1) Inspiration For The Show Came From The Lone Ranger And 2001: A Space Odyssey

“I wanted to do The Lone Ranger with a car,” creator Glen Larson has said of the show. And in David Hasselhoff’s autobiography, he states that HAL 9000 from the film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ was the direct inspiration for K.I.T.T.

2) TV Executives Were Not Convinced The Show Would Work

NBC initially hesitated to pick up Knight Rider. This was because they had memories of a 1965 sitcom called ‘My Mother the Car’, regarded by many television critics and historians as the worst show in television history. That show featured a car that was the reincarnation of its owner’s deceased mother.

3) K.I.T.T. Stood For Something

Can you remember what K.I.T.T. stood for? It was ‘Knight Industries Two Thousand’, based on the car’s fictional creator, Wilton Knight.

4) The Theme Tune Was Based On An 18th Century Ballet

Knight Rider’s opening theme tune, composed by Stu Phillips, is actually based on a selection from Léo Delibes’s ballet ‘Sylvia’, specifically, ‘Cortège de Bacchus’ from the third act.

5) K.I.T.T. Was Almost Called T.A.T.T.

Whilst the series was early into its production, the car was called T.A.T.T., which stood for ‘Trans Am Two Thousand’.

6) A Number Of Cars Were Trashed Every Series

The stunt work was hard on the cars, and the show typically trashed four to nine each series. Each Trans Am cost about $18,000 to modify into K.I.T.T.

7) K.I.T.T. Didn’t Always Have So Much Personality

When William Daniels first began working as the voice of K.I.T.T., he was set to sound more robotic and synthesized than the actor wanted. Daniels fought for the car to have more personality, saying “I saw a chance for it to be amusing and bright.” Soon K.I.T.T. began to loosen up and showed more of Daniels’s natural charm as the series progressed.

8) Hasselhoff Didn’t Meet The Voice Of K.I.T.T. At Any Time During Filming

William Daniels (the voice of K.I.T.T.) and David Hasselhoff were never even in the same room together while the show was being made. They first met at the show’s Christmas party when Knight Rider was already an established hit.

9) There Was A Spin Off Series

We bet you didn’t know there was Knight Rider spin off show in the 80s? It was called ‘Code of Vengeance’, for which the Knight Rider episode ‘Mouth of the Snake’ was a ‘backdoor pilot’. In Code of Vengeance David Dalton, a Vietnam veteran-turned-drifter, travels across the United States in a camper van with only his dog for company. In a similar fashion to Knight Rider, he uses his fighting skills to help the people he meets gain justice over their enemies.

10) The Franchise Continued Well into the 2000s

As well as the classic original series which ran from 1982 until 1986, there was also the short lived ‘Team Knight Rider’ (1997 – 1998), and another ‘Knight Rider’ (2008 – 2009) which featured Michael Knight’s son.

11) There Have Been Three Straight To TV Movies

‘Knight Rider 2000’ (shown in 1991) featured Hasselhoff and aired after the original series had finished. It was intended to be a pilot for a new series, but despite high ratings this idea was abandoned. ‘Knight Rider 2010’ (shown in 1994) was only very loosely based on the TV show and did not feature Hasselhoff. Finally, ‘Knight Rider’ (shown in 2008) was a pilot for the new TV series.

12) There Was Alot Of Spin-Off Media

The Knight Rider franchise has a number of novels, computer games and other material that cover many aspects of the various series and films.

13) K.I.T.T. Had An Evil Doppelganger

Can you remember the name of K.I.T.T.’s evil doppelganger? It was called K.A.R.R., which stood for ‘Knight Automated Roving Robot’.

14) K.A.R.R. Had The Same Voice As Optimus Prime

Yes, K.A.R.R. was voiced by Peter Cullen, who was the voice behind Optimus Prime from The Transformers cartoons.

15) Hasselhoff Wasn’t Afraid To Make Fun Of His Role

In his music video for ‘Jump in My Car’, Hasselhoff clearly parodied his performance as Michael Knight in Knight Rider.