Knight Rider: Christmas Special

[AuroraKet]

"In exchange for saving your life, we want to give you a billion dollar supercar, and let you do a better version of your job with the funding and support to actually get it done, which your department didn't have. Oh, and since it isn't tied to a department, the self-driving car will keep you company while taking you on long trips to do the job in better locations than you were in."

Yep, a horrible deal for his life being saved. ^_^

(catching up on vids, that just stuck out to me)

[cdrood]

You know, casting Richard Anderson as the doctor standing over a critically wounded Michael only makes me think of an undercover Oscar Goldman assessing the next recipient of bionic implants. What's funny is he later went on to play a role similar to Oscar Goldman in a show called Cover Up. I've always imagined that Oscar was "The Secretary" mentioned at the beginning of every Mission Impossible episode.

[cdrood]

Yeah the reboots of Knight Rider (Team Knight Rider and that one with the mustang I think) refused to not only have a sense of humour, but they also didn't really embrace the adventure show with one person operating outside the system aspect. They both had it being the team as part of the system instead, and thus missed the adventure aspect of the show. Although Team Knight Rider with a tech team of misfits on a V-tol flying base found more success when it was rebooted as Agents of Shield.

I loved Knight Rider as a kid, but I feel that a lot of what made it work was the Hoff's idiosyncratic charm. It is difficult to capture that lightning in a bottle twice. I feel that the 00s reboot didn't even try though.

I did love that both KR's tech people, Bonnie and April, were women. Having them there was a huge positive role model for me. Women, back then, were so rarely given the tech roles. This would probably cause a flamewar if it happened now though.

In general, TV has lost the "guy comes to town and solves the problem of the week" concept. Hour long shows used to have a small/medium sized main cast with a bunch of guest stars who drove the week's plot that the main cast had to deal with. Now everything's long, drawn out storylines with characters you can't really like because they're all assholes.

I don't think any show has really done the arc thing that well outside of Babylon 5 because that was a case of the creator having a plan for the whole show, including ways of shifting storylines should actor availability become an issue and having a set time limit.

[cdrood]

I always loved William Daniels. When I was in third grade, we went on a class trip to a movie theater to watch 1776 (must have been a re-release for the bicentennial). I was a big fan of him on St. Elsewhere, which is mostly his John Adams brought to today, something the show acknowledged in an episode when they visited Philadelphia.

KITT has the same wit, but with a less brutal delivery and was always the star of the show.

[cdrood]

So everyone else is driving boxy Oldsmobiles & Buicks, but Michael is racing in a Trans Am. He probably would have had little problem without the KITT upgrades.

[cdrood]

Let's see the most dangerous car in the world is held behind two locks you could buy at Target and no one bothered to siphon out the gas or remove the battery.

[cdrood]

So here's the thing. One later TV movie, Knight Rider 2000, did explore the idea of what consitutes KITT if viewed from a certain point of view. KITT is the computer. It gets moved to a classic car and then to a new state of the art car body at the end. I don't recall if they mention what happened to the Knight 4000's original AI. I don't even remember if it ever talked.

However, the show never really delved into WHAT AI actually is. Outside of the main cast, it's never seemingly considered anything more than an advanced computer. For example, it gets mothballed sometime between the TV show and the above movie and some of its components get removed and sold for medical use. That's pretty much to give the new character a brain link with KITT as part of creating a new team for a possible new series that never materialized.

I think the only time that KITT's AI was really explored was when it developed fear after the original body gets destroyed by Goliath. Even then, the higher ups talk about just replacing the AI as if KITT is just a tool.

Of course the real problem is we have no idea what constitutes actual consciousness. When does programming end and self determination begin? The film, 2001 left it with, "Who the hell knows?". You can't expect Knight Rider to come up with a better answer.

[Blaze Rocker]

So here's the thing. One later TV movie, Knight Rider 2000, did explore the idea of what consitutes KITT if viewed from a certain point of view. KITT is the computer. It gets moved to a classic car and then to a new state of the art car body at the end. I don't recall if they mention what happened to the Knight 4000's original AI. I don't even remember if it ever talked.

However, the show never really delved into WHAT AI actually is. Outside of the main cast, it's never seemingly considered anything more than an advanced computer. For example, it gets mothballed sometime between the TV show and the above movie and some of its components get removed and sold for medical use. That's pretty much to give the new character a brain link with KITT as part of creating a new team for a possible new series that never materialized.

I think the only time that KITT's AI was really explored was when it developed fear after the original body gets destroyed by Goliath. Even then, the higher ups talk about just replacing the AI as if KITT is just a tool.

Of course the real problem is we have no idea what constitutes actual consciousness. When does programming end and self determination begin? The film, 2001 left it with, "Who the hell knows?". You can't expect Knight Rider to come up with a better answer.

The Knight Four Thousand did talk but it had less personality and less natural care for biologic life than K.I.T.T. did in the Knight Rider pilot. It would have taken Michael too long to bring it up to speed with K.I.T.T. and he refused to use it.

It was both good and bad that a new series never happened. Bad because I would have watched it and good because there were too many things wrong with how the movie was potentially setting it up.

I think you mixed up some episodes. In the episode 'Junk Yard Dog' K.I.T.T. is mostly eaten alive after being dumped in an acid pit, gets rebuilt and then doesn't want to risk further damage, or the equivalent of A.I. pain, again and Michael has to get his nerve back or else the Foundation techs will replace him. Yes, K.I.T.T. did have some fear of Goliath but I don't recall it ever being so bad that he refused to face him/it.

[clearspira]

So here's the thing. One later TV movie, Knight Rider 2000, did explore the idea of what consitutes KITT if viewed from a certain point of view. KITT is the computer. It gets moved to a classic car and then to a new state of the art car body at the end. I don't recall if they mention what happened to the Knight 4000's original AI. I don't even remember if it ever talked.

However, the show never really delved into WHAT AI actually is. Outside of the main cast, it's never seemingly considered anything more than an advanced computer. For example, it gets mothballed sometime between the TV show and the above movie and some of its components get removed and sold for medical use. That's pretty much to give the new character a brain link with KITT as part of creating a new team for a possible new series that never materialized.

I think the only time that KITT's AI was really explored was when it developed fear after the original body gets destroyed by Goliath. Even then, the higher ups talk about just replacing the AI as if KITT is just a tool.

Of course the real problem is we have no idea what constitutes actual consciousness. When does programming end and self determination begin? The film, 2001 left it with, "Who the hell knows?". You can't expect Knight Rider to come up with a better answer.

The Knight Four Thousand did talk but it had less personality and less natural care for biologic life than K.I.T.T. did in the Knight Rider pilot. It would have taken Michael too long to bring it up to speed with K.I.T.T. and he refused to use it.

It was both good and bad that a new series never happened. Bad because I would have watched it and good because there were too many things wrong with how the movie was potentially setting it up.

I think you mixed up some episodes. In the episode 'Junk Yard Dog' K.I.T.T. is mostly eaten alive after being dumped in an acid pit, gets rebuilt and then doesn't want to risk further damage, or the equivalent of A.I. pain, again and Michael has to get his nerve back or else the Foundation techs will replace him. Yes, K.I.T.T. did have some fear of Goliath but I don't recall it ever being so bad that he refused to face him/it.

The biggest problem with the Knight Four Thousand was that it was FIRE ENGINE RED.

[Blaze Rocker]

The Knight Four Thousand did talk but it had less personality and less natural care for biologic life than K.I.T.T. did in the Knight Rider pilot. It would have taken Michael too long to bring it up to speed with K.I.T.T. and he refused to use it.

It was both good and bad that a new series never happened. Bad because I would have watched it and good because there were too many things wrong with how the movie was potentially setting it up.

I think you mixed up some episodes. In the episode 'Junk Yard Dog' K.I.T.T. is mostly eaten alive after being dumped in an acid pit, gets rebuilt and then doesn't want to risk further damage, or the equivalent of A.I. pain, again and Michael has to get his nerve back or else the Foundation techs will replace him. Yes, K.I.T.T. did have some fear of Goliath but I don't recall it ever being so bad that he refused to face him/it.

The biggest problem with the Knight Four Thousand was that it was FIRE ENGINE RED.

I could have lived with the color red if the movie was meant to be the pilot for a new series and a female pilot/driver/operator was to be the new lead. The biggest problem for me was that the vehicle was not from General Motors. It wasn't based on a Camaro/Trans Am and it was essentially a huge middle finger to all the fans of the original series. Although it took years for me to learn this fact when I did I was quite glad no series ever came from that movie as it was a major insult to the fans and to the legacy of the series it spawned from.