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Knight Rider (w/ The Saturday Morning Mafia)
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What's up, dudes? The Saturday Morning Mafia breaks down the Knight Rider Christmas episode "Silent Knight" with me! Whoa! Michael Knight had a whole backstory? K.I.T.T. could do what?!? How many times do they say the word 'gypsy'? Hmmm.... Check out the latest episode, and don't forget to vote for your favorite in Gag Me with a Spoon!
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It's like Transformers in Mask had a baby, then let Mr. Phoenix's brain, we're talking Knight Rider, fit it. James T. Kirk screamed, Con iconically, and Michael Knight drove a high-tech car around helping all those in need. I'm your host, Jerry D with another episode of Totally Rad Christmas, the podcast that talks all things Christmas in the 80s, toys, movies, specials, music, and fads. If it was gnarly during Christmas in the 80s, we got it covered. Now joining me are two very special guests. You might know them as two members of the Saturday morning mafia, Todd and Michael. Guys, how are y'all doing?
SPEAKER_10Good. How are you?
SPEAKER_06You know, I'm I'm making it here. Uh just taking it day by day, I think. Anything new going on with you guys?
SPEAKER_07I'm just, like I said, day by day.
SPEAKER_06Pretty much same here, yep.
SPEAKER_11Yep. Just keeping busy, getting ready for the 4th of July, getting ready for the Burr months. There'll be those. Oh, yeah. They'll be there.
SPEAKER_07They're coming very soon.
SPEAKER_11Yes. Ready for pumpkins.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I actually uh so I I went to go make some tea before we started recording here, and uh, I ran out of tea. I didn't have any more, except I found one last bag of pumpkin spice tea.
SPEAKER_10There you go.
SPEAKER_06So I'm drinking my pumpkin spice ready for uh getting ready for the 4th of July.
SPEAKER_07So we'll um we'll have uh pumpkin spice lattes by the end of next month, so it's it's coming.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah, they keep coming earlier. So I don't mind. I like I like the pumpkin. No, exactly.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, we have a local bakery that does does a uh pumpkin Ui Gooey buttercake, and I cannot wait for it.
SPEAKER_06That sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_11It is, it's it sounds just as good, it tastes just as good as it sounds. When I get a piece, I'll make sure to uh brag and showboat all over the internet with you.
SPEAKER_06Yes, please. We'll live vicariously through you. Exactly. Yep. Yeah. Oh man. So uh I have to ask, uh what do you guys remember about Night Rider? Like, what are your general thoughts and feelings on Knight Rider?
SPEAKER_07It was huge to me. It was, I mean, that was my favorite show um growing up. And um I I don't I might have been 1983. I went to Universal Studios um in California and I sat in a kitchen um which was like the highlight of my very young life. Oh and then um somewhere I got the blueprint I we mailed away for them, but I got the blueprint to kit, which was just a trifle basically brochure. Um so it was a big deal for me.
SPEAKER_06Wow. Mail away. I mean, it always felt like uh, and I know Todd, you and I talked about this in the G.I. Joe episode, but uh I remember mailing things away always seemed like it took forever. Uh-huh. And it was probably only like six weeks, you know, but uh but it always seemed like it was years and years, and then finally it came and excited.
SPEAKER_07I got it open, and you thought, I have a piece of paper. I didn't think that, but now it's like you know, I don't know. I have a piece of paper that it's kidding off.
SPEAKER_11It's a crummy commercial. Exactly.
SPEAKER_07Exactly. That that scene um totally does justice to what we did as we lived through as kids.
SPEAKER_11That's one of my favorite all-time movie quotes, is I left the bathroom wiser.
SPEAKER_06I feel like that could be applied many, many times.
SPEAKER_07So yeah, it was for me personally, it was a big deal.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_11Thinking about Knight Rider and preparing, I I realized I don't remember many of the individual stories. I remember watching it like every week with the whole family. We'd pop popcorn and we'd watch you know, Knight Rider every week, and and I remember really liking it, but uh it's like I was uh just waiting to get to watch Kit do his thing. Yeah, I don't you know I don't remember away from the car or out of the car moments that much. The one story I really remember, and I think it was like a two-parter or three-part series, is when they had the evil kit car.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah, car. Yeah, yeah, car, yeah.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, and I really mean I remember legitimately being like worried and afraid that things weren't gonna work out well, you know. That's that's some good writing then. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Exactly.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, well, I was I was six or seven years old, so it probably didn't take a whole lot, but it's funny because I I know I watched it, but it was the same, it was like uh with the Dukes of Hazard that I talked about last week. It uh I remember my cousins watching it more than than actually remember watching it myself.
SPEAKER_10Right.
SPEAKER_06And I remember, you know, whenever I was at their house or my grandma's house, and and they would be watching it, and I would just stay whenever there was like an awesome car chase, and then or whenever Kit would do something, and then when it was back to the talking, I was like, all right, and then I'd go play. Yeah, that's it. It was pretty much the same thing with the Dukes, you know. I I'd stay for the cool car chases and jumps, and then I'd go play.
SPEAKER_11I I did the same thing, and then Incredible Hulk came on, I think, after the Dukes Hazard. So it's like I'd wait till like the last 20 minutes when the Incredible Hulk was there. Yeah, yeah. I didn't care about the the I didn't care about the setup, you know. Yep, you know, I did the same thing, and and I was trying to remember because I remember like watching this every week, right, watching Night Rider every week and popping popcorn, but then we did that with Airwolf too. Oh, you know, the A team. So either they were all on on the same night or we just pop popcorn every night and watch TV. I haven't decided which one's true yet.
SPEAKER_07So well, I there's a new channel we have um uh on air, uh we don't have cable. And there's a new um channel called called Charge TV, and from two to five or whatever, two to four, they show straight um uh Knight Rider episodes. And I've been watching them religiously, and I don't remember any of the stories um except for car. Yeah, that's the only one um I I remember as well.
SPEAKER_06So it's funny because well, so so Night Rider aired from um was it 82 to 86, and you know, four seasons, and I same thing, I I don't really remember any of the individual stories, but there was a lot about like the basic plot that I didn't remember either until I started looking it up and doing some research for the show. So of course, David Hasselhoff is is the star, you know, he's he's Michael Knight. But what I didn't remember was that Michael Knight's not even his real name. So he was actually he was actually Michael Long, who was uh an LAPD detective that uh he was a Green Beret counterintelligence veteran in the Vietnam War, and then he was discharged, you know, discharged and he became a detective, and then somehow in the army he'd gotten like a metal plate due to like some an accident in the war, you know, an injury. And so he'd gotten a metal plate in his head, and then when he was a detective like 10 years later, he got shot, and while it messed him up, it didn't kill him because of that metal plate. And so then the you know, Wilton Knight, who was like the head of this, you know, this this billionaire, like Elon Musk Kitman kind of guy. Uh he started, you know, this uh the Foundation for Law and Government, and they had this program going on, and so they used him and they reconstructed his face kind of based on young pictures of Wilton Knight and also pictures of his son. And so he kind of resembles his son, but so they they gave him the new identity of Michael Knight. Like this whole backstory, just I completely I don't remember this at all. I don't either. I don't either.
SPEAKER_07I I noticed like uh last week that the foundation of law and government is flag. Flag never got that.
SPEAKER_06So they they they they developed this uh supercomputer and they kind of essentially put him into a car. Uh but their other huge breakthrough was like this this crazy plastiel. Polymer, yeah, yeah, that they covered you know kit with, and it makes him virtually indestructible. And and not only do they cover like his his frame, but they like cover everything. So like even the tires and the undercarriage, and so he can like drive over bombs and stop them from exploding and stuff like that. And and I mean, no wonder this guy's a billionaire because I mean if you create something like that, you know. But yeah, so so essentially they took the supercomputer and just put it in a car, and that's how we get kit. And and this car is amazing. I mean, it's like like better than the Batmobile because it can do so many more things. I mean, I love the Batmobile, it's like my favorite vehicle of all time, but reading about Kit and and you know, remembering and watching all the shows again, I mean, he just does so much more. It's it's crazy.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, it's almost like he has a trick of the week, too. It's like, oh, I didn't know you could do that till you need it last week.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, I was uh I was telling Michael it's it's like um you know, whatever the plot needed him to do, he could do.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Right kit in the script. Yeah, exactly. Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_06And then Kit all of a sudden can fly.
SPEAKER_07He can see a hundred and oh three hundred degrees around, four miles of down the road. Four miles up in the sky.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get into all the stuff, the cool stuff Kit can do for sure.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah, yep.
SPEAKER_06Oh man. So the reason we're talking Knight Rider is not only was it awesome, but they actually have a Christmas episode. In season two, so this is when uh Bonnie was wasn't there, if I remember correctly. Yeah, it was uh the other girl. April. Um I and I don't remember her name, shame on me. I didn't write it down. It was April. April, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. Yeah, there you go. But yeah, so so Bonnie wasn't in this one, and I don't even remember why they got rid of her. I just remember that they she left, and then it was because of a lot of like the huge fan backlash and Hasselhoff himself that brought her back. But she was like such a part of it in my memory that uh I didn't even remember that she was replaced.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I didn't either.
SPEAKER_06I thought it was just the same girl the whole time. Yep. Oh man. But this episode uh that we're gonna be talking about is uh it's really cool. It's a it's a cool episode, although I gotta say, uh, I don't know if it would fly nowadays. It's I think uh PC culture would uh would have some words with it because they yeah, they use the word gypsy a lot. A lot.
SPEAKER_07Well, and I it's like he's dressed like a hobo. The other gypsies aren't when he gets to that point. He's dressed like a hobo. And um but they played like Greek music when they introduced that character.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07They had to, you know.
SPEAKER_11I just don't know. The early on they called him a gypsy, and I'm like, I I had no idea what distinguished him enough to be called a gypsy. It's just kind of uh I guess they just needed that for the plot.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, they just needed someone that that you know could roam. It was kind of uh didn't really have a home, kind of I I mean, it's problematic by today's standards. Back then, I mean you could get away with a lot more, you know. So but but I love what another thing that I'd forgotten about Knight Rider in general is that uh they did use a lot of like popular songs.
SPEAKER_11That's the that's the first thing I noticed is on the very few first few seconds you hear yes is only heart. I'm thinking, what kind of budget did this TV show have?
SPEAKER_06Well, and and listening to it because I went back and listened to it again, and it's not the actual song. Yeah, I mean it's the song, but it's not the singer. It's not the yeah, it's like yes singing it.
SPEAKER_08You always live your life.
SPEAKER_06Uh same thing with gypsy and and um fleetwood Mac Gypsy.
SPEAKER_07That was just that was the honest.
SPEAKER_06It was a little up at the top there.
SPEAKER_11Well whoever covered it, whoever covered it did a very good job. He did a great job. Yeah, because you know, just I just I just seen it uh just a little bit ago and I couldn't tell the difference. Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I I went back and listened to it again, and and it's it's definitely uh it's definitely not him.
SPEAKER_02Underground but it yeah, they were they're good covers.
SPEAKER_06They they really are. They're they're close. They tried to get as close as they could. So it kind of reminds me of uh the claymation. Uh I have the tiger this time. I have the tiger, yeah, that's the other one.
SPEAKER_08Rising up back on the street. Took my time, took my chances.
SPEAKER_06But it kind of reminds me of like the claymation Christmas celebration special, uh, because though they they bought the rights to the temptation song, you know, temptation singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. But then they they hired another group to actually perform it, and the other group was like trying to put their own spin on it, and of course, Will Vinton was like, no, you gotta, it's gotta be like note for note, recreate it. So I mean it was kind of that thing, and but uh you're right, they did like a tremendous job. Yeah, but that was the first thing I thought, you know, it was owner of a lonely heart, I mean Survivor, Gypsy, like like these are expensive songs, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_11I don't listen to enough of those those uh tunes every day to be able to you know spot the uh you know the fakes or but they do that in almost every episode.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So it's it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, they must have had a pretty good uh pretty good music supervisor guy.
SPEAKER_07Well, it was the Glenn Larson production, so you gotta give it your all.
SPEAKER_06Well, that's true.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Oh man. The other thing is that uh this is one of those Christmas specials that is is Christmassy but is not very Christmassy at the same time. So you don't really get, at least for me, I didn't get a lot of Christmas feels from it. But it's like there's always mentioning something about Christmas. Yeah, I mean Kit Michael had the whole conversation about what to get for presents, you know. He he makes a comment about a Donner and Blitzen. There's uh you know, it's like they don't really seem like they're full of the Christmas spirit, do they, kid? You know, that there's all these little things here and there, but like I if you had taken those out, I I don't think it would have made a difference.
SPEAKER_11Right. I was uh I I was lucky enough to be on Tiz's podcast not long ago and do Lethal Weapon, and I had mentioned that you kind of forgot Lethal Weapon that Christmas was taking place because it was so busy and you were all over the place. And that this episode was the same way you kind of forgot it was Christmas at time because you were just moving from point A to point B back to point A, point C, back to point B.
SPEAKER_07Jerry mentioned a couple of them, but I kind of jotted down Knight Rider's tips to make an episode Christmassy. Basically, mention anything Christmas related when it doesn't call for it.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_07Um, yeah, those guys don't have the Christmas spirit you mentioned. And let's let's make like Donner and Blisson before Kit jumped. Um I'll be sure there's a Saint Nick when he's talking to April. Um, and then um he says, you know, those jokers are starting to take the thrill out of Christmas for me. It's like, okay, it's a Christmas episode.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So yeah.
SPEAKER_06I I think I'm gonna start uh I'm gonna start throwing random things like that just in normal conversations every day. Right. Like, uh oh, like, oh no, we're we're running late. Come on, let's make like Donner and Blitzen. I say go for it. Might as well, let's make it a thing.
SPEAKER_09Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I'll be there. Sure as saying.
SPEAKER_06So it the overall plot of the special is a bank robbery that happens, you know, the uh some some guys rob a bank, a witness uh who happens to be uh a gyp of gypsy origin, uh or romani or I don't know. Finger clothes. However you want to say it, that's the you know, his PC, I suppose. I don't know. So he he witnesses uh their escape and kind of takes something from them that would incriminate them. Michael has to swoop in and save the day. That's like the bare bones you know plot. But uh we I and we'll really get into it in a bit. But I mean it it kind of follows, I mean, it's it's similar in structure to to most of the other episodes where you know Michael comes in and someone's in trouble and he ends up saving the day, and he and Kit, of course, you know, kind of have a little they get into it, I guess, a little bit, and then shenanigans ensue, and the day is saved.
SPEAKER_07Why I thought this one would be different because at the in the beginning of the episode it's all about the Christmas ball or the dinner, and then it just disappears. What is that?
SPEAKER_09That is what you will be wearing if you fail to find a tuxedo of your own for the annual Christmas banquet. Okay.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, they they do mention that he uh when he's talking with uh is it Devin? Is that right? Right, right.
SPEAKER_07Devin and April call him not his tux.
SPEAKER_06To get a tux, yeah. He has to they have to to get the tux ready to be at this big ball that there's gonna be all sorts of uh you know uh social lights and and you know big wigs there, and so he has to attend. And I guess they I think they mentioned that there was one like the year before that he didn't go to and so they're like, No, you gotta be there. And even Kit says something like, Well, you're going this year because I promised.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_06It's like classic kit.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, Devin sh Devin shows Michael this uh tuxedo with ruffles on the shirt saying that's that'll be the tuxedo wear if he doesn't find his own.
SPEAKER_07And he'll have to be he'll be seated next to the uh Lady Pinwall and the Duchess of Chipstead.
SPEAKER_01Michael, now you know how seriously Devin takes the annual Christmas banquet. Now he seated you between Lady Pinwall and the Duchess of Chipstead, so please remember he's counting on you.
SPEAKER_06Duchess of Gipstead.
SPEAKER_07Which is okay all right.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, why not? I don't know. So yeah, he's on his way, and that's when we get the uh we get the the bank robbery, uh and they're dressed like clowns, and there's like a big van with circus, and they they one of the robbers steals a gold pocket watch from is it the bank manager, I believe. Right.
SPEAKER_11And the bank manager confused me a little bit because I thought he was in on the robbery for a minute.
SPEAKER_10Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_11Oh, really? Because he when the the clown van pulled up, he like runs over there and then he backs up to the passenger door of the van. He's like, you Guys are late, like he was getting ready to let that guy take him hostage. I thought, oh, the bank manager's in on it, so it was gonna have a little bit of a twist, but then they steal his watch. I'm thinking, why are they still on his watch if he's in on it? But then we never see the bank manager again. So yeah, I guess they had ordered clowns for the Christmas opening of the bank.
SPEAKER_06That's yeah, that's probably what it is.
SPEAKER_11It's yeah.
SPEAKER_06Who who orders clowns for a Christmas opening of the banks? Exactly. It's the 80s bank. I can't say anything, there's no excuse. But yeah, so they steal his watch, and as I mentioned, uh Tino, who was the the gypsy boy, he he kind of sees what's going on, he kind of follows him. And they do this this classic thing where he's he's walking by and he checks, he sees a present in the car, and he like tries to open the car door, but it's locked, and so but then hey, there's a there's a payphone there, so then he checks the checks it for change, and he he ends up following them, and that's when he sees them, they're like ditching their ditching their costumes, ditching the van. They'd already wrapped all the money and everything in uh in presents, and they're going, and the guy puts the pocket watch in his pocket. And as one of those character actors, I know he came out in um vice versa. I remember him from vice versa, and and something else that I can't quite figure out.
SPEAKER_07And I was he was definitely familiar.
SPEAKER_06He kind of had like a Dan Hadaya kind of vibe, yeah. And uh, but so he puts the watch in his pocket and and Tino can see the chain hanging out, so he he does the thing where the classic pickpocket move where he like bumps into him and takes it, and so he leaves, and the guy realizes that you know the leader of the gang realizes like that watch can tie us back to the bank, so we gotta get rid of it. Then uh-oh, it's not there, Tino took it. And so that's when he he collides with Michael, and now Michael's gonna take over and help him.
SPEAKER_03My leg, you broke my leg. You gotta get me to a hospital.
SPEAKER_05Make it easy. Okay. Man, I've seen that kid before. He's one of the gypsies from the neighborhood. Gets the merry and taking him to the hospital. You gotta forget the kid, but then it takes it to find that we can get out of the state. And listen, listen, the minute he tries to hunt that thing, the cops are gonna nap him, and then he's gonna ID us, and in 24 hours our faces are gonna be coast to coast.
SPEAKER_06So we get a classic, you know, oh my leg. You know, he kind of fakes like he's in there just to get away from the guys that were chasing him. And Michael's like, like, are you okay? Let me get you to the hospital, and and we get this weird thing where the guys that were chasing him drive up right beside him and kind of parallel. Like, like they give him the shift DI. It's like if you're trying to, I mean, like, I get you need this watch, but I mean if you're trying to like lay low, especially after like a robbery, why would you why would you do that to someone? That's like like number one suspicious sign, you know?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it's yeah, that was weird. That I that was a weird moment. It was like, what are they doing?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so yep. And that's kind of what tips Michael off that okay, I think these these guys are hassling. I mean, he even says, like, are this guy's hassling you? Yeah, yeah. And of course, Tino right away starts is starts saying, like, uh, no, you know, um, or or yeah, they're they're gangs, or what does he call them? He he calls them like tufts or something like that. And yeah, it's some some 80s, 80s slang. And then he goes, uh, you know, I was on their turf, and then of course Kit being awesome, can scan him, and like he doesn't have any broken, there's no broken bones, so he's lying. He's got a gold watch in his pocket, so something's fishy, you know, and there was a bank robbery, and some of the things that were taken, one of them was a gold watch, so don't trust this guy. And sort of that's when they get into it, and he realizes, okay, yeah, something happens, and okay, this kid's in on it, let's go to the police. And I mean, it's it's just it's it's it's funny because it's very much a step-by-step, like, okay, this happens and this happens and this happens, you know. Yes, uh, it's nothing's really like super fluid, but it's still awesome. I don't know what it is so far. It's still it's still pretty awesome, especially because as they're you know, as they're figuring all this out, the bad guys that you know drove up and were parallel to them, they kind of somehow turn around and now they're like gonna play chicken with you.
SPEAKER_09I got an helium in the dinner.
SPEAKER_06Michael's like, yeah, don't worry about it. And so he turbo boosts and jumps over the car and blitzer.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, yeah. I didn't think turbo boost meant jump.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I didn't either. Apparently, yeah, maybe the turbo boosters are like under the tires.
SPEAKER_11I guess that's right, it just depends on where they're located.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. The best part about watching um any of those kit jumps is just like the Dukesa Hazard, you can see the angle, and it's not gonna end pretty.
SPEAKER_11Right.
SPEAKER_07And then they go to a different shot and then it ends a little bit nicer.
SPEAKER_06Which makes me wonder about kit suspension, you know, like it's code it and it's code it in the polymer, it's fun. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, well, that just means they won't break, but uh well, yeah, I guess.
SPEAKER_07I just wonder how many cars I'm sure I'm sure we could find out, but I wonder how many kits there actually were. Because like I know that the General E had a ton of them because of that reason.
SPEAKER_06Well, and then especially in the General E, and I know uh I know in Knight Rider also they ended up using uh miniatures for some of the some of those stunts as well.
SPEAKER_07And there are more miniatures the later the series got.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_07Like in that last um that last season with the anyway, I don't want to get too far off the subject, but the uh the new uh super pursuit.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07I remember lots of um models then.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, the the downside, I mean, especially with car chases and things like that, is you can almost always tell when a model's being used compared to like the actual stunts. Of course it's a lot cheaper, so it makes sense, you know, but uh it just you kind of lose that something that that makes the show or the movie, you know, great to begin with.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Well that's us as you know, 40-year-olds looking at it as opposed to the little kids.
SPEAKER_06That's true. Yeah, as like six or seven-year-olds or whatever. I mean, it's it's awesome either way, yeah.
unknownExactly.
SPEAKER_07Exactly.
SPEAKER_06So they they go to the police, is that right?
SPEAKER_11And then there were 23 kit cars used for the series. 23?
SPEAKER_06Oh wow.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_06That makes sense. Thank you. That was yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I I would imagine they'd be, especially with all the jumps, they'd be having to work on the all the time.
SPEAKER_07There was an episode there was an episode I watched today where they had the the camera kind of outside um the rear wheel. And you could see it was gonna, I mean, the nose was gonna impact at like a 90-degree angle. And then they went to another shot where it softly lands.
SPEAKER_06So yeah. I think I think when you're when you're gonna do a jump, you're pretty much uh you know that your shocks are gonna be shot for a while. So or yeah, so then it's okay. Next, and then you work on that car while you use another one.
SPEAKER_07So 23, that's wow.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, can you imagine 23 trans? I mean, yeah, uh back in the day I would have loved to have just one.
SPEAKER_07Well, I'm thinking, guys, they're out there somewhere.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's true, yeah. And this reminds me, like back in high school, I drove this little black 94 Nissan Sentra, and uh they used to call it the Batmobile because it was all black. And I remember, you know, I really wanted it to be the Batmobile, and of course it wasn't, but it was this tiny little, tiny, tiny little thing that it's like, oh man. But anyway, so Tino, Michael takes Tino to his sister. It turns out his sister has like an ex-boyfriend that's trying to get back with her, and who later on will become important to the plot. But one thing we did forget to mention was that the robbers, you know, after Michael puts Tino in his car, the the crooks are like, well, I I recognize that kid. He hangs around those gypsy, he's one of those gypsy kids or something like that. So that's why they're able to uh to track down later on. They they track down the ex-boyfriend of Tino's sister, and they make a deal with him, like, hey, we'll give you some money if you can tell us anything about about this kid here. He's gonna spoilers, he's gonna rat him out.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. That ends that uh relationship.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh man. I mean, it's it's like one of those perfectly like like it just works out perfectly, kind of plot points, you know.
SPEAKER_07I I just love seeing the uh open shirt, the the big collar, you know, anyway.
SPEAKER_06With the stripes, you gotta, yeah. Yes. Classic look, yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06Yep. And it turns out that uh Tino's always wanted to live with uh their uncle. Not worships him, but he kind of really, you know, really respects him and his lifestyle. And he's like the leader of like a band of of gypsies that live somewhere far. Which, by the way, they drive a super long time. I mean, it seems like a long time to get there. Like it's night and everything. Yeah. And then on the way back, I mean, it seems like it takes some no time.
SPEAKER_07Which you know, I 17 minutes.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07That is in the episode. How long are we gonna be there? It's gonna take 17 minutes, Michael.
SPEAKER_11Oh, uh about the time back and forth. It's it's where it um when Michael uh stops to let the kid drive Kit. That to me that felt like it was like the halfway point there. Now there was nothing in the show that said that or anything, it's just kind of how I felt that it was about halfway there, and then that was and then that seemed to be about the same location that they got to um when Kit said they had like 17 minutes left. But Kit did say he was going as fast as he could, which is like according to the intro of Knight Rider, it's like what 212 miles an hour is what the photometer gets to do. You know, so if he's going that fast, then it's a long way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06But it's yeah, it just seems like he gets there. I mean, it seems like it takes a lot longer to get there than it does on the way back. Although I have noticed even just driving long distances myself, it always seems like it takes longer to get somewhere than it does on the way back.
SPEAKER_10Right.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. I'm gonna say that's what happened.
SPEAKER_10Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_06But yeah, so he he takes him to the the uncle's house and um or actually doesn't he like run away or something and they they like go find him?
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, they uh yeah, he he he runs away and then um he built he built a shack on a construction site.
SPEAKER_06That's right. That's right, yeah.
SPEAKER_11And uh and then the the bank robbers shake down his sister's ex-boyfriend for money, uh or they give him money to tell him where he's at.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but the kids are split. I heard somewhere he's going to his uncle's that's not true. Come on, what's that? Stefano's got a caravan of gypsies. They spend a winter camped out by Lockett.
SPEAKER_11So you know, and Michael and his sister look for him around the store, and then she realized then she remembers he he lives in a shack built on a construction site. It's like, well, why didn't you think of that first? You know. So Michael goes to investigate. See, he he goes into the shack why why the kid takes off out the back door of it, and then the bank robbers come and they just uh run over the shack with their with their car. And uh, but they only hit half of it, so so he's okay. So Michael's okay.
SPEAKER_06Spoiler alert.
SPEAKER_11Michael Knight does not die in this.
SPEAKER_06He does not, no, no, the show goes on for for more seasons.
SPEAKER_07He might have had a concussion, right? But he did not die.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So that's when he agrees to take him to uh his uncle's if in exchange for uh Tino allowed to be drive or to drive Kit uh for a little bit. Yeah, right. So you're right, yeah. They right before they get there, they kind of stop and and he drives them around, everything's cool, and then they get to the they get to the gypsy camp. Right. Can't believe I'm saying gypsy camp in 2020. Right. Yeah, they they get to their their their little uh camp or civilization or whatever. So he's like, hey, here's your uncle, everything's cool, but it's not really cool.
SPEAKER_10Nope.
SPEAKER_06Because those guys show up and they bribe the uncle.
SPEAKER_11Yep.
SPEAKER_06And uh luckily one of the old ladies in the camp overhears, because that's gonna that's gonna be important later. Yes, so Michael goes back, everything's awesome, and and I I love how Michael's always like the the womanizer, you know? And uh so he and the sister kind of eye on each other. And uh April, I think, even makes a comment about it, doesn't she?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, because he yeah, he's um uh we stopped to see a girl or a sister, and she's like, okay, something's again.
SPEAKER_09April, seasons greetings.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Michael. Same to you. I hope you and Kid are headed back to the foundation.
SPEAKER_09Oh, we're heading in that direction.
SPEAKER_01Michael, just what are you up to?
SPEAKER_09Nothing. Well, not much, at least. I ran into a gypsy kid who's a witness to a robbery. He and his sister.
SPEAKER_01His sister? Yeah, I should have known.
SPEAKER_06I always and and you know, not to get off topic, but I always wanted Michael and Bonnie to kind of get together. And uh, you know, I wish they had. But I know um one thing that I did like about Michael Knight and his backstory is that it was very much like a James Bond kind of thing. So he ended up marry getting married, but she was killed on the on their wedding day. So I mean it's very much very much James Bond, you know. That's exactly what happened with him. So I wonder if that like informed his whole relationship, you know, yeah uh ability after that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, maybe. But she Bonnie was a great or April Bonnie was a great Miss Penny Penny.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, she was, yeah.
SPEAKER_07That's about what it is. Although she's more technical.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, yeah, very much so.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So he goes back to see her, they and then together they drive up to the the camp because something's something's fishy. Because of the ex-boyfriend, right?
SPEAKER_11Right.
SPEAKER_06Yes. And they realize he he sold them out. Which, by the way, guys, just so you know, if you're ever trying to get back with your ex, don't sell out you know, her family in any way. Yeah, that's like the worst thing to do. Yeah, it's like, hey, I got money now. Yeah, no, no, don't don't do that. Yeah, just that's that's some relationship advice from the Saturday morning.
SPEAKER_11Or going back a little earlier, don't stop by your exes to ask for money.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, don't do that first, and then second, don't sell out her family and say, Hey, by the way, I have money now. Especially not at Christmas time. So they drive back up there, they they manage to track down the uh or they they drive back up to where the the camp was originally located, it's gone, but based on um the soil and and you know deposits of of oil and you know fluids and things like that, they're able to track them, and they stop, and of course, the uncle gets like super offended, like, I'm the leader of these gypsies. Why would you like how dare you accuse me of something? And then the old lady who earlier overheard everything says, Liar!
SPEAKER_03I saw them give you the money. I saw them, swine. You sold your own nephew.
SPEAKER_09Let your own people deal with it now. I just want to know one thing. Which where did it go?
SPEAKER_06And so then they all like kind of turn on him.
SPEAKER_10Right. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_06And I love Michael, he's right there. He's like, he's like, I'm gonna let I'm gonna let them deal with you. Right. But they you know, they get him to confess kind of where he they're going, and then he goes to save the day.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, yeah. The the way they found they followed the gypsies is because there's an oil leak in the car.
SPEAKER_06Oil leak, yeah.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, and they uh kit can smell oil or follow the oil leak on the road.
SPEAKER_06He yes, kit has an olfactory sensor.
SPEAKER_11And they are driving so slow following those oil spills on the road.
SPEAKER_06Well, I I'm guessing Kit's uh Kit sensor only works, you know. Right it's not great as as as great as his other sensors are. Right. It is funny that he can smell it though, yeah. Right. That's an odd thing. It couldn't be like you'd like to.
SPEAKER_07Well, he says he says, you know, how do bloodhounds, you know, I I those animals are not disgusting, but you know, he makes a dig at bloodhounds because they're doing the same, you know, they were bred to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. I love Kit because it's it really is just it's Anthony Daniels. Yes, uh, Mr. Feeney. Yep. So every time he's talking, like I always just picture I like I always just picture him in my mind. Like it's uh it's hard to like separate the voice for me, uh just because I uh I really loved Boyd Meets World, I love Saint Elsewhere. There's another movie that he was in that I really love called Her Alibi, which is uh a terrible Tom Selleck movie, but but it's like one of my favorites. I mean it's a bad movie, but I love it. And so it's like every time I hear his voice, like I just can't not picture him. So he's saying all these things to him, and I just picture, you know, with the glasses and the mustache being all prim and proper, like, well, Michael, these bloodhounds are awful creatures.
SPEAKER_07It's probably exactly the way he it was written.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it probably probably was, yeah. Yeah, so they track him down, get him to tell him where the the criminals are going or which way they went, and and so he follows him, and somehow he was able to escape. Is it and I think it's because uh he thinks he's gonna he says he's gonna throw up right and he's sick.
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_11They they pull over. Yeah, the bank robbers realize that the cops have the watch.
SPEAKER_07That's right.
SPEAKER_11Yes, they pull they pull over to figure out um at a Christmas tree stand.
SPEAKER_07Right. Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_11One of the three bank robbers wants just to off the kid. Yeah, and and the others are like, well, if you do that, there's gonna be even more heat on us.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_11And so when they're out of the car discussing that, they leave him in the car by himself and he just hot hot wires it and drives away.
SPEAKER_07And then nobody knows, nobody notices that.
SPEAKER_11Right.
SPEAKER_07Because the the bank robbers go back and try to find a car. Nobody comes out and says, Oh, you just ran over, you know, that car just ran over you.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_07There's nothing.
SPEAKER_06Well, you know, obviously, if you're a vagrant uh teenager, you can hotwire a car. Well, it's because he's a yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yep, he's he just knows how to do it. Right, right.
SPEAKER_11And then they casually walk up to uh a car and the door the door is locked, but there happens to be a convertible with the top down. Yes, and so they just casually get in it and drive away.
SPEAKER_06You know it's like nobody runs out, hey, that's my car or nothing. Again, I love this this perfectly coincidental step. Storytelling, you know, it's like, well, thank goodness this happened.
SPEAKER_10Thank goodness that was yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06I mean, it just it works out so so well. But yeah, so he's going and he runs out of gas. Uh-huh. And so they're chasing him, even though they're like, they're going ridiculously slow. Right.
SPEAKER_07At least that's the payoff about finding the convenient car. Yeah. At least it at least there was you know something against that. Yeah. So slow.
SPEAKER_11Right. Yeah, it was a piece of a piece of junk car. Yeah, so maybe whoever owned it was like, good, someone's taking it from me. I don't know. All right.
SPEAKER_07Some bucks in insurance money.
SPEAKER_06Insurance paycheck, here I come. But uh, but because he runs out of gas, they are able to catch up with him anyway. And they chase him into like this big like wheat field or cornfield or something. Yeah, like a cornfield. Yeah. And of course, Kit and Michael and the the sister, because you know, you gotta have a you gotta have the the beautiful lady sitting next to you. Uh they they manage to catch up, and Kit is able to somehow like sense or see where he is.
SPEAKER_11Get and it gets and it gets a camera on him in the middle of that cornfield, too. Yes, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07That's what that's what 15 years before um they could use satellites for that. So I just don't know where that camera was, but hey, it's Kit.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's it's whatever the plot needs them to do at the time. Yeah, because nowadays they would have they would have like used Google Maps or something, yeah, zoomed in on him, or you know, some sort of the satellite, you know, satellite going on. But yeah, back then, I don't know about that, or drones, you know, they would have launched a drone or something, but but Kit's able to do it. They're able to, and uh one of the crooks has activates what the Thresher? Is that what it's called?
SPEAKER_11Yeah, it's like the small Kanban kind of thing.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. And so that Kit's able to stop that, and thank goodness he's indestructible, because man, that would have been terrible. Right.
SPEAKER_08It's Tino. He's directly in the path of that machine.
SPEAKER_07I kept looking, I kept looking so hard when he was um against it to see if there was any damage. Because I mean, I don't know how they did that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah, it's I mean, it's it's really cool. A kit is awesome. The more we talk about it, the more it's like, man, I want a kit so bad.
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So I just need like a billion dollars and supercomputer, but oh well. Yeah. Yeah, so then it's like this cool hand-to-hand fight. You know, it's like Michael against the three, the three guys, and I mean, is it the three? Or maybe it's just the two.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, I don't know what happened to the third one.
SPEAKER_07Tino, um, the boy Tino gets one, doesn't he? He gets one.
SPEAKER_11It's one that's one that Michael's fighting, though.
SPEAKER_07That's true. Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_11So so I don't know what happened to the third one. So I'm only left to believe that the sister took him out off camera.
SPEAKER_06I like this reading, yeah.
SPEAKER_11Yeah.
SPEAKER_06All right, let's go for that. It's a it's a good feminist tale here. Here we go.
SPEAKER_03It's Christmas. You got something against Christmas.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so so they ended up taking him down, the day is saved, and he's gonna work uh he's gonna go with his sister in the end. And you know, Michael's gonna go to his ball, I guess.
SPEAKER_11Right. And not a tuxedo.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, well, of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_11Brown corduroy.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06Naturally. I mean, what else would you wear to fancy ball?
SPEAKER_07That was I I will say that was probably one of the um worst wrap-ups I've ever seen in the show Night Rider. Or yeah, it was like he he hugs the sister and the cousin, I mean the son, I mean the brother, sorry about that, and picks him up and says, Merry Christmas, and that's like that's it.
SPEAKER_08That's it, yeah. Hey, you're all right for a car. Thank you, and Tino. Yeah. Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_09You two.
SPEAKER_08No. April was kind enough to pick it up for me.
SPEAKER_09Wait a minute. Don't tell me.
SPEAKER_08Yes, Argyll stomps, if you must know. You shouldn't have, but you're right. It is the stomach. And I'm sure Devin will appreciate the thought behind his stomachs. His great-grandfather was from County Argyllins, Scotland. Oh, these stomachs are for Devon. Of course. You don't think I'd buy you Argyle stomachs? Of course.
SPEAKER_11This is all supposed to be the same day, so they all change clothes too.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's it's it's it's odd. It is, but you know, it's uh I do like how um Kit ends up, you know, they're they're talking about earlier, and they're talking about like what kind of presents to to give each other, you know, what's appropriate. And he mentions Argyle socks, and uh they have to pick up the Argyle socks, but no, it turns out it's not for him. It's for Devin. Yep. Yep. Classic switcheroo there. This, you know, I think overall this was a this was a fun episode. I mean, uh, I don't remember like a ton of them because like I said uh earlier, I I mostly just remembered like the car stuff, because that was the coolest part to me as a kid. But I I I thought it was fun. Uh I mean, yes, they say gypsy way too many times, and uh there's like a lot of stereotypes in here, but but I you know I like how the sisters uh you know trying to make it on her own, she has her shop and all that, and uh you know, she doesn't go back to the that ex-boyfriend, she's like, nope, stands up for herself. So I really like that. And and just of course, all the like stuff Kit can do is always amazing.
SPEAKER_07No, I I give it two David Halfelhoff thumbs up.
SPEAKER_06Oh wow, two hoffs, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Two offs. Hey, that's there we go.
SPEAKER_06It's two hoffs. That's gotta be our new rating system. Yeah. There you go. Christmas clatter. Yeah, it's uh I give this five hoffs.
SPEAKER_11I give it, yeah. Yeah, I give it five hoffs and one BA breakfast.
SPEAKER_06There you go, yeah. There you go. Yeah, but this it really was. I I enjoyed the episode. Uh, I wish it was a little more Christmassy.
SPEAKER_11Yes.
SPEAKER_06Um I th I think it would have made it just a little bit better. Yeah, it did have a Linus moment.
SPEAKER_11It was a little bit that's right.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_11I still I steal everybody's things.
SPEAKER_06But we're gonna crazy we're gonna call it the Grinch moment.
SPEAKER_11The Grinch moment, there you go. It did have a hoff moment.
SPEAKER_06There you go, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, Tino comes around and realizes that there's a there's a good way to a better way to live.
SPEAKER_11Right. And he's and they add Luda too, he he was illiterate, so he said he's gonna, you know, take some classes to learn how to read and then get into computers and stuff like that. So yeah, I kind of set the foundation that you just assume that he's gonna do all those things and be just fine.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Which is always nice. Yeah, I like uh a nice happy ending in in my movies and shows. Yeah, I am a sucker for that. And and there's a lot of good dramas out there that are amazing and they're awarded, you know, have so many awards, but to me it's just like it's such a downer. I'd rather I'd rather have a good uh a good happy ending. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that was a nice little nice little end to it. Yeah, I would have liked to have seen uh like more Christmas decorations or can you imagine if like Hoff had tried to put like the the Rudolph nose and like the antlers on the kit? That would be great. Well, he's got that little red beamy of the room. He does have the red, yeah. That's kind of Rudolph-ish. Yeah. So he just needed the antlers there.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, there you go. There you go. I mean, and all the songs, it would be nice if they would do such, you know, have one song, a Christmas song.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Because they cover, like as we've sorted said earlier in the show, they cover amazing songs.
SPEAKER_06Well, don't they they're singing, they sing a couple of them, don't they? Or am I thinking of I might be thinking of something else actually?
SPEAKER_11There would there might have been one playing at the bank opening or maybe that's what it was. Yeah, that's that's it, that's the only place I I seems like I remember one at. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_11So they hit that Christmas tree stand twice, two different times, and I don't remember anything there.
SPEAKER_06No. Which is uh kind of odd, also. That's like where you would expect you know, you want people to be in the Christmas spirit there to buy your trees.
SPEAKER_11Right, exactly. Right. No, they're gonna they're gonna play Fleetwood Mac instead. Well, you know, or Fleetwood Mac like.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. Fleetwood Mac esque.
SPEAKER_11Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Macwood Fleet.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, well, really, there's only two songs that are gypsy. It's the Fleetwood Mac and then Sonny and Care. So I think they chose the best one.
SPEAKER_06I think they did too, yeah. Oh man, yeah. If you're gonna rip off, rip off one, uh definitely do Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nick's version of it. Yeah, but no, this is this is fun. One thing I did want to get into was uh some of the powers of kit. So Kit, another thing that I didn't remember was that kit stands for Night Industries 2000. Uh later on on some of the spin-off shows and uh and like some of the the TV movies, it was like Night Industries 3000 when it was uh more advanced. And then there was gonna be like a another version that was like Night Industries 4,000, but you know, they still call them kit, even though I think at that point it would be Kift.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, it's just jumped up to 10,000.
SPEAKER_06Right? They why did they do that? That made so much more sense. But so of course he's got his AI, which is cool. Um, so he's got his alpha circuit, which is like his main control system. That's like what lets you know the CPU actually drive the car. Okay. And then of course he's got his, and I love this. We were talking about that uh that polymer is called trihelical plasty 1000 molecular bondage shell. Wow, it's like the the most uh like let's see how many pseudoscientific words we could throw in. It's like very 80s right there. Uh he's got his pyroclastic lamination. So that's what like it's his it's like that uh heat resistant coating as well. So not only is he indestructible, but he can resist up to uh 800 degrees, which is awesome. Power system is jets, so um, he can go zero to sixty in two seconds. Yeah, that's uh talk about whiplash there. And he's got electromagnetic hyper vacuum disc brakes. So he's got a 14-foot braking distance, which is like nothing when you're going fast. Of course, his uh turbo boost, yeah, it can get him up to um uh in excess of 200. You mentioned that uh you know 212 or something miles per hour. Of course, his voice synthesizer, voice projection, so he can project his voice other places, which I don't know who would ever think about doing that. Like, why would you add that to the car?
SPEAKER_11He he he did that uh he hollered at Michael when he was in that shack. Yes, he did, yeah. Uh to let him know that it's getting ready to be ran over by a car.
SPEAKER_07And I've seen a few episodes where he um makes it sound like the police are coming. Yes, yes, you know, the sirens coming.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, he's got his ventriloquist mode. Right, yes. Let's throw your voice. So that that that uh beam, you know, that with the red lights that we were talking about, his his Rudolph nose, that's actually called his anamorphic equalizer. Okay, and it can see here's so here's where we go. It's uh fiber optic array of electronic eyes that can actually see all the wavelengths of light, especially X-ray and infrared as well. So that makes sense how he can kind of you know sense different things, but yeah, yeah, that camera trick is still kind of iffy there. And then I mean he's got like a whole list of features here: oil slicks, smoke screens, flamethrowers, tear gas. I mean, like you name it, he's got it. And I mean, if you go to Wikipedia, you can find all this stuff here. There's like way more than than I want to name here, but so I thought that was kind of cool. Yeah, so there were several other spin-offs from Night Rider that again I didn't remember at all, but there was like a couple of TV movies. There was like like Knight Rider uh 2000 was one of them. I remember that you remember that one.
SPEAKER_11That was with the Dodge Viper, right?
SPEAKER_06I think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Night Rider 2000, Night Rider 2010. Team Knight Rider was another one.
SPEAKER_11The 2010, I think, was with the Mustang? Mustang, yeah. The new uh when Mustang changed its body style to yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_11I never seen any either one of those.
SPEAKER_06I never have either. And uh they mentioned, like in one of them, they mentioned something called like the shadow or or shadow organization or whatever, and it's supposed to be like Kit essentially and and Michael Knight. And so they like they even go to a grave, like where the team even goes to a grave and it has like Michael Knight, and it says, you know, it has a little eulogy, whatever. But then uh as far as I can tell, it seems like he's actually still alive. They just like that's when the the Michael Knight persona died, the alias. So uh, because there's like the he's the only one that like never failed in any of his missions, and I was like, that that's right. Hoff never fails.
SPEAKER_11No, ever.
SPEAKER_06That's why Germans love him. I was just gonna say that. Y'all remember uh basketball? Or not basketball, uh dodgeball?
SPEAKER_10Uh-huh.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and uh there's they're like playing against a German team or something, and David Hasselhoff is like the coach, and he's just he's just chewing them out for their failure. Oh man, that's like the best.
SPEAKER_07I love in um Guardians of the Galaxy, I think too, how um Star Lord was the the perfect father because he didn't have a father, was David Hasselhoff.
SPEAKER_06Yep. I think he even sings on the soundtrack to Guardians 2, there's a a new song, and I think he even sings it. Oh, okay. I got it. It's like the Guardians disco or something like that. I mean it's it's like a disco-esque thing, and I think David Hasselhoff actually sings that.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, one of my one of my most vivid memories of David Hasselhoff was uh at a very serious time in the world when the Berlin Wall was coming down.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_11And there's there's a great video footage of him in this jacket with lights on it blinking, and he's singing this song about freedom on top of the Berlin Wall as people are sledgehammering it down. It's like the only person that could be on top of that wall with this light of jack, you know this jacket light going off like that is David Hasselhall. Yep, I agree. For for one, how did he get over there so fast? You know, hey man, he's the hop. He probably took kid over there.
SPEAKER_06Probably he may have been on tour in West Germany. That's true. He might have been, yeah.
SPEAKER_11He might have been, but I I still I still remember seeing that on the news. He's up there giving this this concert on top of the wall as it's come down, and that jacket is just blinging. I don't even know what's the only thing I remember of the song is he kept singing Freedom. I don't even know what the song was, what if one of his or or what it was, but or George Michael's Freedom.
SPEAKER_06I don't know. I don't know. And and uh it's funny because I remember I remember watching that, but I don't remember him up there, which is something I would have remembered. Uh so maybe I was just watching a different channel or something, and just they're like, We're not gonna cover, we're not gonna cover that.
SPEAKER_07CNN was like, we're not covering that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. Let's let's uh just just video this this part over here. Oh man. But yeah, so there was quite a few. Uh there's like a whole series of different Knight Rider things, and uh another 2008 television series as well. And then even in 85, there was a spin-off series called Code of Vengeance that starred um Charles Taylor, who was another Vietnam veteran. They kind of retooled, he was like in an episode of Knight Rider as like a CIA agent and then or FBI agent, and then they like instead made him like a drifter, and then he I mean it was just it was just a weird spin-off and it didn't last. Wow.
SPEAKER_11I don't remember, but this seems like they would have been this would have been the perfect TV show to turn into a Saturday morning cartoon. Right? Like like this is I don't know if they did that or not. I don't seem it doesn't seem like they did.
SPEAKER_06I don't think they did either.
SPEAKER_11I remember like the A Team being a Saturday morning cartoon and a few other Duke of the Hazard was also a Saturday morning cartoon. But this seemed like that would have been a perfect Saturday morning cartoon.
SPEAKER_06Well, especially because this is like right around the time of Transformers, Mask, G.I. Joe. I mean, like vehicles that were high-tech were like in, you know, you wanted stuff like that.
SPEAKER_11And I don't remember a lot of toy lines from it either.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I don't either. Which is again, that's that's insane. They could have made like bank with those stuff, you know, Michael Knight leather jackets or something. I mean, it would have it could have been I mean, it seems like they would have capitalized on it, but I don't know why they didn't.
SPEAKER_07Or even a remote control car.
SPEAKER_11Well, they did they did have a remote control car because I remember I remember my um my sister was a little bit of a tomboy growing up. And I remember for Christmas one year she got a kit remote control car, and that was a real cheap one. Oh wow, it was like it's like one of those with the the trigger that goes back and forth to go forwards and backwards, and the little steering wheel on the side. Yeah, and uh it was only I don't know, probably a foot long, maybe in size. It wasn't a very big one at all, and uh it didn't work that great. So it looked just like kit and it had the red thing. Well, here's the thing, I'm gonna say this. It looked just like kit and it had the red thing on the front, but it could have been a knockoff look-alike.
SPEAKER_06Oh, I gotcha, yeah. You know, but uh like I know that they had to stop saying that it was a transam because so many people were like actually going to try to buy it because they wanted one just like kit, and of course there is none just like it.
SPEAKER_10Right.
SPEAKER_06So they actually had to like drop it from the from the show, which I thought was kind of cool.
SPEAKER_11Yeah.
SPEAKER_06That it that it had that kind of an impact, you know. It's like uh like the DeLorean. Yeah, you know, everybody everybody wanted a DeLorean after Back to the Future, but of course then it folded.
SPEAKER_11Right. They don't they're not that fun to they're not that fun to ride in.
SPEAKER_06No, no, definitely not. That's why Doc Brown had to like totally pimp it out.
SPEAKER_11Right. A friend of mine in high school had a DeLorean. Really? That's awesome. Wow. Him and his him and his dad re bit bought it and rebuilt it, and it was it was sweet. And me and him hung her up quite a bit, so we'd we'd drive through the town weekends in it and you know get all the looks. But the thing is, you couldn't go through drive-throughs because the window barely rolled down. And uh in the front was the trunk. So if you had a bunch of homework, you had to like lay all your books completely flat or the trunk would shut because it was so shallow. Oh yeah. But it was fast, didn't have power steering, but it was fast.
SPEAKER_06So there's probably a reason why it folded.
SPEAKER_11Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Well, I I would have liked uh, and I still would like, honestly, one of those, you know, black transam. I think it'd be it'd be pretty awesome. Right.
unknownYep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_11One one thing I did notice watching this episode, and I didn't I thought it was cool at the time when I was a kid, but now that I I've been driving for many years, that's got to be the world's worst steering wheel to drive with.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Because Kit can also, you know, autopilot. I think uh they're like, yeah, whatever, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_11Yeah. There's no way to turn hard hand over hand, you know.
SPEAKER_06So yeah, that's true. That's a good point. So one thing that I didn't remember, I mean, because this is like Hasselhoff in like his prime, you know? He's really young, he's he's got the swagger and everything. And and one thing I didn't remember was he kind of actually looks a little uh like puffy to me. And I I think it's because uh I remember mostly seeing him when he's older, and so you know, as you age, you get a little more gaunt and stuff. And so I'm just used to see him a little a little more thin. And when I saw him there, I mean his skin is he's got that that sheen that young people have. Young people, gosh, what am I what am I saying? But you know, but you know, I mean, uh you know, youngsters, you know, but uh I mean he just he seemed like he was a little more uh full, I suppose, uh, in the face, like his he had more of a baby face than I remember him having, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, I understand that. I thought he had more um puffier hair than I remember.
SPEAKER_06His hair, yes, yeah, especially especially in the back.
SPEAKER_11He had like this perm thing in the back, which I remember kind of being popular in the 80s, but it was he did have a lot of hair, and still the uh the women loved it, right?
SPEAKER_06Right, and the Germans, don't forget, and the Germans, of course, yeah. Oh man. Tino was originally supposed to be like a like a scruffy 14-year-old kind of guy, but uh of course they aged him up a little bit. And um he's uh in the original script, he was supposed to be a lot more like sympathetic, you know. His uh he goes to visit his uh his dead father in the funeral parlor and he's gonna make some money so that he can take care of his sister, and of course, all that's changed uh with rewrites and whatnot. I mean, I think uh Michael, you were saying that you know, before we started recording, I think you were even saying that in the original script that it was a lot more having to do with with the ball.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I thought I I read it that the end of it they there's a little bit of the uh uh April and Devin show up um for the banquet at the end of it, but that was I get I don't know why they didn't do that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I don't know. I think it would have been pretty good, you know, especially because it's a Christmas bowl, so you would think it would be it would really add to the Christmas atmosphere.
SPEAKER_07Well, just as a story, as a story point, they made all the you know, it was a big thing in the beginning, yeah, and then it just doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, they could at least have uh they could at least have Michael and Kit driving up in the back of the semi-truck. Yeah, we we didn't get any of that this episode, and no, that was always one of my favorite parts.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that was always really cool. Yeah. Same thing. The original script uh actually called for more of the Christmas spirit. So Michael was supposed to be listening to Christmas carols in one scene, and there was gonna be uh more decorations along the streets in another scene and things like that. And um, I don't know if it was for budgetary reasons, maybe because they spent so much money on the songs or or what. I don't know, but yeah, they ended up not going with that, which I think would have been um which would have been pretty cool. But oh well. So I have to ask guys, what would you say would be your hap, hap happiest memory of Night Rider?
SPEAKER_11I'd have to go back to what I said before. We just even though I don't remember individual shows that much, I just remember it being a time that you know mom and dad, my sister, and myself were just kind of gathered around the TV and and you know, sharing that experience every week. And there's a few shows through the years I can I could check off and say that we did that too, and and Night Rider was definitely one that we made sure to see.
SPEAKER_07Right on. I would probably say, you know, the hour I took out of my day at not uh at Universal Studios to actually sit, you know, for like a minute in kit.
SPEAKER_06That's still so cool. I'm sure you have tons of pictures all over.
SPEAKER_07Somewhere my dad does. I I'll have to I'll have to ask where he is, and if they do, I'll obviously send it to you guys.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, it'd be awesome. Yeah. For me, it's it's funny because I remember watching it, but there's not like one specific moment that kind of sticks out. So I I think out of every like out of my whole life, I think I'd probably preparing for this show would be uh my my happiest memory. Just because I I I my memories are really vague and they're mostly of just kit driving around or you know doing you know something cool, a cool jump, or or you know, something like that. So I can't really point out a specific point, but but uh you know, I always like talking with you guys, so uh you know definitely definitely preparing for the show is would be it.
SPEAKER_07I I wish I wish I had a car that made that sound, by the way. Yeah, that sound is so cool.
SPEAKER_06Uh I wish I had a car with turbo boost.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Because it would make getting to get out of traffic, I think, would uh would be a lot better. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06Especially a rush hour. Just press the button and go.
SPEAKER_07Go to turbo.
SPEAKER_06So now we come to uh my favorite part of the show, which I like to call Gag Me with a Spoon. So this is of course where we do our best impressions of our least favorite part of the show. I'll let you guys as a guest go first. But I'll let you guys go first, just kind of set up the scene. So uh we'll start with uh Todd and then Michael, you can go after that, and then I'll bring up the rear.
SPEAKER_11Well, I'm not gonna set up a scene because I think I think my the gag me with the spoon part happened about 37 times during the show. And I hope I don't take anybody else's, but it was one of the many times that uh Tino looked at Michael or his sister and went, I can take care of myself.
SPEAKER_06So that was good. I love it. Well, you didn't take mine, so that's good.
SPEAKER_07No, yeah.
SPEAKER_06What about you, Michael?
SPEAKER_07Well, uh there was one I've I I've I don't have it right now, but it was um it it's it's said in almost every episode of uh Night Rider, that's why I chose it. But um after um Tino's shack is destroyed by the robbers, um Kit says, Michael, are you alright? Probably in every episode, I just that's that's that's Kit to me.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, I gotcha. So for me, I I also chose a Tino one, although it was really close between uh a Tino and a Michael quote, but the just this was like the cringiest part, and it's mostly because of his facial expressions, which uh I I can do, but I know it's not a great, it's not great for the audio medium of podcasts. So instead, I'll just try my best to do his voice. And it's it's like right after uh he gets in the car and he's trying to make a deal with Michael, and uh, you know, that hey, you know, I'll drop the lawsuits or whatever. Because this is at this point, Michael still thinks that he broke his leg. He's like, I'll drop the lawsuits and cops and all that stuff if you just let me go or whatever. And so, you know, kids telling him, like, okay, well, don't trust him, he's lying, whatever. And Tino goes, Who asked you? Hey, you got a talking car? It's like the worst.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_07The people we should, you know, have we should um keep track of how many people said, this car just talked.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, for real. Yeah, yeah. If you were to like like binge night rider uh and do a shot like every time or something, I mean you'd be you'd be pretty plastered.
SPEAKER_03She would.
SPEAKER_06So I I almost came down to uh a quote when Michael and Kit are going back and forth about what to get each other for Christmas. Oh yes. And Michael said, uh, how about a nice set of retreads and some mud flaps?
SPEAKER_11Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking about Michael when he was talking about uh, you know, uh a good part of Christmas is uh about the getting because you know, even though it's good to give, you gotta have someone that gets. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Well, there was the part where um he sums up Christmas. It's like, what is a um a guy in a red suit have to do with a religious holiday?
SPEAKER_06It's true. Oh man. This this yeah, this was definitely uh very fun. But at this point, I gotta say, well, the you know, G.I. Joe, they taught us that uh knowing is half the battle. So what do you guys think is the other half of the battle?
SPEAKER_11Um being a gypsy, so you know how to so you know how to take care of yourself. There you go.
SPEAKER_06Yes. A stereotypical gypsy. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_11Very stereotypical.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_11I would say um not necessarily the opinion of the host or anybody participating in the podcast.
SPEAKER_06We apologize to all those out there of Romani background.
SPEAKER_07I would say um pronouncing um the polycarbonate um molded plastic shell.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, how how much mumbo jumbo can you put into it? Exactly. Techno babble, I think is what it's called. No, those are good. Um, those are better than mine. Mine was uh because I kind of already said mine, but uh if knowing is half the battle, the other half is uh that if you want to get your ex back, don't sell out her brother to some bank robbers.
unknownThere you go.
SPEAKER_11Make a note, I'm making notes of that right now. Yep, yep, everybody write that down.
SPEAKER_06Write it down, put it in your phone. Set the alarm to go off every 30 minutes. But uh I think right now we're gonna drive on over to our chatting with the little spot. Hi, welcome to another episode of Chattin with the Littles. I have little number one with me.
SPEAKER_04Hello!
SPEAKER_06Today we're talking about Knight Rider. Do you remember Night Rider?
SPEAKER_04I don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_06Remember with the talking car?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Do you want a talking car?
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_06No, why not?
SPEAKER_04I think it will bother me all the time because I don't like the music you put on in the car.
SPEAKER_06What kind of music would you put on?
SPEAKER_04High school musical.
SPEAKER_06Okay, okay. Alright. But would you want a car that has turbo boost?
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_06Why not?
SPEAKER_04I might crash into a city.
SPEAKER_06That you probably might, yep. Well, I think we're gonna return to our regularly scheduled program. Guys, it's been so much fun talking with you. You know, it gave me a chance to when when you brought up Night Rider, it really uh made me just remember a lot of things. And and while it wasn't some of the strongest memories I've had, they were always uh they were very warm memories. Because I do remember walking in uh like my grandma's or my aunt's house and just seeing my cousins, you know, watching it, and I just stop and just you know watch the cool car chases and then you know go play. So uh thank you guys for bringing it up and and thanks for being on. What uh what what do you guys want to plug?
SPEAKER_11Well, I'll I'll plug uh Christmas clatter podcast. You can find it uh wherever you can find podcasts at and uh follow me on Facebook, Instagram, at um Christmas Clatter Podcast, and at Clatter Podcast on Twitter.
SPEAKER_06Right on. Yeah, definitely check it out. It's always a lot of fun, always some cool stuff. Uh the miscast recast uh option is uh that's a cool segment that I love because uh you've had some quite controversial picks there.
SPEAKER_11And I don't and uh teaser, I don't see that changing on our July 15th episode.
SPEAKER_06Ooh, all right, looking forward to it. Nice.
SPEAKER_07This is uh the first um Saturday morning mafia post or a podcast.
SPEAKER_06Yes, yes, it is. Yep, yep, the Saturday morning mafia. So I'm not gonna explain what that is yet, but nope.
SPEAKER_11Just know that's us.
SPEAKER_06That's yep, that is us. Yeah, exactly. The first of I hope quite quite a few.
SPEAKER_07I hope so. Yeah, this was fun.
SPEAKER_06It was, it was a lot of fun. So thanks again for being on. And I'm gonna say, let's make like Donner and Blitzen and hit the turbo boost to find us as always on our social media pages, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And if you're feeling as awesome as Michael while he's driving kit, then please go ahead and leave us a review on iTunes. Not only does it help us reach more people, but you also get a free sticker. I mean, can't go wrong with that. And I'm gonna end with later dudes. Wait, what did you want to say?
SPEAKER_04Challenge time.
SPEAKER_06Challenge.
SPEAKER_04Our challenge today is that you guys get to make a little box, a box car that does not talk, or it can if you want to. If you put a little box voice inside, you hit a special button. Make your own little cardboard car and put it on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
SPEAKER_06Ooh, that sounds like a fun idea.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it is.