Knight rider (and the red flashing lights that everyone wanted on there cars..?) (Knight Rider)

Member Name: blissman70

Product:	Knight Rider
Date:	14/10/08 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great entertainment from the eighties

Disadvantages: not to everyones taste

Creators: Glen A. Larson.
Producers: Glen A. Larson, Robert Ewing and Robert Foster.
Writers: (Various, including) Glen A. Larson, Robert Foster, Gerald Sanford and Peter Allan Fields.


Stars: David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, Patricia McPherson, Rebecca Holden, Peter Parros and the voice of William Daniels as KITT.

Released in September 1982 and running until August 1986, making 90 forty five minute episodes into 4 series


** THE SHOW **

Michael Long, (played by David Hasselhoff) is a detective working on a case when he is injured in the line of duty... so with a new identity, together with a new face, he becomes Michael Knight, now working for Knight foundation, owned by multi millionaire Wilton Knight, as a minder/driver under the guidance of Devon Miles, (played by Edward Mulhare) and chief mechanic Doctor Bonnie Barstow, (played by Patricia McPherson, (Rebecca Holden as April Curtis as in the 2nd series)... only the car he drives is not like any other car, it is KITT 2000, a prototype vehicle which is controlled by a computer, giving it a sort of mind of it's own, (voiced by William Daniels) ... and sometimes a rather annoying personality, but with some rather interesting and unusual abilities and some very fascinating hardware underneath the bodywork.

Each episode sees Michael and KITT coming up against many difficult scenarios, from murderous psychopaths to terrorists hell bent on destroying the world... (and even an angry ex girlfriend of Michael Longs..??), with each episode being as action packed as the last, bringing much entertainment for all, albeit a little tacky at times.
However, the stunts and special effects aren't the best, with some rather silly looking crashes, even dafter jumps and bumps, but as it is really for the younger generation of the eighties then it can't be too gory...

As for the car, KITT 2000, well, what a remarkable car with it artificial intelligence and all it's gadgets and gizmo's, having an 'electronic' answer to everything, being able to drive itself without crashing. The computer inside having the capability to do almost anything from checking the past of anyone it wants to mapping out the quickest route to the nearest supermarket... I was always expecting it to knock up a flat pack wardrobe from Ikea...but it never did...But what a pompous sounding voice it has, talk about annoying, if it was a Sat-Nav it would have been bouncing along the tarmac on the M6 before finishing its first sentence.
But remarkably, in one episode KITT turns out not to be that unique when an identical vehicle called KARR is seen, but this one has a more sinister side.


At the time of first airing it was one of them cars that everybody wanted... a jet black Trans Am Pontiac but without the red flashing light on the front grill, or the flame thrower in the rear... (not that these were optional extras...although some people did manage to glue some red lights on the front of their Skodas)... It was either the black look with the red lights or the black look with the red stripe down the side ( akin to the A Team van)... you could always tell who watched what in the eighties, you just had to look at the paint work on their vehicles.



* IN CONCLUSION

Another great show from the 1980's imaginative era of hopeful future gizmos and gadgets...
It is mild violence, although, unlike the A team saga, people do get killed in this...

Hasselhoff plays his part as the hero quite well in this, although his fight scenes do require a lot more practice to make them at least half realistic... but the real hero in this, and I think you'll agree, is the black super car itself... good old KITT with the annoying ingratiating voice and ability to do what is asked of it, including leaping over walls and rivers... so unbelievably silly it is simply brilliant entertainment.

If you do want to get a copy of this show then you can get it from amazon for less than £60.00, which for 26 DVDs containing all 90 episodes is not bad value at all




* Extra information

Series one - 22 episodes 1982/83
Series two - 24 episodes 1983/84
Series three - 22 episodes 1984/85
Series four - 22 episodes 1985/86

As there are 90 episodes I feel it would just be padding to write them into this review so I will simply place this link for you to follow if you're interested, check out all the episodes here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083437/episodes


And with some spin offs...
Knight rider 2000... 1991
Knight rider 2010... 1994
Knight rider (the movie) 2008

Summary: The Trans Am Pontiac with attitude, (and an annoying voice)