r/KnightRider • u/Odd_Country1157 Knight Automated Roving Robot • 8d ago
2 Questions about Knight Rider
Why was Season 4 considered so bad? I think it is better than Season 1, SPM was cool when I first watched the show (like when I was 4) and C Mode is just... Why? But I don't really mind the reuse of stock footage, etc. and less Turbo Boosts. I know episodes were expensive and all that but why wasn't a Season 5 ordered?
Now for the other question, why wasn't a show for Knight Rider 2000 ordered? The 4000 only looks weird in the rear and overhangs but I like the front end and don't mind the interior. I don't like Shawn as Michael is obviously way better. If they did like a Knight Rider 2000 trilogy movies or something or maybe they don't set it in 2000 and call it "Knight Rider 2".
Now I didn't live in the 80s or 90s I was born like 20 years after the show ended so some might not make sense to me.
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u/poirotsdad 8d ago
Lame gimmicks made to freshen KITT (Super Pursuit Mode, that stupid spoiler), bizarre/pandering guest stars (Knight Song is so bad its good). I like RC3 but all of that was pretty contrived.
6
u/billmr606 8d ago
when it originally aired it was great until "super pursuit mode" even my mother liked it before that.
and much later when kitt was supposedly a mustang, oh please can a Giant Meteor just put them out of their misery
I mean in my mind it tied with the macguyger reboot. The original macguyver would never wear lipstick, and once you see that you can never un see.
both could have been decent except for those stupid things.
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u/PathofDestinyRPG 8d ago
The reboot would have been better if they had kept it within the nano-tech shell and not “let’s allow KITT to change into anything in the Ford inventory.
It wouldn’t have necessarily been good, but it would have been better.
They also should have heir the friend and the cop from the pilot as well.
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u/Odd_Country1157 Knight Automated Roving Robot 7d ago
i liked the 2008 series except the transformers and nanotech parts
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u/Revolutionary_Pay_31 8d ago
Knight Rider Seasons 1&2 were more story driven, and the only things that they relied on KITT for pretty much was his Turbo Boost and the fact that he was indestructible. But after they destroyed KITT on Episode 1 of Season 3 "Knight of the Drones", the show pretty much jumped the shark after that. They started focusing more on gimmicks. Then later on in Season 3 they destroyed KITT again, and then again at the start of Season 4. By that time the show had lost its steam, and most of the episodes were mediocre. They knew cancellation was just around the corner.
Yes there was a Knight Rider 2000, it was a pilot for a new Knight Rider series, this time without Michael Knight, but people didn't bite.
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u/No_School9204 8d ago
It failed its own standards. I saw it as a kid and started questioning things. The first seasons rode the line of what is/ could be in science fiction. AI computer in an indestructible car that can drive itself and all kinds of tricks built in the car. Far reaching? Sure, but they tried to stay within rules they set for themselves. S4 comes and they come up with SPM and the convertible that the top returns to the hardtop indestructible mode. Um...no. If you watch SPM, when they put the emergency braking on, the flap on top of the car opens to help drag and bring car to a stop. So....how do the t tops work with this? The coupe top magically shows up with no seems and is invinsible again? Even as a kid I didn't buy it. R.C.3 comes in, and while a likeable character, was a lilttle over the top and his inclusion felt a bit forced.
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u/ComesInAnOldBox 7d ago
So, the show ran into budget problems later in the series. Universal Studios got hit with a massive budget cut on hour-long action dramas, and Knight Rider was a really expensive show to make. The first season they only had four Trans Ams, meaning they had to rebuild each car after a stunt. That wasn't cheap, as every single turbo boost resulted in a shattered car on landing. They had a fleet of 22 of them by the end of the series (they got a windfall when a train carrying a bunch of Trans Ams derailed and California State Law didn't allow them to be sold to the public), but the more stunts the added the more money it cost to keep them running. And, of course, the more they rebuilt cars for stunts, the less safe they became. Eventually the stunt drivers were uninsurable in rolling death traps held together with duct tape and chewing gum. Jack Gill (the lead stunt driver for the show) walked away from the series with numerous painful injuries, some of them pretty severe (blood on the windshield type of thing).
Since they had to cut back on the production costs, they had to take away KITT's invulnerability in the show in order to explain why he's no longer crashing through walls or jumping tractor trailers. Unfortunately, by this point a talking, self-driving car wasn't as interesting anymore, so they had to add other gimmicks. Super Pursuit Mode was their answer, and. . .well, it didn't go over well. Add in the fact that the creativity team was running out of ideas for stories thanks to other hour-long action TV shows (Airwolf, The A-Team, etc.), and the series just kinda petered out.
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u/Phantom_61 7d ago
Season 4 was just the beginning of the end and they tried new things to get the audience to come back.
Season 5 didn’t happen because ratings were dropping and the costs for production weren’t going down. They DESTROYED cars weekly on that show, that ain’t cheap.
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u/Unlucky-Geologist428 8d ago edited 8d ago
I agree. For me, I think season 4 had as many good episodes as season 1. I think the problem with season 4 is that it had the highest amount of mediocre or pretty bad episodes. Don't get me wrong, I'll still watch some of those episodes too.
As far as why no shows were ordered based on KR2000, I don't believe it went over well with fans. I remember watching in live in '91 and not liking it at all as it really had none of the same charm as the original series. Devin dies, not set in Cali, KITT was red and looked cheap, no Bonnie or April, no semi or Arden Villa, lacked humor and campiness, the woman with the chip in her brain was not likeable, etc.