K 2000

In 1982 an unknown actor named David Hasselhoff burst onto the scene in a weekly Friday night series aired on NBC. Hasselhoff played Michael Knight on a brand new 80s vehicle oriented TV show (that frequently targeted boys) called Knight Rider to rival The Dukes of Hazzard on CBS.

Hasselhoff was what many in the industry call an "8 x 10", a perfect hunky man with shoulder length wavy hair and beaming smile. Hasselhoff was also gifted with a keen sense of humor and wit, which allowed many of the outrageous stories of Knight Rider to work and not be taken too seriously. Knight Rider was about an undercover cop named Michael Long who was betrayed and left for dead in the desert. Long was rescued by an eccentric billionaire by the name of Wilton Knight, who nursed Long back to health. Wilton Knight also gave Long a new face and identity as "Michael Knight". Knight convinced Long to use his police officer skills to help his private organization (The Foundation for Law and Government), and equipped him with a super car with artificial intelligence named KITT (Knight Industries Two-Thousand). The supporting actors like Edward Mulhare, Patricia McPherson complemented Hasselhoff wonderfully as Devon Miles and Bonnie Barstow. It is rare that a cast gels so well like this, and in many ways KR was more about the characters then the stories or KITT.

Despite some negative and absurdly over the top reviews here, Knight Rider remains one of the most fondly remembered action adventure TV shows of the 1980s. Knight Rider was not an L.A. Law or St. Elsewhere type drama, nor was it Harlan Ellison level science fiction, and it never tried to be. Knight Rider had some camp, but campy doesn't mean a dog meat series. Every single one of those action/adventure shows from the 80s like A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard, Blue Thunder, Airwolf, Hunter and MacGyver had plenty of instances of overt stupidity. They ALL had their "what the hell was that about?" moments. Every one of those 80s shows. So why is Knight Rider singled out and getting ridiculously picked on like this?

The show was a fun yet not too serious one hour adventure series. Many people here seem to be overly concerned with "looking cool" as adults and join in on the over the top teasing of a series that you know everyone loved back in the 80s. Stop trying to be so cool just because you're now an adult in the 2000s versus being the young kid that watched this show every week back in 80s. I highly recommend Knight Rider, (it will blow you away!) and check out the newly released DVD if you can. The Season 1 DVD has rich vibrant colors and sound, complete with an assortment of extra features that will keep you busy for days.

My Rating:

9/10

The basic premise of Knight Rider has already been covered here numerous times, so I'm not going to delve into that. Everyone knows that Knight Rider is about an ex-cop with a new identity, working for a private foundation that provides him with an indestructible super car. But if you read some of the reviews here, you might think that Knight Rider is the worst TV show that was ever made. Knight Rider could get corny at times but it was nowhere near as terrible as some people say it is. There's nothing at all wrong with a show being campy.

Knight Rider wasn't "all about a cool car" either. If that was true then why didn't the two attempts to revive the show in the 90s work? Knight Rider 2000 in the early 90s and Team Knight Rider in the late 90s both failed to recapture the 80s glory of the original. Team Knight Rider even had 5 talking super vehicles. That proves that there was something to David Hasselhoff (Michael Knight), William Daniels (voice of KITT) and Edward Mulhare (Devon). They had a special chemistry that made the series work. David Hasselhoff for all his William Shatner overacting antics, made the show work too. Another man might have tried to play the material seriously, but the Hoff knew better. Knight Rider wasn't a show that was trying to change the world, it was merely a one hour action/adventure block of entertainment. The people slamming Knight Rider were probably too old to appreciate the show as children in the 80s, or they are too young to have been around in the 80s. I bet a lot of these mean spirited comments are from some dopey Generation Y kids born in 1989 or something like that. I think the shows success speaks for itself.

A lot of people laugh at David Hasselhoff and write Knight Rider off as a corny piece of 80s television. I still think this is one of the coolest shows ever, and I freely admit that Knight Rider can be pretty idiotic at the same time. The series was basically a cartoon and that can make it hard for some people to revisit when they grow up. I think that Knight Rider is one of the best unintentionally hilarious shows ever created. The silly aspects of the series make it just that much more entertaining in adult life. Knight Rider is an endearing and nostalgic series that finds a way to entertain you despite how ridiculous it can all be. "Michael & KITT", how can you not feel the tug of the old days back in the 80s when you hear that? We all grew up with this show back in the 1980's as kids, the appeal of a cool looking black sports car that could TALK was irresistible back then. Today I guess we look back at Knight Rider and wonder "wtf". It might make us recoil, and get pretty damn embarrassed with some of the out there stuff we used to think was so cool.

The immense flaws of logic and continuity that plagued Knight Rider were easily hidden to a casual child viewing the show back in 1982 (I was 5 years old), but they really stick out like a sore thumb when viewed through adult eyes. The same damn stock footage was used ad nauseum, the frames were sped up to make a car going 20 mph look like it was zipping along at 400 mph, blue filters were always used to make it look like it was night time; and as others have mentioned, the fight scenes were never, ever believable. I don't think they even had any kind of trained fight specialist on Knight Rider, it always seemed like the director just told Hasselhoff or the stunt doubles to simply go out there and just make up some crap that could pass for jujitsu or tae-kwon-do. But again, this is what makes Knight Rider so fun.

This series is loaded with all kinds of unintentional hilarity. Some of my favorites are when David Hasselhoff's stunt double wears a mustache in a take, or the episode when the stunt double's Michael Knight afro wig accidentally flew off while he was doing one of those patented "Hasselhoff-Fu" roundhouse karate kicks. It seemed like Michael Knight could take down any bad guy with one well placed karate kick to the head. Let's all be honest with ourselves, a big reason this show was popular was because it featured a really cool looking black car with that cool looking red scanner mounted in the front. Everyone loved that car, and there is no doubt that is the reason Knight Rider is a part of American pop cultural lore. I'm 26 1/2 years old today and I still like this show because it's my childhood, and because it's from the 80's that we all love and grew up in. Things would get so stupid, you often wondered if there would be a button on KITT's dashboard that would say "Drive Very Fast" instead of "Super Pursuit Mode". The show didn't magically become any more nerdier in the 2000's then it was in the 1980s. Even back in the early-mid 80s most people over the age of 15 had a tendency to laugh at Knight Rider. It was always cool to children that didn't pick apart the series, but not so to anyone above the 9th grade. The prime target audience was boys that were roughly 9 years of age. So if you were already over the age of 13 back in 1982 when Knight Rider first aired, then you were likely going to always be too cool for a show like this that leaned on being a live action cartoon. Yes it is amazing that this series lasted on NBC's prime time for 4 years. But aren't we glad it did?

I was a kid when Knight Rider was in its prime time and yes I watch it no matter what. Currently have the reruns of Knight Rider on and I must say there are somethings that bug me. Like every kid in the 80s I loved K.I.T.T. Now for all you people that say David Hasselhoff can't act come on, o.k he's not the best actor in the world but he wasn't that bad, I think he was great for the role, but the things that bug me were like how everytime Michael say something like "K.I.T.T get Devon on the line for me" and Michael would go and press 20 other buttons and the reuse of footage. I must admint David Hasselhoff was good looking at the time, just about in every episode Michael would do his good dee and get the girl at the end, well they did drop to his feet, just about all apart from Bonnie, thats the only time we see Michael try so hard and get turn down, but you can see they are more then just friends. Michael and Devon I can say are bit like Maxwell Smart and the Chief off Get Smart but the only thing was Michael was a lot smarter but it still irritated Devon like Max did the Chief. Some episodes did a get a bit boring and could have been better, but over all Knight Rider is still a good TV series.

People are picking on this show for ridiculous reasons. IT was not SUPPOSED to be this great acted, perfectly mistake free show. It was an homage to the classic cliff hangers of the 50s. The flashing lights on the gas pedal were there for effect. It was never supposed to be a guide to those driving. A simple formula, really. Flashing lights = cool! By the way, to complain about show for mistakes and actually make a mistake in your complaint is kind of funny. We DID see the truck driver. In fact, in later years, he became a regular cast member. (And quite frankly, it made the show worse.)

The show was fine. Seriously, if you are watching the show expecting Shakespeare, then the mistake is YOURS not the shows.