Knight Rider - Knight of the Phoenix

Knight Rider - Knight of the Phoenix
Original Airdate: September 26, 1982

 Hoff Behind the Wheel

Episode Description:

When police officer Michael Long is shot and left for dead, his dying body is found by the Foundation for Law and Government.  Rather than take him to a hospital, they abduct him to the mansion of weirdo billionaire Wilton Knight, who has his own team of doctors perform plastic surgery on Long without his consent, in order to make him look identical to Wilton's evil criminal son Garthe Knight.  To make up for this horrible violation, they give a Michael a new identity as Michael Knight, and a talking car with super powers.  Michael is then able to use his new face and super-car to bring his own "murderers" to justice, and then teams up with the Foundation to fight crime as "Knight Rider."

Wait, what?  They brought in OSCAR GOLDMAN to perform Michael's reconstructive surgery!  Does that mean Michael is BIONIC?  If so, does that mean that Michael is performing all of the Turbo Boosts and stuff himself, and his car is just a regular Trans Am?  That would make the talking KITT just a hallucination of his brain, which can't cope with the idea that he has a different face AND super powers!  Hopefully I just blew your mind, readers.

So, this is the first episode of Knight Rider, and it's some fun, but strange, stuff.  First off, they did a great job of casting the actor who plays Michael Long, before he gets plastic surger-fied into David Hassellhoff.  The resemblance is close enough that you can believe it's the same guy just looking a little different.  The whole plastic surgery thing is weird, though.  The part where he is made to look exactly like Wilton Knight's evil son Garthe is not actually mentioned in the episode, I think that's actually a retcon that they added in season 2.  Instead, they claim they didn't know what he looked like and the surgeons had to reconstruct his face taking a best guess as to how he should look.  But that is nonsense, they knew he was police officer Michael Long, certainly there must be drivers license photos, other photos, fellow police officers who knew him and could describe him... it just doesn't make any sense.

David Hasselhoff summons every ounce of emotion from his actors' toolbox to show the confusion and dismay his character feels to wake up with a new face.

Second, Michael Long drove a Trans Am, and when he sees KITT, he is convinced that it is his Trans Am.  But it's clearly not the same car.  Long's car did not have a glowing red Cylon eye on the front, or a crazy high-tech dash board.  Does he just assume that every black Trans Am he sees is his?  This also doesn't make sense.

In a darkened room, KITT's Cylon eye stares at Michael... framed between his legs.  This seems oddly eroticized.  Are we sure that Michael and KITT are just friends?

Of course, I'm complaining abou logic in a "buddy cop" show where one of the buddies is a magical* talking car with super powers, so I'm clearly missing the point.  It's just a bunch of fun, 1980s nonsense, and on that score the show is a great success.

* Yes, I know, it's not "magic," it's science fiction.  But it's not really SCIENCE science-fiction, now is it?  The car basically does whatever nonsense they need it to do from episode to episode.

DEVO - SPEED RACER


More screencaps after the break...

Knight Rider - "Halloween Knight"

"Halloween Knight"
Knight Rider - Season 3, Episode 5
Original Airdate: October 28, 1984

Halloween Knight

How much Halloween kookiness can be crammed into one episode about the adventures of a vigilante crime-fighter and his talking car?  So much your brain will hurt.


The episode begins with KITT's mechanic Bonnie stuck alone with a cold in her new apartment, as the other residents in the building have a loud Halloween party.

Bonnnie downs some night-time cold medicine, and then witnesses a gorilla murder a woman through her window before passing out!  The next day, everyone just assumes she was hallucinating, but Michael Knight believes her, so he and KITT begin an investigation to find out what really happened.

"Darling, don't you monkey with the monkey!"

During the investigation:

• The theme music from Psycho is played on the soundtrack, but done in Knight Rider's signature 1980s synthesizer style!
• A dead body appears and dissapears in a bathtub!
• A witch threatens to put a hex on Michael unless he gives her KITT to use as her "Witchmobile!"
• A spectral floating demon head talks backwards!
• Michael visits a horror movie prop house and is nearly cut in half by an axe!
• A gorilla driving a car tries to run Michael over!
• Michael meets a sweaty, knife-wielding, Norman Bates wannabe with a collection of taxidermied animals and bugs!  Bonnie later goes on a date with him!
• Michael and Bonnie find a dead body in a house that is a dead ringer for the Bates Motel Psycho house!
• Michael gets into a sword fight at a costume party!
• Michael finally catches the murderer at a drive-in showing The Creature from the Black Lagoon!

Spectral Demon Head

The episode concludes with Michael and KITT solving the mystery and capturing the killer, who was using Hollywood special effects to trick Bonnie into thinking she was hallucinating.

But in a final twist, the show ends with Michael falling under the spell of the "Witchmobile" witch!  As Michael bends down to look at the food she has prepared in a crock pot, KITT uses his super powers to analyze what is in the pot, and is horrified by what it contains.  He begs Michael not to look in the pot, but the bewitched Michael smiles benignly and stares into the pot as the image freezes and the credits roll!  Spooktacular!

Coroner at the Psycho House

More screencaps after the break...