Devin_Miles wrote:Like what made KITT and Michael stop fighting crime? Because according to the synopsis of Knight Rider 2000, Michael had retired and KITT had been largely dismantled. How and why was KITT dismantled?
While I agree with the general consensus that
Knight Rider 2000 missed the point of the series, I do feel that its story is the most logical extrapolation of the series. If I remember correctly, Michael Knight also had a different fate in
Team Knight Rider than he did in
KR2K. Michael Knight's inevitable burnout was consistent with the show's storyline, so the question of why he and K.I.T.T. stopped working together isn't hard to speculate on.
The way I always figured it, Michael quit to live out a quiet life with his bass charter in 1990 (how long could someone live every day in intense danger like that anyway?), and the Foundation had problems finding a suitable replacement for Michael to operate KITT. A job like Michael's would definitely take its toll on anyone, especially someone like Michael, who, for the most part, had to stay detached from many things in life as a defense mechanism. Shortly after, KITT was deactivated until Devon hired Russ Maddock to come aboard to help resurrect the Foundation, where he ultimately made the executive decision of dismantling KITT. Approaching the situation strictly from a business standpoint, Maddock decided it was more feasible to sell KITT's parts and utilize the profits for the construction of the up-and-coming Knight 4000. By that time, KITT was inevitably rendered obsolete anyway, and Maddock decided it would be better to spend the Foundation's money more wisely by building a new vehicle, as opposed to refurbishing an obsolete one.
As a former trial lawyer, Maddock decided to join the Foundation as a sort of way of subconsciously renewing the faith he had lost in people. However, as a result of this, he became a cold man, which shined through in his business decisions and in the personality (or lack thereof) of the Knight 4000's microprocessor. Much like the movie itself, Maddock was out of touch with the concept of friendship that had developed between Michael and KITT during their eight years as a team. Ultimately, F.L.A.G. was renamed as simply, The Knight Foundation. (Which, to me, seemed more like a credit card company than the Foundation we always saw in the series.)