Knight Rider 2008 Season 1 111
Gerarda Zmuda
Knight Rider, an American television series, originally aired from 1982 to 1986, spanning four seasons and 90 episodes. The series was broadcast on NBC and starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a high-tech modern-day knight fighting crime with the help of KITT, an advanced, artificially intelligent and nearly-indestructible car.
Heading FLAG is Devon Miles, who provides Michael with directives and guidance. Dr Bonnie Barstow (season 1, 3 and 4) and April Curtis (season 2) are the chief engineers in charge of KITT's care and act as a technical assistant to Devon.
During the first season, the outro was Michael and KITT driving on a road in the desert with Wilton Knight's words of "One man can make a difference, Michael." These words were phased out after episode 7, "Not A Drop To Drink".
At review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the first season scores 35%, with an average rating of 5.60/10.[7] Tom Shales, writing for The Washington Post: "'Knight Rider' is all revved up but has no place to go, except, maybe, headlong into a large brick wall."[8]
Universal Studios has released all four seasons of Knight Rider on DVD in regions 1, 2 & 4. A complete series box set featuring all 90 episodes in a collector's edition box has been released in regions 1[14] & 2.[15]
On March 8, 2016, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1; they subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD on May 3, 2016.[16] On October 4, 2016, Mill Creek re-released Knight Rider - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.[17]
An annual was published each year in the UK by Grandreams. These books consisted of a mix of text stories and cartoon strips, as well as photos and articles on the show's stars and KITT. There were five annuals produced in total, each reflecting the season of the show that was airing at the time, with the final two releases covering the final season. (The last annual was printed in a quite small quantity, due to the fading popularity of the show, and is thus considerably rarer.)
The stunt work was hard on the cars, and the show typically ruinedfour to nine each season. The Trans Ams were sold by GM to theproducers for $1 each. Each one cost about $18,000 to modify intoK.I.T.T.
There were also a set of around six "Hero" cars that were used for close-up filming during the various seasons. According to this interview with Hotrod.com, the three original "hero" cars supplied by Pontiac were supposed to be destroyed at the end of the first season but somehow managed to survive the crusher and ended up in private hands.
In February 2021, they released a video disclosing they owned one of the two tractors used for the mobile unit, a 1984 GMC General used in the third and fourth seasons, in hopes of shaking loose leads to the trailer.
Michael is not alone in his quest. Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare) is his immediate superior in FLAG who sends him out on field missions. Dr. Bonnie Barstow (Patricia McPherson) is Michael's chief technician. Last but not least, Michael's new partner is KITT: an artificially-intelligent super car with a host of special features. Together, it and Michael would go on to fight evil for four seasons of Knight Rider.
As Michael Knight, Hasselhoff won the hearts and minds of American school girls, and their moms. Hasselhoff used his fame to launch a singing career in mid-1980s. He became especially popular in Germany and Austria, partially because - as his surname suggests - Haselhoff's ancestors arrived to North America from Germany in 19th century. However, Hassellhoff's most popular project came in 1990s when he produced and co-starred in Baywatch. His TV show about sexy women in bikinis running in slow motion became a global phenomenon and aired for 11 seasons.
Throughout its four seasons run, Knight Rider mostly stayed away from the recurring villains. One of the rare exceptions comes in the second season's two-part opener Goliath. Also played by David Hasselhoff, Garthe Knight is that oldest of soap opera cliches: an evil twin! The only son of the late billionaire Wilton Knight, Garthe spent years imprisoned somewhere in Africa. Although Garthe and Michael aren't biologically related, elder Knight had Michael's face reconstructed to look exactly like his son's. It's the kind of decision that psychoanalysis was invented to study.
Garthe returns home and he isn't too happy to find his father gone and his face stolen. Sporting a goatee - like all evil twins do - Garthe steals technologies used to make KITT and builds himself an armored truck called Goliath. Naturally, Michael defeats him, but not before plenty of hammy acting by The Hoff. Garthe returns late in the second season, but this was his last appearance as Hasselhoff unfortunately found playing dual roles to be too strenuous.
There were two attempts to revive the show. First one came in 1997 with Team Knight Rider - a TV show sequel following a whole group of crime fighters using various cars and motorcycles with distinctive AI personalities. Although Team Knight Rider was cancelled after its first season, a decade later NBC tried again, this time with a straightforward Knight Rider revival that even had David Hasselhoff do a little cameo in its pilot episode.
This totally un-ironically awesome photo of David Hasselhoff posing with the actor Gary Coleman came to exist because of a crossover between Knight Rider and the popular family sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Diff'rent Strokes followed kid-friendly misadventures of Arnold and Willis Jackson (played by Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges), two boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white widower Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) and his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato). The sitcom was so successful that it aired for eight seasons from 1978 until 1986.
In the sixth season two-part episode called Hooray for Hollywood, the Drummond family travels to Los Angeles. Willis and Arnold get lost while looking for a Knight Rider studio set. They accidentally end up in a car that's up to be blown up for the show, but get saved at the last moment by David Hasselhoff. Hence this photo documenting the historical meeting between these two American TV icons.
Knight Rider is an American action crime drama television series created by Glen A. Larson. Starring David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, Richard Basehart, Patricia McPherson, Rebecca Holden, and Peter Parros, the series was released from September 26, 1982 to April 4, 1986 on NBC, ran for 4 seasons, 90 episodes, nominated for the 1983 Primetime Emmy Awards in "Outstanding Film Sound Editing for a Series". Knight Rider was shot in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Stockton, Santa Clarita, and Burbank, California, USA. Filming also took place at Universal Studios, Universal City. Greystone Mansion was used for Devon's Headquarters on Season 1.
For the final season, KITT was given the ability to transform into an armored high-speed mode, and also given a convertible top to showcase Pontiac's new convertible Trans Am. Although the Product Placement is obvious (and the show referred to the car as a Trans Am early on) the brand-name drop was eliminated at the request of Pontiac, as buyers were asking for options that weren't actually available on production models. Thereafter the car was referred to by bystanders simply as a "black T-top."
The show has been revived (or attempted to be) several times:
- 1991 with the TV movie Knight Rider 2000, which was mostly the same concept but had KITT transferred into a Pontiac Banshee concept car. Despite high ratings it never materialized into a series, probably because the TV movie was set 20 Minutes into the Future and a series based on that would have been too expensive.
- 1994 reimagined it as Knight Rider 2010, which was ill received, mainly due to a radically different premise with a heavy Mad Max theme, and pretty much being In Name Only.
- 1997 had a new full-fledged series, Team Knight Rider. Lasted a season as a part of the Action Pack and had a small fleet of intelligent cars.
- Around November/December 2015, a series of teaser trailers (from Knight Industries Media Inc.) emerged for a new project called Knight Rider Heroes, starring Hasselhoff and Anthony Marcus.
The series struggled with its first half-season, with Michael and KITT commissioned as special agents directed by the FBI rather than the "wandering cowboy" angle. NBC also waffled back and forth on how many new episodes it wanted. A major retool was done with episodes 11-12 being a "bridge" to the new concept. Excessive characters were dropped and the show moved back to the "man and his car" formula of the original series. The fandom is still divided on the show's quality, but the retooled episodes were better received.
Knight Rider is an American television series created by Glen A. Larson that originally ran on NBC for four seasons from 26 September 1982 to 8 August 1986. The series starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a high-tech modern-day knight fighting crime while driving a sentient talking car with artificial intelligence.
The most recent attempt at a Knight Rider reboot came in 2008, when NBC offered a modern take on the classic series. Though the show debuted with strong ratings, they quickly diminished. Again, the program lasted just one season.
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