Plot Hole: M. Long's T/A vs. KARR

[infiniti_mike]

Hey this is my first Post. Anway, I know that Michael Long Drove a Black Trans Am which was later modified to make KITT. I also know that KARR was created before KITT. This does not make sense to me. It is too much of a coincidence that that same car that FLAG originally chose to make KARR is also the same car that Michael Long drove. Same Colors and Wheels Mind you! Anyone have any insight?


TIMELINE
1. KARR is Built on a 1982 T/A
2. Michael Long is Shot
3. KITT is Built on a 1982 T/A

[HungarianKnight]

Kitt was not made from Michael's TA. Devon said that this car (Kitt) is not his one.

[Michael Pajaro]

What basically happened is that the writers took some creative license when creating the first KARR episode ("Trust Doesn't Rust") and ignored the idea that KITT was installed in Michael Long's car. Michael Long's car was a minor plot point in terms of the overall series, so there wasn't too much damage done to the timeline.

If you want to force-fit everything together, I suppose you could say it is just a big coincidence that KITT and KARR were both Trans Ams; technically that would preserve the timeline. But it would be a pretty wild coincidence.

There is some debate as to whether or not KITT was actually installed into Michael Long's car. In the pilot episode, Devon tells Michael Long that "Any resemblance between this car (KITT) and your own is purely superficial". That's a little vague. But the novelization (which gives some insight into the intent of the scene), Devon refers to KITT as "the reincarnation" of Michael Long's car. Glen Larson confirmed that KITTT was installed into Michael Long's car, although I've been searching the archives here and I can't find the reference.

Welcome to the board.

[Victor Kros]

I will ask Glen what his stance is on the elusive "Is it Michael's car or does it just look like it?" debate and post his response when I can.

=VK=

[Lost Knight]

If you want to force-fit everything together, I suppose you could say it is just a big coincidence that KITT and KARR were both Trans Ams; technically that would preserve the timeline. But it would be a pretty wild coincidence.

I don't think it has to be necessarily written off as coincidence. We know that Wilton Knight had his eye on Michael Long for a period of time (he didn't just pick his name out of a hat). Perhaps part of Michael's appeal was that he also happened to drive the same car that Wilton had chosen for K.A.R.R., and his upcoming project, K.I.T.T.

[cloudkitt]

I didn't think the show ever said that it was Michael Long's car, he just thought it was.

Why would people be more willing to accept that KARR being a Trans-Am is a coincidence, but not that Long and Knight Industries both used Trans Ams?

[T.A.H.O.E.]

I agree with Mpajaro...Devon made it clear. tho I thing KARR should have been a camaro-berlinetta- digital dash package- yeh, it existed.....! I'd love to own one and re-configure the back with a different spoiler & a few other changes.

[Lost Knight]

I agree with Mpajaro...Devon made it clear. tho I thing KARR should have been a camaro-berlinetta- digital dash package- yeh, it existed.....! I'd love to own one and re-configure the back with a different spoiler & a few other changes.

Actually, he was saying that what Devon said is vague, which it is. I can't tell if he meant that K.I.T.T. was built out of Michael Long's car and only looks like the way it used to be, or if it's an entirely separate vehicle.

As for the novelization, it's not true canon. So while there may be interesting insights there, at best I would consider the novels an alternate universe.

[cloudkitt]

I thought the whole point of KITT being a Trans Am was so that it was a nice car capable of housing the CPU and the engine, but not an outrageous car that would stand out too much. Which is why Knight Industries chose the car for KARR and then KITT. The fact that Michael Long also had a Trans Am emphasizes that fact that the Trans Am really isn't all that exotic. I always thought it was odd that Michael insisted that it was his car. There are countless black Trans Ams.

[knightdogg]

I thought this issue of KITT not being Micahel's Trans Am was settled in "Knightmares" when April showed Michael a newspaper article which stated that Michael Long's car was found in the desert.

[msKEN]

Considering they had to steal a body from the morgue to put in place of Michael's, you would think they would have left his car there with the body. I mean honestly wouldn't that help identify the body easier if a car registered to him is right behind his body?

[Scott Kirkessner]

In a sense it was. That event served as a retcon (retroactive continutity) of the original (possibly) intention of Long's car serving as KITT.

-Scott

I thought this issue of KITT not being Micahel's Trans Am was settled in "Knightmares" when April showed Michael a newspaper article which stated that Michael Long's car was found in the desert.

[KarlKnightRider]

I think we can safely assume that the intention is that KITT was not Michael Long's car, he was the same make and model either by pure coincidence, or due to Wilton Knight following Michael for a while and getting to know his general tastes etc.

Who knows, Michael Long may have had a previous generation TransAm, and so Wilton knew it was the sort of car he'd go for.

I think the bigger "blooper" is with the body thing. I never quite get what was supposed to have happened to Michael Long. Will make another thread about this to enhance discussion, but in Knightmares, the article says "Presumed Dead" and "disappeared". But the pilot mentions stealing a body from the medical school.

[Michael Pajaro]

I think we can safely assume that the intention is that KITT was not Michael Long's car, he was the same make and model either by pure coincidence, or due to Wilton Knight following Michael for a while and getting to know his general tastes etc.

I disagree. When we're talking about JUST THE PILOT EPISODE, ignoring any future events, I think it's best to go with the simplest solution. Why would the writers bother to specifically have Michael Long drive a Trans Am if not to turn it into KITT? It also makes for a nice parallel: just as Michael was reincarnated, so was his car.

[KarlKnightRider]

I think we can safely assume that the intention is that KITT was not Michael Long's car, he was the same make and model either by pure coincidence, or due to Wilton Knight following Michael for a while and getting to know his general tastes etc.

I disagree. When we're talking about JUST THE PILOT EPISODE, ignoring any future events, I think it's best to go with the simplest solution. Why would the writers bother to specifically have Michael Long drive a Trans Am if not to turn it into KITT? It also makes for a nice parallel: just as Michael was reincarnated, so was his car.

Hmm I guess it is a good point, and actually quite a nice idea.

Although I suppose the time frame comes stronly into play here. How long was it between Michael Long being shot, and Michael Knight setting off in KITT?

It would seem quite pointless to take apart and rebuild Long's car with the MBS. Maybe there was enough time for them to see he had a TransAm, leave that in the desert, and create him a new TransAM at the same time as they fixed his face.

[cloudkitt]

I think we can safely assume that the intention is that KITT was not Michael Long's car, he was the same make and model either by pure coincidence, or due to Wilton Knight following Michael for a while and getting to know his general tastes etc.

I disagree. When we're talking about JUST THE PILOT EPISODE, ignoring any future events, I think it's best to go with the simplest solution. Why would the writers bother to specifically have Michael Long drive a Trans Am if not to turn it into KITT? It also makes for a nice parallel: just as Michael was reincarnated, so was his car.

Except nothing really happened to his car that would have killed it...
And if it was his car, why would Devon say it wasn't. Even though it's vague, he does say it's not his car, why wouldn't he just tell him?

Taking his car out of the desert, in addition to it not fitting in the helicopter they picked him up in, would really cause a lot of suspicion.

[Lost Knight]

This is a tough choice, because it appears that we have to choose between what Glen Larson had originally written in the Pilot episode, and the PCR (post-creative rationalization) that other writers came up with for Michael Long's backstory, later. Should we choose to believe things as they were suggested in the first episode, or accept the reality that was presented later? There's also another discrepancy as to whether Michael's face was made to resemble Wilton Knight as a young man, or if it was meant to resemble Garthe.

[Kirin]

The real world problem here is that the writers just didn't care or simply paid very little attention to the series continuity. Things were regularly forgotten about in the next weeks episode, there were no season long story arcs in most of the action-adventure shows of the 80s.

I believe the original intention in the Pilot episode was that Michael Long's black Trans Am was convereted into KITT. I disntincly remember even as a small child (yeah I watched the show when it first came on!) getting the impression that KITT was put into Long's car. Install the engine and dashboard, install the main CPU and coat the car with molecular bonded shell. It may not have taken them all that long actually.

Then later the writers just forgot all about this and started making up new continuity to fit into their weekly episodes. KR was frequently full of holes though. I mean, you have to think that even 1982 forensics technology would be able to tell that the fake body from the morgue was NOT Michael Long. Wilton Knight's people could blow the body's head off so as not to be recognizable and remove dental record identification, but what about finger prints? Was the body set ablaze and burned beyond recognition? Did Wilton Knight have some pull with the medical examiner? So many questions.

[89IROCNDoug]

Well for me personally, I always thought that it was a different Trans Am.

I was 12 when the pilot aired in 1982 and I just thought it was a coincidence that Knight Industries used the same model car that Michael Long had. My reasoning was that the TA had great aerodynamics from the foundation's standpoint and just happened to be the same model that Michael Long owned. I always figured the car was under development long before Long was "reincarnated" at the foundation. The TA was also given a modified front end and didn't have the gold striping that Long's car had. I never really thought about it being Long's TA until I read about it on this forum a couple of years ago, which has been a very interesting debate!

[Lost Knight]

Here's a quote from myself from the "What happened to Michael Long?" thread that I think applies here:

Anyway, my explanation for the whole "body" argument is that Wilton did indeed steal a body from the morgue and planted it. Despite 1982 being before DNA was commonly used to identify bodies, I suspect the police somehow realized it was not Michael Long's body. Therefore, they let it officially be known that Michael Long was "missing." Wilton, following up with Michael's new identity, arranged a gravestone to be erected to help cover it all up, anyway. Perhaps even some "hush money" was given to the cops directly involved and they went along with it (though I realize this may be beginning to be a stretch now).

As for the car being left in the desert from the article in "Knightmares," I'm maintaining simply that K.I.T.T. was not built into Michael's Trans Am. I also say it wasn't a coincidence, either, and that Wilton's choice for K.A.R.R. (and later the Knight 2000) was actually inspired by Michael's car. We don't know how long Wilton had been following Michael around before the Pilot episode, so I feel this explanation is a great alternative to the "coincidence" theory.

What do you guys think? I like to make sense out of things for the fun of it and that's what I've come up with. Thoughts? Comments?

[Valleyboy]

I would have to say that KITT is not Michael Long's car.. First off, the features and technologies integrated into KITT are so extensive that it would make more sense just to build the car from scratch, rather than dissasemble and modify it. secondly, I hearken back to a dialogue in "Trust Doesn't Rust" between Devon and Michael (maybe no the exact wrods...)

Devon: 6 months before we found you left for dead in the desert, Wilton Knight completed what may have been the crowning achievement of his life."
Michael: "KITT!?"
Devon: "No, KARR."

It is clear that Michael thought that Devon was at first referring to KITT, which means Michael understood that KITT had been created before he was wounded in the desert, therefore it would have to have been a different car. If KITT is Michael's car, Michael doesn't know it.

[cloudkitt]

Should we choose to believe things as they were suggested in the first episode, or accept the reality that was presented later?

But it wasn't suggested that it was his car in the first episode. Devon says that it isn't his car. No matter how vague, it suggests the opposite, that the 'lazy writers' didn't change anything and that it's not Michael's car, just another Trans Am.

[T.A.H.O.E.]

OKAY FOLKS.....LET'S GET THE DVD OUT AND WATCH IT FROM THE BEGINNING....AND TAKE NOTE OF WHAT DEVON SAID & I'm paraphrasing here & sorry bout the caps, it's beena long day for me .....as Devon elequently put: "Any similarity between this car and yours is superficial, purely conincidental"

[KarlKnightRider]

OKAY FOLKS.....LET'S GET THE DVD OUT AND WATCH IT FROM THE BEGINNING....AND TAKE NOTE OF WHAT DEVON SAID & I'm paraphrasing here & sorry bout the caps, it's beena long day for me .....as Devon elequently put: "Any similarity between this car and yours is superficial, purely conincidental"

Devon: "The difference between that car and your own, is purely superficial.

Michael: "What are you talking about? Devon, that's my car I left it out in the desert"

Devon: "No, No, No, it may look like your car but in actuality, this is probably the most expensive car in the world."

[pheonix_knight]

ok wild thought...

but as KARR was the prototype to KITT, would it be easier on the timeline to assume that KARR was installed into Longs car and then KITT was created from scratch??