The Hitchhiker (also known as Deadly Nightmares in the United Kingdom and Le Voyageur in France)[1] is a mystery horror anthology television series.

Each episode is introduced and concluded by a mysterious wanderer known only as "The Hitchhiker", and explores the foibles of humanity and its dark spirit.

Like the much earlier Twilight Zone series, with which it had a lot of other commonalities, The Hitchhiker served as starting point for many actors, some of whom would go on to gain greater recognition elsewhere.

To make the HBO episodes suitable for US broadcast television, edits were made, both for content (to remove nudity/gore/adult language) and for running time, to get them down to the standard 22-minute length needed to insert commercials.

After 1983, (but prior to the 1995 syndication), the first three episodes had footage edited and/or re-shot to replace Nicholas Campbell with Page Fletcher, in order to preserve continuity during reruns.

Budget label Goodtimes Home Video also released a single VHS volume containing three of the USA Network episodes in 1989.

HBO Home Video released a three-volume set on DVD between 2004–2006, featuring various episodes from the series.

Alliance Home Entertainment released The Hitchhiker: The Complete Collection on DVD in Canada for the very first time on October 11, 2011.