![]() ![]() 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. 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. and feeling a sense of wonder as the talking car and his crime-fighting human counterpart sped off to foil villainy in a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am.Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Hollywood producer Glen A. The person that paid $300,000 for a piece of David Hasselhoff's movie memorabilia might have been one of those young people sitting in their parent's house back on a Friday night in the mid-80s, waiting for Michael Knight to slide into the driver's seat of K.I.T.T. I thought it was great, especially for young people," Schinella said. ![]() "I think once they saw the show and how they were doing it, people liked it. Once that happened, Pontiac executives came around. Still, Dahlquist was sure the show would work as a drama-even with a talking car-and convinced the automaker to be part of what was to become a television phenomenon. Pontiac was concerned Knight Rider's chatterbox automobile would come off just as goofy. In the '60s, a talking car appeared in the sitcom flop, My Mother-in-Law the Car. Schinella told Car and Driver that there was a lot of debate about putting the new Trans Am in a TV show as a talking car. Of course, nothing is ever quite that easy. Wade was impressed and that sketch essentially became what was presented on screen when the show premiered on September 26, 1982. Schinella drew a sketch of the Knight Rider vehicle after Wade explained what it would look like, complete with the iconic red light in the front inspired by the Cylons in the TV show Battlestar Galactica. But we got a new TV series we’re going to do and I would like to use that new Firebird." Wade said to Schinella, "I know you guys got a new car coming. Wade would become supervising producer of Knight Rider. "I'm there working on the deck outside his (Dahlquist) office and he rolls back the window to say, ‘hey John, you got a minute?'" Schinella took off his work belt and went inside to meet with Dahlquist and a man named Harker Wade. He was in California working on the home of Eric Dahlquist, the president of Pontiac's West Coast public relations agency, Vista Group, when things got interesting very quickly. When Schinella wasn't drafting future vehicles at Pontiac, he designed and remodeled houses. His studio was in charge of the design of the 1982 Trans Am which would be tweaked by the TV show to go from production vehicle to crime-fighting companion complete with a droll personality. The man behind the sketch is former Pontiac chief designer, John Schinella. ![]() The sleek talking sports car that helped Hasselhoff's Michael Knight character solve crimes started as almost all great designs have: with a napkin drawing. Knight Rider Fan Creates a Very Accurate K.I.T.T.Hasselhoff Is Auctioning Off His Knight Rider Car. ![]()
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