I remember seeing preview ads for Knight Rider when I was a kid in the 1982 and couldn’t wait for this show to air. The series featured a computerized car with artificial intelligence, an arsenal of gadgetry and a dry wit plus some likeable human characters such as Michael Knight played by David Hasselhoff. The premier episode and those that followed featured a mix of humor and action, lots of car stunts, explosions, sexy eighties ladies with big hair and lots of makeup and bad guys getting what they deserve.

Watch or Download Knight Rider Episode 1

Knight Rider inspired several other “crimefighter plus high-tech vehicle” series, such as Airwolf, Viper, Street Hawk, Blue Thunder and The Highwayman. There were also a few animated cartoon series partially inspired by the series; one was Turbo Teen, which featured a teenager who could morph into a talking car. Glen A. Larson also produced a short-lived show called Automan that featured a hero with a virtual computer sidekick called “Cursor” that could become whatever was needed at the moment.

There were also Knight Rider video games released in 1988 and 2003, try to guess which screen shot is which…

A new Knight Rider Movie is planned for 2008, check out the cool car in this poster!

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