User reviews

The first episode (the series formed by ninety) from first season concerns Michael Long , he's a Police lieutenant with a difficult mission , busting a criminal organization dedicated to industrial espionage in Silicon Valley . But he's deceived by nasty people (Vince Edwards , Lance LeGault) , and receives a shot on the head and being seriously wounded . Although he survives , thanks to help a billionaire , a dying benefactor, chairman and CEO of Knight Industries named Wilton Knight (Richard Basehart , he was the narrator of the show's opening credits who played Wilton Knight in the pilot episode, Knight of the Phoenix: Part 1 , 1982) . The benefactor Wilton gives him possibility a new countenance and identity called Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) . The mysterious chairman of Knight industries provides him an indestructible machine , an ultimate automobile , plenty of gadgets and with artificial intelligence named K. I. T. T. (voice by William Daniels). Michael Knight is supported by one of Wilton's associates named Devon Miles (Edward Mulahre) . Michael is assisted by the beautiful mechanic Bonnie (Patricia McPherson , subsequently replaced by Rebecca Holden in 24 episodes and Peter Parros as Cornelius) taking care of the computerized car and providing equipment for a virtually indestructible supercar.

This is an enjoyable series with intrepid adventures , intrigue , noisy action , car races including spectacular leaps , humor , being pretty entertaining and lots of fun . Sympathetic , affectionate relationship between Michael Knight , a lone crime fighter who battles the forces of evil, and an artificially intelligent , talking supercar that helps him in the perilous assignments . Starring David Hasselhoff is very nice as the superhero regaining consciousness as a new man with a new face helping innocents and defenceless , fighting forces of evil in this dangerous world . At the beginning he's an undercover police officer who's seriously injured during a mission, subsequently nursed back to health by a mysterious benefactor . It displays a famous and unforgettable opening theme by composer Stu Phillips . The series was well produced by Glen A. Larson , noted TV producer and specially Sci-Fi series (Galactica, among others) . Rating 7.5/10. Above average and attractive series .

Knight Rider is a classic show and one that made my youth enjoyable and worthy. However with hindsight it is a TV classic but not a great classic which it could of been. I will summarise why it is a notable show and how it was badly executed. First the strengths. The Pontiac Firebird is appealing and catchy, (though I think a 1983 black Ford Mustang would of been better for looks and refinement) the music is notably memorable, the idea is fresh, new and exclusively modern instead of a traditional crime unit investigating we have gadgetry and technology and how this in a specialist manner is effective to fight crime in the mobility of a car and the view of the leading character consolidated in to the required fast action scenario, lastly it was done at the right time in the right decade.

Now the gripping negative aspects

The leading characters are wooden, adolescent and corny which goes hand in hand with the story lines making it more like a cheesy soap based and the exhausting quantity of episodes that dragged the series rather then the quality. For the scenario formula to work efficiently the leads should be limited and the quality of character has to be advanced, formal and deep, the origin of the story is also not convincing

The criteria must be genuinely crime based and sophisticated such as trafficking, smuggling, vice, corruption and espionage with hardcore action but not violent for it to be viewable to a wider family audience within 3 seasons and a sensible amount of episodes whilst reaching its maximum potential. Knight Rider 2000 rectifies some of these mistakes and acts as good insurance for the original series as do the 1997 and 2008 spin-offs but over do and spoil the original idea were all these improvements could off been one.

The gadgetry and opening / closing credits is overdone and is over the top. Like the exterior of the car was customised and adapted in to the whole body of the car with insignificant change so the interior should of had the same treatment and should of remained the same through out the series of unrecognisable evolvement.

For the credits conventional film openings without the use graphics to make it feel more like a proper crime drama and down to earth.

Glen Larson initially said he wanted to do the Lone Ranger with a car I think it should have been Hardcastle and McCormick in all but name.

In short a notable TV classic but a tragic one. Most TV programmes of this era apart from poor execution were based on stupid ideas by they're nature but Knight Rider is not and though an exception to this it is a lost opportunity.

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 like this show a lot. Not as much as, say, The A-Team, but it was great fun! As others have pointed out, some people get a real stick up the butt and complain that its corny, implausible, some of the acting is dodgy etc... So if we agree, whats the problem? lol But seriously, what do you expect from a show like this? A new Shakespeare? Does everything have to reach that standard of excellence? Surely there's nothing wrong with some light-hearted fun. If you're still not convinced that this was from the golden age of TV, turn on your TV set and just see how things have improved since those awful 80's. Have a look at the horse doo doo passing for entertainment THESE days. "Reality" TV shows featuring half-wits sleeping, sitting on sofa's or getting drunk and talking rubbish (Big Brother, anyone?). Tons of similar, generic sit-coms that need to have laugh tracks to let you know when to laugh (ever sit there and think "was that the funny part?"), propaganda channels posing as news, MTV is a shadow of what it used to be... Yeah, thank God the 80's are over and Knight Rider is a thing of the past, huh? The trouble with comedies these days is that they take themselves too seriously. There always has to be a serious love story alongside the "comedy", always some feigning of intelligence and seriousness going on. I wish the people making TV shows these days would realise that you don't need that boring rubbish. Shows like Knight Rider were corny, implausible, but GREAT fun!

A policeman is seriously wounded during an undercover operation. When he recovers discovers that he has a new assignment funded by a wealthy benefactor. He is to tackle crime single-handedly, aided by an indestructible, high-performance, talking car, KITT. He also has a new face and new name, Michael Knight.

I remember watching this as a kid. Was a great show: the heroics and action were perfect for my age and the clincher was the awesome car, a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. What more could a boy want?

However, looking back as an adult it was pretty cheesy and predictable. Still, it had me enthralled when I was young.

I saw many bad reviews here and I think those guys are the real retarded here, maybe too many reality shows?

I miss eighties shows like Knight rider even with the goof and campy stories because is a show to enjoy and relax, I even like Kitt's sense of humor.

I got the first season DVD to watch with my young nephew and we enjoy very much the episodes, is the first time that he saw Knight rider and is already a fan.

Today TV shows are boring in my opinion, or too serious, or for adults like the sopranos, the shield, boomtown, etc, and realities everywhere come on, those reality shows are the worst.

I liked this show all right when I was a kid. It had its moments and for the time a really cool car. The show also had some rather bad episodes usually involving evil versions of the people on the show. They had a show where Michael as an evil twin and the car K.I.T.T had an evil twin named ironically car. Funny as the evil Michael just had the typical mustache to show how bad he was, funny as both "Futurama" and "South Park" would have episodes making fun of the evil twin and their mustache. However, most episodes especially the early ones were rather good with Michael and K.I.T.T solving the more usual type crimes and not the totally strange ones. The car though made the show for me as a kid as it was totally sweet and did all those cool things, granted it did the really cool things perhaps once per episode, but what does one expect seeing as how those super jumps usually tear a car to pieces. In later episodes after K.I.T.T is dipped into acid he gets a new upgrade called super pursuit mode which would be way awesome, but would last for twenty seconds are so and was never really used for an extended period of time during the episodes it was used in. So this show could have been better, but it was a solid show of the 1980's and is probably the highlight of David Hasslehoff's career.

I remember waiting for this show's weekly segment with such anticipation as a child in the Early 1980's. To watch Michael Knight and his partner and friend Kitt the car battle criminals for the foundation was such a thrill. Today I look at this show and recollect with embarrassment the reasons why I watched it. The reasons as a child as to why I watched this show were simple. It was fast paced, adventurous & suspenseful. But to top it all off it had one of the coolest cars known to man. A car that not only protected Michael Knight, but engaged in full conversations with him. Conversations such as Michael's masculine pursuits were held up to scrutiny in the conversations and if my memory serves me correctly most of these chats were about Michael's roaming eye and how every damsel would fall for him in each episode. The adventures were many and the explosions and fistfights were plenty. At the end of each episode we were all grateful that the west coast of America was safe thanks to one car and its occupant.

Today however I can't see the children even being remotely interested in talking cars or for that matter the occupants of these cars. Maybe this is because the technology that was our imaginations has become a reality today and there is now no need for these dated action shows. The imaginations of today are now enthralled by what could be the technology of tomorrow. Or is it that children and adults alike have had enough of the rubbish and unrealistic story lines. We don't care about a car that could never exist and if it did we would be able to afford it or worse it could become like the next DeLorien car. Have we had now had enough of the likes of Michael Knight a man whose stylish leather jackets and sun tan of the early 1980's would now be the object of scorn and pity. Today a poser like Michael Knight would be bottled and beaten and not tolerated and that is just what the feminists would do. In this reviewers opinion! Yes. Knight Rider is very much a product of 1980's kitsch. To watch a re-run like I have today meant blushing with embarrassment at the though that I once found the dialog funny and cool. The story lines are wholly unbelievable and the methods of preventing crime are totally ludicrous. What's worse is the fact that this show has had a stigma far worse than the dodgy fashion and plot lines. This is David Hasselhof a person that is still on the T.V. despite the fact he cannot act and when he tries it is just very embarrassing to watch. Granted I will admit it is very hard to upstage a talking car, even Marlon Brando would have great difficulty in that.

Maybe I am have become too cynical and not being fair to the show. But I am justified in my criticism in this review. If you want to reminisce about television shows from your childhood and have a warm loving tone when you do so, then you can definitely find better ones than this load of rubbish. I find that when me and my mates will discuss these shows the A-Team will always be referred to as our favorite where we will mimic characters and talk about particular shows. Whenever Knight Rider is mentioned we will stare at our drinks vacantly in the hope that someone will change the subject quickly. 1 out of 10

Yeah, an action-adventure TV show with a car that actually looks like a real car. No way that can be made today...except, you know, Supernatural.

Supernatural has a car that looks like a car doesn't it.

Well, anyway....

I grew up in the 80s, so this was one of the coolest things I had ever seen...along with the A-Team, GI Joe, MTV, Riptide, and a large number of other shows that just blew kids out of the water back then...

...and kids were the real audiance weren't they? I mean, honestly KITT is a talking car. Kids are going to LOVE that. I loved that. I loved watching KITT drive into the back of a Semi-Truck on the open highway. I loved everything about this as a kid.

I remember watching Knight Rider as a child in the eighties ( i was more of a child of the nineties but i was young enough in the late eighties to remember Knight Rider repeats) and falling head over heels in love with Kitt. What child after watching that show didn't pretend to be Michael Knight, hurtling around eighties America, beating up corrupt small town sheriffs or greedy property developers with a a few well placed martial art kicks to the head. And that synthesised theme tune sent shivers down my spine whenever i heard it, my parents sofa was on the receiving end of a few super powered jumps in Kitt as my imagination rode me around the room. As an adult re- watching Knight Rider it is too easy to sneer, David Hasselhoofs cheesy 'son of Fonze' leather and jean outfit and afro haircut and perma tan he really couldn't look more 'eighties cool'. The plots are laughable and paper thin, its the same locations every week and the same stunts. Anyone with even a sense of physics could point out more than a few plot holes and inconsistencies. The role of women in the series is sexist with the script leaving them with little to do but be rescued or provide a 'comedy' put down to Davids aching chat up lines. The fact is these types of shows have been parodied so much no one can take them as anything other than comedy these days, irony has killed them. I find it painful to return to these treasured childhood memories, like the films you saw, music you loved and all the other memoria from childhood revisiting them as an adult is not always wise, you can end up ruining forever those golden memories that provide comfort and a positive communal reference point as you proceed through life. Sometimes is it better not to look backwards.

I have a pet peeve when it comes to TV/movies, and Glen Larson is one of the worst offenders I've ever seen. That is, in a show, when a bunch of characters are watching a video on TV, they sometimes watch video that nobody in the show shot. The video they are watching could only have been obtained by the camera man filming the show. This is a giant blunder!! I've recently seen a few episodes of this show on RTN and there was an event such as this in almost every show I watched. You may argue that KITT has the magical ability to take video where there is no camera, but Larson also did this in Magnum P.I. I think it's more of an M.O. for Larson's work than KITT's abilities. I wonder if he was hoping we were not bright enough to notice.

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

I like this show for the cheese factor and it being made long before actual mobile phones, gps, and cameras existed in a vehicle. Very ahead of it's time for that. It truly all was futuristic, seeing as all the technologies evertually became available and now are apart of every day life.

*I wish I knew how to add a goof in that section because in season 2, episode 2, after Michael arrives back to Devon and Amber after getting in the accident with Garth in the dessert, she clearly calls him David instead of Michael.

Don't go into knight rider expecting it to be Emmy worthy, it's about the 80s fashion and the Hoff. The concept is cool, but unfortunately requires the same two storylines to be recycled for four seasons, which gets old. The acting is mediocre but a few now famous actors can be spotted. Overall a fun experience for a once through.

This is my second comment about this show. I don't like the bad comments from very impolite people criticizing very hard the show because is "not real", or "because is from the eighties", helloooooo, is sci fi and I love the eighties, the show has quality and not all the episodes are the same, Michael is always helping people from different backgrounds with KITT, star trek is from the sixties and has spin off and lots of fans same thing with knight rider that has fans from many countries around the world, the show is fun and we like the characters the humor, and specially the car, in Europe the video game was very successful, my advice is if you don't like the show go to another channel or place in the internet and use your energy in better things.

For people saying that nobody likes the show take a look again on the net and you even find a company that converts pontiacs Transam on KITTS replicas and their happy owners.

I recently started to watch Knight Rider and people are way to picky. The show was to entertain an audience who liked watching fast cars, police chases, or cute guys. It wasn't meant to be an amazing dramatic thing. I will be honest with you. I watch it because I like to find the times that they use the same shot over and over again. Or when they just cut and paste in a line from KITT. Or because David Hasselhoff is just fun to look at. But seriously, I think people are just expecting it to be great drama and action, they want it to be an amazing show. Can't they just be happy with a fun with cars hour? I can't say that anything we have on TV today is any better than what Knight Rider gave us in the 80's. And get off the case of the new one. I think it pays good homage to the original. Fun, cheesy, and entertaining. With just enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat. Watch it. It's fun.

The show that defined the 80s! This is the series that defined The Hoff, and to this day I have fond memories of the wisecracks and rapport between Knight and KITT (voiced by William Daniels, famous for St. Elsewhere). The opening theme was one of the best from the 80s for sure.

David Hasselhoff should have won an Emmy for Knight Rider. Okay, okay. If not an Emmy, then at least some recognition and credit for his performance and his importance to the success of the series.

First of all, the man was acting against nothing. We hear the dulcet tones of William Daniels, but Hasselhoff was likely hearing some stage hand reading the lines to him between bites of a cheeseburger. But he still manages to hold a believable conversation--well, as believable as you can when the subject involves giant, indestructible semi trucks and the like. But what Hasselhoff brings to the show that really makes it work is his likability. He and his character Michael Knight exemplify an almost uniquely 80's quality that I call "Cheerful heroics".

Michael Knight goes about his job with a good natured zest. He takes on his missions with glee. There's no gray area. No naval gazing. He's the good guy, and the good guys do good things because they're the good guys and that's what the good guys do.

"Knight Rider" is a product of its time. Make of that what you will, but for me, that is its greatest strength.

This show is a bit of a trap. I could watch this show for the rest of my life on a loop, be constantly entertained, and in hell really: Need a ride ? Yes. Because imbecils refused to build infrastructure. It's the wrong kinds of people who take advantage of that. Car owners. People who don't take 'no' for an answer. People who live in office jobs. Where they commute 100 miles to and from each day. Because they need to escape their family that popped out of nowhere. That's the real "car owner" world. The show doesn't show that. That's why it works. I need a number plate. I am a car. Hence my passport. Tatoo my numbers on my forehead. I am a car. Except don't show it in this series. In reality, cars have everything to do with number-tagging governments. But the series doesn't show it. Has KITT even got a number plate ? Where are the number plate episodes ? Avoid all that, the producers concluded. Good for them. Bad for the good people who got confused and bought KITTs. I almost bought a car in my 20s. Avoid all the heavy messages, and suddenly a show that should show national socialists looks like a western. That's not what cars are about.

I loved Knight Rider, I watched it every week, I always thought David Hasselholf was so sexy. I'm so glad to see the reruns on Starzencore Classics it brings back 80s memories. I wish I had a car like K.I.T.T😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

I like the idea, when I was a kid, I like this series. But now, I find it stupid. Not the idea of the smart car, but more about the stories! But then, there are lots of stupid tv series that was great in those times, but become stupid right now. Usually they're still enjoyable at the beginning, and started getting stupid in the middle.