A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

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A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by The shadowy flight » Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:24 pm

I saw on imdb.com a thread about KITT speculating, if his voice would be female. So my question is, why didn't KI2T had a female voice (like emulated by KI3T in the last episode)? Scientific studies had proven, that men and even women pay more attention to a female voice rather than a male one, this is why most navigational assistants do feature female voices.
Didn't Wilton knew this fact or was that just the programmers choice?

:kitt:

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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Stuntman Lee » Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:59 pm

I don't think you should believe everything you read from imdb.com. :)
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Knight-Armen » Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:46 pm

Scientific studies had proven, that men and even women pay more attention to a female voice rather than a male one, this is why most navigational assistants do feature female voices.
That's very true! Most GPS devices feature female voices as well and the reason for that is simply this: once we hear a female voice on a speaker system or whatever we pay attention to it automatically. It's like our mother is talking to us or asking us to do something in order to succeed.

I'm not sure of why they didn't use a female voice in Ki2t but I guess it wouldn't make any sense for a female to be the voice commander of a sleek black Pontiac Trans Am. They actually had a female voice in one of the vehicles in TKR but the series didn't last very long so we all know how that went.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Sky_Blue_Civic » Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:37 am

Knight-Armen wrote: I'm not sure of why they didn't use a female voice in Ki2t but I guess it wouldn't make any sense for a female to be the voice commander of a sleek black Pontiac Trans Am. They actually had a female voice in one of the vehicles in TKR but the series didn't last very long so we all know how that went.
TKR was bad overall,except for the episode KRO.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Goldwings » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:39 am

The shadowy flight wrote:I saw on imdb.com a thread about KITT speculating, if his voice would be female. So my question is, why didn't KI2T had a female voice (like emulated by KI3T in the last episode)? Scientific studies had proven, that men and even women pay more attention to a female voice rather than a male one, this is why most navigational assistants do feature female voices.
Didn't Wilton knew this fact or was that just the programmers choice?

:kitt:
Actually, BMW did something like this a few years back with its sedan line. They had a voice activated navigational system which originally had a female voice and it did so bad in Germany they had to do a recall to reprogram with a male voice. The reasoning behind this is many male drivers do not like being told how to drive by women. It might be different here in the states due to our current culture but it might not have been in the early 80's. It was even discussed on PBS's "Do You Speak American" ( http://www.pbs.org/speak/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) (discussing how language changes within the US and even how it impacts machines)

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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by steventje » Sun Oct 12, 2008 5:49 pm

If KITT would have been a female voice we would all agree with that. There is no reason to believe that the male voice of William Daniels made the show a big success.

It could have worked perfectly with a female voice.

A female voice could have give more interesting conversations between Michael and KITT.

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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by cloudkitt » Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:15 pm

I think if KITT had a female voice people would have started saying that MIchael and KITT were having a relationship. (According to Knight Rider Legacy people even tried to do it the way it was). With KITT being male, it's much easier to simply establish them as friends.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Kram061-1 » Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:46 pm

KITT was a guy

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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by goldbug » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:05 pm

As I understand it, KR was sold as a "buddy cop" type show except one of the partners was a car. If that is indeed the case, then it makes sense since back in the 80's most cop/hero pairings were two guys and not a man and a woman.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Amir » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:32 pm

cloudkitt wrote:With KITT being male, it's much easier to simply establish them as friends.
Or gay.

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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by The shadowy flight » Sun Nov 02, 2008 7:41 pm

To be honest, this would have surely made an interesting dynamic relation...

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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Sky_Blue_Civic » Sun Nov 02, 2008 8:08 pm

In my opinion,a female KITT would have made a very interesting relationship,but it doesn't mean that they couldn't make a platonic relationship between them.Maybe a female KITT would know that they're different "species",or something like that.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by PHOENIXZERO » Wed Nov 05, 2008 4:14 am

It would have been awkward and not really work as well with the buddy cop/odd couple relationship Michael and KITT had. It would probably significantly change the show as well.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by BlueChaos » Wed Nov 05, 2008 8:25 am

Michael wouldn't have been able to call KITT "buddy" if KITT was a woman. Besides, KITT might get jealous.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Knight Rider Archive » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:57 am

As others have said earlier in this thread, Michael and K.I.T.T. were always presented as "buddies" -- it was The Lone Ranger and Silver (with the voice of Tonto :) ) in modern times. To give K.I.T.T. a female voice would have been too much of a distraction... think about the scenes when K.I.T.T. was destroyed, and how they would be reinterpreted, such as Michael's reactions in Junk Yard Dog. It becomes far too easy to say that Michael "loved" K.I.T.T., or vice versa -- all those scenes where K.I.T.T. asks why Michael socialises with so many women would become all about K.I.T.T. being "jealous".

By giving him a male voice, you have a much more powerful presentation of friendship between the two (even though the Network brass were concerned about Michael shouting "Kitt, I need you" whenever he got in trouble). Occasionally writers would slip in suggestive dialogue, but, being a car, Kitt is ultimately sexless.
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by Sky_Blue_Civic » Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:02 am

feimotion336 wrote:A post full of spam.
Why does this person keep doing this?I mean,really.The post will get deleted anyways,so does this comment really matter?
Congratulations!By reading this signature,KITT's AWESOMENESS has increased by ONE POINT!
So far KITT's power level is OVER 9,000!!!!
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Re: A good question - why had KI2T not a female voice?

Post by PHOENIXZERO » Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:41 am

Because they're idiots. :) No one here probably even plays Runescape, besides me.. <_< >_> None of that stuff works anymore unless you want to get caught... I'm gonna see if that user is on though it's probably not really them.

*Feels like more of a dork now.*
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