When an Episode of Knight Rider Goes Wrong.

[Victor Kros]

So I was digging through my archives of various Knight Rider press and memo material the other night and I came across something very interesting that has not (to my knowledge) been discussed before. We all know about the episodes of Knight Rider that were written but never saw production (The Wind Devil, Girl's Knight Out, and The Deadly Prize) mentioned in Knight Rider Legacy - but what about an episode that was apparently in such sad shape, it never even made the cut?

I present to you the episode originally titled "Jet Tractor" and later changed to "Knight Jets" as shown on original scans of NBC memos. I have not done any alterations to the original scans, all I did was shrink the pages down to fit on the forum here. This episode was apparently so problematic, even with a name change it never saw the light of day and until now has gone unnoticed.

"Knight Jets" was planned to be part of Season Four placed before The Scent of Roses and later pushed to after Out of the Woods.

Here are the original scans:







Mark Jones is a close friend of Glen A. Larson and was the writer/director of Leprechaun (1993). He was also co-producer on Knight Rider's Out of the Woods, Burial Ground, and Knight of the Juggernaut.

If things had gone differently, our beloved t-top K.I.T.T. would have been able to go underwater - going under the shark instead of just jumping over it.

Just thought the KR fans out there would be interested in this rare discovery of Knight Rider history.

=VK=

[KITTfan]

That's very interesting find. Perhaps the underwater thing at the time was inspired from 007 movie "The Spy Who Loved Me" where 007's Lotus Esprit could transfer to a submarine and go underwater.

I still feel it's better KITT didn't go underwater, Return to Cadiz was quite a stretch already when KITT was riding on top of the water altough there really was a car which can ride on top of the water, the Amphicar. I don't think any mass produced car can turn into submarine so it's quite far fetched and unrealistic. Still, the Bond movie in question was quite popular so in that light it's understandable if they wanted to do something similar with KITT too.

[KnightHawke24]

That is very interesting...kind of makes you wonder what exactly "major structure problems" meant. I also wonder if the episode ever had a chance with NBC obviously making major budget cuts, especially in season 4. I agree with KITTfan, it was probably better that KITT never went underwater. While the concept is intriguing, and I would have loved to have an underwater KITT instead of a rubber ducky in the tub when I was a kid, it probably would have contained numerous cuts from Return to Cadiz, which would have ruined it (even for 1985).

The post also reminds me how The Scent of Roses should have been the last episode in Season 4. "We're going home KITT, back to the foundation" (not sure of that is the exact quote), would have been a great line to end the series on. Damn NBC and their ratings ploy.

[Lost Knight]

That's an awesome find. I'm definitely glad that epiosde never saw the light of day. As KITTfan mentioned, it was already a stretch to have K.I.T.T. ride on water in "Return To Cadiz" although it was meant for only that particular episode. But then we also had K.I.T.T. being able to drive through lava for an extended amount of time in "Knight Flight To Freedom," too. It's better that they kept things more grounded (no pun intended).

[hoffman95]

Glad they did'nt make the whole Jet Tractor thing I'd loved to have seen it though!!