ABSTRACT
In September 1982 Universal Television released a new action adventure series, Knight Rider, onto American TV screens. Knight Rider (1982–86) told the story of Michael Long – an ex-cop, seriously wounded and disfigured whilst undercover. Rescued by a terminally ill industrialist, Wilton Knight, Long regains consciousness after plastic surgery to find that he has been bequeathed not only a new face, but also a new identity – Michael Knight (played by David Hasselhoff) – together with a new vocation as a vigilante crime-fighter. And to help him in his missions he has also been provided with a futuristic, computerized super-car, the Knight Industries Two Thousand – or KITT. A sleek, black Pontiac Trans-Am, KITT was a muscle-car with a difference. With a cruising speed of 300 mph and the ability to leap fifty feet in the air, KITT also came with such optional extras as infrared sensors, flame-guns and smoke bombs. But, more importantly, KITT was equipped with its own – rather peevish – personality. Yet, in spite of its foibles, KITT was devoted to Michael and regularly smashed through brick walls or braved hellish infernos to rescue its imperilled driver. In their fight for justice, Knight and KITT drew upon the vast fortune left by their deceased benefactor and administered by the shadowy Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG – led by Wilton Knight’s former associate, Devon Miles). And so, assisted by the financial resources of FLAG and the automotive super-powers of KITT, Michael Knight set out (as the first season’s epilogue soberly intoned) as ‘a lone crusader in the dangerous world … the world of the Knight Rider’.
