Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context YMMV / Knightrider

Go To

1%%
2%%
3%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
4%%
5%%
6[[foldercontrol]]
7
8[[folder:The Television Series]]
9* AluminumChristmasTrees: People often see KITT drive up into the semi while both are moving at highway speeds on the show, and it was long thought that this type of stunt would be impossible. But ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' did the same thing with a car similar to KITT and a semi truck moving at highway speeds, and not only did it work, it worked *exactly* like it was depicted in the show (save for the part about the trailer being BiggerOnTheInside)[[note]]The reason it works is because when the car hits the ramp, it's inertia keeps it moving at the same speed, forcing the tires (whether they are connected to the drive train or not) to quickly slow down[[/note]].
10* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The ThemeTune. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbfVmzF7N4g If it's not running through your head right now, it should be.]]
11* ClicheStorm: Garthe Knight is a walking, talking cliché of the CriminalDoppelganger, even by the standards of the eighties. Looks exactly like TheHero? Check. The sole difference between him and the hero is that he has [[BeardOfEvil facial hair]]? Check. Was away for a long time before suddenly dropping into the plot? Check. (He was said to be imprisoned in an African country.) The reason he looks like the hero involves MagicPlasticSurgery? Check. (Although in a twist, it is ''the hero'' who was made to look like him through plastic surgery, rather than the other way around.)
12* CommonKnowledge: Many people remember KITT's speech indicator being somewhere in the middle of the dashboard, when it's actually placed above the steering wheel. This may be due to Hasselhoff looking in that direction during conversations, as the speaker he's receiving KITT's lines from would be hidden in roughly that area.
13* CompleteMonster ("[[Recap/KnightriderS4E4SkyNight Sky Knight]]"): [[WesternTerrorists Charles Zurich]], ex-agent and leader of the New Dawn movement, is a FauxAffablyEvil extremist vying for the release of 197 "political prisoners" under the threat of murdering a plane full of innocent people. Zurich's [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist seemingly good intentions are a farce]], as he secretly intends to use these prisoners--all of them merely cutthroat murderers—-as his own private army to wage wars upon and take over any small country he wants. Gleefully attempting to execute Michael Knight's love interest with the intent to hurt him, Zurich finally just tries to wipe out all the hostages with a nuclear doomsday device, even [[BadBoss leaving his own men to die]] the second they hesitate.
14* FanNickname:
15** "[=KI2T=]" for the KITT from the original series, "[=KI3T=]" for the new KITT in the 2008 series.
16** KARR-E is used for the 2008 Knight Automated Roving Robot; its additional acronym "Exoskeleton" is absent from the 1982 KARR incarnation. Although this may have been retconned back to just KARR in the episode "Knight to King's Pawn".
17* FridgeBrilliance:
18** The show has had three examples of EvilTwin, one of which was KARR, KITT's evil twin. At first, this seems like a further effort to establish the car as a character. But when you think about it, KITT is ''more'' likely to have an evil twin than the two humans (Michael and Devon). True, the in-universe explanation is the most likely (KITT is an advanced piece of technology and KARR was his prototype), but creating a copy of KITT only requires getting a third generation Trans-Am and customizing it to look like KITT (which some real life fans have no doubt done).
19** One of the common running gags about the show is KITT being constantly mistaken for a regular car than an advanced piece of technology. But there's a good explanation for this, and why the Mustang in ''Knight Rider'' (2008) and the Ford vehicles in ''Team Knight Rider'' make sense: If KITT didn't look like a regular car, then when he's tailing someone, the person he's tailing would notice him if he were something more uncommon on the road (for example, a supercar like a Ferrari, or a unique concept car such as a [[Series/Batman1966 Lincoln Futura]]). At the time the original show came out, Trans-Ams were common on the road. When TKR came out, each of the vehicles (including the motorcycles post visual upgrade to look like a pair of Kawaski Ninjas) look normal. The Mustang used for KITT(3000) in the 2008 series was a common vehicle. The vehicles look so common that they're literally incognito in modern times (or what counts as modern during the times of their shows' airings).
20* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
21** The original is considered [[SoBadItsGood hilarious]] in Brazil, thanks in part to an extremely hammy dub. The Mexican Spanish dub averts this through, since the series is still popular in Mexico.
22** The series was also wildly popular in Spain, where it was renamed ''The Fantastic Car'' and achieved an iconic status as a part of TheEighties. When the 2008 revival premiered in Spain, it got ''historical'' ratings and received two TV runs back to back.
23** The Japanese-dubbed version is as hammy as the Brazilian dub (you can watch a clip of that dub in the movie ''Mr. Baseball'').
24** And naturally, the show was an early hit of fledging commercial television in Germany. In fact, it was the show's success there that's generally credited for making David Hasselhoff decide to expand his music career there in the late '80s, resulting in the TropeNamer phenomenon.
25* HilariousInHindsight:
26** In the episode "Deadly Knightshade" from the original series, when KITT is asked about what his ideal partner is, he describes an AI car that is red and a convertible. When it comes to the spin-off series, ''Team Knight Rider'', one of the AI controlled vehicles happens to be a Ford Mustang, red in color and it's a convertible.
27** In "White Bird", KITT criticizes Michael's singing along with the radio, saying "'C' is beyond your grasp; and 'D' is beyond your '''vision'''." The joke would be on KITT by next season's "Let It Be Me", when Michael actually has to become a singer while going undercover. And even more so by the fourth season episode "Knight Song", in which it is revealed [[HypocriticalHumor KITT himself couldn't carry a tune if he had a trailer and tow hitch]].
28** In "Many Happy Returns", when Michael is [[PulledFromYourDayOff pulled from a day off]] (the title referring to it being the fourth birthday of his new life as Michael Knight) to retrieve an stolen experimental hovercraft, he protests Devon they have the police and [[Series/{{Baywatch}} lifeguards]] to tackle that kind of thing.
29** Speaking of ''Baywatch'' - if you thought that the first TV series starring David Hasselhoff to have ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' Playmates pop up, in "Knight of a Thousand Devils" you get Kathy Shower, a pre-''Film/HardTicketToHawaii'' Dona Speir, Marlene Janssen[[note]]Billed as Marlene Slieter[[/note]] and Venice Kong. (Shower is the only one whose role isn't basically just eye candy; Shower plays [[spoiler: one of the baddies.]])
30** Speaking ''yet again'' of ''Baywatch'', in "KITT vs. KARR", when John Stanton realizes that KARR is a highly-advanced car, he asks him to [[MundaneUtility play some music]] -- and he brings back Music/LauraBranigan's "Self Control" (seemingly as a joke to him being an autonomous car). Years later, Creator/DavidHasselhoff would actually sing a duet with Branigan herself, "I Believe", which was used as the Season 5 closing theme of ''Baywatch''.
31* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The "whoo-whoo" of KITT's sensor bar. It doesn't play all the time, but you know you love hearing it every time it does.
32* {{Narm}}:
33** In the episode with KARR, the "No! ''NO''!" that KARR gave right before [[spoiler: he crashes into the beach after Michael overrode KITT to play chicken with KARR, knowing the latter would veer out of the way due to self-preservative programming, sending it off a cliff and to a rather [[MadeOfExplodium explosive demise]]. On paper, even excluding the SpecialEffectFailure, it's clear that KARR was supposed to react with [[BigNo a combination of fury and fear]] to him flying off the cliff and smashing into the ground]]. But, given how Peter Cullen delivers the line, [[DullSurprise it comes off a little too subdued]], making it seem KARR is ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6GYOsi8gqo&t=9m29s annoyed]]'' more than anything else.
34** Crossed with SpecialEffectFailure, while most of the {{undercrank}}ing used to depict KITT going at fast speed is admittedly pretty subdued, the one used to depict him climbing several stores of a multi-store parking garage to save Michael in "KITT the Cat" goes beyond the point of parody, looking more silly than dramatic. The fact that him climbing the stores appears to be depicted via footage of him climbing the same store being replayed over and over again doesn't help.
35* ReplacementScrappy: April. Patricia [=McPherson=] was fired after Season 1 due to disagreements with Robert Foster, the series' producer. However, after Season 2, Rebecca Holden ended up getting the boot due to fan reaction, and lobbying from David Hasselhoff and Edward Mulhare.
36* RetroactiveRecognition:
37** On the original series:
38*** In the Season 1 episode "Forget Me Not", María Elena Casafranca was played by Creator/MariaConchitaAlonso. It was so early in her career, in fact, that she was credited simply as "Maria Conchita".[[note]]She went by "Maria Conchita" in her early U.S. TV appearances before settling for also using her last name by the time of her film debut in ''Film/MoscowOnTheHudson''.[[/note]]
39*** In "K.I.T.T. the Cat", Grace Fallon was played by Creator/GeenaDavis, in what the ''Knight Rider'' official [=YouTube=] channel [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJxNeVXM_OI noted]] was her first television credit.[[note]]Her only major role beforehand was her small supporting role in ''Film/{{Tootsie}}''.[[/note]]
40*** In "A Knight in Shining Armor", Katherine Granger, the teenager put in Michael and KITT's custody, was played by Creator/DaphneAshbrook, whom ''Series/DoctorWho'' fans will recognize for her role as Dr. Grace Holloway in [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the 1996 TV movie]]. (Funnily enough, both ''Series/TeamKnightRider'' and the 2008 series would make references to ''Doctor Who''.)
41*** In "Mouth of the Snake", Tiara D'Arcy (the woman who opens the episode being rather unconfortable as the target of a dagger-throwing act) was played by Music/{{Apollonia|6}}; the episode premiered two months before the release of ''Film/PurpleRain''. (She was even credited as "Patty Kotero".)
42*** In "Lost Knight", Creator/JasonBateman is a little boy witnessed a crime and [[ItMakesSenseInContext adopts an amnesiac KITT]].
43** On the 2008 series episode "Fight Knight", Annie Ortiz is played by Creator/MeghanMarkle. Yes, Meghan Duchess of Sussex herself.
44* SerialNumbersFiledOff: The band Class Action from "Let It Be Me" is basically a fictionalized version of Music/FleetwoodMac. Both are arena rock bands who utilize a VocalTagTeam, and both feature a blonde female singer named Stevie (née Stephanie), who wears diaphanous gowns and who is (was? well, is/was) involved in a romantic relationship with the male singer/guitarist. At least Lindsay Buckingham was never an assassination target (that we know of).
45* TheScrappy: Reginald "[=RC3=]" Cornelius III's arrival in the final season is not regarded as a highpoint.
46* SpecialEffectFailure:
47** In the original series, a lot of turbo boost shots very obviously ended badly for KITT's StuntDouble. During one jumping stunt in "Just My Bill", as KITT's stunt double flies from the ramp, it is '''painfully''' obvious (even if [[FreezeFrameBonus only for a second]]) that the entire front bumper breaks loose from the chassis.
48** This also keeps the scene in "Junkyard Dog" in which KITT is submerged into an acid bath from being as tearjerking as it could've been, as the car that sinks is very obviously a model filmed very close to the camera. Several of the jumps were also filmed with similar model effects to wildly mixed results.
49** In the Season 2 episode of "Big Iron", a bulldozer is used to cause KITT to tumble over into a pit. In the shot where the bulldozer pushes the car over, you can see that instead of a live person behind the wheel, a noticeable dummy poorly dressed in costume was used instead.
50** Close-up shots of KARR's speech indicator/voicebox in "Trust Doesn't Rust" reveal that it's mounted on a blank silver panel rather than in the dashboard. This is corrected for "KITT vs. KARR", by mounting in a version of KITT's dash that was no longer in use.
51** Even though they did their best to cover it with the explosion overlay, you can ''clearly'' see the cars used for KITT and KARR flip and fall to the ground after they collide at the climax of "KITT vs. KARR", making the next shot of KITT sticking the landing unscathed all the more obvious.
52** A big topic of debate regarding the 2008 revival is the quality of the CGI used for [=KI3T's=] transformations. This later also extended to the new turbo boost when it was revealed that it also used CGI, probably to save on all the prop cars that get smashed doing this stunt.
53** ''Team Knight Rider'' was crippled by bad [=CGI=] for its arsenal of machines. A contributing factor to its being a ShortRunner.
54* StockFootageFailure:
55** The climax of "Trust Doesn't Rust", in which KARR goes over a cliff, is hampered by the fact that it's ''painfully'' easy to tell the car sent over the cliff is not a Pontiac Trans-Am, but rather the modified Lincoln Continental Mark III from the film ''Film/TheCar''. The scene in question used footage from the climax of the film in which the titular evil car is defeated.
56** Speaking of "Trust Doesn't Rust", there's ''blatantly'' obvious use of stock footage in the montage in which KARR is helping Tony and Rev commit crimes. The dashboard shown ''clearly'' belongs to KITT, and they even use a shot of KITT with stars and stripes on his hood from "Slammin' Sammy's Stunt Show Spectacular"!
57** The show seemed to have a knack for reusing footage from the pilot episode "Knight of the Phoenix." For example, in Season 1's "A Nice, Indecent Little Town", they reused the pilot's footage of KITT breaking Michael out of jail (including the lead up to the point where Michael lands on KITT's hood), and Season 3's "Dead of Knight" reused footage of Michael having KITT crash onto one of the wings of the jet the villains were using to escape for the climax (including having the villains in "Dead of Knight" dressed similarly to the ones in "Knight of the Phoenix" to better match the footage).
58* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: When KITT the 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am became a 2008 Ford Mustang Shelby [=GT500KR=] in the new series. [=KI3T's=] transforming abilities ripped straight from ''Film/{{Transformers|2007}}'' were this as well, if you didn't think they were [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome awesome.]]
59* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: In a sense: the ending of "KITT vs. KARR" shows that [[TheEndOrIsIt KARR's motherboard survived his explosion]], perfect for a SequelHook... but this is the ''last time'' KARR appears on the original series.
60* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In "KITT vs. KARR", when John Stanton first hears KARR talk, he cracks a joke about "Is Allen Funt gonna pop up?", to which KARR replies "Who's Allen Funt?" which is what 90% of people watching the scene today (who will not know he was the creator and original host of ''Series/CandidCamera'') would ask.
61* ValuesDissonance: In the two-parter pilot, a woman whom Michael befriends wonders where her son is while they are at a demolition derby. Michael tells her not to worry -- he is probably looking at all of the cars. She agrees. Today most parents would be panicking and searching for their child right away. Especially considering that the derby was organized by some very dangerous people who suspected Michael was after them.
62* ValuesResonance:
63** The teenage girl whom Michael and KITT have to take care of in "A Knight in Shining Armor" ends up having a heart-to-heart with KITT that ends up resonating with the complaints about how modern technology causes isolation among people, roughly 40 years later.
64--->'''KITT:''' You seem to dislike Michael, I understand that people sometimes react to other people that way, but why do you dislike me?\
65'''Katherine:''' You're a computer. I don't trust computers, I was raised by them.\
66'''KITT:''' Really?\
67'''Katherine:''' A bank computer sent me my check every month, paid my bills, okayed my report cards and analyzed my scholastic development. The only thing it didn't do was tuck me into bed at night.\
68'''KITT:''' Which for people is more important.\
69'''Katherine:''' ...You ''do'' understand a little, don't you?
70** The beginning of the episode "KITT vs. KARR" can feel this way, especially if you view John (the mechanic who unearthed KARR) as going through a midlife crisis, after a beautiful girl compliments him on the cool car.
71---> '''John:''' Where were you when I was 17? I thought the days when a hot car would make me feel good again were over.
72* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: ''Knight Rider'' is often stereotyped as a kids' show because it has one hero and his super cool super car, but the first season itself is loaded with episodes about politics, corrupt police, framed murder charges, a lover implicated in soliciting crime and the murder of a sleaze magazine owner- plenty of murders in the first season. The pilot is surely not for kids. (In its initial run on US TV it aired opposite ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' - which aired first run at 9PM on Fridays) Plenty of gunshots fired in the show actually hit — and a few kill. Contrast that with ''Series/TheATeam'' which has only two casualties in the whole run and almost none of the shots fired by the heroes hit.
73[[/folder]]
74
75
76[[folder:The 1988 Video Game adaptation]]
77* BreatherLevel: Washington D.C. in both versions are after New York City. Other than one helicopter that shoots at you, you don't have to worry about them shooting at you.
78* GoddamnedBats: Civilian vehicles (marked by blue) are extremely annoying because they tend to get in the way. You cannot destroy them because you suffer a time penalty.
79* GoodBadBugs: By repeatedly turbo boosting after time expires, you can still go through the level, provided you have sufficient gas remaining.
80* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Knight Rider on the NES has several glaring flaws with its NES adaptation. It gets difficult way too quickly, for one. Another is that you have to avoid shooting civilians on an already crowded road. It also plays loose with the Knight Rider name, where it becomes a generic driving game mixed with a shooter that's set in the U.S. and Canada.
81* ScrappyMechanic:
82** Enemy and civilian vehicle spawns are completely RNG reliant. It boils down to luck and hope you don't get an unlucky pattern.
83** If you accidentally crash into a vehicle or obstacle, you lose all of your speed and you have to accelerate again. This is a huge problem in missions with low starting mission time, because crashing into something greatly reduces your chances of finishing that level.
84* ThatOneBoss: The final boss [[spoiler:KARR]] is easily the game's hardest. Not only is it a LightningBruiser who's difficult to hit, but it also shoots bullets that deal two units of damage to you. There's no time to waste either, because you only have a minute to kill it. Dying on this boss requires you to redo ThatOneLevel again.
85* ThatOneLevel: Dear goodness, this game is brutal. Some of the most notorious levels include:
86** UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} in the US/EU versions is much harder. Shortly after the level starts, you'll be harassed by helicopters firing bullets at you. The icy roads make dodging their gunfire more problematic because you also have to deal with cars throwing dynamite at you and civilian vehicles who get in the way.
87** UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity is a nighttime level where it's difficult to tell where projectiles are because KITT's sensor blends into the road. The short timer does not help things either. The low start timer doesn't help things either.
88** UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} is also difficult because it introduces a mechanic that is exclusive to that level: after you get to a point in that level, barrels will randomly spawn in the road with no vehicles around. It is complete RNG, and where they spawn hinges on luck. If you crash into these barrels, you will lose time and you can only make so many mistakes.
89** Phoenix wastes no time with introducing cars that drop land mines in a quite long level. Thankfully, you don't have helicopters shooting at you.
90** UsefulNotes/LasVegas does not waste a second with cluing you in that it's gonna be a rough drive. It's not only a night level, but it is the longest level in the game. While helicopters don't attack you, there are a couple yellow ones that need to be shot down for powerups. If you miss them due to hitting another vehicle due to the RNG, they don't come back. Another thing to watch out for are the red tanker vehicles that change lanes, the only level to have enemies with this behavior.
91** Another level got changed to be much harder in the US/EU versions is the last level, UsefulNotes/LosAngeles (called Home on the map screen). You now have a very strict timer to work with, while bullet-shooting helicopters and dynamite throwing cars are everywhere in that stage. One crucial mistake and you're not finishing that level. There's also boss rush ahead, where you must defeat a few bosses [[spoiler: and KARR]] in one sitting. If you die at any point, you have to redo that level again and redo the boss rush from the beginning.
92[[/folder]]

Top