50 Fun Facts About Knight Rider

Who played Michael Knight in the original Knight Rider?

David Hasselhoff. His next lead, the lifeguard drama Baywatch, was cancelled by its first network after one season, came back in syndication and ran for another decade with him as star and producer.

On which US network did Knight Rider originally air from 1982 to 1986?

NBC. The same network brought the idea back in 2008 with a TV movie and a weekly series about Michael Knight's son, then dropped it after a single season.

What does the name KITT stand for?

Knight Industries Two Thousand. The sequels kept counting: the 1991 TV movie replaced him with the Knight 4000, and the car in the 2008 revival was the Knight Industries Three Thousand.

Which car model was customised to become KITT?

Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. Only one car, the 'hero', carried the working dashboard that designer Michael Scheffe built; its stunt doubles made do with dummy panels, filmed so that viewers would not notice.

Who created Knight Rider?

Glen A. Larson. A former singer with the vocal group the Four Preps, he also co-wrote the show's theme tune, as he had done for his earlier series The Fall Guy.

Who provided the voice of KITT?

William Daniels. He asked to go uncredited and said in 1982 that the job took him about an hour and a half an episode, adding that he had never met the cast.

Before surgeons gave him a new face and identity, what was Michael Knight's full name?

Michael Arthur Long. The detective survived a bullet in the face because a metal plate, fitted in his skull after a wartime injury, deflected it, and the surgery that rebuilt him left his old identity officially dead.

What does FLAG stand for in Knight Rider?

Foundation for Law and Government. Wilton Knight set it up to go after criminals who operate above the law, the ones ordinary police work cannot reach, and made Michael its first field agent.

Who heads FLAG after Wilton Knight's death?

Devon Miles. The founder's old friend briefs Michael before every mission for four seasons, and the 1991 TV movie brought him back only to have its villain kill him.

In Knight Rider, which actor played FLAG's leader, who appeared in every episode?

Edward Mulhare. Born in Cork, he made his name stepping into Rex Harrison's shoes as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady on Broadway, then played a ghostly sea captain in the sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir.

Who was KITT's chief technician in seasons 1, 3 and 4?

Bonnie Barstow. The show dropped her after the first season and brought her back for the third after viewers and her co-stars protested, explaining the gap as a year away at university.

Which technician looked after KITT during season 2 only?

April Curtis. She turns up without introduction for the second season and is gone just as quietly when the original technician returns; the scripts never say where she came from or where she went.

Which villain, Michael's evil double, drove the armoured truck Goliath against KITT?

Garthe Knight. Wilton Knight believed his criminal son was gone for good in an African prison, so he had the wounded detective's new face modelled on his, which is why one actor plays both men.

What is KITT's primary directive, the rule his programming puts above all others?

Protect human life. The rule outranks his own driver: if Michael wilfully puts his own life in danger, KITT can override him and take over the controls.

Who played Wilton Knight, the founder of FLAG?

Richard Basehart. His character dies in the pilot, yet the actor is heard in every episode that follows, because it is his voice that narrates the opening titles.

Knight Rider's opening narration promises a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who what?

'Does not exist'. On paper it is true: the policeman he used to be was declared dead after the shooting, and Michael Knight is a new identity invented for him.

At what reported price per car did the carmaker supply the stunt doubles for KITT?

$1. Stunt coordinator Jack Gill said many arrived already written off after a train derailment; the only car the studio really paid for was the close-up 'hero', said to have cost about $100,000.

KITT's pulsing red scanner was a nod to which sci-fi villains?

The Cylons. The show's creator had made Battlestar Galactica first and asked for the same sweeping beam of light on the car's nose, even reusing the robots' scanner sound effect.

What is the name of KITT's near-indestructible armour?

Molecular Bonded Shell. It shrugs off bullets and most blasts, leaving heavy artillery, rockets, lasers and strong acids as the real threats, so the show's worst villains beat him only by stealing its formula or neutralising it.

What feature lets KITT leap over obstacles in the road?

Turbo boost. Rocket motors fire to hurl the car over whatever blocks the road, and the same thrust, which can be aimed forwards or backwards, pushes him past 200 mph on the flat.

What is the name of KITT's rogue prototype?

KARR. Shelved and forgotten after the founder's death, the Knight Automated Roving Robot is woken by accident when two thieves break into the warehouse where it is stored.

Peter Cullen, Knight Rider's first rogue-car voice, is best known as which robot hero?

Optimus Prime. Cullen voiced the rogue car in a single 1982 episode, before Transformers made that voice famous, and a different actor took the part when the villain returned in the third season.

On KITT's dashboard, what lights up in time with his voice?

Three columns of red bars. In the earliest episodes the car's 'mouth' was a single flashing red square; the three-bar design that fans remember replaced it partway through the first season.

The pilot, in which the hero is rebuilt with a new face and a new name, is titled 'Knight of the' what?

Phoenix. The feature-length opener has a policeman shot, declared dead and remade as Michael Knight, and the dying billionaire who saved him asks him to carry on his crusade against crime.

The actor who voiced KITT went on to play which much-loved teacher in the sitcom Boy Meets World?

Mr. Feeny. He had already sung the lead as John Adams in the musical 1776, and he recorded the car's lines while winning two Emmys as a doctor on the hospital drama St. Elsewhere.

In which country did Knight Rider's star top the charts in 1989 with the song 'Looking for Freedom'?

Germany. Weeks after the Berlin Wall opened, he sang it there at a huge New Year's Eve concert, in front of a crowd of East and West Germans standing together.

Which phrase closed the season-one outro in Wilton Knight's voice?

One man can make a difference, Michael. The line echoes Wilton Knight's dying words to him in the pilot, and it played over the closing shot of the car driving off through the desert.

Michael Knight talks to KITT through what device?

A wristwatch. The prop was a dressed-up 1980s radio watch, and besides carrying their voices it hid a tiny camera and scanner, so that KITT could see whatever Michael pointed it at.

In 'The Scent of Roses', what happens on the day Michael Knight marries his fiancée Stevie?

She is killed. Gunmen sent after Michael open fire at the ceremony and she dies in the crossfire; the part was played by Catherine Hickland, who was married to the show's leading man at the time.

What major upgrade did Knight Rider's fourth-season redesign give KITT?

Super Pursuit Mode. Aerodynamic panels slide out of the bodywork for a claimed 40 per cent more speed, and the same rebuild traded the car's T-top for a convertible roof.

What is KITT's primary fuel?

Hydrogen. His turbine runs on it by choice, but a fuel processor lets him burn almost any combustible liquid, which is why he can also fill up with ordinary petrol at a roadside pump.

What does KITT's 'ski mode' make the car do?

Drive on two wheels. The car tips onto either its left or its right pair and stays there, moving or standing still, a stunt the series used from its very first episode.

Which vehicle serves as KITT's mobile garage?

A semi-trailer truck. Its trailer drops a ramp so that KITT can drive aboard while the rig is still rolling, and inside is a workshop and computer lab where he is patched up between jobs.

In Knight Rider's fourth season, who joined as the driver of the FLAG mobile unit?

RC3. Reginald Cornelius III is a street vigilante whose friends rebuild the wrecked KITT in their garage, and FLAG takes him on as its driver and Michael's occasional partner.

How did stuntman Jack Gill make KITT appear to drive itself?

Hiding behind the seat. Gill drove blind from the back, reaching his arms and legs through the driver's seat to the wheel and pedals, with a two-way mirror keeping him out of shot.

In Knight Rider 2000, how are convicted criminals punished?

Cryonic freezing. The 1991 film's villain is thawed out at the start and promptly assassinates the mayor, and its future has also banned handguns, leaving the police with stun weapons.

Which car became the Knight 4000 in Knight Rider 2000?

Dodge Stealth. The producers wanted a futuristic concept car that they could not get, so customiser Jay Ohrberg dressed a production Stealth in new bodywork to look the part.

In Knight Rider 2000, Michael installs KITT's logic module in which classic car?

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. With the old car dismantled and most of its parts sold off, Michael rebuilds KITT's brain and wires it into the dashboard of his own vintage Chevy, a body the computer is far from impressed by.

Knight Rider 2000 villain Mitch Pileggi later played FBI boss Walter Skinner in which series?

The X-Files. In the 1991 film he plays Thomas J. Watts, a freed convict who assassinates a mayor and then kills off one of the original show's regulars.

What did each of Team Knight Rider's five operatives have?

A talking vehicle. In place of one black sports car the team drove an SUV, a convertible, a pickup and two motorcycles, each with its own voice and temper, and the show lasted a single season.

In the episode 'Return to Cadiz', KITT tests a new gadget that lets him do what?

Drive across water. The 'aquatic synthesizer' has him skimming over the waves on his wheels and rocket thrust, but it proves faulty and is stripped out again before the episode ends.

In the 2008 Knight Rider revival, which car was the new KITT?

Ford Shelby GT500KR. Ford supplied the cars and backed the deal that got the revival made, which is why the hero's new partner wore a Ford badge.

Who voiced KITT in the 2008 Knight Rider series?

Val Kilmer. Will Arnett had already recorded the part, but he was also the advertising voice of GMC trucks, a rival to the show's car supplier, so he withdrew and Kilmer redid the lines shortly before broadcast.

In the 2008 Knight Rider revival, what could the new KITT's nanotech bodywork do?

Change colour and shape. The car could mend its own dents and pass itself off as other vehicles, from a pickup truck to a police cruiser, a trick its 1980s ancestor never had.

Which rapper built his 1998 hit 'Turn It Up (Remix)/Fire It Up' on a sample of the Knight Rider theme?

Busta Rhymes. The loop travelled on from there: Panjabi MC lifted the same bassline for his bhangra hit 'Mundian To Bach Ke', which was remixed in turn with Jay-Z.

Which armoured vehicle all but destroys KITT at the start of Knight Rider's final season, after his armour is chemically neutralised?

The Juggernaut. The attack leaves him a wreck, and he comes back from the rebuild restyled, with new gadgets fitted by the friends who put him together again.

Before Knight Rider, its leading man played Dr. Snapper Foster on which daytime soap?

The Young and the Restless. He took the young doctor over from the actor who had created the part, stayed for seven years and came back for a short guest run in 2010.

Which Hollywood car customiser turned KITT into a convertible for Knight Rider's final season?

George Barris. Famous for the 1966 TV Batmobile, he shared the job with fellow builder Jay Ohrberg, who went on to make the hero's car for the 1991 sequel.

Which toys-to-life video game let players drive KITT, voiced once again by the original actor?

LEGO Dimensions. An add-on pack put a brick-built KITT and a Michael Knight figure into the game, and the actor who gave the car its voice in 1982 came back to record him more than thirty years on.

Which 2012 comedy used the Knight Rider theme as a phone ringtone?

Ted. On the hero's phone the foul-mouthed teddy bear's calls ring with the Knight Rider theme, while calls from his girlfriend get Darth Vader's Imperial March.