knight rider online

Hey, I'm 19 and Jon Ward is my grandfather, and always talks about how he used to work on this show (the original). I rarely get to talk to him anymore because of distance and he's not in the best of health, I was just wondering if anybody here knew what kind of work he did and had any details on it?

Thanks!

The search forum option pulled up a couple things about him... pretty cool! Anybody know more than that?

Hi Daniel -

Welcome to the forum. I know a Jon Ward designed the original front bumper for KITT for the pilot presentation before it was redesigned for the series...beyond that, I don't know. I've always wanted to chat with him.

Joe

Are we have any concept arts from the first nose??

Hi Daniel,

I think your grandfather might have been responsible for creating this KITT nose:



Can you show him this picture to see if he recalls it?

Joe

Jon was one of the many uncredited of the series. He was involved in performance, build, and design modifications of many vehicles used in the series; stunt cars, trucks, etc.

He built “Stealth” for Larson’s “The Highwayman”

I give Jon credit for work done on a special KITT stunt car, built in ’83, that was exhibited and provided a stunt show in Chicago during filming of “Knight of the Juggernaut”.

Joe Huth wrote:Hi Daniel,

I think your grandfather might have been responsible for creating this KITT nose:



Can you show him this picture to see if he recalls it?

Joe

I was about to build "This Replica" but life happend ,got married,sold all my extra 82' trans am interior,exterior stock and it never happend,it would have made for a perfect low profile daily driver ,maybe some day,some day!

Jon Ward was responsible for building the KITT's first nose which looked much closer to a stock Trans-Am. It was primarily used for NBC's 15-45 min (No one knows exactly how long it was) presentation pilot film for Knight Rider. The film was originally shot in April 1982 and this version of KITT was used for exterior shots while Michael Scheffe's original fully functional dash was used. When NBC picked up the pilot, Scheffe's dash was taken apart to make molds for additional shots/props in cars and when reassembled, lost its functionality. He also built KITT's beloved, much more well known nose. I am definitely in the minority but I liked the pilot nose as much as Scheffe's, it had good build quality and had it been used in the series, would have been a great spy car because it looked so close to stock. Here are some screenshots from the pilot presentation of KITT: