Reginald
"RC3" Cornelius III (1985-1986)..... Peter
Parros
SYNOPSIS
Brandon
Tartikoff, youthful head of programming at NBC, once gave California
magazine this version of the creation of Knight Rider: It seems he and
one of his assistants were discussing the problems of casting handsome leading
men in series, because many of them can’t act. Why not have a series, they
mused, called “The Man of Six Words,” which would begin with the guy getting out
of a woman’s bed and saying “Thank you.” Then he would chase down some villains
and say “Freeze!” Finally the grateful almost-victims would thank him, and he
would murmur, “You’re welcome.” End of show. In between, the car could do the
talking.
The series
that made it to the air as Knight Rider was scarcely less preposterous
than that, but it was played with such a twinkle in the eye that viewers –
especially kids – made it one of the top hits of the 1982 season. The opening
episode told the story of how a dying millionaire named Wilton Knight rescued a
young undercover cop who had been shot in the face. After plastic surgery,
officer Michael Young had a new face, a new identity (Michael Knight) and a new
mission in life: to fight for law and justice in Knight's incredible super-car,
the Knight Industries Two Thousand – or KITT, for short. It was love at first
sight between Michael and KITT. The car, a sleek black, customized Pontiac
Trans-Am, was impervious to attack, could cruise at 300 mph, could leap up to 50
feet through the air, and was loaded with such armaments as flamethrowers, smoke
bombs, and infrared sensing devices. Best of all, it could talk, and in fact had
a personality all its own; peevish, a bit haughty, but totally protective of
Michael. He could summon the car when in trouble, and it would come crashing
through walls to get him.
Its deceased
inventor had left behind a huge fortune to finance the crime-fighting, and a
trusted associate, the suave Devon, to look after things. Based at a palatial
estate, called somewhat grandly the Foundation for Law and Government, Michael
(and often Devon) went forth each week, trailed by a large maintenance van that
served as a sort of mobile command post. Rounding out the crew was a beautiful
mechanic, variously Bonnie or April, and “RC3,” streetwise mechanic who joined
the team in the in the fall of 1985. (Behind the scenes, the same Hollywood
customizers who built Batman’s Batmobile and the Green Hornet's Black Beauty
worked on KITT).
Though the
gimmick in the series was the car, much of the show's appeal was due to actor
David Hasselhoff, a tall, handsome former soap-opera heartthrob (on
The Young and The Restless) who joked and kidded with his computerized
companion. While he had more to say than “The Man of Six Words,” his tight
jeans, wavy hair, and laid-back style (his favorite phrase was “You got it”)
made women melt.
Team
Knight Rider,
a sequel to this series, aired during the 1997-1998 season.
