by Unknown
Jenny’s quest for information pertaining to Michael Long reached a climax in “Angels in Chains,” where she revealed that she believed her father had secretly joined F.L.A.G. under an assumed name. Many fans were puzzled as to how and when Michael could have conceived a child. Rick Copp explains: “I don’t remember exactly how we were going to explain Jenny’s parentage, but I remember that we had it all worked out. I recall that Garthe Knight was going to be involved somehow.”
The second half of the season brought an episode called “The Return of Megaman,” a story that was very similar to The Six Million Dollar Man. This adventure was not originally written for Team Knight Rider, but rewritten from an unsold Copp and Goodman pilot. “About a year before Team Knight Rider premiered,” recalls David Goodman, “we wrote a pilot script called Megaman for CBS. The series revolved around a ‘six million dollar man’ who had aged and was not worth much anymore. The government had just created a ‘billion-dollar man’, so the aged bionic man becomes a private investigator. When the series wasn’t picked up, we adapted the script for Team Knight Rider.” The original script had many 326
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more references to The Six Million Dollar Man than what made it to the episode.
“The Blonde Woman,” while a very good installment, didn’t please the fans as much as it pleased the crew. Co-creator Rick Copp on this episode:
“I really liked ‘The Blonde Woman’ even though many fans disagree. When we were developing the episode, I was very pessimistic and thought that it would turn out to be the worst episode of the series. That episode actually got Steve Kriozere a job on VIP. I remember one scene that I was in aboard SkyOne. I was supposed to be pushing a food tray in front of the infirmary while, in the background, the assassin was wrestling a SkyOne employee and escaping. We were taping on Saturday morning because we were running behind and we had to do that entire scene in one take. I blew it about five times before I got it right—I think it was because of the pressure I was under to get the scene in the can. Actually, if you watch the episode, you can see me pause during the dialogue while I remember my next line! They decided that was good enough and we called it a day!” This episode is also remembered for premiering the new opening credits. “At that time,” recalls Copp, “we knew the ratings weren’t that high and were looking for a way to spruce up the show. The old credits were very ‘static’, with the cars driving around the desert practically the whole time. We also wanted to feature the new Kat and Plato bodies and, by that time, we had more episodes shot so we could choose from more scenes.”
The second-to-last episode, called “Spy Girls,” was Copp and Goodman’s homage to Charlie’s Angels. The episode was designed to be the pilot for a spin-off series featuring the crime-fighting trio. Dan Filie at Universal Studios said that if Team Knight Rider went into a second season, they would need a companion show. Copp, being a big Charlie’s Angels fan, decided on a similar premise called Spy Girls. Incidentally, Roberta Renaud, who played one of the girls, was held over from “Out of the Past” auditions.
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The producers seemed to have saved the best for last with “Legion of Doom.” This episode brought back many of TKR’s adversaries of the past season, including Max Amato (“SkyOne”), Starr and Roland (“The Iron Maiden”), and Kaila Gordon (“EMP”). The final scenes also marked the return of K.I.T.T. and Michael Knight, and managed to answer some of the questions that viewers had pondered all season. The Shadow is revealed to be a hologram emitted from K.I.T.T.’s CPU casing, which is housed in the situation room aboard SkyOne. “We had hoped to have David Hasselhoff make an appearance as Michael Knight in the end of the episode,” says David Goodman, “but he wasn’t interested. If, by some chance, Hasselhoff would have agreed to make an appearance for the second season, we would have made the guy who said he was Michael Knight be someone else. We were interested in getting William Daniels to reprise his role as the voice of K.I.T.T., but were told that he would be too expensive. We planned on having the Shadow be Michael Knight, but since he wasn’t available, Rick came up with the idea of making the Shadow be a hologram from K.I.T.T.’s CPU.”
Along with the villains seen in “Legion of Doom,” Steve Kriozere had also wanted Martin Jantzen from “K.R.O.” in it. Copp and Goodman decided to leave him out and give both Jantzen and K.R.O. a full episode if there was a second season. Steve wrote the first two acts of “Legion of Doom,” while Copp and Goodman wrote the last two. He also created K.A.—the Knight Alpha—from an existing car called the Ford Ka. They weren’t able to drive the car because it wasn’t street legal, so the episode showed it parked in the SkyOne garage.
The series was unfortunately cancelled before many of the viewer’s questions could be answered. Writer Marcus Miller tells the reason why Team Knight Rider was cancelled: “By the end of the first season, the ratings were getting better and plans were underway for season two. I wanted it to be a more ‘gadgety’ show and was told by David Goodman that I would be in charge of that department. I planned to trick the dashboards out and had really pushed for a scanner on each car. The fans wrote in as 328
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well saying they wanted to see more gadgets on the cars, and Universal responded by adding such things as a red blinking light to Domino to simulate a scanner. We were virtually guaranteed at least two seasons, but the powers-that-be at Universal’s TV department had changed hands and the show was cancelled.” TKR was stuck in syndication on UPN which was (and still is) a very weak market around the country. Had it been linked with a stronger syndicate, it might have lasted longer. David Goodman says, “If there was a second season, we would have probably made Mobius be Kyle’s father, and Jenny would have been Michael’s daughter—conceived during his days as a cop. We also had planned on doing an episode revolving around the return of Erica’s exhusband.” Writer Marcus Miller pitched a story idea to Copp and Goodman that might have been produced had there been a second season.
“I had told Copp and Goodman about an idea I had involving flying saucers. In it, Kyle is secretly contacted by the government to go to Las Vegas and retrieve some UFO parts that were stolen from a base in Nevada. Jenny was supposed to pose as a showgirl, and Erica was to seduce a terrorist that only liked blonde women. Kyle discovers that the UFO
parts are actually parts to a Stealth bomber and suspects a conspiracy. The end of the episode has the team sitting out in the desert in Dante, wondering if UFO’s really do exist. The camera would pan back and there would be a flying saucer hovering over Dante.”
Other ideas that didn’t make it to production include an episode entitled “Aryan Mountain Kingdom.” In it, the team goes after a group of Neo-Nazis whose terrorist activities have reached an alarming level. TKR
is forced into a stand-off at a hollowed out mountain fortress deep in the Colorado Rockies. They are outmatched and only have two of the five cars operational. It’s up to Kyle to decide whether to send his team on a possible suicide mission or retreat, possibly risking hundreds of lives if the NeoNazis strike again. In “Red Star Rising,” another idea that was not produced, a cunning crime lord named Dragonblade uses a beautiful computer programmer to lure Trek into his clutches. Dragonblade wants ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS •
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to launch a high-tech espionage ring, and needs Trek’s brilliant mind to succeed. TKR plots his rescue, unaware that Trek is enjoying being Dragonblade’s “prisoner.” In the end, Trek comes to the conclusion that TKR is where he is meant to be.
So would Jenny ever admit she had feelings for Kyle? Christine Steel says that, “Brixton was a great actor to work with and I will admit Jenny wanted him, but I wanted him to want me more. I don’t know how they would have resolved the attraction; maybe explain I was some exotic affair in Singapore! I would probably have run into him no matter what.”
Brixton adds that, ”Christine Steel is a beautiful girl and a
talented actress. Our characters faced the dilemma of finding the balance between business and pleasure which went along with denying the attraction. If the show had gone to the second season, I am sure there would have been some kind of relationship with Kyle and Jenny. The fun of the relationship is not consummating it because Kyle has several love interests that divert his attention away from Jenny.”
What other surprises would Team Knight Rider have brought the fans had the series continued for a second, or perhaps a third season? Only the Shadow knows…
APPENDIX A:
ABOUT GRASSROOTS COALITION
It is not often that an actor completely fades out of Hollywood only to be the champion of a cause that they truly believe in. Patricia McPherson decided she needed to make a difference as President of the Grassroots Coalition, a non-profit organization that has been working since 1993 to demand disclosure of public health and safety issues. The Grassroots Coalition also educates the public on the need for preservation and protection of the Ballona Wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas. This organization uses a multi-disciplinary, scientific systems approach to accomplish this mission. Grassroots monitors governmental entities and corporate America, to ensure that these institutions are operated in a lawful, open and truthful manner for the good of the people. In 1995 and 1996, when Los Angeles was mired in recession, city officials looked to Playa Vista as an economic savior. When DreamWorks SKG announced it would build a hi-tech campus, there was great enthusiasm for the project. McPherson called the mitigation system constructed beneath the future Fountain Park Apartments “a complete joke. I could see huge gaps where a membrane is supposed to tightly join to the building pilings to keep gases from rising into the building. As usual, nobody from the city seems to be in charge.” She took DreamWorks SKG to court and succeeded in having them abandon the project.
For a period of five years, from 1993 to 1998, Grassroots Coalition challenged the Playa Vista Environmental Impact Report and won. “I’m glad someone on the City Council had the courage to face reality,” states McPherson. “If these systems fail and residents of Playa Vista are killed or 331
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injured, the damages against the city could be staggering.” When reevaluated, Grassroots was proven correct in the fact that there were dangerous gas levels on the site. “Playa Vista’s leaders and Southern California Gas tried for years to claim that the leaking methane gas we could smell was just swamp gas, nothing to worry about,” recalls McPherson. “They said it was caused by rotting vegetation from the wetlands. What a terrible lie that has turned out to be.”
“We have had to fight for every victory, and for me it’s become a fulltime effort,” says McPherson, who became so frustrated by the city’s inaction that one day she videotaped bizarre gases bubbling up in nearby Centinela Creek. When collected in a jar and touched with a match, the gases immediately burst into flames. From 1999 to 2001, Grassroots Coalition has challenged the safety at Playa Del Ray by demonstrating in reports that the facility leaks gas to the surface under residential areas.
“Since 1942, natural gas has been piped into the old Playa del Rey oil fields,” said McPherson. “Back then, it was farm land. I don’t think anyone ever expected it to be a residential area. I think the taxpayers of Los Angeles have a right to know that this development has the potential to financially cripple the city,” McPherson concluded.
For more information on the Grassroots Coalition and details on how you can help, please visit their website at http://www.saveballona.org.
APPENDIX B:
BUILDING A K.I.T.T. REPLICA
By Christopher Brielmaier
During the series’ four year run, countless numbers of fans tuned in each week to Michael Knight’s adventures, wishing they were the ones behind the wheel. Unfortunately, at that time, owning your own K.I.T.T. was next to impossible. (Only one privately owned replica was known to exist at that time.).
K.I.T.T. Replica constructed in 1983 (Courtesy of P. Sher Jr./Code 1 Auto) 333
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The 1990’s brought us a handful of conversion companies that actually began to produce replica parts that could be added to your stock Firebird or Trans Am in order to convert the car into the Knight Industries Two Thousand. The process of building a K.I.T.T. replica can be a long and expensive process if one is not knowledgeable as to what they are looking for. The very first step in constructing a replica is to find a suitable “donor car.”
The television series used a 1982 ½ Pontiac Trans Am with black and gold trim, a crossfire fuel injected 5 liter engine, automatic transmission, turbo cast rims with the famous “bowling ball” style hubcaps, and PMD seats. If you’re a real stickler for authenticity, you may want to spend a lot of time finding the perfect 1982 car that fits this description. Pontiac made the Trans Am with basically the same body style from 1982 to 1992. That is ten years of cars to choose from that basically look like the car from the series. Although any Firebird, Firebird S/E, Trans Am, GTA, or Formula from 1982 to 1992 can be used, a 1982 Trans Am is the best choice as you will most likely find a lot of the rare Trans Am pieces you need on that year of car. But, if you have the money and time to put into it, any 82 to 92 Firebird or Trans Am can be converted to look like the series car. It just takes more trips to the auto store and junkyard to find the older parts.
Once you have your car, you may want to restore the interior, especially if it is a color other than tan, and take care of any engine problems or bodywork that might be needed. After that, it is time to start looking into the nuts and bolts of the conversion process and get your dash, steering wheel, upper and lower consoles, replacement bumper, and of course your scanning light for the front of the car. You may be surprised to know that there are several companies out there, offering parts and electronics for these conversions. The two largest by far are Don Colie’s company, Advanced Designs in Automotive Technology (http://www.adiautotech.com) in Virginia and Mark’s Custom Kits (http://www.markscustomkits.com) in Florida. Both companies offer very high quality fiberglass parts and electronics with full
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warranties. Items such as the speedometer, tachometer, fuel, temperature, etc, do actually work and monitor your vehicle like factory gauges. In many cases, the digital gauges seen in the conversion dash are more accurate than the factory ones.
Knight 2000 Replica [Courtesy Joe Huth]
Below is a description of the features that you will want on your donor car in order to save you time and money as well as make your replica as accurate as possible.
Front Fender Air Extractors—These pieces can only be found on 1982-1984 Trans Ams. They are plastic inserts with a mesh grille that fit into a pre-cut opening on the front fenders. From 1985-1990, the air extractors were much smaller and therefore cannot be used. Cowl Induction Hood—In 1982, two versions of the hood were available for the Firebird and Trans Ams. The cowl induction hood had a noticeable “bulge” running the length of it, with a rectangular opening near the windshield. This hood can be found on 1982-1984 Firebirds and Trans Ams, and 1987-1992 Formulas.
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Aero Spoiler—The truly authentic aero spoiler needed for any conversion can only be found on the cars built between 1982 and 1985. A similar version was available after 1985 but it also included a third brake light, something that the real K.I.T.T. did not have. Another type of spoiler was also offered that featured a wrap around “wing” that ran up the sides of the trunk lid. Again, this is not true to an authentic K.I.T.T. replica. T-Tops—Although many do not like this option due to leakage problems, a true replica should be equipped with factory t-tops. After market ttops should not be installed as they disrupt the structural integrity of the car, often leak, and usually do not look the same as the factory ones. Between 1982 and 1992, two versions of the t-tops were availab
le—one that came with a locking package and one that did not. Although the locking ones are nice to have, the real K.I.T.T. did not have them and consequently yours should not either. Rear Bumper—The correct rear bumper can be found on any car made from 1982—1984. After 1984, rubber inserts were added to the rear bumper to match the front and therefore cannot be used.
Front Air Deflectors—These came on 1982-1984 Trans Ams only. The deflectors bolt on to the front fenders immediately in front of the tire. A few driving scenes in the pilot episode show K.I.T.T. with the front deflectors on. From that point on, however, they were absent. Unless a “Pilot episode” replica is being constructed, you should not have these. Round Shifter—One of the hardest pieces to find for your conversion is the factory installed 1982 gear shifter. The shifter is cone shaped with a button insert carrying the Pontiac logo. This was only available on 1982 Firebirds and Trans Ams with automatic transmissions. Once you have obtained the correct shifter, the Pontiac emblem should be removed (or painted black) for complete authenticity.
PMD Deluxe Front Seats—Another difficult piece to find are the Pontiac Motor Division (PMD) open headrest seats. These seats were only available in 1982 and 1983 models, and therefore can be hard to obtain. The seatbelt guides should be detached from the seat (unless a “Pilot Building a K.I.T.T. Replica •
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replica” is being created, in which case the seatbelt guides may remain). Most likely, the front seats (and in some cases, the back ones too) will need reupholstered in the correct tan color.
Tan Interior—In order to stay true to the series, a tan interior must be installed as well. Although many of the pieces can be found fairly easily, the seatbelts seem to elude most people. The color code for Pontiac’s 1982 tan interior is C 229 in the “Leo” book. Unfortunately, this fabric has long since been discontinued, so a substitute will have to be used. The carpeting as well as the headliner can be ordered from aftermarket companies. If finding a tan interior becomes too difficult, some aftermarket companies also carry the correct paint color to allow you to paint your old interior. Seatbelts—Again, unless a “Pilot episode” replica is being constructed, K.I.T.T. did not have seatbelts. However, it is very dangerous to drive without seatbelts and it is not recommended.