knight rider online

I just bought the entire series of KR on DVD and spent sometime watching it this weekend.....

And like any typical fan of the origianl, the first five I watched were:

-Knight of the Phoenix (got to re-live the pilot first)
-Trust Doesn't Rust
-Goliath (Part one and two)
-Goliath Returns
-K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.

.....No big surprise there, I bet you done the same too.


Anyhow, because I never saw the two episodes with KARR back-to-back before, I never really noticed the "voice" difference.

Peter Cullen voiced KARR in Trust Doesn't Rust, and Paul Frees voiced him in KITT vs. KARR.


So which one do you think was the better and more appropriate voice for KARR?


Now, don't get me wrong, I love Peter Cullen.....he's great, and his Optimus Prime is one of my favorite voices of all time, but honestly for KARR, I though Paul Free's voice was more fitting. (Just my opinion)

Unfortunantley, we lost Paul Frees in 1986, so there'll never be a chance of him playing this role again, or any other.

Both men had incredible voices.



....If you are not 100% sure, then go home and re-watch both and make your mind up.

I preferred both the voice and the character of KARR in Trust Doesn't Rust. In TDR, he's a pretty unique villain: he isn't really evil, at worst he is amoral. But in KvK, he comes across like any other maniacal bad guy. Basically, he's too human in KvK.

Definitely Paul Frees (KITT vs. KARR), because I can't stop hearing Optimus Prime when Peter Cullen speaks.

I think If you put yourself in KARR's perspective and drove off a cliff ending up stuck in sand for years, having time to reflect back on the choices you made and the scenerios you could have taken you'd develop the same responses.

If you had all that time to sit there and stew over every small detail of your last encounter while being hopelessly stuck and immobile, I think even a computer could learn a form of resentment and hold a grudge against the people who put him there, even if it was his own fault to drive off the cliff in the first place. Also we know that KARR absolutely despises ever going back into storage again and his prison on the beach was pretty much the same circumstance he was in originally except this time he had something to think over while being stuck there because he remained activated.

I picture KARR's evolution in the episode as a metaphore for a criminal who is slowly rotting away in prison watching the years go by, growing older and older each day, harboring their memories of the outside and how they ended up behind bars. That bitter resentment towards the choices they made and so on.

I think it shows a tremendous amount of character development, even for a flawed AI. I really admire the tenacious tone of Paul Frees's voice (whom I voted for) and as much as I admire Peter Cullen, Frees just made KARR all the more formidable and believable as a real threat to KITT, more so then their first encounter. In KITT vs KARR, KARR goes on the offensive, he tracks down and invades the Knight Semi and so on. Calculative and manipulative he managed to do far more damage then his first time around, even if in the end like most villains his overconfidence was his weakness.

=VK=

Garthe Knight wrote:Definitely Paul Frees (KITT vs. KARR), because I can't stop hearing Optimus Prime when Peter Cullen speaks.

Where'd you get the avatar of the new style Knight Car painted and detailed with KARR's scheme???

I always preferred Peter Cullen. In TDR KARR has a more fitting character for me.

paul frees as K.A.R.R." they must of picked up on my sonar D@mn"

thats enough for my vote

Until recently believe it not I hadn't even noticed it was a different voice actor the second time around! Other than KARR being meaner and more vocal, I still thought it was Peter Cullen. I don't remember if Paul Frees was credited as the voice in KITT vs. KARR. I voted Peter Cullen, but Paul Frees was good too. KARR really got mean in the return episode, like that one part where he threatened to explode that girl by sucking the air out of the passenger compartment. Man that was real nasty, plus he had some pretty strong language coming from a computer.

TinCanSailor wrote:Until recently believe it not I hadn't even noticed it was a different voice actor the second time around! Other than KARR being meaner and more vocal, I still thought it was Peter Cullen. I don't remember if Paul Frees was credited as the voice in KITT vs. KARR. I voted Peter Cullen, but Paul Frees was good too. KARR really got mean in the return episode, like that one part where he threatened to explode that girl by sucking the air out of the passenger compartment. Man that was real nasty, plus he had some pretty strong language coming from a computer.

This. I thought it was the same actor- then I had them reversed. (thought Peter Cullen did "Trust Doesn't Rust")
I do think they had some very good character development there, and wonder what would have happened if the original KR had another season.

Paul's version was alot more creepy and evil.

Michael Pajaro wrote:I preferred both the voice and the character of KARR in Trust Doesn't Rust. In TDR, he's a pretty unique villain: he isn't really evil, at worst he is amoral. But in KvK, he comes across like any other maniacal bad guy. Basically, he's too human in KvK.

I agree. Peter seemed to bring the detatchment of being a vehicle without remorse or sentiment for others (like his programming) but Paul's voice just dripped with a sense of evil. Like KARR was a mistake of programming were good intentions turned horribly wrong.
I bet, because of the relatively TAME shows back in the 80's (A-Team shooting thousands of bullets but no one is killed), that if they allowed KARR to return he would off quite a few people in his way.

KARR rules!