Your VERY first impression of Knight Rider

[Michael Pajaro]

About 30 years ago, NBC was airing a teaser commercial for Knight Rider. They had the General Lee and KITT out in the desert, and you could send away for a wall comparison chart ("The competition is no competition").

I remember seeing that commercial, and resenting it. I was a Dukes fan, and I thought "how dare they say that there's a car better than the General!" I tried to figure out what the announcer meant when he said "this car does a lot more than go fast and jump puddles." At the time, I had no idea the car could talk. I just focused on the word "knight" and I assumed that maybe a lance would pop out in front of the car, and the driver would go around jousting with other cars. It seemed like a stupid idea for a show to me.

Of course, I was wrong. A few weeks before air, NBC started airing footage of a talking car and I went "oooohhhhhhhhhhh....." And the rest is history. What about the rest of you? Do you remember the first time you heard about Knight Rider? What did you think?

[Deveo]

Around 2000 a classmate who was really interested in muscle cars was always talking about a show called "Knight Rider". It kind of made me curious so one day I asked my father to look up an episode (he remembered it from when he was younger).
It was KITT vs KARR, and after having seen all the episodes I think it was a great episode to introduce me to the world of Knight Rider. Of course my English wasn't as good as it is now, but all the action and car stunts made me interested. And now I'm even designing character models for Ken's Fan Game!

LOL I always answered when people asked me what Knight Rider is like "It's about a talking car that has a fear of hights"

[Joe Huth]

My first real memory of KR was watching the reruns on WWOR around 1987. I remember that the episode that really got me hooked was "Lost Knight"....I imagined I was the boy who found KITT.

To bring this full circle, when I interviewed Lenore Kasdorf (Lori from "Lost Knight"), I told her that little story and she loved it!

Joe

[KITTfan]

KR started here in Finland 1984 and missed be pilot episode as I suppose didn't think much of it until next day when all my classmates were talking about it how awesome it is. One classmate invited me to watch the pilot from VHS and I was hooked immediatly when the intro started
Mysterious, sleek, black, futuristic car with strange red light in the front nose coming towards you in purple desert and the awesome theme music playing in the background, it's probably one of the biggest WOW! moments in my life
After that I didn't miss more than one episode in the original run and that one was because I was too sick to even watch tv. I remember how mad I was not being able to watch that one episode.
I had similar thoughts about the episode "Lost Knight", I was dreaming being Doug driving KITT

[TurboBoostMan]

The year was 2005. I was 9 years old. My parents took me into their bedroom. My mom said, "Come here. I wonna show you something. It's a TV show that I used to watch when I was a little girl." My dad said "You're gonna show him that NOW?" She was like "Sure. Why not?" So we were sitting on the bed and my mom went to the DVR and went to this thing that said "Knight Rider". She played it and I heard this cool music and a car in the desert, coming at me. Then it was right in my face, then I saw a side view and I heard some dude saying "Knight Rider... A Shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist." Then I saw the tailights and the inside of the car... u get the picture. It was the season 3 episode, "Ice Bandits". And I remember my mom made sure to tell me.. "THE CAR'S NAME IS NOT! 'KNIGHT RIDER'. IT'S KITT". She had to make that clear to me. And I remember as soon as I heard the car talk and when I saw my first Turbo Boost, I was hooked. And since then, I have gotten many others to watch the show and they really like it. I'm 16 now and it is THE BEST TV SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!!! NO OTHER TV SHOW IS BETTER THAN KNIGHT RIDER!!!!! Long live Hasselhoff, Long live KITT...

LONG LIVE KNIGHT RIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KITT]

i don't remember what year it was. mid 90s. USA network started airing knight rider. my parents told me my sister used to watch the show when it was originally on and really liked it, and thought i would like it too. i just remember sitting there watching knight rider in the afternoon with the fam, saw edward mulhare and david hasselhoff come up in the credits and i just started laughing cause i thought their names were funny.

i got really into the show and even had my parents call me in from playing outside when it was on tv. and well, the rest was history...

[kitt1]

In the summer of 1982 I moved from South Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia. A friend of mine was working on a movie being filmed in Atlanta and asked one day if I wanted to come down that night and watch them film a "stunt" scene. I said sure and went down. The "stunt" was a pick-up truck driving in a rain storm. Basically the pick-up was following a water truck that sprayed water up into the air and it fell down like rain onto the pick-up making it look like it was in a rain storm.

They filmed this "stunt" for a couple of hours and then everyone broke for a dinner break. During the break I went over to talk to the stunt driver. I asked him what productions he had worked on. He rattled off several titles that I had not heard of. Then he said, "I just worked on a pilot for a new tv series called KNIGHT RIDER. It's about a car that talks and drives itself." I then said to him, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It'll never sell." That stunt driver was Robert Bralver, stunt coordinator for the pilot and the first few episodes. The rest, as they say is history. So, I actually knew about KNIGHT RIDER well before the general public. Ain't life funny?

Mark Puette
SOUTHERN KNIGHTS

[coach41]

This is a good question but man I can't remember when I first saw Knight Rider. My best guess is it was around Season 2 as the Garth episodes ring a bell. I also distinctly remember watching the Season 3 premier as I live in the Bay Area and it was nice to see SF represented.

At some point, I think the Knight Of The Phoenix must have been played on NBC as I do remember seeing it but I do not remember Trust Doesn't Rust.

[knightfever]

My uncle, was the first to turn me on to it. He was as much a kid about car shows as I was. The first episode I saw was "Deadly Maneuvers." I saw the pilot in reruns. I was an instant and forever fan. I love all things Knight Rider, except for maybe "2010"

[Skav]

No idea. I was too young. I just remember always loving it!

[KFCreator]

I also can't recall the very first time I saw the show, although I think I started watching when I was around 4 or 5 (so 1985 or '86). I would draw KITT all the time and I pretended I could see him whenever I was outside (he was my imaginary friend growing up). I'd go running around the yard or the playground at school pretending I was riving him and having my own adventures going up against the Juggernaut and KARR. I do clearly remember going to Universal Studios on my 7th birthday with my family and standing in a long line to go sit inside KITT and talk to him but by the time it was my turn, I only got partially down the walkway before I chickened out and ran back to my parents. They weren't too happy that we waited for so long and I forfeited my place in line but luckily later that day we went back and I got up the courage to sit inside KITT and I was the happiest kid alive at that point. So yeah, Knight Rider has been a part of my life ever since I can remember.

[DarylKnight]

I have bits of memory from the original run of season 3, which was when I was first introduced to it. I was somewhere of 3 - 4. Now according to my mom, I took to the 3rd gen Trans Am just before I knew what KR was. I had a couple of firebird matchbox cars, and then my dad noticed and got the big black and gold Ertl 82 die cast Trans Am. I was obsessed with this car and took it with me everywhere. I remember my mom said "hey maybe you'll like this show", apparently I was a terrible tv watcher. Junk Yard Dog was the episode, and I was in awe of this amazing machine, then when the damaged KITT was hoisted into the air, it hit me. This car was "my car". The very same style Trans Am, I always kept by my side! I guess, from my parents point of view, this was when the "Knightmare" began . lol. Much like KFCreator, I also had KITT as an imaginary friend for the rest of my childhood, also pretending he was always with me, and I'd talk into my watch, and imagine his answers. In the later 80s, my passion was fueled by WWOR 9 showing the reruns in a weekend abundance!

Now here I am, at 30, still completely enamored with the show, with a watch obsession, and I have my own 1987 Firebird Formula. Oh yes, and I talk to it...... sometimes through my watch.

[Amir]

Well, the show was long gone by the time I got to watch it first. I think I must have been around 14 or so, so it would be something like 1993. They showed Knight Rider on a re-run in an Israeli children channel (yes, a children channel. It's OK, they also showed A-Team...). I just got a glimpse of the episode Give me Liberty or give me Death (my one memory of it was KITT turbo boosing into the TV van at the end) and I was hooked.

Took me a long time to watch the entire show, actually. The local channel finished season 1 and then 2, but took ages (I think it was a year or two) to get to season 3. And remember, internet being brand new back then and no DVD's meant it was difficult to get my hands on anything. I actually got some extra episodes in an exchange with someone from USA, I copied him what I had that he didn't and vice versa.

Of course, since then, we've got the DVD's and the show was also on a few full re runs in Israel so I got full copies both on VHS and DVD.

[blowersho]

My family and I had moved to Canada from India in the spring of 1982. One day during the fall I was changing the channel dial (no remote) and I came across a black Trans Am driving really fast, being a car enthusiast from birth I was hooked, I was only about seven years old, can't believe that was thirty years ago, it feels like yesterday.

[CamaroMan]

I remember seeing "Knight Rider" advertised a couple weeks before the "Pilot" TV Movie (now called "Knight of the Phoenix" in syndication) aired. I remember thinking it looked really cool and I really wanted to watch it.

I completely remember at 6 years old, September 26, 1982, sitting on our living room floor in front of and glued to our little 19 inch 1977 model TV sitting on a little swivel TV stand. I had never seen anything like "Knight Rider" before and I was blown away!! I was hooked and pretty much watched every episode after that.

I think "K.R." was the first TV phenomena that I got to be part of from the very beginning...I got to be part of the generation that experienced it for the first time. Before that it seemed like everything popular or talked about had already started before I could remember or was born.

That kind of experience (especially as a child) sticks with you and still has a profound impact 30 years later. Although "K.R." may contain some "cheesy" dialogue (but to me this is also part of the show's charm and even provides a comfortable security feeling about it) it has everything a show needs and/or should have: Intriguing plots, action, mystery, suspense, love, care, morals, good guys get bad guys, positive examples, etc... I could go on and on!

Soon, I am planning to get out all my "K.R." memoribalia and the DVD sets, and display everything while I watch the show. I haven't watched it in several years and I'm looking forward to it...this being the 30 year anniversary will make it almost as special as when it first premiered...but not quite.

"K.R." will always be one of the most captivating and innovative TV shows in TV show history...and I am proud and greatful that I got to be there from the start, right on up through the 2008 series (although I think the original still prevails)!

[Rob Louisell]

Seeing Knight Rider caused me to pioneer the replica industry over 24 years ago.

[whet]

I remember my brother telling me about this new show Knight Rider..
I missed the Pilot he talked me it was about a talking car and i thought it sounded dumb,,

But started watching it a few episodes i and was hooked..
I was really wrong by my first judgment..

I was hooked when i started watching it

It was 88 before I seen the pilot on a rerun..

[james olden]

First episode hmm I don't really remember because I was only 3 or four when I first started watching Knight rider in 1985 I remember my friend across the street ryan had the voice tallking kitt so i tried to steal it from him lol yes i got caught. Lol then my parents went everywhere in Sacramento to look for the voice talking kitt for Christmas in 1985 but it was sold out everywhere so they just got me the kitt pedal car. I think my dad was watching it already before me because he been a serious TV movie car lover ever since the Steve mccqueen movie bullitt.
. I still have the pictures of me and kitt at universal studious back in June 1985.