knight rider online

Knight Rider Archive wrote:On the other hand it could mean that Universal has little or no faith in Knight Rider (The A-Team and Magnum were both much more high-profile than KR).

- Paul
- http://www.knightriderarchive.com

i dont know why u are assuming that paul, knight rider was an extremely high profile show back in the eighties. a surprise hit yes, but went on to achieve stellar ratings higher than the a-team at its peak. even looking at the fact that season one of knight rider on dvd was the only season one to include extras tells us something!

as for no extras in season two, yes i'm looking forward to having the longest season uncut and my fave episode on dvd at last, but i am also bummed about the extras. i was keeping my fingers crossed for another fantastic commentary, or even knight rider 2010 or the code of vengeance films. oh well... it IS something a lot of series releases are suffering from, extras to introduce newcomers to a series in season one then nothing from there on in. i guess they felt knight rider would be high profile enough and popular enough to bring in the most new viewers (it probably has a lot of new casual viewers since it seems on constant rotation in a lot of countries.)

This is GREAT!!! can't wait!! Knight rider is the best!!!

knightendo wrote:
knight rider was an extremely high profile show back in the eighties. a surprise hit yes, but went on to achieve stellar ratings higher than the a-team at its peak

Not true. Knight Rider was a high profile show, don't get me wrong, but it never came anywhere near the success of The A-Team, at least in the States.

In the 1982-1983 Season, The A-Team was the 10th most popular show in America (according to the Nielsens), with a rating of 20.1. It was NBC's most popular show. In spite of Knight Rider's success against Dallas, and the fact that the hugely successful pilot episode was repeated three times that season, Knight Rider failed to make the Top 25.

In the 1983-1984 Season, The A-Team was ranked 4th most popular show on US television -- the top-rated NBC show, only losing out to Dallas, 60 minutes, and Dynasty -- with a Nielsen rating of 24.0. Knight Rider was joint 25th. That was its most "popular" year.

The following year, The A-Team was ranked 6th, with a Nielsen of 21.9. Knight Rider had already dropped out of the top 25, never to return.

Magnum was consistently up there for its first five years.

(Source: The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Tim Brooks & Earl Marsh)

- Paul
- http://www.knightriderarchive.com

Great news we get a release date.

Sad that no extra's.

I Thnink these days KR sells more DVD's

Season one was up to number 3 in DVD sales charts I have seen,

Don't think I saw The A team in the top 10, at least here in the uk anyhow.

For a show that is over 20 years old now that ain't bad, just piped off number one slot by some film releases.

I hope that the no extra's issue, dosen't effect sales of season 2, if it does they might not even release season 3 and 4, that would be a disaster!

Great news we get a release date.

Sad that no extra's.

I thnink these days KR sells more DVD's

Season one was up to number 3 in DVD sales charts I have seen,

Don't think I saw The A team in the top 10, at least here in the uk anyhow.

For a show that is over 20 years old now that ain't bad, just piped off number one slot by some film releases.

I hope that the no extra's issue, dosen't effect sales of season 2, if it does they might not even release season 3 and 4, that would be a disaster!

I AGREE!! KNIGHT RIDER WAS THE BEST AND WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN opnions. I DON'T THINK EXTRAS WILL AFFECT THE SALES, IF YOU ARE A TRUE KNIGHT RIDER FAN. YOU WILL JUST WANT THE SHOWS JUST TO HAVE THEM ALL AGAIN INSTEAD OF WAITING 10-15 YEARS JUST TO SEE IF AGAIN.
I KNEW I LIKED KR BUT DIDN'T REALIZE JUST HOW MUCH UNTIL I FOUND THE DVD. GOD I HOPE THEY DON'T STOP WITH SEASON 2. I'VE GOT TO HAVE THEM ALL, EVEN THE SEQUELS.

wonder how long we will have to wait for it to come out on region 2 it was a 6 week? wait after season 1 came out

I had heard long term that Universal plans was to have all four seasons of Knight Rider on the street by the end of 2006. With Seasons 3 and 4 in 2006, season 4 was a fourth quarter 2006.

Extras are okay, but do not sway me either way. I would like to see commentary on Knight of the Juggernaught as they introduce the new KITT with Super Pursuit Mode.

Awesome news! *Marks calender* Keep your fingers crossed, maybe Universal will release season 3 just after Thanksgiving of this year! (That would make perfect marketing sense)

I am bummed there aren't any extras. I am very content though having season 2 immortalized on DVD. And more importantly...They're uncut! (Damn you Sci-Fi channel!) But hey, at least Universal is being creative for the box design. Last year we got the "digipack" design, this year its the "multi-slip box type". Wonder what the next design will be. I take it all four seasons will have a different box design. (possibly)

I think all subsequent releases will stick to the multi-slip box design. Apparently it's cheaper to produce, and seems to be the popular choice with all tv releases lately.

- Paul
- http://www.knightriderarchive.com

i hate digi-pack designs anyway. as we all know, the discs can slip and fall out, getting scratched in the process.

with the first season also consisting of double sided discs, that wasn't a good choice for a design.

Hey guys... Do you know if there's gonna be any Iberian Peninsula (Portugal or Spain or Andorra) edition?

Anyway, if there's gonna be just the Spanish one it would be nice to have Portuguese subtitles included. You know... those fans in Portugal...

The press release incase your interested:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050120/lath080_1.html

I said this in another thread but it might be more appropriate here...

I have to say that I am a bit worried if season 2 will be done properly. Universal Studios owns the franchise and lately, in my opinion they have really been screwing up their DVDs. I own Quantum Leap: The Complete First Season on DVD (released by Universal) which was left unchanged and had a few bonus features. However, season 2 had been released in December, which I just received for Christmas, and I was shocked to see that 98% of all the original music had been removed from the episodes. In fact, the only songs that remained were ones that were directly mentioned by the characters.

Original oldies songs (the show takes place in the '50s and '60s for the most part so music is important in creating the illusion of the past) had been replaced with generic instrumental "muzak" which had completely destroyed the dramatic impact of particular episodes. Not to mention that the packaging says there are bonus features and in actuality there are NONE. The picture quality is also grainy for the most part. It seems more and more like the case here is that the first season was preserved exactly the way it originally aired to rope fans in, and then Universal tried the cheap way out of paying to re-acquire the rights to original songs for the second season. Not only has Universal butchered one of their series by doing this, but they also mislead the public by using the words "The Complete Second Season" and "Bonus Features" when this is not the case. Talk about false advertising.

Universal also owns another favorite franchise of mine, Back To the Future, and have made mistakes on that set as well. First, the set is only available with all three movies (some fans only wanted the first film), and secondly, the widescreen editions of the sets have incorrect aspect ratios on parts II and III. Fans also complained that part III's picture quality was also too dark. To rectify this problem, Universal offered fans the chance to mail them their purchased copies of the set and they, in return, would send them back the "corrected" aspect ratios of the films. Now, as of February 2005, Universal will stop selling the set completely; they plan to eventually release a "special edition" which is unclear if it is all three films or only the first. I also own the original Jaws on DVD (also owned by Universal) and while the picture quality is decent, it is NOT what you would expect for something labeled "Digitally Remastered."

Because of Universal's track record with their DVD releases, I am worried what the turnout for Knight Rider is going to be. Universal might tamper with season 2 even though season 1 was left unchanged (like Quantum Leap), and they also might release DVD packaging that contains false advertising. I am skeptical of buying any DVD releases from this company from now on and will do so with reluctance, and probably will investigate before I ever buy another product from them. I am currently in the process of writing a letter of complaint to Universal Studios over the Quantum Leap set, and while I'm at it maybe I should take the time to make suggestions to them on the upcoming second season of Knight Rider. My point in bringing all of this up here is that I would hate to see Universal Studios destroy Knight Rider like they have with their other franchises in my opinion. Just a little food for thought.

I hope they have William Daniels and David do commentary on one of the season episodes

Commentary's are extra's and it's been annouced that the Extra's wouldn't be in there.

I thought the only thing that was released was the release date of Season 2? I did not know they had already said there were going to be no extras...Maybe they will, after all it's still being put together....

When A-Team S1 came out, I was disappointed at first due to no extras - but then I didn't care because I had the whole first season on DVD for $30!!!!

Can't wait for KR (Sweet!!..Miami Vice is suppoed to come out on Feb.8th

krfan1

this is true...after all I do want all 92 episodes on DVD...which is something I can safely say has been a childhood dream for most of us who grew up with Knight Rider...although I hope for season 2 they release it on Widescreen as the WB has done for its Smallville line, but I highly doubt that will happen considering they want to release them (hopefully) as they originally aired...so I've asked for it as a Birthday Present since my birthday is like 3 days after it's release on DVD...can hardly wait!

Knight Rider or any other '80s show for that matter will never be released in widescreen in my opinion. These shows were originally shot in full screen and usually are released on DVD as they originally aired (aside from changes like music like I mentioned). The original aspect ratios would have to be modified to accomodate widescreen TVs properly. Some newer shows are released in widescreen because they are originally shot in widescreen. Whenever you have a choice of widescreen or full screen on any particular DVD, it means that the original film has been modified to be full screen.

In actuality the modified full screen versions mean you actually see less of the original picture because it is formatted to fit standard television sets. Widescreen is how most movies are originally shot and how the director originally intended the movie to be seen. In the last few years, shows such as The Sopranos and ER have changed formats and have been shown only in widescreen, therefore being available in that format on DVD. This whole nonsense with Universal not having any bonus features on the KR season 2 set seems to be the company's M.O. From what I've seen, they release any given show's first season with bonus features with everything intact and everybody is happy.

Months later, the second season is released with no bonus features and other alterations completely uncalled for such as original music being replaced. For some DVD sets, there are disclaimers stating something along the lines of "Music may differ from televised version" meaning that you're not buying exactly what you saw on TV. Sometimes these people actually try to trick the consumer into thinking they are buying something superior to what they originally saw by printing things like, "Enhanced with exciting new music!" From what I've seen on Universal's DVDs so far, they don't even print anything saying that the sets have been changed. Therefore, the consumer thinks they are buying an uncut set when this is not the case.

Since other shows like The A-Team, Magnum P.I., etc. are being released on the same date as KR, it makes me skeptical. Universal's official explanation as to why it altered some of its own series on DVD was because of pressure of releasing the second seasons due to high demand. Well, personally I would rather wait longer for a quality product rather than get something substandard sooner. Perhaps when they destroy KR, the fans on this board will be as angry as I am over this. But hey, let's all hope I'm wrong here! Lack of bonus features is OK with me, but NOT any tampering with the episodes how they originally aired!

Smallville was NOT shot in Widescreen format. IT was shot in fullscreen but the WB changed its format to the Widescreen to accomodate Widescreen TVs which eventually will be commonplace in every household. I perfer Widescreen format for most of My DVD formats when it comes to TVon DVD stuff.

There will be no extras, it seems. Each disc will be 6 hours and 31 minutes.

Highlights:

Knight Rider cruised to its highest ratings ever in Season Two

Includes all 21 action-packed episodes on 3 double-sided DVDs

Heavy cross-promotion on Sci-Fi Channel featuring a street date marathon promotion Knight Rider: Season Two

PACKAGING: Slim Snap Cases with Outer Box

Menu screen:


Trailer: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/videoclips ... ilerS2.mov

Lost Knight wrote:These shows were originally shot in full screen and usually are released on DVD as they originally aired

I should add that nowadays movies and television series are made with the knowledge that they will be available on DVD. This was never the intention with old television series. Only movies were usually shot in widescreen (also to accomodate movie theater screens). So, they are shot a particular way and that's why there's usually a plethora of bonus features. It's also why you get sharper quality and why the newer shows get the priority to come out on DVD quickly as opposed to older shows.

I think I remember reading somewhere that about 60% of all movie profits now come from DVD sales. Movies are now only really released in theaters to gain publicity and hopefully potentially generate hundreds of millions of dollars more on top of DVD sales. And bigger publicity leads to bigger DVD sales. But yes, eventually widescreen is supposed to take over but the problem is it will take years for most of the general public to buy widescreen TVs.

Despite the thing about no extras, I'll still get the 2nd season DVD.
Bring it forth, Universal!

agreed Lyn, I am looking forward to Season 3 where KARR meets KITT again!

That was the tiniest lamest trailer I've seen a while