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Narrative
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Why are people born? Why do they die? And why do they spend much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?
A franchise of different media, all telling variations on the same story by Douglas Adams.
To boil it down to the essentials, Arthur Dent, a fairly normal if feckless Earthling, wakes up one day and, after a series of confusing events, is spirited away from Earth by his friend, Ford Prefect, right before the planet is destroyed. He then hooks up with Zaphod Beeblebrox, former President of the Galaxy, current fugitive, and all-around cool guy; Marvin the Paranoid Android, a sarcastic and chronically depressed AI, and Tricia McMillain, AKA Trillian, The Chick and the only other human being left. Zaphod is on a quest to find The Truth, and everyone else gets pulled along for the ride.
There have been many adaptations over the years, each one starting from this point and then branching off in a different direction. Adams himself has been part of most of these, and thus, they all have some level of "officialness"; it's less a single "original" with an Expanded Universe, and more a string of multi-media Alternate Continuities.
The first version was the radio series, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. The first series was broadcast on BBC Radio in 1978, with another series coming not long after, and a Christmas episode linking them. This material went on to become the foundation of the first two books. However, it has several bits not seen in any later version, including the full-length "Shoe Event Horizon" story. After Adams's death, three more series were broadcast, adapting the plots of the last three books.
Next came the book series, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, probably the best-known version. Originally, it adapted the plots from the radio series, but took off afterwards, becoming five novels in all; Adams had said, near the end of his life, that he wanted to do a sixth, but this was cut short by his sudden death.
A six-episode TV series version was shown on The BBC, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. This, too, was based on the first radio series, and used much of its cast. It was innovative, but suffered from low budgets.
There was an Interactive Fiction game, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, that was also largely written by Adams. It's known for being fiendishly difficult, yet a classic of the genre. A fully playable Java version of the original exists on Adams' own website, and can be found here , while the BBC website has two different illustrated 20th Anniversary Editions available on their website, here. This version gets through the least amount of plot, ending when you first set foot on Magrathea. A sequel was planned but never made.
Finally, in 2005, a big-budget Hollywood movie version, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, came out. The script was based on a previous Adams-written script, and contained several new ideas by him, including the POV Ray and the Vogon homeworld. Reviews were mixed, with some appreciating the wit and ideas, while others grumbled at the large chunks of plot cut out to squeeze everything into two hours. Most reprehensibly, the significance of towels is never explained, even though towels are displayed prominently as if they had been properly explained. Do you have your towel? No? You are doomed.
The series has also been adapted into stage shows, albums and comic books.
This whole bunch of stuff provides examples of:
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