I’m sure more than a couple of you out there agreed with me.  I mean, come on…we had an awesome looking state-of-the-art car which COULD TALK and had lots of great little gadgets and gizmos as well as a hip, cool hero with permed hair (don’t laugh!) driving it and solving crimes.  What more could anyone want!!

No doubt about it, at the time I thought Knight Rider was (excuse the language) the shit.

Today, the naivety and simplicity of youth has (somewhat unfortunately) given way to a world-weary cynicism that I feared would shoot down my adoration of this enjoyable little piece of television in flames.  But after viewing the episodes on this 8-disc first season DVD set, I can honestly say that wasn’t the case.  Even after over 20 years, the adventures of K.I.T.T. and Michael Knight still manage to hold up OK. Even if every now and then it made me cringe more than I used to.

For those who don’t know, here’s the story in a nutshell….

Originally broadcast from 1982 to 1986 in the US, Knight Rider is the story of young police officer Michael Long (David Hasselhoff) who was saved from death by wealthy philanthropist Wilton Knight (Richard Basehart).  Wilton rescued Michael in the hopes that he would join his Knight Foundation, a benevolent crime fighting group created to protect the innocent.

With the world believing Michael Long is truly dead, the former cop accepts and gives himself a new name, Michael Knight.  Along with his new Foundation created super-car K.I.T.T., and trusted leader Devon (Edward Mulhare), Michael tries to prove Wilton right and that “one man can make a difference”.

All 22 first-season episodes are presented in this 8-Disc DVD set, and (aside from one very minor problem which I’m just about to get to) all are in the correct order.  The 2-part pilot episode is actually contained on Disc 7, so if you want to watch the shows in correct order you’ll have to start there, then go back to disc 1 and work your way through.

Not a big hassle, just an odd one.

As for the episodes themselves, well, to be brutally honest there's no Emmy winning stuff here.  The creators openly admit to making this show for the older kids market and so what we get is pretty formulaic and predictable fair.  Michael finds a problem (usually involving a pretty girl), Michael solves the problem with the help of K.I.T.T who does something cool (which usually involves jumping stuff), case closed.

Yes, if you’re after multi-layered story telling and long arcs this isn’t the place for you.  Things are usually wrapped up nice and tidily by the end of each episode with plenty of corn and cheese along the way.  And don’t get me started on some of Michael’s cringe worthy pick-up lines.   Ugggh…

But hey, that wasn’t what this show was all about.  It was about the relationship between a bloke and his car, and the adventures they had fighting crimes.  Simple.

And if you’re willing to accept and embrace that simplicity, you’ll find a lot to enjoy here.

As for standout episodes, there are a few worth mentioning.  The original pilot Knight of the Phoenix is very good and everything a good introduction should be.  Trust Doesn’t Rust sees K.I.T.T. take on his nemesis K.A.R.R. which is NEVER a bad thing, while Chariot Of Gold twists things around a bit and gives our characters a different dimension.

For fans of the series though, the whole set is pretty much gold. 

And for nostalgia geeks (like myself), ain’t it fun to look back at the stories and characters?  Hasselhoff was an amiable, if occasionally gullible hero and his relationship with K.I.T.T. gave the show it’s much needed heart, while the late Edward Mulhare provided class and dignity to not only the character Devon, but also the show in general.

The only downside to having this classic piece of television on our lovely shiny discs is that now we get to see in excruciating clarity a lot of the gaffes that went by either unnoticed or slightly obscured when watching it on normal telly or VHS on a week to week basis.  There is a disturbing amount of recycled footage on Knight Rider and without digital technology to help, it tends to stand out like a sore thumb.  One of the worst cases I noticed was in episode 9 Trust Doesn’t Rust which used a short moment of footage from episode 5 Slammin’ Sammy’s Stunt Show Spectacular.  What makes this so glaringly obvious is that they used the footage when K.I.T.T. had white stickers all over him!!!

And now during some scenes when K.I.T.T. should be driving himself, we can see quite clearly that he ain’t!

Yes, it’s aged.  Yes, it’s not brilliant television.

But it’s STILL a bit of fun.

I wasn’t expecting this to look too crash hot but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this transfer.

I found the colour on offer to be actually quite good.  Most television from this era tends to suffer from a terribly muted look on DVD, and while you wouldn’t exactly call Knight Rider wonderfully vibrant, it is pretty damn good and one of the best I’ve seen.

Blacks are nice and strong with a real solidity to them. 

As for problems, there are a few but they are all relatively minor.  As you would expect there are lots of film artefacts in all episodes, most are just small scratches but every now and then a garish blob will pop up.  Aliasing is pretty frequent, but it never gets to distracting levels.  The image isn’t especially sharp in some places though, can look just a little soft.

All 8 discs in this collection are RSDL.  The only downside to having 3 episodes per disc instead of the usual 4 is that the layer changes are placed during an episode, rather than in between.

For those interested, here are their locations:

Disc 1 – 27.32 during Good Day at White Rock

Disc 2 – 24.27 during Not a Drop to Drink

Disc 3 – 22.07 during Inside Out

Disc 4 – 24.11 during Forget Me Not

Disc 5 – 25.35 during The Topaz Connection

Disc 6 – 23.39 during White Bird

Disc 7 – 23.00 during Knight of the Phoenix

Disc 8 – 27.08 during Knight Rider 2000

Most of these are quite well placed with minimal disruption.  A few are even almost unnoticeable taking place during moments of black.  The worst change is probably during the pilot episode Knight of the Phoenix as it occurs right in the middle of a conversation.  As does the change on Disc 2 as well.

While this may not come up as impressive as some of the more recent tv-on-dvd releases, Knight Rider looks excellent for its age.

And while it’s a decent sounding track, it has its ups and down.

Overall, dialogue sounds pretty damn ordinary.  At best it sounds all of its 20+ years old, at worst it sounds like it’s been recorded through a tin can with a string.  A really crappy tin can.  Volume levels can vary a lot with ADR lines terrible noticeable.  Having said that, I rarely had trouble understanding what was being said.

There are the occasional pops and clicks that I didn’t expect on various episodes too.  For an example of this, check out about 6.45 into the episode A Plush Ride.  Nothing too severe, but still a little distracting.

Now that’s out of the way, we can get on to the music, which (in contrast) sounds pretty damn good.  The unforgettable theme created by Glen Larsen and Stu Phillips comes across very well and the same can be said for the score of each episode.  Even if it has dated a bit, it's strong, clean and clear in the front speakers.

Effects suffer from the same tinny and harsh sound as the dialogue, but still sound OK.  No use of the surrounds though.  My subwoofer got some redirection for the music (no hope with the effects), but your own experience will depend on your system setup.

The main menu itself is nicely animated with the theme tune playing in the background.  Chances are if you click on the Play All function you'll really notice the PAL speed-up as the menu theme is replaced with the episode theme

Universal have also bucked the trend where the extras are concerned as instead of placing one disc full of extras, they have decided to place one extra on every single disc!

DISC ONE – KNIGHT RIDER: UNDER THE HOOD

A nice little 16 minute piece with retrospectives from a few of the major cast and crew members.  Talks about the creation of the show, the casting of David as Michael, as well as a few of the more memorable episodes of the season.

As is to become common, this is a little too short to give the sort of detail I was hoping for, but it’s still an entertaining extra well worth looking at.

DISC TWO – K.I.T.T. OWNER’S MANUAL

Basically, we are provided with an interactive K.I.T.T. dashboard that allows the user to select certain buttons or readouts and to be then provided with a short little explanation of its function.

It’s a tad clunky to navigate, but it’s a decent and quite different extra.

DISC THREE – BLUEPRINTS GALLERY

A rather odd (and honestly useless) 3 minute piece showing blueprints of various locations used intercut with footage from the show.

For most of us this isn’t worth wasting time on.

DISC FOUR – PHOTO GALLERY

Another 3 minute piece that shows a number of black and white production stills from the show.  It is also provided with background music taken from the score.

Fairly uninteresting extra.

DISC FIVE – KNIGHT MOVES

A 6 minute look at the stunts created for the show as stunt co-ordinator Jack Gill talks about how they went about making an ordinary motor car look like the super machine that we saw on screen.

Interesting to hear that poor Jack now has a titanium plate in his neck because of the abuse he took doing the stunts in the show.

Again, this is too short but it’s a decent extra.

DISC SIX – KNIGHT SOUNDS

Composer Stu Phillips and creator Glen Larson talk about the origins of the fantastic theme for the show as well as how it permeated into the normal score for the episodes.

At 6 ½ minutes, it’s another one that’s over and done quick.

DISC SEVEN - “KNIGHT OF THE PHOENIX” COMMENTARY WITH DAVID HASSELLHOFF AND WRITER/CREATOR GLEN LARSON

This is quite a good commentary with David really enjoying himself while Glen has fun poking at him whenever he can.  Plenty of interesting stuff is revealed here including such titbits as Don Johnson tested for the role of Michael and that the person who designed the look of K.I.T.T. was the same person who went on to do the same for the DeLorean in the Back To The Future movies.

There might be some repetition of information every now and then, but this is still well worth a listen.

DISC EIGHT – KNIGHT RIDER 2000

Well, here’s a bit of a welcome surprise.  And it’s not even technically listed as an extra!  What we have here is the entire reunion tele-movie made in 1991 that runs for over 90 minutes!

It was quite obvious this was meant not only as a reunion but also as a springboard for a new television series.  Nice idea but there was only one problem, it sucked. 

As great as it was to see Devon, Michael & K.I.T.T. back together, the story of this film was basically flawed with more annoying holes than Swiss cheese.  Set in an unrealistic future with elements poorly taken/stolen from other influences (a bit of Robocop in there is obvious), clunky dialogue and absolutely horrific music, Knight Rider 2000 is a real disappointment and not in the spirit of the original show. 

Technically, the image here is sharper than the season one episodes on this set but suffers terribly from excess grain and aliasing.  Dialogue is an improvement over the normal episodes, although that isn’t saying much.  The music comes across pretty well transfer wise, but the less said about its quality the better.

Even though this isn’t a good film, it’s the sort of extra that makes a truly comprehensive set.  Kudos Universal.

Technically, this 8-Disc set is very good offering a better than expected video presentation along with decent audio.  Except for the audio commentary and the feature length reunion movie the extras provided are disappointingly short though.

Looking at this show purely objectively, those after superb high-quality television won’t find what they’re looking for with Knight Rider.  It’s a little too corny and dated to impress modern audiences that are used to some of the television we have today.

What you will find here though is a fun, nostalgic, and often quite enjoyable piece of light-hearted entertainment that’s more than likely to bring a smile to your face.  And for fans of the show I can think of no better Christmas present.

Bring on Season 2!