KR pilot original UK air date?

[Skav]

I know for the US it is 30 years today, the 26th of September, but what about the UK? My research has bought up nothing so far. Anyone know?

[stevewilde73]

Well, I know it's not a complete answer but in the Thames region of England the pilot movie went out on the Tuesday and series started the same week on the Thursday. Always around 7.00 after Thames sport lol...

Remember it like yesterday....

It shouldn't be hard to find out the date, I'll do some checking today.

[DJGM]

The way the ITV network was structured back in the 1980's, with seperate independent regions broadcasting their
own specific schedules, Knight Rider could've had several original air dates, depending on your local ITV region.

As a small explanation for our American friends, Thames Television was the regional ITV station for London on
weekdays, while London Weekend Televison (LWT) took over for the weekends starting every Friday evening
at 6 or 7pm (IIRC). Thames TV resumed broadcasting on Monday mornings at 9.25am, after TV-am.

Every region of the UK had it's own local ITV station. Here in north west England, we had Granada Television.
In the Midlands, (Birmingham, Nottingham ... etc.) they had Central ... originally known as ATV, until 1982.
In Yorkshire, they had Yorkshire Television, while Scotland had Scottish Television and Grampian Television.
I could explain about all the ITV regions, but that would take a bit too long. IIRC, there were 15 in total.
The ITV network became known as ITV1 in 2001, and the regional names were ended in 2002, although
some of the the local regional ITV news programs still continue with the old regional names.

Ultimately ... the true original UK air date for Knight Rider, could be attributed to which ever ITV region
broadcast it first ... but it wouldn't really have been classed as a full network premiere, only regional.


FOOTNOTE:
As I understand it, US TV networks currently have a similar system to the way ITV used to do UK regions.

[whet]

Yes but i do think big prime time show which Knight Rider was, Went out at the same time...
I do know season 1 went out tuesdays at 7;30
2. Saturdays at 5;35.
3 Thursdays at 7;30
4 Fridays at 7:30.

But as to when it first aired here i don't know...

[peterp&j]

well i decided to watch the pilot tonight hadnt seen it for ages really enjoyed it must say KITT never looked better always thought the paintjob he had in the pilot was a much richer black than in season 1 love to know what polish the production team used (although i do remember in knight rider 2000 when KITT is riding on the water he complains he will need a good simonz )
i know the pilot is a topic of a lot of errors etc but i noticed for the first time in all these viewings when jackson first looks at KITT in the car park of the rising sun (when he looks in the window) you see the dash and i noticed a blinking light just under the steering colum im assuming it is the light for a car alarm
happy 30th birthday knight rider youll still have me as a fan in another 30 years time

[stevewilde73]

Interesting to read how in certain parts of the u.k. it moved timeslots, in the Thames region it mostly kept it's Thursday slot...possibly towards the very end of season 4 it got moved to early evening iirc.

Street hawk had the Thursday slot for a (it's) short run, though it didn't get a full run in London, fall guy had Friday eves then got moved to Saturday mornings...as did both airwolf and the a-team.

I also remember when channel 5 picked up the knight rider re-runs in the mid 90's and showed those awful short versions that made no sense at all! They used to call it 'big hair day' and kids would draw pics and send them in of...basically stick men with big hair lol...

[DJGM]

I also remember when channel 5 picked up the knight rider re-runs in the mid 90's and showed
those awful short versions that made no sense at all! They used to call it 'big hair day' and
kids would draw pics and send them in of...basically stick men with big hair lol...

It wasn't the mid 90's though. Channel 5 first opened in March 1997, and seasons 1-3, plus the season 4 opener
were shown on Saturday mornings, as part of the "Milkshake" programming strand. The presenter (who, IIRC,
previously hosted links on Nickelodeon in the UK ... his name I don't recall) often referred to "Michael Knight
and his big hair!". At the time they were showing the full length syndicated episodes, with minor edits.

As I recall, Channel 5 showed the shorter episodes, in an afternoon or teatime slot. These were the same cut
down, heavily edited versions of the episodes that ITV showed in the late 1980's in an early Monday evening
slot after the regional news as a cheap filler slotted in before The Krypton Factor came on at 7pm.

[stevewilde73]

Yep, you're right with the date, it must have been around 97/98, those awful spice girls trailers for c5 that were on a permanent loop !!!!

I always found it sad to see those hacked down versions, KR didn't deserve that.

[whet]

I wonder why it was just Knight Rider that got that artful treatment of half an hour episodes?
As far as i know The A team or Airwolf etc never got it..