knight rider online

Hey guys,
I'm sorry if I'm the only dork in here who doesn't know this but.. how did they make the car move without a driver? In alot of scenes, KITT is being operated without a driver in the seat. This has always interested me. Was it remote control operated?
Tetsu

they had a method called a "blind driver." they had a modified drivers seat where the stunt driver technically sat inside the seat in which he saw out the space in the head rest and his hands came out of the seat a bit beneath where the dash is so you couldn't really see his arms. actually in "flight of pheonix" when KITT comes back from being stolen you can see the driver's arms coming out of the seat if you look closely.

Another method employed by the studio later in the series involved a driver sitting low in the passenger seat with his own steering column and pedals (the driver had to be a small guy so that camera won't see his head above the dashboard).

theres a pic around of this on the net, cant remember
where though

You can catch a glimpse of the stunt driver's arms going through the seat in "Killer K.I.T.T." right after KITT runs Michael into a shack that he destroys. A quick eye can see the arms when KITT backs out to leave.

There are also certain scenes where if you look closely the camera catches the "bag" behind the driver's seat where the stunt driver is.

Back in the 80s it probably would have required too many visible antennae and big technology attatched to the car to drive it remotely. If they had to do that it probably wouldn't have looked realistic.

Paul wrote:There are also certain scenes where if you look closely the camera catches the "bag" behind the driver's seat where the stunt driver is.

Back in the 80s it probably would have required too many visible antennae and big technology attatched to the car to drive it remotely. If they had to do that it probably wouldn't have looked realistic.

i've seen them drive a car remotely on Myth Busters and it looked really realistic. they were even doing 360s with it but also today they could use alot of the same techniques they did back then but digtally edit out things like the drivers arms if you were able to see them.

rhdaussiekitt wrote:theres a pic around of this on the net, cant remember
where though

That's from the episode "Just my Bill". KITT is in the parking garage. When he backs out, the stunt driver is in the passenger seat.

LadyV2000 wrote:

Paul wrote:There are also certain scenes where if you look closely the camera catches the "bag" behind the driver's seat where the stunt driver is.

Back in the 80s it probably would have required too many visible antennae and big technology attatched to the car to drive it remotely. If they had to do that it probably wouldn't have looked realistic.

i've seen them drive a car remotely on Myth Busters and it looked really realistic. they were even doing 360s with it but also today they could use alot of the same techniques they did back then but digtally edit out things like the drivers arms if you were able to see them.

You're right, I didn't think of that, even though I saw that episode of Mythbusters too. But that was nowadays...I still think 20 years ago it would have been a lot trickier to do that and make it look plausible. (At least as plausible as a guy in a bag behind the seat anyhow! )

Like this

AHHH! You beat me to it. I was just looking for the image.

Ha ha

Whoa, Thanks so much guys.
Man this is real cool info. I never knew it was driven like that. Thanks so much for posting all these goodies,
tetsu

I'm wondering how they got KITT's gull wing wheel to move in one scene from "Killer K.I.T.T." There's no hitch or mount physically connecting KITT to the camera truck. Yet you can see KITT's wheel move and nobody's in the driver or passenger seats. I guess the question is...

How did they do that?

Lost Knight wrote:You can catch a glimpse of the stunt driver's arms going through the seat in "Killer K.I.T.T." right after KITT runs Michael into a shack that he destroys. A quick eye can see the arms when KITT backs out to leave.

Same method.

Yeah as a kid I always assumed the car was remote-controlled too. I never even THOUGHT to look for the hidden driver behind the seat until I read about it in one of those Knight Rider Albums.

Now that I know he's there, it's hard NOT to notice it. LOL

I didn't see the stunt driver's arms in the scene I'm thinking about, Lost Knight.
The scene I'm thinking of is when KITT's on his way to the convention center and Michael and RC3 are trying to get Michael inside KITT.

Why couldn't they have the driver wear all blue (like in the movie Stuck on You).