This character sheet is for the original Knight Rider series.
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Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG)
Michael Knight
Michael Knight
Played by: David Hasselhoff
Michael Arthur Long (born January 9, 1949 according to his tombstone) is an undercover Los Angeles police detective who, while working on an espionage case in Las Vegas, is shot in the face and nearly killed. Wilton Knight, creator of FLAG, directs his doctors to save Long's life and reconstruct his face. With his new identity, "Michael Knight", Long is provided with high tech crime-fighting equipment, most notably the car nicknamed KITT.
- Badass Normal: Michael is a normal non-super-powered man, whose exploits include special ops missions during The Vietnam War and time as a competent and respected police officer.
- Berserk Button: While Michael is normally a cool and collected man, threatening to (or actually managing to) harm KITT or Bonnie will usually elicit this response. Also, killing Stevie sure pushed it.
- The Charmer: He's cocky, cheeky and devil-may-care, and he's the type of guy you can't help but like.
- Chick Magnet: Try naming one episode when he didn't have a girl by the ending.
- Chivalrous Pervert: While he does seem to "get around" a lot, Michael is quite respectful of women.
- Despair Event Horizon:
- In the episode "Junkyard Dog", after he watches KITT being pulled up from the toxic waste pool with all his paint bleached off and his insides eaten out.
- The episode The Scent of Roses was, if possible, even worse for him with the death of Stevie.
- Determinator: He never gives up when it comes to help people, no matter what.
- Ethical Slut: Michael has a lot of romantic relationships, responding quite openly to invitations by ladies, and appears to remain on good terms with them afterwards, as long as no one is getting hurt or it's inappropriate. He's also very gallant and charming about it and on the rare chance that the relationship develops into something serious (e.g. Stevie), he takes it very seriously.
- The Faceless: His face as Michael Long is hidden in shadow for his only pre-surgery scene.
- For Want Of A Nail: The sole reason he's alive was because of a metal plate in his skull from Vietnam.
- Fight Magnet: Name an episode which didn't involve him fighting.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: He's apparently a very skilled brawler, and on several occasions handily beats opponents who come at him with a bunch of fancy roundhouse kicks with a few good punches. In two separate episodes he easily defeats a ninja who was essentially a member of the League of Shadows with a few punches to the face.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With KITT, sort of, since KITT is an AI but with a male voice programming.
- Technical Pacifist: As part of his Thou Shalt Not Kill approach. It seems to be something he picked up while working with FLAG, as he uses a gun and even shoots back at a security guard in the pilot episode, and in "Knightmares" when he loses his memories of the past two years and believes he's Michael Long again he has no problems with carrying a gun again.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Part and parcel of being an 80's TV action hero. Michael doesn't even carry guns (probably because FLAG is a private company). So our Knight Rider must rely on old fashioned fisticuffs to disarm and subdue the bad guys. David Hasselhoff himself has counted the number of times that Michael was forced to unavoidably take life. Only two times in the show's runnote . Other times when the villain of the week got killed instead of arrested, it was due to their own mistakes.
- Really Gets Around: No lady is immune to his charms, not even villainesses.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Bonnie.
K.I.T.T.
Knight Industries Two Thousand (K.I.T.T.)
Voiced by: William Daniels
"I am the voice of Knight Industries Two Thousand's microprocessor. K-I-T-T for easy reference, or K.I.T.T. if you prefer."
— "Knight of the Phoenix"
K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) is the artificial intelligence of the autonomous car with whom Michael Knight is partnered. K.I.T.T. was designed by the late Wilton Knight, a brilliant but eccentric billionaire and founder of the Foundation for Law and Government or (FLAG).
- Becoming the Mask:
- A mission which involved the whole of FLAG foiling a plan concerning neurotoxin had KITT disguised as an incredibly-rare supercar. The same episode had him freak out when his disguise was damaged, only for Michael to remind him that it was a disintegrating disguise which was meant to come off.
- After working as a stunt car once, KITT has become a bit too enthusiastic by the end of the episode and has to be reprogrammed.
- Body Horror: Played for Laughs in one episode which had him modified for a car show. He compares it to having body parts lopped off him, but he changes his tune when Michael reminds him it's to stop more cars from being stolen.
- Cool Car: He is the cool car.
- Faux Horrific:
- He compares being impounded to Michael getting imprisoned, due to having "to spend time with criminals with dents and bullet holes".
- He dislikes parking lots due to the cars having to sit in the sun all day in contrast to their owners "in air-conditioned buildings". He's understandably fine with hospital parking lots due to everyone having a good reason there.
- Friend to All Children: He's incredibly friendly to children. One episode had him manage to get a disinterested schoolboy fascinated with history.
- Fun with Acronyms: Knight Industries Two Thousand: KITT. As in body kit, the set of modified body parts or additional components that can be installed on a stock car.
- Has a Type: A very awkward conversation revealed his ideal relationship would be with a sentient red convertible with high CPU capabilities.
- Heroic BSoD: He was pretty badly traumatized for a while in "Junkyard Dog".
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: All due respect to the Hoff, but KITT's the real star of the show.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: While designed with many functions, he would often complain if he was tasked with performing something he wasn't equipped with. One example early in the series was when any situation required towing, to which KITT would complain that he wasn't a tow truck or something along those lines since (at the time) he wasn't equipped with a proper tow hitch. This particular example actually became something of a Running Gag early on (think of it like the "Tuesday" gag in Star Trek: Generations).
- Insufferable Genius: He knows how remarkable he is, to the point that he's undeniably proud, sometimes vain, and even a little stuck-up (though he'll put aside his ego to get a job done.)
- Joisey: One episode had him use this offscreen with an irate parking attendant who accused him of "having an accent", resulting in him having to switch to a Bronx accent for the parking attendant to understand him. He's later cosmetically damaged which causes him to flip between that and his normal voice every time he hits something.
- Kryptonite-Proof Suit: After one of his tires was melted by an experimental laser, he was treated with a thermal coating which would protect him from the laser for roughly ten seconds.
- Logical Weakness: Not many things can stop KITT, but his being a car does give him a few weaknesses. For example, in "A Nice, Little Indecent Town" the bad guys stop him by putting him on a car lift, and it has also being shown that bad guys getting hold of heavy machinery can simply hoisting him up not unlike any other car, such as the bulldozer that caused him to tumble into a pit in "Big Iron" or the forklift that dropped him into a lake of chemical waste in "Junkyard Dog".
- Made of Indestructium: His "Molecular Bonded Shell". Downplayed, since it can't completely tank heavy projectiles like explosives.
- Morally Superior Copy: KARR, the original prototype for KITT, lacked the imperative to protect human life and as result was ruthless, selfish and arrogant. KITT by contrast was kind, selfless and valued all life, despite being the inferior production line copy.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Only a few things can damage him.
- No Hero to His Valet: Perfectly capable of cutting Michael down a notch. And vice-versa.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Inverted. KITT's primary color scheme is red and black (all over black paint job, red scanner bar, red voice box) but he's completely a good guy.
- Robot Buddy: Robot-car-buddy.
- Running Gag: As the series progressed, several gags involving him and random citizens were added.
- Servile Snarker: He doesn't snark too much, but he does snark Michael pretty good.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Most noticeable in Junkyard Dog.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Or Long, Dark and Snarky in this case. It's a long, black-coloured snarker with a penchant for wry comments.
- Super Robot: A car-shaped one in the tradition of the Mach 5.
- Taking the Bullet: "Knight of the Drones" had him use the ejector seat on Michael when a car drone is aiming a missile at his exhaust without any chance of escape. This deals very-heavy damage to him which Bonnie managed to repair.KITT: Sorry pal, forgive me.
Michael: What?!
[KITT activates his ejector seat, launching Michael to the side of the road, right before the missile impacts KITT] - Three Laws-Compliant: Not quite outright stated, but basically present. It is stated that KITT's highest directive is the preservation of human life, which maps onto the First Law. He's also pretty clearly expected to follow orders from at least Michael, Devon, and Bonnie or April (most of the time, anyway) unless doing so would put them or others in jeopardy, and shows a desire to preserve his own existence, unless doing so would endanger others.
- Undying Loyalty: To Michael and Bonnie.
- Vanity License Plate: His reads "KNIGHT". He also has one reading "KNI667" which came in handy for when he and Michael were on the run from the cops.
Devon Miles
Devon Miles
Played by: Edward Mulhare
The director of FLAG, and Wilton Knight's longtime friend and apprentice, who appears in nearly every episode to provide mission details to Michael and KITT. He's also the spokesman for FLAG whenever it came under scrutiny.
- Benevolent Boss: He's willing to put up with a lot of Michael's antics with a (relatively) good attitude.
- British Stuffiness: Even though Mulhare
wasn't British - By-the-Book Cop: He prefers to follow the rules, unfortunately Michael doesn't always go by the book.
- Cool Old Guy: Apparently escaped out of a few POW camps during the war and left the Gestapo at the time with egg on their faces. Those skills came in handy when he broke out of prison due to trumped-up charges.
- Deadpan Snarker: In a gentlemanly way, of course.
- Foil: To Michael. He's well-mannered, level-headed, intellectual, and tends to stay out of the action, contrasting Michael's young and cowboyish personality.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: Extremely intelligent. Extremely proper.
- Good Is Not Nice: A minor version near the beginning of the series. He wasn't mean or a jerk, just very serious and snobbish. He could just as easily be a nice guy, and he got better as the series progressed.
- Heroes "R" Us: Head of the Foundation for Law And Government.
- Hidden Depths: In his youth, Devon was a professional dirtbike motocross racer.
- Mirror Character: He and Wilton Knight have the same relationship Michael and KITT have.
- Mission Control: He's often found in the FLAG truck.
- Non-Action Guy: Doesn't take much action to help Michael and KITT accomplish their missions.
- Retired Badass: He was once a soldier during World War 2 and even while imprisoned made several successful escape attempts.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Devon questioned Wilton Knight's choice of Michael as his agent of justice, and for much of the first season he's often exasperated by Michael's flightiness and Cowboy Cop tendencies. Devon does warm to Michael by the later seasons, especially given that Michael's proven himself with a couple dozen successful cases.
Bonnie Barstow
Dr. Bonnie Barstow
Played by: Patricia McPherson
She serves as KITT's chief technician and serves as romantic tension for Michael. She left for a year to pursue graduate studies, claiming she'd gotten fed up. She was replaced during that time by April Curtis, another Knight Industries System Engineer.
- Alliterative Name: Bonnie Barstow.
- Brainy Brunette: You need an expert engineer? You got it.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Michael. She's just too proud and stubborn to admit it.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Single-handedly manages to rig up a sophisticated (for the time) experimental laser, with the sole purpose of defeating KARR. While it didn't stop KARR, that wasn't her fault.
- Mama Bear: Basically the reason for her initial hostility towards Michael is that she's very protective of KITT.
- Not So Above It All: Has a soft spot for 80's arcade games.
- Omniscient Database: Her computer always seems to have what's needed at the right time.
- Put on a Bus: Was absent from the show during the second season, when April was the chief mechanic in her place. This is later explained as her having some kind of falling-out with FLAG.
- Technobabble: Uses this frequently.
- Team Mom: Especially to KITT.
- Tsundere: Tough as nails when she wanted to be, but also had amicable social moments.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Michael. In the end they sadly never get over themselves.
April Curtis
April Curtis
Played by: Rebecca Holden
The chief mechanic for KITT in Season two. She temporarily replaced Bonnie Barstow, who claimed she'd never come back to the Foundation. (Of course, she did eventually.)
- Always Someone Better: Nobody seemed to care that Bonnie pretty much kicked her out of the office when she got back.
- Put on a Bus: And never heard from again.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The nice Bonnie.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Of the non-dying variety, it would have been interesting to see the show handled an April vs. Bonnie rivalry.
RC3
Reginald Cornelius III aka RC3
Played by: Peter Parros
Introduced in Season Four, he became the new Driver of the FLAG mobile unit and the occasional sidekick for Michael and KITT.
- Gadgeteer Genius: On par with Bonnie, he and his gang were able to rebuild KITT practically from scratch.
- Grease Monkey: Comes from working on motorcycles all the time.
- Heroic Wannabe: Wanted to "clean up the streets" when he was younger, even came up with the superhero name "Street Avenger" and carried around a rubber assault rifle to scare crooks.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Sometimes he can be a bit too plucky, crossing over into "just plain annoying".
- Teen Genius: Despite all his eccentricities, RC3 is a genuine mechanical genius.
- Token Minority: Accused of being as much by fans.
Recurring Villains
Most of the series villains were One-Shot Characters due to the lack of any kind of over-arching storylines for the series. Here are some villains who actually did pop up more than once. K.A.R.R.
Knight Automated Roving Robot (K.A.R.R.)
"If I am destroyed, so shall you be."
Voiced by: Peter Cullen ("Trust Doesn't Rust"); Paul Frees ("K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.")
"K.A.R.R. is like a loaded gun in the hands of a small child."
— Devon Miles, "Trust Doesn't Rust"
K.A.R.R. (Knight Automated Roving Robot) is the prototype version of K.I.T.T., originally designed by Wilton Knight and built by his company Knight Industries. Upon completion of the vehicle and activation of K.A.R.R.'s CPU, however, it was discovered that a programming error made the computer unstable and potentially dangerous: Unlike K.I.T.T., whose primary directive is to protect human life, K.A.R.R. was programmed for self-preservation, even at the expense of people being harmed, making him a ruthless and unpredictable threat. The project was put on hold and K.A.R.R. was placed in storage until a solution could be found, but two bums who break into the warehouse he was stored in inadvertently reactivate him.
- Accidental Misnaming: A poorly-understood metaphor used in his debut episode had him constantly refer the facility he was left in as "the slammer".
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A programming error caused him to prioritise himself at all times, even if someone else has to die.
- Back from the Dead: Despite being shown crashing, exploding, and falling into the sea after falling off a cliff in "Trust Doesn't Rust", he comes back little worse for wear "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.", being shown to somehow having just being buried in the sand of the beach nearby.
- Big Brother Bully: Was built before KITT and while the subject doesn't come up often, would often call KITT an "inferior production-line model".
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: In "Trust Doesn't Rust", KARR is not really evil but more concerned with self-preservation. If people happen to be in the way, well, too bad. However, the two bums who reactivate KARR use KARR for evil purposes.
- Death Is Cheap: Pops up back again in "K.I.T.T. vs K.A.R.R." without so much as a scratch on his paint job, despite the end of "Trust Doesn't Rust" showing him crashing, exploding, and falling into the sea after falling off a cliff.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Subverted, or at least only if compared to K.I.T.T., when voiced by Optimus Prime for "Trust Doesn't Rust." Played completely straight when Paul Frees does the role in "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R."
- Faux Affably Evil: He's always polite to the heroes, but his contempt for them is obvious.
- Literal Genie: In his first appearance, KARR was more uninformed and amoral rather than actively malicious (for example, attacking a burger joint's drive-thru mascot statue, reasoning that because it talked but wasn't human it must be some sort of enemy deception). He becomes much more calculating and manipulative in his second episode.
- Manipulative Bastard: Always seemed to have a knack for knowing exactly what to say to people.
- Psycho Prototype: KITT's predecessor, who was deemed unsafe due to a programming error.
- Punny Name: A car named KARR, get it?
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Played straight in his first appearance, where he has the same black livery and red sensor bar as KITT (in fact, the only visual difference then is that his voice box is amber rather than red and features a different configuration than KITT's). Averted in his second appearance, where his sensor bar also becomes amber and he gets a two-tone paint job as a disguise.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.", he goes on the ultimate attack to get even with Michael and KITT.
- Shadow Archetype: To K.I.T.T. Unlike K.I.T.T., whose primary directive is to protect human life, K.A.R.R. was programmed for self-preservation, even at the expense of people being harmed.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: He's found deactivated in an old Knight Industries warehouse and two bums make the mistake of hopping inside and driving off with him.
- Super Prototype: He believes himself to be this, as he derides K.I.T.T. as an "inferior mass-production model." During their rematch, however, K.I.T.T. has undergone several serious upgrades and K.A.R.R. still has the older-style interface inside him, so he's already behind the times.
- Taking You with Me: Attempts this in "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R."
Garthe Knight
Garthe Knight
"Michael Knight is a living, breathing insult to my existence."
Played by: David Hasselhoff
Garthe Knight: I'm pleased you'll be here to witness my penultimate glory.
Michael Knight: You know, it's people like you who give revolution a bad rep.
Garthe: This isn't revolution, it's a personal conquest.
Michael: That's what I mean.
Garthe: Ah, a man of principle. The Abel to my Cain, my brother.
Michael Knight: You know, it's people like you who give revolution a bad rep.
Garthe: This isn't revolution, it's a personal conquest.
Michael: That's what I mean.
Garthe: Ah, a man of principle. The Abel to my Cain, my brother.
Wilton's biological son. At the time of Michael's surgery, Garthe was imprisoned in Africa. Believing that his son would never be seen again, Wilton had Michael's face modeled after Garthe's.
- Berserk Button:
- Several, but Michael is a big one just by existing. He calls Michael "a living, breathing insult to my existence."
- His mother. Michael usually defeats him by manipulating his reliably short fuse and infuriating him into making a mistake either with his (Michael's) mere presence or by mentioning her.Michael: Say hi to your mom for me.
- Beard of Evil: The one thing that physically distinguishes him from Michael is his lecherous-looking goatee.
- Cain and Abel: Garthe's appearances in the series have always come down to a personal confrontation between himself and Michael, to the point Garthe acknowledges it by calling Michael "the Abel to my Cain". Which is interesting in the fact that they're not actually related.
- Classy Cane: He swaggers around with a pimp cane that doubles as a hidden gun.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's sensible enough to reject his mother's advice to have his mistress killed simply because She Knows Too Much, as that's too Stupid Evil even for him. Part of it comes down to his ego and his belief he's untouchable, and in the second half of the episode he does ultimately decide to have her killed after getting bored.
- Evil Gloating: Garthe loves his monologuing...perhaps a bit too much.
- Evil Is Hammy: Having a deep voice doesn't stop him from gloating in a dramatic way.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has a considerably deeper voice than Michael.
- Fake Guest Star: David Hasselhoff, who already plays Michael Knight.
- Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Calls Micheal "a living, breathing insult to my existence."
- Freudian Excuse: It's heavily hinted that his mother played a big role in Garthe turning out the way he did. And his time in an African prison warped him even further.
- Light Is Not Good: Tends to wear white leisure suits, which contrast with Michael's preferred black leather jacket. Ironically, the one time he's seen in black in the "Goliath" two-parter, Michael is at the same time impersonating him with one of his white leisure suits, so when they confront each other it results in a literal "black vs. white" clash.
- Momma's Boy: Accused of being as much by Michael.
- Revenge Before Reason:
- After Michael humilates him at the craps table, Garthe takes off after him in a spur-of-the-moment car chase looking for revenge. This lets Michael lure him into the Foundation truck, where Devon and April capture him so Michael can impersonate him.
- Ends up being his downfall when he tries to kill Michael by ramming him off a cliff, without seeming to consider that this will kill him as well. He ends up missing Michael completely and suffers a Disney Villain Death.
- Roundhouse Kick: When he tries to fight Michael after Goliath gets blown up, he comes at him exclusively with several roundhouse kicks. Michael dodges them all and fairly quickly lays out Garthe with a couple well-placed punches to the face.
- Smoking Is Cool: He even blows smoke rings!
- It's Personal: Upon finding out that Michael was modelled in his image. He alternates between wanting Michael dead and wanting him imprisoned in Africa just as he had been.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Just like with the gloating, way too much. And they're almost always directed towards Michael.
- The Unfavorite: In his own mind, this is how he thinks his father saw him. It probably doesn't help that he learns Wilton re-made Michael's face in "his" own image, oops.
- Villain Team-Up: In "Goliath Returns" Garthe teams up with Adrianne Margeaux, the villain of the episode "Soul Survivor", to rebuild Goliath and get revenge on Michael Knight.
Goliath
Goliath
An armored truck built and driven by Garthe Knight, coated with the Molecular Bonded Shell plating used on K.I.T.T., making the entire 18-wheeler highly resistant to convential weaponry.
- Achilles' Heel: The bolt that stabilized his trailer hitch was its only part that wasn't coated with the Molecular Bonded Shell. As a result, K.I.T.T. was able to destabilize it by shooting a powerful laser on the bolt, separating Goliath from his trailer. The missile pods mounted on the cab were also a vulnerability, as shooting a missile just as it's fired detonates the pods and destroys the cab.
- Big Badass Rig: It's a big rig coated with what gave K.I.T.T. Nigh-Invulnerability.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Its first encounter with K.I.T.T. ended with K.I.T.T. almost completely totalled after a head-on collision.
- Dark Is Evil: Dark grey, but it still helped make it look like bad news.
- Dumb Muscle: Has this vibe due to being essentially K.I.T.T. as a semi truck, only with the glaring exception that it has no AI running it, and is constantly seen driving through buildings.
- Evil Counterpart: For K.I.T.T., being a vehicle coated with K.I.T.T.'s Molecular Bonded Shell (through unlike K.I.T.T., it had no AI running it).
- Made of Iron: Thanks to having the same Molecular Bonded Shell armor as K.I.T.T. In fact, thanks to its heavier frame, Goliath was even tougher than K.I.T.T., able to No-Sell tank cannon rounds whereas K.I.T.T. can be threatened with anti-vehicle explosive weaponry.
- Meaningful Name: Goliath ended up being an apt name for a truck that faced off against a smaller car, and who ultimately is defeated after its smaller opponent shot a laser (in lieu of the proverbial rock) at it.
- Ramming Always Works: Garthe's go-to strategy when piloting it is to use its mass and its Molecular Bonded Shell coating for vehicular ramming attacks.
Adrianne Margeaux
Adrianne Margeaux
Played by: Ann Turkel
"To my brave knight. Even if he seems to have lost his trusty steed."
A wealthy criminal mastermind familiar with the Knight Foundation's secrets who successfully steals K.I.T.T. to use in an art heist in season 2's "Soul Survivor", during which she develops a fascination with Michael Knight. She reappears in "Goliath Returns", having rebuilt Goliath and sprung Garthe Knight out of jail to help her kidnap a world renowned laser scientist and auction him off to the highest bidder.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: At the end of "Goliath Returns", as Garthe is about to ram Michael and K.I.T.T. off a cliff, she grabs the wheel from him, which results in Goliath missing K.I.T.T. and going over the cliff by itself, saving Michael and K.I.T.T. However, this could have been as much an (unsuccessful) attempt to save herself, given that Garthe seemed hellbent on pulling a Taking You with Me on Michael without considering it would kill him and Adrianne as well.
- Mrs. Robinson: She seduced a teenage computer whiz to help her hijack K.I.T.T., then later threatens to have him killed unless Michael backs off.
- Pragmatic Villainy: In "Goliath Returns" she's focused on the payday from the caper, and seems exasperated by Garthe's insistence on getting revenge on Michael.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: In her second appearance, Devon and April are surprised she's not in jail after being captured by Michael and turned over to the cops. She quips that she has the best lawyers money can buy, and they bought her the best judge money can buy.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Has a very similar M.O. as Tanya Walker from the pilot episode (the woman who nearly killed Michael Long and caused him to become Michael Knight), acting as a Honey Trap to powerful industrialists in order to obtain secret information with which to rob them. However, in Adrianne's case her plan was to steal an art collection rather than industrial secrets. Ann Turkel would return in a later episode playing yet another villainess with essentially the same M.O.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: Definitely seems fascinated by Michael, though it doesn't stop her from trying to have him killed when he intervenes against her during the heist. In "Goliath Returns" she tries to seduce him while in a relationship with Garthe at the same time. By the end of the episode she's quite cross at being rejected by Michael while also having had enough of Garthe, an unstable brute.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: She entraps Michael and K.I.T.T. by pretending to be a stranded motorist with engine troubles, then invites Michael to her (fake) home where she knocks Michael out with hypnotic music and steals K.I.T.T.
Knight Family
Wilton Knight
Wilton Knight
Played by: Richard Basehart
A self-made millionaire and the founder of the Foundation for Law And Government (FLAG). After Michael Long is shot in the face, Wilton Knight rescues him and has his doctors save his life and give him a new face and new identity as Michael Knight. Wilton was always a firm believer in the philosophy that "One Man Can Make a Difference".
- Big Good: Founder of the, Foundation for Law And Government.
- The Chooser of the One: He gave Michael the new identity, and the new car.
- Death by Origin Story: He died just after giving KITT to Michael.
- Parental Substitute: Inverted. Michael was his "Child-Substitute".
- Retired Badass: It is suggested that in his own youth, Wilton did what Michael now does, albeit with less technology.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Inverted; his son Garthe was a very bad son.
- Take Up My Sword: Asked Michael to continue his work in helping "the little guy".
- We Help the Helpless: The Foundation.
Elizabeth Knight
Elizabeth Knight
Played by: Barbara Rush
Wife to Mr. Wilton Knight, and mother to Garthe and Jennifer Knight.
- Almighty Mom: For whatever else she is, Elizabeth is one mom you'd never want to cross.
- Alpha Bitch: Elizabeth wanted to kill Michael Knight because she thought that he had unjustly taken her son's place. As well as destroy FLAG for not helping her son while he had been stuck in an African prison.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's got a really nasty smile Slasher Smile.
- Doting Parent: She secretly helped her son Garthe, who had been imprisoned in Africa while serving three life sentences, to escape back to the U.S.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Again, Garthe.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Elizabeth always wore gaudy outfits just to show how rich she was.
- Put on a Bus: Unlike her son. Garthe indicated that she may have passed away.
- The Unfettered: Oh, she has to kill a few people to make her son happy? No problem.
Jennifer Knight
Jennifer Knight
Played by: Mary Kate McGeehan
"What you see here is a waste of resources, human and otherwise. State-of-the-art technology to support a James Bond fantasy run amok."
Wilton Knight's daughter. She seems to have been in charge of Knight Industries' more profitable operations since her father passed away. Little is known about her except that she's always been afraid of her brother and mother, with good reason. She appears in "Knight of the Juggernaut" ready to shut down FLAG, claiming to be due to wasting the resources of her late father, though in reality out of fear that Michael will become just like her infamous brother Garthe.
- Dark and Troubled Past: It looks like Garthe's never going to win the "Brother of the Year Award".
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Towards Michael. She is initially cold towards him under the understandable excuse that he looks just like her brother Garthe, an international criminal, but as she slowly realizes he's nothing like him, she accepts him as her "true" brother.
- Freudian Excuse: Turns out that the reason for shutting down FLAG wasn't that it was making a loss for Knight Industries, but rather the trauma of her brother Garthe's criminal career making her fearful that Michael would turn out to be just like him.
- Heel–Face Turn: She appears out of almost nowhere to shut down FLAG, but after Michael saves everyone, including her, she warms up to him, even calling him a brother.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She initially appears as quite jerkish due to her intentions to shut down FLAG, but turns out that her heart was in the right place with her intentions, if actually misguided.
- Not So Stoic: She claims that firing Michael and ending FLAG will cut down costs, when she's really just plain scared of Michael turning out to be like Garthe.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: She initially appears as a bureaucratic executive when she shows up to shut down FLAG, hindering Michael and co.'s efforts with the case of the week.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The reason she shuts down FLAG is that it costs too much money. Even her actual motivation, fear that Michael will become another Garthe, can be seen as this, as Michael is in the possession of an advanced "microprocessor" that could potentially make anyone intending to use it for nefarious purposes very dangerous (as proven by Garthe himself using just KITT's molecular bonded shell to make Goliath).
Others
Stevie Mason
Stephanie "Stevie" Mason
Played by: Catherine Hickland
The woman who was once a close friend to Michael Long, Stevie - as she's known - was once engaged to Michael, unfortunately Stephanie thinks he's dead.
- Ascended Extra: One of the very few love interests who actually makes more than one appearance in the series.
- Cartwright Curse: Inverted. She dies less than a minute after getting married to Michael.
- Damsel in Distress: How she's first introduced.
- Official Couple: With Michael, very briefly.
- Happily Married: Again, very briefly.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: By the time of her second appearance in "Let It Be Me", she is a singer in a rock band, and it's all but stated that they're essentially Fleetwood Mac in all but name, with her as Stevie Nicks. (This gets more egregious when considering that A) She was only called "Stephanie" in her first episode "White Dove", and that it was this episode that introduced "Stevie" as her Stage Name, and B) Stevie Nicks's own given name is Stephanie.) It becomes even more obvious when it's revealed that she was dating the lead singer before his death, and then Michael joins the band (as part of his investigation) and he and Stevie rekindle their relationship, seemingly referencing how Nicks (in)famously dated both Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood.
