The five new cars had a consistency of design that made them feel less personal. KITT had a "one-off" feel to his design, apart from his evil twin, KARR. The vehicles had a mass produced feel, compared to the original KITT. The effects were as good as should be expected and there was lots of mindless action. The show looked great, the cars were jazzy and the voice acting was adequate. Give the poor crooks a break! With all that in mind, the production company did a pretty good job. It's hardly fair, in a story context, that they should have to try to stand up to this virtual army of foes, blasted about the world in a cargo jet, armed with superweapons and hyperintelligent computers. I kinda felt pity for the poor criminals. How do you keep the stories coherent and how do you keep the audience caring about ten characters, all of whom only get very limited screen time? You don't! You need a scorecard just to keep track of what car has what personality. The idea that a flock of five people and five vehicles working with a seemingly unlimited budget and with constant governmental oversight can make a difference is just oppressive and obvious. The idea that one man can make a difference is enigmatic and inspiring. The original kept it simple and concentrated on making the car seem human and the overblown Hollywood star (Hasselhof) seem like a real person, albeit with unrealistic hair. The show was cheesy, but the two characters were sufficiently well developed and portrayed that audiences cared enough to tune in. The original show focused on the relationship between one man and one artificially intelligent car. My impression at the time was that they did a pretty good job on a fundamentally bad idea. After that second clash, Kitt remarked: “I’d rather be turned into a toaster oven than go through that again.” Not for the first time, the self-parking smartypants had a point.I recall watching this a couple of times when it was new. Turns out there really is such a thing as too much Hoff: when Garthe and his supposedly indestructible truck Goliath turned up again toward the end of the season, it felt like a lazy, self-cannibalising move rather than a highly anticipated rematch. ![]() The opening episode of the second season introduced Garthe Knight, the estranged son of Kitt’s creator who looked suspiciously like Michael Knight with an evil moustache (likely because he was also played by Hasselhoff in full panto mode). With such a deliberately formulaic approach, and baddies-of-the-week banged up by the end of each instalment, when did it demonstrably run out of gas? Was it the season three finale where Michael and Kitt joined the circus? Or the season four episode where they were targeted by ninjas? Your mileage may vary, but it felt as if the wheels fell off when Knight Rider dabbled with serialisation. But something about the cool autonomous car, the hunky lead and – let’s admit it – the kick-ass theme tune cut across language barriers, turning Knight Rider into a tangible global hit that kept its foot to the floor for 90 episodes over four seasons. This was a slick, action-orientated series where Michael and Kitt dutifully helped the downtrodden, thwarting white-collar crooks and greedy hoodlums alike with the judicious application of turbo-boosted stunt jumps. While he never seemed to master doing up his top three shirt buttons, Hasselhoff excelled as the goofball do-gooder Knight, his brawny cheesiness a ripe counterpoint to the urbane Kitt (voiced by the St Elsewhere star William Daniels). If his Knight Rider character had a knotty backstory – a crusading cop shot in the head and left for dead, resurrected with a new face and identity by an eccentric tech billionaire – the part basically just needed someone who could look unselfconscious while constantly talking to themselves. The guy in the saddle this time was David Hasselhoff, an easygoing soap actor thrilled to have finally secured a headline gig.
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