Cult Classics: Knight Rider
The opening theme song is classic – the synthesizer techno tune serving as the intro to the 80’s cult phenomenon known as “Knight Rider” was known to make people drop what they were doing and come to the TV. Well maybe not to that degree, but the show was certainly ingrained into pop culture during its four-year run, and as the premiere of a new TV movie a month ago demonstrates, it still is today. But let’s go back to the beginning, when NBC’s chief executive at the time Brandon Tartikoff decided he wanted an action-based show around a hero and his talking car…and the general reaction from most others was “What?!!”
Michael Long was an L.A. cop who ended up the victim of a vicious double-cross – he was led to the desert, shot in the face and left for dead. However, he was rescued by the FLAG (the tackily-named Foundation for Law and Government) organization and resurrected, being given David Hasselhoff’s face and the name “Michael Knight” as a part of that operation. In addition, he was recruited by Devon Miles (seen above played by British star Edward Mulhare) to be FLAG’s “undercover agent” if you will, handling in person what the group couldn’t do in court – basically, to kick the incompetent bad guys’ asses while not messing up his coiffed hairstyle. But he wasn’t alone on this mission, FLAG gave him his own ride too.
A 1982 Pontiac Trans Am with some serious modifications, KITT (the Knight Industries Two Thousand) would become Michael’s partner for his undercover missions, though at first “the Hoff” was a little freaked out by the car’s appearance (hilariously referring to it in the pilot episode as “Darth Vader’s bathroom.”) That was really the draw for the show, to see KITT’s futuristic and death-defying abilities in action as “the Hoff” toppled the latest criminal mastermind of the week with a generous amount of style and flash. In the first season, Pontiac actually contacted NBC to request that KITT not be referred to anymore as a Trans Am in the show, because they had been inundated with requests from fans about how to trick out their Trans Ams to look like KITT. That says it all.
Not only that, but the future “Mr. Feeny” himself, William Daniels, provided the voice for KITT. In addition to fighting crime and computing the necessary requirements for making a turbo boost leap at 150 MPH, he could dish out philosophy and biting sarcasm with the best of them. My one complaint is that at some point during the show, KITT didn’t give Michael detention for messing up his circuits with his crazy stunt driving – that would earn my money in a heartbeat. Bottom line, if I need to explain why “the Hoff” and “Mr. Feeny” are the ultimate crime-fighting team, you probably shouldn’t be reading this.
Storyline-wise, the show wasn’t exactly A-List material, but it didn’t have to be. Checking out the episodes will show un-Academy Award-winning acting, cheesy dialogue, recycling of stock footage, and the most incompetent bad guys this side of a Scooby Doo rerun. That could be best personified by the screenshot above, as a recurring storyline involved Michael Knight doing battle with his “evil” twin brother Garthe (also played by “the Hoff”). Besides a hilariously bad accent, the only thing askew about Garthe was his mustache – and where does it say that facial hair automatically makes someone evil? However, things like this were part of the show’s cult charm, and it was occasionally willing to poke fun at itself, which it has to be commended for.
Though successful in its four-year run from 1982-1986, attempts made to recapture lightning in a bottle have by and large failed. A 1991 TV movie “Knight Rider 2000″ flat-out sucked, as did the TV series “Team Knight Rider”, in addition to the recent TV movie “Knight Rider” from a month ago (in my own humble opinion of course). I mean, Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT…what were they thinking? Hey Val, 1996 called and they’re sick and tired of you. Anyway, the entire series of this cult classic is available on DVD, and I highly recommend checking it out – just don’t pull any turbo boosts on the way to the video store, the cops just might arrest you. And unless your car can help you talk your way out of it, you might be out of luck.
March 13, 2008 at 2:30 am
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
March 21, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Thank you very much for linking to my article