Knight Rider
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
A dead crime fighter, a dying driver, and a car that calls him Mike. Knight Rider distilled is a car commercial with a body count, but David Hasselhoff’s long haired loner Michael Knight became a genuine eighties icon because the show understood its own gimmick. KITT, a Pontiac Trans Am that talks, does J turns, and talks back, is the better half of the double act. William Daniels gave the car a dry wit that never condescended, and the best episodes are conversations between a man and a dashboard.
Glen A. Larson built the engine right: weekly cases are disposable, the car is not. The tagline about one man making a difference is exactly the kind of show it is, NBC action fare with a smirk and a synth theme people still hum. Hasselhoff’s deadpan patience opposite KITT’s sass is a real comedic pairing, better than anyone had a right to expect from a car promo.
Watch warm, seasons one and two, before the stunts got cheap and the scripts got sillier. A time capsule with chrome, and still the best show ever sold on a vehicle.
Our score: 7/10.
