KNIGHT RIDER: 40th Anniversary - 'region free' Blu-ray (Glen A. Larson Productions, 1982-86) Turbine Media

Man’s love affair with the automobile will never be over. However, in the 1980’s, a decade emerging from the oil embargo and particularly ravaged by bad engineering and foreign competition giving the Big Three a real run for their money, the passion for ‘a good ride’ received its fuel-injected turbo boost, at least on the small screen, with Glen A. Larson’s Knight Rider (1982-86), an hour-long crime-fighting drama, two-parts sexy good fun to one part abject silliness and a little male-bonding/chest-thumping buddy/buddy action on the side. No, not between avenging angel, Michael Knight (played with self-deprecating aplomb by David Hasselhoff) and Knight Industries' custodian, Devon Miles (the uber-suave Brit sophisticate, Edward Mulhare); between Michael and his car, or rather, the artificial intelligence housed beneath the hood.  Alas, a lot of what seemed fanciful in the whack-tac-u-lar eighties, a decade for which I continue to harbor a treasured affinity, has since entered the realm of science fact, the Chrysler Corp. first out of the gate with ‘the talking car’ (an ’84 LeBaron). We can sincerely forgive the North American automaker its two-year lag in catching up to Larson’s TV show with voice recorded prompts like ‘…a door is ajar’ vaguely reminiscent of Larson’s sleek K.I.T.T. 9000 super computer - the veritable brain in charge of the guts of this very sensual black Trans Am, its shell, virtually impervious to any and all earthy damage, frequently and rather carelessly inflicted throughout the series 4 year run on NBC.

Despite changing times and a decidedly more serious undercurrent for (choke!) realism from our present-age in popular entertainments, the memory as well as the legacy of Knight Rider has endured well beyond most every expectation. Even those who have never seen a single episode from the original series know the basic premise of the show. An ordinary cop is given the extraordinary opportunity by a dying philanthropist to become a one-man crime-fighting zeitgeist, capable of taking on the super-devious and as wealthy, flaunting their superiority and abusing their power. Part, if not all, of Knight Rider’s success is owed to the increasingly meaningful interactions between man and machine, the initially hostile détente between Michael and KITT eventually softening to the point where the line between human emotions and A.I. wit gets sincerely blurred. This concept was nothing new. Stanley Kubrick achieved as much with his murderous self-preservationist, HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). And even before it, from the mid-1950's onward, American movies increasingly hell-bent on achieving absolute supremacy over their technologies, were decidedly fond of their innocuous talking robots and other interactive devices, inevitably meant to support mankind in its leisure, though increasingly rebellious or even detrimental to the ways and lifestyle of their creators.  Interesting, to consider. God creates man. Man creates machine. Man to machine is God...for a time.  Hmmm.  Creepy, perhaps… though not on this occasion. KITT is as ever-devoted to Michael and committed to his safety even at the expense of its own.

Despite a usually tempestuous relationship, Michael wanting to maintain a certain level of autonomy in the driver’s seat while KITT knows all along it could outmaneuver his intellect, the sincere joy in watching Knight Rider then, or even today, is not necessarily in the traditional milieu of the hour-long action/adventure (these were a dime a dozen in the eighties, although, in hindsight, wildly popular with remarkable durability), but in addressing the startling similarities between man and machine, even the unlikely ‘friendship’ ever-evolving on a queerly ‘emotional’ level. KITT really did come to care for Michael – an odd value to ascribe to an ‘object’, odder still for its master and mate bro-mantic chemistry in the homophobic eighties. There are those among us today who still refer to KITT as a ‘he’ rather than an ‘it’, proof positive how far television audiences had come in their acceptance of this nonentity as ‘just one of the guys’ rather than a pre-programmed appendage in the palm of the guy in the driver’s seat.  While lanky David Hasselhoff, poured into form-fitted jeans, pointy-toed boots, black leather bomber and a startling array of turtlenecks (many of them red) receives top ‘star billing’ to actor, William Daniels (of St. Elsewhere fame) as the voice of KITT, Knight Rider sustains itself on the premise of a thoroughly engaging buddy/buddy actioner imbued with some of the finest stunt work then possible on a TV budget.  Larson was either directly involved or conceived/wrote the plots to 86 of the show’s 90 episodes. He also employed a small army of writers, too numerous to mention, and almost as many directors to tweak, refine and pull off this weekly escapism.

Season One of Knight Rider is quite unique for a franchise increasingly crushed under the pressures of a marketing bonanza in toys, posters, lunch boxes, happy meals, etc. et al, soon to follow it. For Larson and his team took this show seriously - at first. The pilot involves a botched theft intercepted by Nevada Lieutenant Michael Arthur Long (Larry Anderson), shot in the face by his accomplice, Tanya Walker (Phyllis Davis), actually a rogue agent working for the other side. Long is left for dead in the isolated desert next to his car. Michael’s murder is narrowly averted with the unexpected arrival of a pair of mysterious men, the aforementioned Devon Miles, acting on orders from his employer, Wilton Knight (Richard Basehart), a reclusive and dying billionaire. Basehart’s career – or lack thereof – gives pause for reconsideration. He was a really solid actor with strong physical features in his youth, given far too few opportunities to outshine the competition in Hollywood. Herein, Wilton unceremoniously expires from an undisclosed ailment, though not before he effectively pays for the best plastic surgery money can buy, and then hands over the keys to his formidable kingdom (a vast and secretive business consortium) to the very reluctant Long – rechristened Michael Knight (and played by David Hasselhoff just as soon as the bandages have come off). Those with keener eyes and ears will note it is Hasselhoff, heavily back lit to obscure his similar features – and not Anderson – who actually takes the bullet in the desert, Hasselhoff’s voice dubbed over Anderson’s to make the transition from one actor to the other more acceptable. After all, Tanya shoots Michael in the head - not the voice box.

As plots go, Knight Rider’s is already a doozy. Wilton had hoped Michael would assuage into the role of a compassionate crusader for all humanity, entrusting Devon to oversee this metamorphosis, and quickly introducing the character of hot shot engineer, Bonnie Barstow (Patricia McPherson) to add predictable spice as a potential, though unrequited ‘love interest’. After all, man does not live by his stick shift alone. On occasion, he needs a little help moving things from second into third gear. Michael is initially disinterested in Wilton’s dream, although he rather greedily feels himself entitled to take advantage of the sleek Trans Am parked inside the old man’s laboratory. While the 1970’s were justly famous for their muscle cars (a lot of six-cylinder, gas-guzzling brawn under the hood) KITT is their intellectually superior: the ‘thinking man’s’ ride, with sleeker lines and logic to reason its way out of one deadly situation after the next, giving Michael (infinitely more prone to bouts of exercising that typical ‘big dumb machismo’ we have all come to expect from our male action stars) the benefits of KITT’s cerebral life-saving analytics.

We must not underestimate the physical appeal, then thirty-year-old David Hasselhoff brings to Knight Rider. Piercing blue eyes, chiseled chin and a mop of immaculately quaffed dark curls – the atypical ‘big hair’ for a big guy ‘eighties’ uber-yuppie, briefly to become all the rage with every aspiring inner city Rico Suave, Hasselhoff (foreshortened to ‘the Hoff’ as his reputation and status ballooned from congenial TV star to pop sensation a la hunk du jour), brings something more than stud-finder sex appeal to the part. Stars are stars precisely because of this intangible quality they possess and can emit on cue. It far outweighs physical attractiveness as ‘pretty boys’ are as common place as paperclips in Hollywood. And we have all been privy to what handsomeness without charisma is worth in front of the camera - eye candy, too quick to dissolve into nothingness under the hot lights and California sun until not even its thin iconography as a poster-size pin-up can be recalled.

Yet Hasselhoff, because of Knight Rider (and his subsequent appearance as the main staple middle-age lifeguard on TV’s Baywatch 1989-2001) has, in hindsight, typified the cliché without actually deserving of its debasement of his many-splendored talents (extending all the way to pop chart-topping singer with a highly lucrative recording career, wildly popular in Europe).  To Knight Rider, Hasselhoff brings a certain je ne sais quoi. It belies his obvious stud appeal, something about the seemingly unrehearsed facial expressions he gives in reply to KITT's wry wit. Yet, there is a slight homoerotic tinge of naughty playfulness between these two - the guy's guy and his effete intellectual. Michael gives KITT brawn and KITT lends Michael his brain.  Together they make up one whole man - or rather, the perfect impression of his public persona. However, nothing is this 'cut and dry' behind closed doors or locked closets. Think it is easy to play drama and/or comedy off of an inanimate hunk of metal on four tires? Try it something.

The other talent we must acknowledge here is Edward Mulhare, who left us much too soon at the age of 74 in 1997 after a brief battle with lung cancer. Like all classically trained actors, Mulhare (born in Ireland) could affect an air of Brit-born culture, the pluperfect picture of restraint and level-headed decisiveness, with a glacial façade, ideally to compliment and counteract Hasselhoff’s more transparent bravura and swagger. Mulhare is the ‘third wheel’ in Knight Rider; a sort of KITT substitute for Michael to bounce off ideas, particularly when KITT is not in the room. With almost ingenious precision, Larson and his screenwriters have worked out the mechanics to ensure this rarely happens. Hence, this leaves Mulhare’s Devon to hold down the fort at Knight Industries as its de facto CEO, but actually subservient to the codicils in Wilton’s Last Will and Testament and Michael’s newfound authority as master of all he surveys. The show never entirely clarifies who is whose boss, the secretive Foundation everyone works for presumably ‘in charge’, yet Michael generally calling the shots in the field, and Mulhare’s Devon chiefly responsible for inveigling this young buck in their latest vision quest against a spurious and secretive enemy from the big bad world of capitalism run amuck. Knight Rider’s motivation is a little less heavy-handed than this, however. For it is with such unlimited resources that this crusade is made feasible and lavishly maintained; producer, Larson suggesting money itself may not be the root of all evil, though it frequently corrupts the weak and the greedy.

It is, I think rather pointless to offer a blow-by-blow synopsis of each episode in this time capsule cult fav, mostly because the plots are suspiciously similar, begun with a crime perpetrated and the introduction of Michael and his magnificent car sent to investigate the scene, interrogating the ‘usual suspects’ and righting the wrongs with a vaguely reminiscent Columbo-esque ‘just one more thing’ approach to unearthing the clues that perpetually lands Michael in hot water. As the series moved beyond Season Two a few distinct changes were made – arguably to the show’s detriment. First, it was decided Knight Rider needed more comedy. Hence, we get a lot of glib repartee between Michael and KITT, and occasionally, between Michael and Devon. Alas, the trajectory of the franchise, at least in hindsight, seems to be a near textbook example of the old adage about ‘too many cooks spoiling a well-seasoned broth’. Season Two is not so far gone down this rabbit hole, but Season Three invariably shows signs neither the cast nor the writers are taking any of this seriously anymore.

A TV series is usually in trouble when it begins to muck around with the elements first to have made it the main staple audiences believe they cannot live without, and, in Knight Rider’s case, the undoing rests squarely on the series’ increasingly heavy-laden elements of camp. Michael Knight morphs from tortured/emotionally scarred crime fighter into a sort of slickly polished figure of amusement (think Roger Moore’s James Bond living in his Lotus Esprit). Solving crimes becomes a lark and a spree, the crusader more interested in ‘fixing’ problems simply because he can, not because it will make the world safe for democracy again. The other great ‘undoing’ of the franchise is its ever-increasing reliance on stunts over plotted substance. There are, in fact, several episodes in the final season that play almost as one gigantic and jam-packed ‘chase’. The dialogue linking these passages is so painfully slight and incidental, one actually wishes for the characters to simply ‘shut up’ so the pyrotechnics and elaborate crashes can occur.

NBC exec, Brandon Tartikoff once described Knight Rider as a show of very few words and even less intelligence. And yet, its glittery smash-up of goodies vs baddies and gadgets galore made it precisely the sort of escapist male fantasy that appealed to young men and boys. Increasingly, however, the show suffered from its restrictive adherence to ‘sight gags’ and stunts suggestive of copycats and castoffs from the Bond franchise; KITT spewing oil slicks from its exhaust pipes and bullets from its headlamps to narrowly avert capture or, at least, a very bad wreck, its mysterious shell impervious to a veritable holocaust of assault weaponry exploding all around it. The car even had driver and passenger ejector seats, capable of catapulting a full-ground man six stories into the air ‘when the pressure was set to precisely the right capacity’. Oh please! Homage is one thing. But Knight Rider steadily favored stealing outright the thunder of other actioners and thus devolved into a sort of rank and unappealing chestnut, thinly disguised and vaguely reminiscent of what others had done with more originality and flare elsewhere. In its last year, Knight Rider even sacrificed interest in the interplay between Michael and KITT, the latter, increasingly prone to irritability and an air of smug arrogance, more a tug-o-war than symbiosis between man and machine.

Inexplicably, during these already all too shaky times, producers chose to replace Patricia McPherson with Rebecca Holden, as newly arrived auto mechanic, April Curtis and then, in 1985 (presumably to add ‘diversity’ to the cast), Peter Parros as Reginald Cornelius III – a.k.a. RC3 – a shoot-from-the-hip troubleshooter – more ‘trouble’ than ‘shooter’. It ought to be pointed out Glen Larson was not at all pleased with these changes being incorporated into his brainchild. Alas, once NBC smelled a hit and studied the demographics, recognizing the show’s appeal to be at its strongest in the kiddies, it was inevitable Knight Rider would begin to pander to a younger audience, thus depriving the series of its edgier and more adult ‘feel’ and, in hindsight, thoroughly undermining the aspects of the show so wildly popular in the first place. Larson’s focus had been on proving Wilton Knight’s mantra about “one man” impacting the lives of many through his altruistic ‘good works’ funded by cutting edge scientific research. NBC’s edict was simply, “hey, let’s have a good time and blow things up.” Knight Rider’s reputation as quality fare thus unraveled; then, imploding under pressure from NBC to make it a matinee in prime time. If only they had moved the series to Saturday mornings, or even introduced a Knight Rider cartoon spin off to satisfy this demographic, leaving the original franchise intact there is no telling how far it might have gone, or what greatness it might have attained as a truly iconic piece of eighties super-kitsch.

And yet, even with the prospect of ‘greatness’ off the table we are still left with Knight Rider as a very fun, usually classy, and occasionally darkly scripted entertainment. The pilot remains one of the strongest entries to any ‘fantasy-based’ actioner in TV history, later named ‘Knight of the Phoenix’, presumably to identify it for syndication purposes. The plot is rather startlingly bleak as Michael Long, newly resurrected from certain death and given flawless regenerative plastic surgery to make him even more handsome than before, sets out to avenge himself, in the process, discovering an insidious corporate espionage unraveling inside a California-based technologies plant. Other highlights in the series include Season One’s cliffhanger, with Michael facing a murder charge after unintentionally killing a redneck motorcycle enthusiast, and, Season Two’s ‘Brother’s Keeper’ – where Michael becomes a prison informant to break out a man suspected of terrorizing an entire city with a bomb.  In Season Three’s Dead of Knight, a young dancer, Cindy Morgan (Karen Kopins) accidentally ingests a poison meant for Michael, who is forced in a race against time to locate the only scientist brilliant enough to concoct an antidote. Dead of Knight’s finale features a car/plane chase on an airport tarmac, which is practically verbatim the finale to Season One’s pilot – perhaps, the first sign Knight Rider had begun to run out of creative steam.

Season Four’s ‘The Scent of Roses’ has Michael facing a crisis of conscience as he contemplates quitting The Foundation and later, marrying Stevie Mason (Catherine Hickland), a nondescript blonde featured in far too many episodes during the latter half of Season 3 and virtually all of the episodes preceding this one in Season Four. Marriage is usually the kiss of death for these male-bonding franchises. The domestication of the handsome hotshot softens his appeal. It also takes him off the market of enviable studs for hire. In some ways, The Scent of Roses is an amiable attempt to restore the series’ adult roots.  Season Four’s finale, and in retrospect the farewell to the series, is as silly as it is a letdown: Voo Doo Knight, depicting an island spiritualist (Rosalind Cash) who uses metal earring clamps to transmit microwaves into the brains of her anticipated victims: first, to induce a primitive form of mind control, used to commit crimes on her behalf, then, to destroy themselves before her insidious plot can be unearthed by the police. Michael becomes her latest pawn, forcing KITT to drive them into the empty parking garage about to be demolished by explosives.

Despite this rather inauspicious swan song, Knight Rider ought to be remembered today as the trend-setting and highly enjoyable TV show that, under Larson’s aegis, came hurtling into our living rooms with loftier intentions. It was a show so popular it spawned a brief reboot in 2008 and an infinitely more successful video game. Like so many TV shows to come out of that brief ten-year span we recall as the 1980’s, buoyed by the optimism in Ronald Reagan’s America, Knight Rider has a strong sense of morality and affinity for “truth, justice and the American way”. It also remains refreshingly unapologetic about its rugged masculine individualism, with one man called upon to make a difference in the world. It is a show long to endure because it has genuineness, heart and the unabashed spirit for great good fun, even during its most inept permutations and misfires. Knight Rider is far from the ‘hokey oddity’ its reputation seems to have fostered since the series went off the air in 1986. Fair enough, it is still a show about a rich guy and his somewhat snarky, fast-talking car. No one is disputing the obvious.

But as undiluted entertainment, it has a lot more to offer beyond this surface ‘appeal’ and, in the end, it comes up more the winner than not with a few modestly amusing deviations. Although never to be confused with ‘high art’ or even prolific ‘must see’ TV, Knight Rider nevertheless delivers the sort of 'warm and fuzzy' every entertainment ought, but too few do. It is a show requiring virtually zero investment in logic, nor even concentration to become an almost immediately and fondly recalled part of our collective memories. Good shows ingrain themselves into the subconscious, seemingly without even trying. Knight Rider strives for higher motivations. But in the end, it comfortably settles for being remembered as fun and occasionally goofy entertainment. It could have been something more had producer/writer/director, Glen Larson had his way. The real question remains… would any of us want it to be any better than it already is? Not quite a TV classic, but certainly far from the farcical and feminized dreck being heavily promoted today.

Knight Rider: The Complete Series has been rebooted several times, with its North American debut via Universal’s licensing agreement with Mill Creek Entertainment. All previous incarnations, however, pale to the latest re-issue from German label – Turbine.  Mill Creek’s had some highly questionable hi-def authoring issues, including disc lock-ups, intermittent compression-riddled grain, audio drop outs, missing SFX, and, several key source music cues replaced due to rights issues. Turbine’s ‘region free’ Blu-ray corrects virtually all of these shortcomings. Shot on film by H. John Penner and Frank Beascoechea, virtually every episode here is as you remember it – with no substitutions and/or omissions. We get all of the preview openings, title sequences, and complete soundtracks spread across 23 discs. Minor variances in color temp and grain structure persist, and fades/dissolves still look soft, but this is entirely the fault of source material, rather than shoddy mastering. There is some minor speckling in a few episodes, but color saturation is fantastic and black levels could scarcely be improved. The first 3 seasons are in DTS English and German mono. Season 4, as originally broadcast, gets a 2.0 DTS stereo upgrade, except for Knight of the Juggernaut and Burial Ground. These, inexplicably, only have a mono track.

Turbine imports all of the original extra content made previously available on various home video editions, but also adds new, separate interviews with composer, Stu Phillips, actress, Rebecca Holden, writer/producer, Steven E. de Souza, actor/stunt coordinator, Jack Gill, and finally, writers Deborah Davis and Tom Greene. Greene also features in a brief intro with show fan, Andreas Winkler who owns a replica of KITT. Add to this two follow-up movies - Knight Rider 2000 (1991) and Knight Rider 2010 (1994). Neither is sourced from competently mastered original elements. Both look pretty awful. We also get Team Knight Rider – the abysmal reboot TV series in standard definition. Interesting anomaly. This last disc houses all 22 episodes. Though the quality is actually quite good, the disc appears to be ‘region locked’ until you press the ‘menu button’ on your remote. Then, the disc boots up. Odd. Finally, Code of Vengeance another TV movie, as well as the 4-episode spin-off, and, Knight Rider 2008 TV movie and series reboot remain MIA. Not entirely certain why the rights to these have NEVER been cleared for a home video release. But there it is. We should give Turbine props for packaging: 5 fold-out slipcases, show KITT in profile. We also get 2 double-sided posters, a KITT dashboard lobby card, 6 pressbook photo reproductions, Michael’s driver’s license, social security card, government identification, press pass, and vehicle registration, and a pair of decals representing Knight Industries’ logo and the F.L.A.G. logo. Turbine also has a lavishly appointed 334-page Knight Guide, regrettably, only in German. Turbine has issued this as a limited edition. So, if you want one of their 3,939 sets, you better hurry. None of this comes cheap, however. Roughly between $250 and $350, depending on where you live and your rate of currency exchange. Bottom line: Turbine has done most of the heavy lifting here. The original series looks lightyears younger than it ought. The other content ranges from fair to poor, but its comprehensiveness in delivering almost everything a Knight Rider affcionado could want is impressive. Turbine’s effort bests all previous incarnations on home video and should be considered the definitive source. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

Original Series – 4

TV movies – 3

Series reboot – 2

VIDEO/AUDIO

Original Series – 4.5

TV movies – 1.5

Series reboot – 3.5

EXTRAS

5+