Knight Rider (season 1)
| Knight Rider Season 1 | |
|---|---|
DVD cover
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| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 26, 1982 – May 6, 1983 |
| Season chronology | |
The first season of Knight Rider, an American television series, began September 26, 1982, and ended on May 6, 1983. It aired on NBC. The region 1 DVD was released on August 3, 2004.
Knight Rider had a 2-hour premiere on NBC, airing at 8PM on Sunday night. The show was put up against Dallas, and would eventually move NBC out of third place in the network race. No other show had ever survived that time slot. The show eventually aired on Friday nights, and in December 1982 became the second-highest-rated show of its day; MASH was number 1. The show was renewed for a second season during the filming of "Short Notice".
A car of K.I.T.T was eventually sent out on tour to various car shows around the country.
K.I.T.T. was designed by Michael Scheffe using Pontiac's 1982 Trans Am. Michael Scheffe had worked for Mattel designing toys, and had done some design work on Blade Runner. Scheffe had around 18 days to create his first mock up of K.I.T.T. for the network.
Stuntman Jack Gill says the car was dropped about an inch and a half from GM's stock height. The car also had around $2,000,000 worth of modifications. Spare cars were always on hand, and Universal eventually did all of the modifications that were needed. The hero car was the only one of the vehicles on hand that contained the intricate dashboard. A mock up dashboard was used on a sound stage for closeups of the voice box or other buttons.
Glen Larson wanted the car to have a heartbeat and asked Scheffe to design a beam of light like the Cylons had in Battlestar Galactica to be used on the front of the vehicle. The Pontiac's nose was eventually extended slightly.
Gill claims that they got the cars from Pontiac for $1 apiece. The only car Universal had to pay for was the hero car. Pontiac would call up the studio and ask how many cars were needed. Pontiac often gave the studio vehicles that had already been damaged.
William Daniels, the voice of K.I.T.T., would record his parts after the majority of the episode were filmed. Hasselhoff would work with a guy off camera who would read him K.I.T.T.'s lines. If the vehicle was in motion, the lines would be read through the car radio. The vehicle was usually towed during scenes where Hasselhoff appeared to be driving.
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