Cult-TV Flashback: Knight Rider (1982 - 1986): "Goliath" (Parts I and II)

“Knight Rider…a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.”

-Knight Rider’s opening narration.

In Knight Rider’s (1982 – 1986) two-part episode, “Goliath,” Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) challenges a villain who has the same face: Garthe Knight (also played Hasselhoff). 

The evil Knight, is son of the Knight Foundation’s philanthropist, Wilton, and in cahoots with his mother, Elizabeth (Barbara Rush) on a secret mission.

Specifically, Garthe and Elizabeth hope to steal the plans for K.I.T.T.’s “molecular bonded shell plating,” the very aspect of the advanced car that makes him so impervious to damage and attack. 

The evil duo plots to build a new vehicle, a giant, 22 ton semi-truck called “Goliath,” and -- once it is equipped with the shell plating -- penetrate a top secret base in the desert, one that possess dangerous missiles.

Michael and K.I.T.T. attempt to stop Garthe and his plans, but Garthe feels that Michael is a “living, breathing insult” to his existence, and plots to destroy him.

K.I.T.T. battles Goliath in a dangerous and ill-fated first engagement, but comes back strong for a second time…even as Garthe and Michael go head to head…

You just have to love a series in which cars and people alike possess evil doppelgangers or twins.  

Earlier in the week, I reviewed one of the episodes featuring K.I.T.T.'s nasty twin, K.A.R.R., but today I remember this epic two-parter, which establishes the goatee-wearing Garthe Knight as Michael’s “antithesis,” his twisted, evil reflection.

In the case of “Goliath,” there’s actually a good reason why Michael so closely resembles Garthe.  Garthe is the son of Wilton Knight and has been spending time in prison…three life sentences to be precise.  Michael’s face, you my recall, was reconstructed by the Knight Foundation in the pilot episode. We learn in this episode that the model for that surgery was…Garthe.  

That’s a good explanation, and it doesn’t rate as terribly unbelievable. Since Michael has Wilton’s last name, it makes sense, in some way, that he would also have the face of his benefactor’s beloved (if wayward…) son too. Michael is the son that Wilton wanted; Garthe is the one that he ended up with.

“Goliath” is structured so that a major battle recurs.  

At the end of part one, K.I.T.T. and Goliath play chicken, headed straight for one another on a desert road.  K.I.T.T. gets struck by heavily armored truck, and is damaged badly. “I’m afraid we zigged when we should have zagged,” he reports to Michael.  

Echoing the earlier confrontation, the finale of the second part features a rematch between the two vehicles (and their crack’d mirror drivers).  In this case, of course, K.I.T.T. is triumphant, utilizing a laser to pinpoint Goliath’s weak spot. The results of the duels (in both cases) are not unexpected, and yet they are well-orchestrated, and surprisingly suspenseful. I remember film and critics of the 1970s and 1980s complaining endlessly about the ubiquitous nature of car chases and car crashes back in the day, but today these clashes are welcome. For one thing, there's no C.G.I. And for another the stunts are beautifully executed and filmed.

Rationally,  of course, the audience knows Michael and K.I.T.T. will eventually carry the day, and yet when K.I.T.T. is knocked over on his side and left for dead in the desert, you feel it in your gut.

Just a car? No…he’s a driver (and a kid’s…) best friend.

The most intriguing moment of the whole two-part episode occurs following K.I.T.T.’s injury. He makes a heart-felt query to Michael: “Do you think it is possible I could cease to exist?” 

We  thus see the self-aware vehicle (personality) reckoning with the idea of his own mortality, and what that could mean.

The Garthe vs. Michael rivalry in "Goliath" is handled with flair, and good stunt doubles for the most part.  As Garthe, Hasselhoff actually seems to stand taller, and similarly, is a snazzier dresser.  Perhaps it’s just that director Winrich Kolbe picks good angles to show-case the villain, often featuring him in motion, or capturing his action from a slightly lowered (and therefore more imposing) angle.

I watched Knight Rider regularly when I was twelve and thirteen years old, so my affection for it is nostalgic (it brings back good memories), but also technical: I love K.I.T.T.  The best stories, I always felt, where those in which K.I.T.T. and Michael had to go up against a vehicle that rival ed K.I.T.T.’s strength.  Hence my focus this week on K.A.R.R. and Goliath. 

I’m pleased to say that today, “Goliath” retains its entertainment value, and comes off as…very well-assembled.

Late Night Blogging: Knight Rider Toys Edition

Knight Rider (1982 - 1986): "Goliath" (Parts I and II)

“Knight Rider…a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.”

-Knight Rider’s opening narration.

In Knight Rider’s (1982 – 1986) two-part episode, “Goliath,” Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) challenges a villain who has the same face: Garthe Knight (also played Hasselhoff). 

The evil Knight, is son of the Knight Foundation’s philanthropist, Wilton, and in cahoots with his mother, Elizabeth (Barbara Rush) on a secret mission.

Specifically, Garthe and Elizabeth hope to steal the plans for K.I.T.T.’s “molecular bonded shell plating,” the very aspect of the advanced car that makes him so impervious to damage and attack. 

The evil duo plots to build a new vehicle, a giant, 22 ton semi-truck called “Goliath,” and -- once it is equipped with the shell plating -- penetrate a top secret base in the desert, one that possess dangerous missiles.

Michael and K.I.T.T. attempt to stop Garthe and his plans, but Garthe feels that Michael is a “living, breathing insult” to his existence, and plots to destroy him.

K.I.T.T. battles Goliath in a dangerous and ill-fated first engagement, but comes back strong for a second time…even as Garthe and Michael go head to head…

You just have to love a series in which cars and people alike possess evil doppelgangers or twins.  

Earlier in the week, I reviewed one of the episodes featuring K.I.T.T.'s nasty twin, K.A.R.R., but today I remember this epic two-parter, which establishes the goatee-wearing Garthe Knight as Michael’s “antithesis,” his twisted, evil reflection.

In the case of “Goliath,” there’s actually a good reason why Michael so closely resembles Garthe.  Garthe is the son of Wilton Knight and has been spending time in prison…three life sentences to be precise.  Michael’s face, you my recall, was reconstructed by the Knight Foundation in the pilot episode. We learn in this episode that the model for that surgery was…Garthe.  

That’s a good explanation, and it doesn’t rate as terribly unbelievable. Since Michael has Wilton’s last name, it makes sense, in some way, that he would also have the face of his benefactor’s beloved (if wayward…) son too. Michael is the son that Wilton wanted; Garthe is the one that he ended up with.

“Goliath” is structured so that a major battle recurs.  

At the end of part one, K.I.T.T. and Goliath play chicken, headed straight for one another on a desert road.  K.I.T.T. gets struck by heavily armored truck, and is damaged badly. “I’m afraid we zigged when we should have zagged,” he reports to Michael.  

Echoing the earlier confrontation, the finale of the second part features a rematch between the two vehicles (and their crack’d mirror drivers).  In this case, of course, K.I.T.T. is triumphant, utilizing a laser to pinpoint Goliath’s weak spot. The results of the duels (in both cases) are not unexpected, and yet they are well-orchestrated, and surprisingly suspenseful. I remember film and critics of the 1970s and 1980s complaining endlessly about the ubiquitous nature of car chases and car crashes back in the day, but today these clashes are welcome. For one thing, there's no C.G.I. And for another the stunts are beautifully executed and filmed.

Rationally,  of course, the audience knows Michael and K.I.T.T. will eventually carry the day, and yet when K.I.T.T. is knocked over on his side and left for dead in the desert, you feel it in your gut.

Just a car? No…he’s a driver (and a kid’s…) best friend.

The most intriguing moment of the whole two-part episode occurs following K.I.T.T.’s injury. He makes a heart-felt query to Michael: “Do you think it is possible I could cease to exist?” 

We  thus see the self-aware vehicle (personality) reckoning with the idea of his own mortality, and what that could mean.

The Garthe vs. Michael rivalry in "Goliath" is handled with flair, and good stunt doubles for the most part.  As Garthe, Hasselhoff actually seems to stand taller, and similarly, is a snazzier dresser.  Perhaps it’s just that director Winrich Kolbe picks good angles to show-case the villain, often featuring him in motion, or capturing his action from a slightly lowered (and therefore more imposing) angle.

I watched Knight Rider regularly when I was twelve and thirteen years old, so my affection for it is nostalgic (it brings back good memories), but also technical: I love K.I.T.T.  The best stories, I always felt, where those in which K.I.T.T. and Michael had to go up against a vehicle that rival ed K.I.T.T.’s strength.  Hence my focus this week on K.A.R.R. and Goliath. 

I’m pleased to say that today, “Goliath” retains its entertainment value, and comes off as…very well-assembled.

Knight Rider Rub n'Play Transfer Set

Knight Rider Colorforms

Collectibles of the Week: Knight Rider (Kenner Edition)

Model Kit of the Week: Knight Rider (MPC)

Trading Cards of the Week: Knight Rider

Board Game of the Week: Knight Rider (Parker Brothers; 1982)

Theme Song of the Week: Knight Rider (1982 - 1986)

Advert Artwork: Kenner 1984 Edition

Knight Rider: "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R." (November 4, 1984)

"I've never seen so many people so crazy over a car..."

- Knight Rider: "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R."

I don't know exactly what it is about "evil twins," but cult television programs certainly love them, don't they? Perhaps it's just a matter of production exigencies. It's cheaper to feature a lead actor as an "evil" version of himself than hire an expensive guest star, I suppose.

Or perhaps, on a psychological level, we are all just fascinated by the concept of an evil twin.  Two brothers (or sisters), both from one family.  But one is twisted and evil while the other is heroic and good. Maybe we cherish this trope, subconsciously, because it helps to explain our own unique families of origins. 

Me?  I'm the good one.  But my brother?  He's pure evil.  He took all the lessons my father and mother taught us...and twisted them for EVIL!

Data (Brent Spiner) the android has an evil twin, Lore, in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 - 1994).  The witch, Samantha Stephens has a troublesome "cousin," Serena (Elizabeth Montgomery) on Bewitched (1964 - 1972), and so on. 

So, I suppose it's inevitable that the talking car on Glen Larson's Knight Rider (1982 - 1986), K.I.T.T. (William Daniels) -- the "Knight Industries Two Thousand" -- would also have an evil automotive twin, the deep-voiced, malicious K.A.R.R (Paul Frees).

As Lore is to Data, so is K.A.R.R. (Knight Automoted Roving Robot) to K.I.T.T.: An early, unstable prototype eventually de-activated by its creator, Wilton Knight (rather than Noonien Soong) for safety reasons. 

In the first season Knight Rider episode "Trust Doesn't Rust," the morally-challenged K.A.R.R. is discovered in storage and re-activated by a pair of crooks, who then utilize the "evil" Trans Am for a crime spree.  Knight Rider's hero, the jocular Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) outwits K.A.R.R. in a game of chicken, and sends the evil twin plunging down off a cliff into the ocean (apparently re-using stock footage from The Car [1977]).

In season three's "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R." there's a re-match between these 1982 Pontiac Trans Am titans.  

Round two commences when pair of beach combers, John (Jeffrey Osterhage) and Mandy (Jennifer Holmes), discover that K.A.R.R. is perfectly operational, only buried in the sand. They use their truck to excavate the car, and soon K.A.R.R. is attempting to enlist John in all manners of criminal activity. He damages the pace-maker of John's employer so John can take ownership of his company. And then K.A.R.R. uses his programming to steal money from a new-fangled ATM machine.

Meanwhile, Michael (Hasselhoff), K.I.T.T. (Daniels), Bonnie (Patricia McPherson) and Devon (Edward Mulhare) are understandably concerned that K.A.R.R. is back on the scene. Michael worries because K.A.R.R. -- admittedly just a very intelligent machine -- seems to "corrupt everyone he touches."

Bonnie believes she has a solution to the K.A.R.R. dilemma. She wants to install new lasers on K.I.T.T.  "I can double its penetration!" she enthuses, a suggestive line of dialogue played absolutely straight but which cheekily reinforces the widely-acknowledged love relationship that exists between mankind and his cars.

Unfortunately, K.A.R.R. launches a frontal assault on the Knight Industry rolling laboratory (in the back of a truck) and steals the penetrating lasers from Bonnie in an impressive and unexpected action sequence.

Finally, Michael and K.I.T.T. play another game of chicken with K.A.R.R. and once more, K.A.R.R. seems destroyed. 

Miraculously, K.I.T.T. himself is completely unscathed after a mid-air, turbo-boosted, head-on collision, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. K.A.R.R. just sort of explodes into debris, but you'd think both cars would suffer equal damage.

"K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R." motors along at about seventy-five miles an hour, juiced by an unfettered delight in its own silliness. The writing isn't exactly bad so much as droll, or cheeky.  It looks like everyone, especially David Hasselhoff, is having fun, and the dialogue is filled with zingers. "I'll bet George Lucas drives one of these things," says John, getting behind K.A.R.R.'s steering wheel.

When I was a kid, I watched Knight Rider religiously on Friday nights. And the episodes with over-sized, science fictional-type threats (such as K.A.R.R., or the truck, Goliath), were always my favorites. 

Tales of  Michael and K.I.T.T. putting away small-time crooks just didn't appeal to me. But whenever those evil twins -- and Michael also had an evil twin, named Garth, if I recall -- rolled out, I was hooked.

Today, "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R." seems a bit simplistic, but it hasn't lost one iota of fun. I don't know why the Michael/K.I.T.T. relationship (sort of a Kirk/Spock type of thing) remains so vital, but it does.  

As William Jeanes wrote in The Saturday Evening Post last year: "Cars are like clothing. Life would go on without them, but it wouldn’t be the same. To someone like me, who has always believed that anything worth doing is worth doing to excess, it seems only right that we live in a nation with more cars than drivers. A preponderance of Americans agrees with me, which is why we as a country have carried on a 125-year love affair with the automobile."

I suspect that, not-too secretly, we all desire a talking car as a friend, one as loyal and smart as K.I.T.T. is. One who can keep us company as we get from Point A to Point B.  And that the car should actually believe he is superior than us -- while simultaneously learning the rules of human relationships -- just makes the friendship all the sweeter. Why aren't we all driving talking cars, today?

Nostalgia plays a big part in my fondness for Knight Rider.  The series is like a time capsule of 1980s fashions and pop tunes.  I've watched a few episodes on a DVD compilation called "Best of the 1980s" and you can get the gist of every episode while reading a magazine, doing your taxes, or solving algaebric equations. There's nothing too mentally taxing here, yet the show is undeniably amusing, and in on the joke.

Of course, if you'll pardon the expression, your mileage may vary...

Outré Intro: Knight Rider (1982 - 1986)

If not a love story between a man and his car, Glen A. Larson's Knight Rider (1982 - 1986) is at the very least a bro-mance between a man and his car. 

The series follows the adventures of Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) and his high-tech steed, KITT (voiced by William Daniels).  Basically, the series is a high-tech version of The Lone Ranger, in which a lawman believed dead takes up a new crime-fighting identity.  He does so with a machine/individual that assumes the roles of both Tonto AND Silver.

This cult-TV series has two basic and enduring highlights: the incredible car stunts, and the banter between these two appealing personalities, one man, one machine.

I have always fancied the elegant simplicity and focus of the Knight Rider introductory montage.  It is so uncluttered, and so visually appealing at the same time.  The photography is gorgeous.

The intro opens with a lovely, exterior long shot. 

Mountains dot the horizon. There is lavender sky above, and sandy desert below. And intersecting the center of the frame -- speeding towards us -- is K.I.T.T., the souped-up Trans Am. A smoke trail follows in his wake.

In the next shot, we get an especially good look at K.I.T.T.'s trademark "eye" -- the ping-ponging red scanner just beneath the hood of the car.

Next, after the title card (and just look at that gorgeous sky!), the montage focuses extensively on piece-meal views of this beautiful car.  We see every detail.

Tires. Eyes. Lights. Mirrors. Dash.

We are looking at the elements not just of a machine, but a love-object.

A close-up view of an interior view-screen transitions us to the next sequence of the montage.  We see K.I.T.T. on his own interior screen, racing towards us (representing, in a sense, the driver), and then the montage begins to acquaint viewers with his amazing capabilities. Optional extras?

First and foremost, we see K.I.T.T.'s coolest capacity: his turbo boost, which rockets the car (and driver) high into the air at an amazing speed.  

Next, we meet our driver and main (human) character: Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff).

Now, back to K.I.T.T. (the series' real star).  In the next grouping of shots, we see the car smashing through a wall, undamaged.

Next-up, we meet Michael Knight's boss, Devon Miles played by the great Edward Mulhare.

And again, back to the car.  You should be sensing a pattern here.  The car gets far more attention in this montage than do the human stars of the series.

We see K.I.T.T. traveling quickly at night, accelerating. Then, we see him avoiding explosions on a dirt road, blasting through a truck unharmed, and showing off his bulletproof paint-job in a rain of sparks.

One last cast-member is introduced -- Patricia McPherson as Bonnie -- and then the intro moves into a montage showing Michael and K.I.T.T. in action.  Yep, it's back to more detail shots of our obsessive focus: the car.

We see K.I.T.T. shifting gears and activating his own pedals, sans any driver whatsoever.

Finally, back to that iconic image in the desert.  A hero's car, racing toward adventure...and then, finally, into the distance.

Here's the montage in action: