Stuff you hate in KR

[WittgenTT5/Rstein]

I'll start: KI2T's engine that goes from a V8 rumble to a vacuum cleaner-ish sound within one second.

And KR2008 in general is something I didn't really like either.

[snafu]

KR Original: How most of the heroines are cast to be stupid eye candy. I realize this is how a lot of the 80s shows (or, TV in general) were set up: the lead character has women falling for him left and right.
But, I guess after some of the crap I've been through, I find it infuriating.

KR2008 was just weird. I think they could have done a lot more with it, if they had brought in stronger characters.

[Assasinge]

Knight Rider 2008.

I'm not going to bash the original KR because a lot of it is 80's cheesy drama, and the other half was production equipment that they didn't have versus what we have today.

[jup]

I do tend to think that KR 08 had the opportunity, the budget, the time slot...yet was missing a vital...something. I don't know. Feels like action was often pushed aside for...camp? For a show about a talking car, it did feel like the Human stars sometimes ran away with the show. Or...something I do remember more about that show...

"Transformers. The KARR that wasn't there."

[Han]

Even though these make part of all that made it great, it is what comes close to not having love for:
*A few cringy lines, the noticeable toy car and turbo boost scenes(theres also the annoyance of lame excuses for not using it "DON'T PRESS IT! THIS TIME WE'LL HURT PEOPLE BECAUSE UNLIKE THE 100S OTHERS YOU DID IT WITHOUT ASKING NOW I CARE ABOUT RUNNING A RISK CHECK", must be hard to make an excuse to let someone convincingly escape KITT) plus the ugly fight scenes(Michael vs Garth in the desert was one of the best probably, and it's madly cut for obvious reasons)

*Presenting stock footage as new content(remember this driving scene from the previous episode?)

*Obvious stuntman scenes(from Hasselhoff to someone clearly shorter and skinnier using a wig)

*Visible round steering wheel

*How they rarely bothered to change the batteries for the scanner, the intro has it fullbright since it was one of the first times they used it, then you can easily spot KITT almost sleeping with the faded lights, not to mention when it's completely off and i don't even know if it's only on when KITT and all his systems are awake or is actually scanning something, also, how the upgraded voice box makes the flashing red square look ugly

*Speed up scenes(hey the camera is so steady, and KITT is sooo fast! oh and that pedestrian too)

*Most of this minor thing called Season 4.

[Assasinge]

I'd like to see you guys make a TV show with equipment only available to you at the time, and then see how well you can produce it. As a fellow filmmaker and editor, this thread is pointless and the responses here of people hating on stuff here that the producers and the crew of KR didn't always have full control over, lest the budget, is ridiculous.

[jup]

Even though these make part of all that made it great, it is what comes close to not having love for:
*A few cringy lines, the noticeable toy car and turbo boost scenes(theres also the annoyance of lame excuses for not using it "DON'T PRESS IT! THIS TIME WE'LL HURT PEOPLE BECAUSE UNLIKE THE 100S OTHERS YOU DID IT WITHOUT ASKING NOW I CARE ABOUT RUNNING A RISK CHECK", must be hard to make an excuse to let someone convincingly escape KITT) plus the ugly fight scenes(Michael vs Garth in the desert was one of the best probably, and it's madly cut for obvious reasons)

*Presenting stock footage as new content(remember this driving scene from the previous episode?)

*Obvious stuntman scenes(from Hasselhoff to someone clearly shorter and skinnier using a wig)

*Visible round steering wheel

*How they rarely bothered to change the batteries for the scanner, the intro has it fullbright since it was one of the first times they used it, then you can easily spot KITT almost sleeping with the faded lights, not to mention when it's completely off and i don't even know if it's only on when KITT and all his systems are awake or is actually scanning something, also, how the upgraded voice box makes the flashing red square look ugly

*Speed up scenes(hey the camera is so steady, and KITT is sooo fast! oh and that pedestrian too)

*Most of this minor thing called Season 4.

In defense of the original series' many faults: They really (and I do mean really) relied on the fact that '80s television broadcasts were not in HD and usually suffered from quality issues, to begin with. The majority of the viewing audience did not have cable TV and unless you were x miles away from the broadcasting antenna, reception could be mildly to wildly decreased. Plus, they had no idea that years later, this show could be perused on picture perfect discs in a frame by frame capacity. Thus, they were really hoping that everyone just sank into the one time viewing of imagery that loosely synced together and that nobody would notice when the steering wheel was round, the gas door was visible, when Kitt so obviously stopped on a dime via an off screen cable connection, when Thing arrived to lend a hand in working the driver's door, when the place KITT crashes through the wall at is insanely obvious to a blind person, when KARR's voice box is the wrong color, when buttons move around, when Kitt sinks into the chemical pit, how the look of the K 2000 is beyond obvious to it's level of missing details in the miniature, when scheduling such an action packed show around many parts of California must be insanely demanding, when...'nuf said. It's just fun to pull apart this show's many flaws that just hoped nobody would pick up upon by all the limitations of the day. Also, did I forget to mention they so were not expecting the world to come together and chat about their production values in global wide chat rooms?

[Han]

People hate kr 2008 and nobody cares about that, not to mention how recent it is compared to the original show we love, and even more, it's pretty interesting the fact that jup pointed that people would even watch tv with no color at all in that time, meanwhile, here i pointed a few things of my(our hopefully) favorite show of all times.

As far as i know this is still a fan to fan conversation, the word hate was used in the thread's name and doesn't match this chat clearly, the go make something better argument is the weakest thing i can think of, i won't bother quoting myself either, if anyone in the world has the right to feel hurt about anything, it's the people who were involved in the making of the show, which i personally think is not the case, if people discuss and share thoughts about anything, it's because they like, the time to feel bad is when nobody talks about your work, i never got the idea of anyone throwing critiscism at anything, but i'll admit, having that in mind, my words sound harsh, with that said, i understand that my thoughts and anyone elses here have no negative motivation towards anyone and much less power to do so even if intended.

Now, with all sincerity and honesty, i'll go on and say i will rephrase everything in my previous post if that will make anyone more comfortable

[jup]

Very true how Knight Rider has lasting appeal. After all, the 'Action Pack' tried to revive it, twice. And NBC gave it two more sequel attempts. Not to mention that one of the driving forces behind that runaway franchise of the Fast & Furious wants to reboot the series and even Glenn had a wish to revive the show in movie form. Plus, as I had recently posted about, some mail goods service remembered the show enough to include a license plate trophy. There are also the odd bits of merchandise that still pop up. (Like an electronic head to head race track and a unique GPS unit.) NBC's website still hosts reruns of the show, last I knew. And with the coming of self driving cars and smartphones that can talk back, there may yet be a whole resurgence of interest in this classic show. Heck...Lego just released a whole kind of DLC to their Dimensions game for this show.

You know...while I'm thinking about it, perhaps this would be a good time to ponder this question...

"IF Universal was to officially re-release the original Knight Rider as an anniversary edition, would it be sinful if they did updates to it?" Like how George Lucas updated Star Wars or Spielberg changed E.T. Would it be wrong if they re-mastered all the shots and removed those round steering wheels and CG'ed some stunts that maybe looked wrong. (I'm sure that a few 'Kitt's' had some slightly bent appearances after a few jumps.) All those monitor graphics looked modern. Michael could be playing a game of Call of Duty over that Colecovision driving game. Do we really want that 21'st century polish that computers can do or keep it all original...'Why, thank you, Thing' and all? (I think I know the probable answer to this. Still, worth asking.)

[Knight Racer]

I guess it would be hard to puck one thing I hated about the show because I loved every minute of it but if Ihad to say ssomething, it would be for the mysterious disappearance of April in season 3 as If she never existed and Michael just saying I sure do wish Bonnie was around in the first part of knight of the drones. Rebecca Holden did a great job and her character Shouldnt have just been written off like that. I also didn't like how certain features kitt had previously installed were forgotten about and replaced with new functions that did the same thing like April's High traction drop downs and Rc3's and Bonnie's traction spikes both used for climbing mountains.

[jup]

Well...I know in my fictitious Season 5 notes, once KITT faces a conflict with the founding laws and obeys saving the life of his pilot over breaking the rule of killing a Human being, he secretly creates his 'son' before the building conflict wipes his circuits. This new car would have become the threesome team of KIT3T, April and RCIII while Michael, Bonnie, Devon and Kitt remain the primary team. (Yea...The brilliant Bonnie figures out how to undo Kitt's growing list of malfunctions before Kitt mentally died. It would have worked in ways like our modern Windows machines do. Processing speeds slow down. Michael presses a luxury button and the monitor goes to a BSoD. Things like that. Michael: "How's the weather going to be today, Kitt?" Kitt remains unusually silent. Michael: "Kitt?" Kitt is still silent. Michael: "What's going on, buddy? Why the silent treatment?" Kitt: "Weather. Sunny and warm. Sorry, Michael. I am having a whopper of a headache." Michael: "Kitt, you don't get headaches.")

Perhaps, you made a good point there, Knight Racer. Perhaps, the whole notion of the upgrade of the week should have been let go of. After all, just how many new features can one truly think are needed? Not that they weren't guilty of creating and abandoning features from the get go. After all, I don't remember Oil Slick ever being used past the pilot.

[WittgenTT5/Rstein]

Well...I know in my fictitious Season 5 notes, once KITT faces a conflict with the founding laws and obeys saving the life of his pilot over breaking the rule of killing a Human being and he secretly creates his 'son' before the building conflict wipes his circuits, this new car would have become the threesome team of KIT3T, April and RCIII.

Perhaps, you made a good point there, Knight Racer. Perhaps, the whole notion of the upgrade of the week should have been let go of. After all, just how many new features can one truly think are needed? Not that they weren't guilty of creating and abandoning features from the get go. After all, I don't remember Oil Slick ever being used past the pilot.

inb4 KR2017's KITT getting a Hover Mode like the BTTF2 DeLorean..

Or he turns into a murdered out Volvo 850 T5-R

[jup]

inb4 KR2017's KITT getting a Hover Mode like the BTTF2 DeLorean..

Or he turns into a murdered out Volvo 850 T5-R

And he uses this hover mode absolutely once. Because Bonnie fed her fear of flying into the core of Kitt's consciousness from day one. Makes one wonder how he ever entered a condition where the parachute mode could have been utilized.

[blowersho]

Well...I know in my fictitious Season 5 notes, once KITT faces a conflict with the founding laws and obeys saving the life of his pilot over breaking the rule of killing a Human being, he secretly creates his 'son' before the building conflict wipes his circuits. This new car would have become the threesome team of KIT3T, April and RCIII while Michael, Bonnie, Devon and Kitt remain the primary team. (Yea...The brilliant Bonnie figures out how to undo Kitt's growing list of malfunctions before Kitt mentally died. It would have worked in ways like our modern Windows machines do. Processing speeds slow down. Michael presses a luxury button and the monitor goes to a BSoD. Things like that. Michael: "How's the weather going to be today, Kitt?" Kitt remains unusually silent. Michael: "Kitt?" Kitt is still silent. Michael: "What's going on, buddy? Why the silent treatment?" Kitt: "Weather. Sunny and warm. Sorry, Michael. I am having a whopper of a headache." Michael: "Kitt, you don't get headaches.")

Perhaps, you made a good point there, Knight Racer. Perhaps, the whole notion of the upgrade of the week should have been let go of. After all, just how many new features can one truly think are needed? Not that they weren't guilty of creating and abandoning features from the get go. After all, I don't remember Oil Slick ever being used past the pilot.

I might be wrong but I think oil slick is used during the demo derby in the pilot. I think people who made KR happen did the most they could for that time. It's far from perfect but nobody could really have done any better. What annoys me the most is how we would see the glass on the t top but in the next shot the glass has magically disappeared. There are a few instances where the glass flips up, stays there and is left open. I think there may be one shot of the glass going up and then being closed.

[Knight Racer]

Oil slick was also used in the season 2 episode Diamond's Are a Girl's Best Friend. I used to think if Michael or Kitt would really want to be creative, they would simultaneously use smoke screen and oil slick at the same time to lose the bad guy of the week from behind. But then I realized it would jeapordize the safety of other vehicles on the road or the people chasing him which would violate Kitt's dominant program to protect human life.

[jup]

That bit of logic about protecting the innocent makes a whole lot of sense as to why oil slick would have been so rarely used. (To the point that I can't even remember the season 2's use of it.)

And, that brings up another double function point. KITT has smoke screen. Yet, in another episode, Evade Mode comes out of nowhere. In which Kitt does doughnuts on dirty ground to kick up the soil and generate another kind of smoke screen. Granted...programming 'Turn sharp left and gun it' is less of a 'feature' then it is a directional command.

Ah, yes. Another flaw of appearing/vanishing items with that T-Top glass. We're never quite sure what direction those Sun Roof panels go in. Folding up is most certainly one. But, not the only one. However, the novels do shed a slight bit more information...at least on how the glass on KITT works. In the show's final scenes of the pilot, that one woman (can't remember her name...Tonya, maybe???) says something like "Good bye, Michael Knight!" (Or was it Long?) while holding a gun to Michael while he sits inside Kitt. In the show, the window is up. However, in the novel, the window is down. By the power of writing, Kitt rolls the driver's side window up faster then the blade on a falling guillotine, easily blocking the bullet as Tonya pulls on the trigger...even at point blank range. (Then the bullet bounces off the bulletproof glass and kills her.) So, presuming that the Sun Roof can slide inwards, by the books, it can move out of the way in 0.01'th of a second...or casually upwards as a small motor whines. A cheap excuse. But, it is cannon.

As I thought about that scene, I realized it came very close to my proposed scene. Except for one vital difference. In the pilot, Kitt only obeys his rules by saving his pilot. Tonya's lethal consequence is by her own choice. In mine, Kitt must pull the trigger. Kitt could no more save Tonya from her own actions then that of a bug that goes splat as he speeds down the highway.

[Han]

I recently rewatched the pilot, man, what a masterpiece it is(must have forgotten how good it is)
Taste is something you can't discuss but i'm curious about what other people think about the last season, personally i think it got weak, the upgrades weren't necessary imo, i just feel like the first seasons were so rich in history and detail, correct me but, "toy" cars were only used after season two started, and some are damn cool(the prison one and over the helicopter) right?
Deep down, the real problem i have with the last season is that, here in Brasil, the last season was broadcasted by a different TV channel, it's still not clear if that's the reason but KITT's voice actor here changed, to another guy who was tallented too but after three seasons with that iconic voice(it was as iconic as the original here, who returned in KR2000 btw)
Any of you guys watched it in any other language for long? i guess the most popular versions must be the portuguese(br), spanish, german and japanese after the original, did i forget any?

[jup]

At some point in time when I had my DVD's out, I tested this notion of episode strength. My conclusions was that all four seasons had similar numbers of strong, OK and weak episodes. After all, it's hard to debate which is stronger...Season One's pilot or Season Four's marriage to Stevie over being easier to debate the weaker episodes, like Season One's Deadly Maneuvers to Season Four's Voo Doo Knight. (At least, that's my opinion. Deadly Maneuvers never felt like much more then a glorified filler episode to me.) Had, at one time, a running list of opinions and ratings. Alas, such a list is long lost to the sands of time.

No doubt on the strength of Knight of the Phoenix. A Glenn Larson classic piece of writing that really deserves to be rebooted. (Not just the show...that whole episode.)

[WittgenTT5/Rstein]

At some point in time when I had my DVD's out, I tested this notion of episode strength. My conclusions was that all four seasons had similar numbers of strong, OK and weak episodes. After all, it's hard to debate which is stronger...Season One's pilot or Season Four's marriage to Stevie over being easier to debate the weaker episodes, like Season One's Deadly Maneuvers to Season Four's Voo Doo Knight. (At least, that's my opinion. Deadly Maneuvers never felt like much more then a glorified filler episode to me.) Had, at one time, a running list of opinions and ratings. Alas, such a list is long lost to the sands of time.

No doubt on the strength of Knight of the Phoenix. A Glenn Larson classic piece of writing that really deserves to be rebooted. (Not just the show...that whole episode.)

KoTP is like the best episode of KR aside from TSoR, JYD and KoTJ, if you ask me.

[Han]

Dead Maneuvers? Aw, i never looked at it as being weak since it was one of the first, i consider Big Iron for example weaker, and i like these episodes that don't have the obligation to be attached to the "main" story, these side story episodes are really fun(maybe they are more re-watchable since you won't remember the whole thing unlike the big ones, like Goliath and KITT vs KARR). It's nice that even with different tastes and everything we have, they're all enjoyable for us

[Amir]

I hated it when they used guest actors who had big roles (Ann Turkel, for instance) for a different role on another episode. We know it's not real, but just hire someone else and keep the magic alive.

[jup]

Oh, that seemed like a Glen Larson classic tactic, back then. Get on that guy's actor list and it became possible to migrate from show to show for roles...especially stereotypical ones.

I've got to believe that on a television's pace and the number of B/C List actors available, recycling is a good thing. Especially for the people whom rely upon this as their main source of income and may have to ride out the months in-between jobs on what money they still do have.