![]() Toys flew off the shelves.Īfter the show was canceled in 1986, the car continued to rev in the popular imagination and became a collector's fetish object, the kind of thing bored celebrities and sleazy white-collar businessmen buy to show off. The car (and the show) was a hit, thanks in part to its 300 mph max speed, flamboyant attitude and about 120 assorted superpowers, including Super Pursuit Mode, missiles, a grappling hook, high tensile reflectors, a laser gun and a laser printer (maybe Knight needed to print out his résumé?). No offense to the Hoff, but KITT was clearly the star. After nearly 30 seconds of close-up shots of the car's features-essentially, a moody car commercial-it finally introduces Hasselhoff. Knight Rider's intro-a Pontiac Trans Am blazing across the desert to a strobing synth beat-somehow skirts the line between extreme camp and retro cool. ![]() Feeny from Boy Meets World, for those too young) played the car. David Hasselhoff starred as former detective Michael Knight, and an uncredited William Daniels (Benjamin Braddock's father in The Graduate, for those too old to remember the show Mr. Knight Rider (1982) was ostensibly a remake of The Lone Ranger, replacing Silver the horse with a talking car (see: '80s, cocaine). Anything goes, because You’re In Charge Of The Knight Rider Reboot.The show was created by pop-TV producer Glen Larson, who was responsible for a staggering number of hit TV shows in the '70s and '80s, including McCloud, Magnum, P.I. Maybe it’s set in the steam-power era, and KITT can speak because of magic, not technology. Maybe Michael is Michelle this time around. Dark and gritty, with a brooding antihero? A bit overdone, but hey, you’re the boss. Weekly action-adventure for the kids, like the original? Sounds good. ![]() Who do you cast as Michael Knight? What kind of car is KITT-and who voices it? What kind of show will your Knight Rider be? Prestige limited-series drama? Go for it. But now you’re in charge: how would YOU reboot the show? Sky’s the limit, and you have all the budget you need. It’s been done before! See Knight Rider 2000 (1991), Knight Rider 2010 (1994), Team Knight Rider (1997), and Knight Rider (2008). Where was I? Oh, right: rebooting the show. As you can easily imagine (but will see captured on video when you click here), actual Pontiac Firebirds couldn’t begin to handle jump landings onto flat ground, hence the model work and novel Bug solutions. ![]() If you’re watching the video, keep your eyes peeled for later-season jumps executed as miniature effects, and appearances of the easily-spotted rubber-body KITT atop a VW Beetle chassis. And wow, could the man sell a Turbo-Boost: Mock the Hoff all you like, but he was indelible as the leather-bejacketed Michael Knight and always played the role completely straight, no matter how absurd the action or ball-crushing the jeans. Elsewhere) to complete the show’s absolutely perfect main-characters casting. KITT was voiced by William Daniels (TV nerds will also recall him as Dr. Said car (which could talk, by the way-kind of a big miss there, Wikipedia) was “played” by the just-released third-gen Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, replete with gloss-black paint, button wheel covers, and a tan interior slathered with switches, 7-segment displays, LEDs, a CRT monitor, and a yoke replacing the steering wheel. Knight Rider should require no introduction, but if you’re just emerging from beneath a rock you stowed yourself under back in early 1982, it’s the show where “David Hasselhoff stars as Michael Knight, a sleek and modern crime fighter assisted by KITT, an advanced, artificially intelligent, self-aware, and nearly indestructible car.” That’s in quotes because I lifted it directly from Wikipedia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |