h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm currently writing a piece of fan fic which includes a conversation with Willow from Buffy the vampire Slayer discussing "Hitchers" and the characters of Ford Prefect and Marvin with another character as I imagine Willow would probably have been an H2G2 fan. Since I am British and have no clue about the experience of the American fan of H2g2 I was wondering if the Americans on this site could help me fill me on in on what it's like to be an American fan of Douglas Adams. I am especially interested in how popular was H2G2 in America, did the radio series or tv series ever air there (and if so on what channels and at what times) and how much publicity did Adams's sad demise recieve in America - i.e would someone like Willow be aware of the fact he'd died.

Any help or insight into this would be much appreciated and I will post finished fan fic to this site.

Thank you

In my own experience, the answers to the above are, respectively:

Occasional book siting in the store/library.

No.

None.

But hey, I could be wrong. Any more questions?

Adams work is fairly popular, especially in certain circles.

Yes, the TV series did air here on public television (also known as PBS) but I don't know when. I know my dad saw it so it was probably in the 70's or early 80's sometime. I used to have a copy on VHS so if you checked a bookseller's website that has a name the same as a river in the Brazilian jungle, you'll at least be able to find the US release/copyright date on the video. I think the radio series played as well on public radio (also known as NPR). A quick Google should sort it out. I first heard about Adams from my dad who was an avid Dr. Who, etc fan.

Yes, Adam's death received publicity in US media. I don't remember where I heard about it. Probably on CNN's website or on the national TV news.

The books were reasonably popular here, and the recordings of the TV series are available for rent in the "cult classic" section of video stores. I don't remember hearing about DNAs passing at the time, though I really only became a fan later in 2001. Moment of silence ... Of course there has been much more discussion of DNA and his books since the Hollywood movie version of the story came out.