Endless Knight, Part One

by Simon Plumbe

In 1982, a series was launched that heralded a new trend in television science fiction and fantasy shows, leading the way for the trail of super-vehicle shows that followed in its footsteps. However, none could match the success or popularity of that original show... Knight Rider.

Created by TV stalwart, Glen Larson, the series followed the adventures of former undercover police officer Michael Long (David Hasselhoff) who was critically wounded after being shot when attempting to break a drugs trafficing ring. He was found by wealthy millionaire, Wilton Knight (played by Richard Basehart, from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea) who returned Michael to health, gave him a new face and a new identity - that of Michael Knight. Wilton then offered Michael the opportunity to work for his organisation, the Knight Foundation for Law and Government, fighting crime believing that "One man can make a difference", with the assistance of a rather special car...

The car was KITT - the Knight Industries Two Thousand. On the outside, seemingly nothing more than a standard black Trans-Am, but this was no ordinary car. Heavily armoured with a protective shell that could resist flames, bullets, and virtually anything else thrown at it, it could also reach speeds unknown to other road cars. Then there was the heart of the car itself - an intelligent computer system with a wide range of scanners, devices, and that could even drive itself, voiced distinctively by St Elsewhere's William Daniels.

As well as KITT, Michael had back-up from the Foundation's representative Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare), and one of KITT's engineers Bonnie (Patricia McPherson).

The series was incredibly popular during its four year run, and lasted for a total of 84 episodes including a number of two hour specials. Where other shows of this ilk failed, Knight Rider managed to succeed because of the rapport between Michael and KITT. The show wasn't just about a man and a machine, there was always a strong underlying bond of friendship between the unlikely duo.

While David Hasselhoff isn't the greatest actor in the world, he managed to charm viewers with his attitude towards the role, but the show was not without it's troubled times. After the end of the first season, Patricia McPherson left the show and was replaced by Rebecca Holden who played KITT's new engineer April. The show continued at full strength, but even at this stage, the signs were beginning to show for the end of the series.

Some episodes featured a distinct lack of originality and this season introduced a new villain who would re-appear later during the same season - Garth Knight (Wilton Knight's son who Michael's face was based on, also played by David Hasselhoff), and we saw the start of a trend of episodes where KITT lost his memory. Once would have been fine, but out of 84 episodes, this happened 3 times (in fact when this first happened in season two, after a gap of just one episode it occurred again with Michael losing HIS memory!). However, saying that, considering the actual format of the series, the producers managed to have quite a healthy variety in the storylines.

Patricia McPherson returned as Bonnie for the show's third season, but it was starting to become apparent that the series was running out of steam. We saw the return of KARR (the Knight Automated Roving Robot - KITT's predecessor) from season one, and some of the stories beared similarities to earlier episodes. But if people were slightly disappointed with the third season, season four had more than a few shocks in store...

The two-hour opening story saw KITT nearly destroyed and his protective shell was damaged. Aided by a street gang, Michael and Bonnie get KITT back into a functional state, but left relatively defenceless. At the same time, he had undergone a couple of modifications. First, a new high speed mode had been added, Super Pursuit Mode, which saw additional booster engines folding out from the rear of the car. Unfortunately, KITT also gained the facility to become convertible with the top folding INTO the rear (where the aforementioned Super Pursuit Mode was!). Many of KITT's earlier features or abilities seemed to be forgotten, and the season had an overdependence on KITT's technology when compared with earlier years and at the end of that season, the show was cancelled in April 1986.

That wasn't the end for the series however, as it began to be repeated endlessly in syndication, much in same way as Star Trek and is still being shown today all over the world and is almost as popular now as it was then. Even the production of a special 30-minute version of the show editing all of the 84 episodes down to bite-sized chunks failed to damage the interest in the series, despite having large amounts of plot and character development dropped in favour of the show's action sequences.

Even that didn't spell the end of the series, and in 1993, the first of two Knight Rider TV movies was produced, Knight Rider 2000, which was intended as the pilot for a second Knight Rider series, but that's another article...

Additional material for this article was written and provided by Sven Harvey. This article is dedicated to the memory of Edward Mulhare who passed away from cancer on 24th May 1997 aged 74.