketch's signature "Coo coo coo roo coo coo coo coo" theme, according to Dave Thomas in an interview on ''CBC News: The Hour'', is an exaggeration of the flute music used in 60-second Canadian television nature vignettes, such as ''Hinterland Who's Who''.

Bob and Doug McKenzie continue to maintain a strong cult following for 25 years as evidenced by Internet activity on YouTube and Google searches of the name.

Legacy

The duo revived the act in two award-winning television commercials for Pizza Hut in 1984 and 1986 and a two-year campaign for the Molson Brewing Company in 1999 and 2000 consisting of more than a dozen television and radio commercials which aired nationally in the U.S. and also a series of commercials for Mr. Lube which aired in Canada in 2002. They played a variant of the act for the Walt Disney Pictures animated feature film ''Brother Bear'' and its sequel, with their characters being the voices of a pair of goofy moose named Rutt and Tuke. They also recorded a commentary for the movie that is seen on the DVD.

Animax Entertainment, whose interactive division is currently headed by Dave Thomas, began producing a new animated series for the Global Television Network based on the characters debuting on April 19, 2009, simply entitled ''Bob & Doug''. Whilst Thomas reprises the character of Doug in the new series, Moranis chose not to voice the character of Bob, which instead is voiced by Dave Coulier. Moranis is, however, involved in the series as an executive producer.

McFarlane Toys produced Bob and Doug McKenzie action figures in September 2000.

A new ''Two-Four Anniversary'' special aired on May 20, 2007, on CBC Television. It was a retrospective on the history of the characters and their popularity, featuring interviews with various celebrities, classic clips, and new material featuring the pair. It includes an introduction by former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and a cameo appearance by Rush lead singer Geddy Lee. On November 20, 2007, ''Bob and Doug McKenzie's Two-Four Anniversary'' was released on DVD. The DVD, re-edited by Thomas himself, was twice as long as the broadcast and featured several classic McKenzie sketches from SCTV in their entirety, new footage filmed on the Great White North set and an hour's worth of bonus features. A Bob and Doug McKenzie bottle opener was included in every DVD.

In 2007, on Rush's Snakes & Arrows tour, a short film of Bob and Doug McKenzie was shown as an intro to the song "The Larger Bowl".

Opinions of the creators

In Dave Thomas's behind-the-scenes book on ''SCTV'', he reports that he and Moranis disliked the characters because they felt the network forced the characters on them and that they, as actors, were overly identified with the dimwitted, beer drinking duo. However, in an interview accompanying the ''Two-Four Anniversary'' premiere, Thomas credited the McKenzie Brothers as a successful comedic creation of which he was quite proud.

Quotes

Doug: "How's it goin', eh?"

Doug: "Take off!"

Bob: "Hose head/hoser!"

Bob and Doug: "Beauty, eh?" (acknowledgement of something good happening)

Discography

''The Great White North: Bob and Doug McKenzie'', 1981.

''The Great White North: Strange Brew'', 1983.

See also

''Bob & Doug'' (2009 TV series)

Canadian English

Beer in Canada

Hoser

''The Red Green Show''

''Trailer Park Boys''

References

External links

Season 3 of SCTV

BobAndDoug.com

Animax Entertainment

The Hoser Newspaper

Category:Comedy sketches Category:Comedy characters Category:Fictional duos Category:SCTV characters McKenzie, Bob and Doug Category:Canadian identity Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1980 Category:Juno Award winners Category:Anthem Records artists

name	Doug Stanhope
Birth name	Douglas Gene Stanhope
birth date	March 25, 1967
birth place	Worcester, Massachusetts
medium	stand-up, television
nationality	American
active	1990 - present
genre	Black comedy, Observational comedy, Satire/Political satire, cringe humor
subject	American culture, current events, recreational drug use, human sexuality, religion, angst, anarchism, libertarianism
influences	George Carlin, Glenn Wool, Bill Hicks, Howard Bloom
influenced	Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, Mat Becker
spouse	Renee Morrison (2003-present) (separated)
notable work	7 CDs, 3 DVDs
website	dougstanhope.com
footnotes	}}

Douglas Gene "Doug" Stanhope (born March 25, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian and author known for his abrasive comedy routines.

Life and career

Stanhope quit high school after his freshman year. His comedy career began 1990 in Las Vegas.

Stanhope has made appearances at several major comedy festivals, including the Montreal Just For Laughs, US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, the Chicago Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, where he won the Strathmore Press Award in 2002.

Stanhope was the winner of the 1995 San Francisco International Comedy Competition where he edged out notable comedic actor Dane Cook in a three-week contest. He's appeared in dozens of national and international standup comedy television specials. He claims that his appearance on the BBC television show, ''Live Floor Show'', (broadcast March 20, 2003) was fueled by "ecstasy". According to Stanhope, "TV is just for the money; live performance is where it’s at."

In 2003 and 2004, Stanhope co-hosted the fifth and sixth seasons of ''The Man Show'' with Joe Rogan.

In 2005, Stanhope hosted his own radio show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

He has established a group of touring comics known as The Unbookables featuring artists such as Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, James Inman, Brett Erickson, Travis Lipski, Brendon Walsh, Norman Wilkerson, Kristine Levine, and Brian Potrafka. The Unbookables' first CD, ''Morbid Obscenity'', also featuring Andrist, Rouse, Lynn Shawcroft, and Banjo Randy, released July 4, 2006, on Stand Up! Records, was released as a benefit for a friend, Arthur Hinty, to help pay for a gastric bypass.

Stanhope appeared in the film ''The Aristocrats'', telling a caustic joke to a baby.

Stanhope was the subject of an 8-page feature in ''British GQ'' under the title "Is This America's Most Depraved Man?" by Robert Chalmers in 2006.

In summer 2006, he was booked to appear on several bills at the ''Cat Laughs Comedy Festival'' in Kilkenny, Ireland; he told his lairy, late-night crowd, that Irish men sleep with children, because — as the headline to the following day's Irish Daily Star put it - "Irish women are too ugly to rape! Comic booed after shocking festival jibe." He managed to perform for just 10 minutes before having all his remaining slots canceled, yet garnered several more full-length solo performances.

In August 2006 he appeared alongside Rouse at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland, to rave 5 star reviews from the press. On his opening night he took what was believed to be an ecstasy tablet that was handed to him by a member of the audience. During his Edinburgh performance he included a segment that was perceived as anti-Semitic. Stanhope responded in his 2007 Showtime special, ''No Refunds'', by elaborating on the incident and including an extended bit on "Jew-hating".

In October 2006, he self-published a book, ''Fun with Pedophiles: The Best of Baiting'', which includes several of his "baits" which had appeared on baiting.org. Baiting is the practice of setting up a false Internet instant messaging persona, say, that of an underage female, waiting for others to message you asking for sex, and then brutally abusing the "baitee" in a chat session that is logged to share with others. He discussed his self-published book and the philosophy behind it on Penn Jillette's radio show on San Diego's 97.1 FreeFM on November 22, 2006.

In 2007, Stanhope made two TV specialsone in the US for Showtime, recorded at The Gotham Comedy Club in New York City on March 12; and one for the UK's Channel 4 ''Comedy Lab'', filmed at the Caves in Edinburgh, Scotland titled "Doug Stanhope: Go Home". The Showtime special, titled ''No Refunds'', premiered August 3 and was released on DVD August 14.

His live show was voted "Best Comedy Performance of the Year" by ''Time Out New York'' for both 2006 and 2008.

On September 25, 2008, Stanhope appeared as a guest panelist on the Channel 4 programme ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' whilst in London as part of his unofficially titled "Is Mom Dead Yet?" tour. Stanhope's mother, Bonnie Kirk, appeared regularly on ''The Man Show'' as well as several independent features and opposite Sean "Puffy" Combs at an MTV Music Award sketch where she played an aging stripper. She died at the age of 63 in October 2008.

Stanhope lives in Warren, Arizona (part of Bisbee) near the Mexico border in a small house with musician/author Amy "Bingo" Bingaman.

In August 2009, Stanhope was booed and had several bottles thrown at him at the Leeds Festival in the UK, after making derogatory comments about the Royal Family and the attitude of the English, which he likened to people in the stone age. Many people left early, and Stanhope continued to bait and taunt hecklers throughout his set.

His live show was placed in the top 5 of the ''20 Best Live Shows of 2009'' by London's ''The Guardian'' newspaper.

Stanhope's 7th album, ''From Across The Street'', was released on November 24, 2009. It was originally intended to be released under the name ''Live from Cape Fear'' (and later ''I Ain't Never Won Nothin' In My Life''). According to promotional materials mailed to reviewers, "half of the proceeds made from the CD sales will be going towards medical bills incurred by maintaining the crygenically frozen remains of his mother's cats at the Bisbee Forever Hope life suspension facility in accordance with her wishes."

In 2010, Stanhope aired a series of vignettes during ''Newswipe with Charlie Brooker'' in the United Kingdom.

Stanhope is managed by Brian Hennigan.

On November 17, 2010, Doug Stanhope signed to rock and metal label Roadrunner Records to launch their new comedy label, Roadrunner Comedy. Cees Wessels, CEO of Roadrunner Records, said, “We are very excited to launch Roadrunner Comedy, yet another innovative iteration of the Roadrunner brand. We look forward to welcoming a variety of like-minded comedians to the Roadrunner family—new artists with dynamic talents—that will be making us laugh for years to come.”

On March 8, 2011, Roadrunner Records announced that Stanhope would have the debut album for the newly created comedy label. The live CD/DVD release is slated to be released on May 3, 2011, it will be titled Oslo: Burning The Bridge To Nowhere.

In cooperation with the mayor of Reykjavik, comedian Jon Gnarr, Stanhope has scheduled a performance in Iceland's only maximum security prison, Litla-Hraun, for September 25th 2011. Fans who want to watch the show would have to commit a crime; for them he invented The Stanhope Defense.

Stanhope appeared on the FX television show Louie as Eddie, a fictional comedian that Louis C.K. knew 20 years earlier when they first started performing, in the season 2 episode titled "Eddie". It first aired on August 11, 2011.

Politics

Stanhope is known as a libertarian comedian. In 2004, he endorsed the Free State Project, and was quoted as saying: }}

2008 presidential campaign

Stanhope announced on July 9, 2006 through his website that he would run for president in 2008 as a Libertarian. After consulting political advisers, he stated on his website: I am reconsidering my presidential run while my exploratory team looks into the viability of such an endeavor.}} He explained that he made this statement due to campaign finance laws and other reasons. Later he said:

Stanhope intended to formally declare his candidacy during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show show on May 3, 2007, but on May 1 announced that he would not run due to restrictions of the Federal Election Commission, which stipulated that he could not receive personal income from his comedy appearances and website if he was using them to campaign. Stanhope then endorsed libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

In August 2008, Stanhope endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, citing his disappointment with the libertarian candidates and a desire to have "a strong, handsome black man in the White House", as well as referring to himself as "the head of the one-man Libertarians For Obama group."

On September 11, 2008, Stanhope re-entered the election scene with the creation of ''www.savingbristol.com'', a web site dedicated to raising money to pay for an abortion for Bristol Palin, daughter of staunchly pro-life Alaskan governor and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. the silent majorityto unite behind this poor, imprisoned woman and save her from both a tyrannical household as well as the horrible nightmare of a forced childbirth.}}

Though the $50,000 offered by Stanhope himself would more than cover the cost of an abortion under normal situations, Stanhope encouraged others to donate money towards helping Bristol begin a new life. On the site, Stanhope pledged:

To fight off rumors that he was seeking to profit from the site in any way, donations to the cause are now made directly through lilithfund.org, the web site for Lilith Fund, a Texas-based organization dedicated to helping women pay for abortions if they are unable to afford them themselves.

Discography/videography

		! Title	! Year	! CD	! DVD
''The Great White Stanhope''	1998	x
	1999	x
''Something to Take the Edge Off''	2000	x
''ACID Bootleg''	2001	x
''Die Laughing''	2002	x
	2003		x
''Deadbeat Hero''	2004	x	x
''Morbid Obscenity'', The Unbookables	2006	x
	2007		x
''From Across The Street''	2009	x
	2011	x	x (included with CD)

Notes

External links

Doug Stanhope's official website

Doug Stanhope's MySpace Page

Doug Stanhope's Facebook fan page

Doug's Youtube page

Morbid Obscenity CD official website

Sacred Cow Productions

Stand Up! Records

Drunk For Your Amusement, TLAvideo Doug Stanhope article

An Interview with Doug Stanhope -- Free Market Mojo

May 2010 interview with Doug Stanhope

Roadrunnercomedy.com

Category:1967 births Category:American atheists Category:American comedians Category:American libertarians Category:American social commentators Category:American stand-up comedians Category:Living people Category:People from Worcester, Massachusetts Category:People from Cochise County, Arizona Category:Writers from Arizona Category:Writers from Massachusetts

de:Doug Stanhope no:Doug Stanhope sv:Doug Stanhope