Throughout its four seasons run, Knight Rider mostly stayed away from the recurring villains.
#Knight rider car tv#
KITT's most recognizable feature - a cool red light above the front bumper - was directly inspired by the Cylon scanners from Larson's previous TV show, Battlestar Galactica. On the set, actors interacted with the recordings of his voice and barely ever saw the actor himself. KITT's voice was provided by the actor William Daniels.
However, as eager Pontiac customers began expecting real Trans Ams to have all the cool features seen on Knight Rider, producers stopped mentioning the car's exact model. At first, the show basically advertised the car by explicitly naming its company and model. Throughout the show's production, Knight Rider used heavily modified 1982 Pontiac Trans Am as KITT. Either way, NBC executives loved the idea and approved it for development.Īn experimental car prototype developed by the Knight industries, KITT - or Knight Industries Two Thousand - comes equipped with numerous features including a super computer that boasts 1,000 megabits of memory, tri-helical plasteel molecular bonded shell plating, pyroclastic lamination, turbojet engine with modified afterburners, anharmonic synthesizer and anamorphic and etymotic equalizers. As a joke, Tartikoff offered them an idea of The Man of Six Words, a show in which the hero would speak only several phrases such as "Thank you!", "Freeze!" and "OK." while the rest of the talking would be done by his car. According to him, TV executives at the time complained about challenges of producing a show around the handsome male lead who couldn't act. Instead of a western, the show would take place in the modern day, with a lone hero fighting injustice helped only by his trusty ride.īrandon Tartikoff, the head of NBC programming at the time, tells a more entertaining version of this origin story.
#Knight rider car movie#
In early 1980s, Larson came up with an idea of remaking the classic movie and radio serial Lone Ranger for the contemporary audience. Larson created a number of classic TV shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Magnum P.I. was never seen driving for long periods of time solo because of the difficulty of shooting it.Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Hollywood producer Glen A. A two-way mirror was created that hid Gill during scenes where K.I.T.T. Jack would extend his arms and legs through the seat out of sight. appeared to be driving without a driver, Gill would sit behind the driver’s seat. The only car Universal had to pay for was the hero car.įor the scenes in which K.I.T.T. The Former Stuntman of the TV show, Jack Gill claims that the studio got the cars from Pontiac for $1 apiece, but Pontiac often gave the studio vehicles that had already been damaged from a train derailment. The Pontiac’s nose was eventually extended slightly. The producer Glen Larson wanted the talking muscle 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. A mock up dashboard was used on a sound stage for closeups of the voice box or other buttons. Spare cars were always on hand, and Universal eventually did all of the modifications that were needed. The hero car was the only vehicle that contained the intricate dashboard.
Note the lack of modifications at the front. The nose and dashboard of the car were than redesigned by design consultant Michael Scheffe.Įarly promotional shot. The studio hired former Mattel (and later Back to the Future DeLorean) designer Michael Scheffe to turn Pontiac’s latest sporty targa into something special in record time, who said that the only thing he didn’t like about the Trans Am’s design was the car’s squared-off nose.
#Knight rider car series#
in the series was a customized 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, that cost US$100,000 to build (equivalent to about $196,000 in 2021 or € 170.000,-).
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