I kinda feel like the original K.I.T.T. look is just too iconic; in the same way that Doctor Who has continued to use the old London Police Box shape decades after they ceased to be produced, I think I’d want a new Knight Rider to keep the black Trans Am chassis, outdatedness be damned.
The General Knight Rider thread.
- Thread starter Skipper
- Start date
I think it just needs to be a common Black Sports Car, something that you can find on the road.
That's why I didn't mind when KR (2008) chose the Mustang.
The pilot had a much different, more serious tone, than the rest of the series. I mentioned earlier in the thread that Michael's identity and the concept of a man operating in the shadows could be a major premise of the technology's important to the story. Part of KITTs purpose could be to protect Michael's presence in the stories and his connection with Michael Long who is supposed to be dead.
For me, the show hit ludicrous levels when a bunch of kids fixed up KITT and give it super pursuit mode in the fourth season. The show starts off as more of a buddy cop show between Michael and KITT, and then it turns cartoon like as it progresses. A-Team also had this problem, but I actually liked where the show was going when it was canceled. And some episodes were far more serious than others.
I really need to do a re-watch of Knight Rider once I finish up other series I have started.
From the pilot
He was dubbed by David Hasselhoff.
His old identity plays an important role in some episodes
Episode 210: Knightmares
Michael & Kitt are looking for a stolen substance called Alidium. After tracking a suspect to the Bedford dam, Michael is caught in an explosion and loses part of his memory. He wakes up thinking he's still police officer Michael Long.
Then Michael Long's ex lover (Stephanie Mason) appeared in three episodes.
Season 1
Episode 118: White Bird
Season 2
Episode 220: Let it Be Me
Season 4
Episode 411: The Scent of Roses
With these exceptions (and obviously the pilot), his old life is virtually never mentioned. He's never expressed remorse or nostalgia. Keep in mind that the Foundation changed his face and identity without his consent.
When they show him his new face and tell him that Michael Long is dead his reaction in the pilot is like, "Uh, okay.". He doesn't show the slightest concern for his old friends, relatives, or even his lover.
It was a different time.
He was dubbed by David Hasselhoff.
His old identity plays an important role in some episodes
Episode 210: Knightmares
Michael & Kitt are looking for a stolen substance called Alidium. After tracking a suspect to the Bedford dam, Michael is caught in an explosion and loses part of his memory. He wakes up thinking he's still police officer Michael Long.
Then Michael Long's ex lover (Stephanie Mason) appeared in three episodes.
Season 1
Episode 118: White Bird
Season 2
Episode 220: Let it Be Me
Season 4
Episode 411: The Scent of Roses
With these exceptions (and obviously the pilot), his old life is virtually never mentioned. He's never expressed remorse or nostalgia. Keep in mind that the Foundation changed his face and identity without his consent.
When they show him his new face and tell him that Michael Long is dead his reaction in the pilot is like, "Uh, okay.". He doesn't show the slightest concern for his old friends, relatives, or even his lover.
It was a different time.
Makes sense to me. After all, plenty of people drive classic cars.
It wasn't about the times. I mean, this was the same era as Hill Street Blues and Lou Grant and Cagney & Lacey and the final seasons of M*A*S*H. There were plenty of shows then, and in earlier decades, that did a lot to explore their characters' personal and emotional lives. But Knight Rider wasn't one of them, because it was one of the dumber, shallower shows of the era. Every era has a spectrum of quality and intelligence in its entertainment, and Knight Rider was toward the bottom of the intelligence spectrum for 1980s TV. It was popular because it aimed for the lowest common denominator.
All true, but I can't imagine a modern show considered "dumb" where the protagonist, while unconscious, is falsely declared dead, given a new identity, a new face (which is the same as the son of the person who organized it all) without his consent, and his first reaction upon waking up is "Uh, okay. Now what?" I think the minimum standards for writing have risen a bit in 40 years, at least when it comes to certain tropes.
Hmm, maybe, but I think it's more because home video and streaming have shifted the emphasis more toward the whole rather than the individual parts, so there's a stronger incentive to develop ongoing character arcs. That doesn't necessarily make the worst of them any smarter or better-written than the worst of '80s TV, though. Serialized character writing has its own dumb tropes, like always having the case-of-the-week be coincidentally relevant to whatever the main characters are going through in their personal lives that week, or having characters overreact to every problem to manufacture shocking dramatic twists.
Yeah, there's that. Kind of like how iconic the DeLorean is to BTTF. If Pontiac is revived, there's a good chance they could revive the Trans-Am with a more modern design and be a fitting choice for a new KITT.
I may be misremembering, but I think the premise was that Michael Long was nearly killed and his face was horribly damaged. It wasn't like the Knight Foundation just decided to change his face, but rather that they repaired it and used the face of Michael Knight.
It's the classic "magical" plastic surgery from movies and TV (although I don't recall any recent examples, another trope that's almost extinct after decades).
Yes, his face was damaged. But just as they could have given him a perfect reproduction of Wilton Knight's face as a young man, they could also have given him back his old appearance. And anyway, they did it all while he was unconscious without asking him anything.
All true. In fact, I remember having that discussion with my friends back in the 80s. In the first episode, Michael didn't want any part of the mission. He was happy to get his old car back and get on his way, but was manipulated by Devon to stay.
Yes. It's a little bizarre that he never complained, not even in the pilot, about how the Foundation erased his old life without his permission (his only initial reservation was that he didn't want to submit to their orders). We can rationalize that he immediately understood it was done for the Greater Good.
I could be misremembering, but I thought faking Michael Long's death and changing his name and face was a sort of witness protection thing so that his attempted killer wouldn't come after him again.
I saw a black Firebird of that era at a car show yesterday, made me realize I haven't seen any of them on the street in quite some time.
I think so. The original pilot was Michael taking down the people who killed him and using his new appearance to pretend to be a different person, if I'm remembering correctly. I haven't seen that episode since the 80s.
A lot of it probably comes down to finding parts to maintain a vehicle that old.
I know that at our shop, once we start getting vehicles over 10-15 years old, the shop manager has to start calling junkyards to see if parts are available.
We recently had a Chevy Suburban from the 1990s in the shop that needed a fuel line.
The technician eventually cobbled one together from three different Suburbans of various vintage.
Michael having to deal with his change in identity could be a perfect arc that could go through at least the first season. It's the perfect kind of thing to have going on kind as a B plot through the season as he's dealing with whatever the case of the weeks are.From the pilot
He was dubbed by David Hasselhoff.
His old identity plays an important role in some episodes
Episode 210: Knightmares
Michael & Kitt are looking for a stolen substance called Alidium. After tracking a suspect to the Bedford dam, Michael is caught in an explosion and loses part of his memory. He wakes up thinking he's still police officer Michael Long.
Then Michael Long's ex lover (Stephanie Mason) appeared in three episodes.
Season 1
Episode 118: White Bird
Season 2
Episode 220: Let it Be Me
Season 4
Episode 411: The Scent of Roses
With these exceptions (and obviously the pilot), his old life is virtually never mentioned. He's never expressed remorse or nostalgia. Keep in mind that the Foundation changed his face and identity without his consent.
When they show him his new face and tell him that Michael Long is dead his reaction in the pilot is like, "Uh, okay.". He doesn't show the slightest concern for his old friends, relatives, or even his lover.
It was a different time.
I remember there was one show back in either the later '90s or early '00s that really took this to ridiculous extremes, but I can't remember what it was now.
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