If for no other reason, Edward Mulhare's appearance and performance was enough to watch this movie. The reunion with Devon and Michael was so heartwarming, the scene where he flipped out on Maddock was powerful, and the death scene was a total tearjerker. The fact that he passed away several years later and that scene really gave closure. RIP Edward and Devon. 💔😪
Perhaps if Edward had only known the dangers of cigarette smoking from the beginning. He used to smoke big time, but quit some time before Knight Rider premiered in 1982. Unfortunately the damage was done, and it was just a matter of time before the effects of cigarette smoking would eventually catch up with him on May 24, 1997 in the form of lung cancer.
@@procta2343 it’s a shame that this has happened to millions of people throughout history. And it’s also unfortunate that more people will continue to pay the price for it. That’s why I hate smoking and I will never touch a cigarette as long as I live. Except to sweep them up off the ground and throw them in a garbage can where they belong
I felt the same way. I was hoping and expecting to see KITT the way he was in the show. I was excited when I saw the intro and you see KITT as the black trans am racing by and then the title sequence appears after that. It was like a tease that made you excited for it. Then you're let down when you learn that KITT is dismantled and the trans am body for him is gone.
My family has made fun of me for 31 years for crying when Devon died. We taped it when it aired and I watched it so many times it feels weird to watch it now without the commercials.
Even in this commentary video i've got tears in my eyes as soon as Devon dies and you see all that memory scenes. Sure he wasn't technically there ... but they knew what they did when they edited that stuff back then ... because it hurt's .... every damn time ... Actually Knight Rider 2000 is the movie that brought me into Knight Rider . I was around 10 years old when i saw the scene where KITT is in all his single pieces on the table and Michael is trying to get him fixed up (it was a rerun in german tv). i was always interested in electronics and this scene took my attention. So i went to the local DVD store and bought the original series and started watching it .. and 8 Years later i bought my Pontiac Firebird and started my project to build my own K.I.T.T. ... i know many people don't like Knight Rider 2000 but i think it isn't a bad movie ... and without this movie i would't be a Knight Rider Fan , building my own replica !
My favorite line from the reunion movie was KITT in the 57 Chevy talking about the 4000. "There's nothing worse than a smartass automobile" Oh the irony! 🤣🤣🤣
It's all they had to do, one job, take the stupid idiotic red car out of this film & it's amazing, a reboot after this with a black car would have killed it big time imo, I'm English & didn't even know about this till 3 years ago, major ball drop!
Although I realize that Edward Mulhare may not have wanted to do more Knight Rider, I was completely shocked and upset over Devon being killed. I think many people don't appreciate what a tremendous actor Edward was and just how key Devon was to the success of Knight Rider. RIP Edward - never forgotten.💔🍀
Although I don't care much for KR2000, one thing I do love is how KITT's voice now sounds uncompressed. Like his voice doesn't sound like he's coming from an intercom, radio or phone like in the series. Almost makes it sound like William Daniels was actually there with them filming even though he probably recorded his lines in studio like he did in the series.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw a VHS copy of Knight Rider 2000 in my local video shop back in 1992. Sadly at the age of 10, something just felt a little off when watching it, even at that age it didn’t feel as cool as the series. Still I always go back to it every few years as it’s a fascinating subject as what might of been compared to what we got. Thanks for doing a commentary on it Joe as you did provide some new insights I wasn’t aware of 👊
I used to work in the Century Building, that was used for Quayton Prison, back in the late 1970s. I was interning at an architecht''s office. KR 2000 was actually filmed in both San Antonio, as well as Corpus Christi Tx. It was fun to watch them drive down a street in SA, turn a corner and be in Corpus. Then they would turn another corner and be back in SA.
I was 16 when this aired and had friends over to watch because we were excited to see the potential return of KR. After seeing Michael washed up, KITT dismantled and Devon murdered our happiness faded. To me this always felt like our beloved KR characters were pulled from their universe into a different one. The 2008 pilot felt more like KR than this one even though in that we see KITT and Michael very briefly. Thank you for the commentary, great work as usual.
This was one of your best commentaries I actually laughed a few times where I would normally fall asleep. Jk, thanks for all the ep commentaries and keep up the good work on ur channel!
You made my day! 1991 was one of the first years in Poland with the new system... So we could get (buy) a satellite TV and everything. I was a huge KR fan since I saw it on RTL. Yes, it was with German dubbing. Then KR2000 was released in TV. I recorded it (from RTL again) and then I saw an ad of a sound studio that was providing translations. I mailed them the tape with the money inside. I was 12 by the way. Few weeks later when I was starting to think that I lost the tape and the money, it came back beautifully translated to Polish. I was watching it every single day and it didn't bother me at all that the car is red and of a different brand, and what they did to Devon... Now your commentary is a kind of fullfillment to my story ;) Thank you!
I remember getting into Knight Rider around 2012 and around that same year I just gotten Season 1 and 2 on DVD. Me and my aunt were going to a summer camp a year later and I brought my laptop and Knight Rider DVD's with me on the trip and on the way I was watching Knight Rider 2000 only an hour later finishing the movie and into the trip we happened to pass through San Antonio so it felt like deja vu going to the mall and other filming locations from the movie. Great memories to remember.
Would love to get a copy of that original script. I read everything on the screen at the start…looked incredible…certainly an improvement on what we ended up with
Knight Rider 2000 was the best thing to ever come out of the franchise. The music is great, the story is fun and not only is it a passing of the torch, it's also meant to be about retirement and how you don't need wallow; you can very much still be useful, even if it's in a reduced capacity.
Great job as always Joe. 👍 Every so often I replay the episodes. There's always I would like to say about this as Dusty Rhodes would say, " Major motion pictures and Sitcoms" I still love rewatching these commentaries it's like watching Me TV.
It is so cool that I finally get to see how they did the behind the scenes of Knight Rider 2000 but I can tell you this there is a place here in New Jersey not too far from my house from the border of Elizabeth New Jersey and Newark New Jersey that's probably a car body shop that has the same replica car of the Knight 4000 I seen it once while I was traveling on a New Jersey Transit train heading into New York and I saw it and I glanced it in his big red car it looks just alike i said oh my gosh that's the Knight 4000 so it must be some car body shop that's probably collecting it but it was out in the open and in the public's eye lol so just want to tell you guys that 😊
I remember watching this on TV thinking it was awesome. Really hoped that it would turn into a new show. I actually still have the vhs recorded tape of the show from its original showing.
Correction on the filming of KR2000: It was shot on 35mm and printed on 35mm. The film was seemingly sourced from a video master (maybe a broadcast copy?) Big problem from the era also was the nascent use of digital video editing, which could only be mastered in standard definition (see also latter-day Star Trek shows like TNG, DS9, etc.), but I don't think that's quite the case here. Would love to see someone do a proper scan of the original negative. All the same, hats off to the fine folks at Promethean Digital for the upscale. Looks terrific.
To me it's crazy but also kinda cool how the dudes that created this channel have centered a big part of their lives around a cheesy TV show from the 1980s. Oh yeah I have been binge watching these unofficial commentary videos.
Loved your knight rider 2000 commentary. That unused script for the kr2000 movie I never knew existed sounded amazing. If it would have been used might have been good enough to green light the 5-6 future movies of the week David wanted to make for kr 2000 per year he mentioned in an interview. Michael installing kitt in his Cadillac would have me believe he was planning to drive off with kitt after he helped Devon cement the contract with the government. Would have made for a great ending. Decades ago I was thinking the same thing of how so many functions kitt had in the knight 4000 series body, he already had in the knight 2000 body in the 80s. I remember using your A-z list of kitts functions to look up each one including the aroma scanner. Think he used it in the episode with the boxer in season 4 where he detected the nurses perfume in the deaf journalist's home just before the place blew up.
For escaping the car underwater, you would roll down the window, since those cars had a manual handle to roll the window down. Once you have it rolled down, you either escape out the window, or wait for the pressure to equalize inside the car as the water fills it up, then open the door.
Really enjoyed your commentary and pointing out all the little nuances we’re not really meant to notice in freeze frame-but there they are. I watched this the night it aired. As a Texan in college at the time, I knew those San Antonio streets, locations, and river walk very well. There was also a scene or two filmed in Corpus Christi where I hung out a lot, and those scenes at Michael’s house look quintessentially Texas Hill Country. As the film never stated otherwise, I have always assumed that the story was set in and around San Antonio, Texas, given the landmarks-which was exciting. In my head canon, the Foundation had setup shop in Texas! What I did find annoying about the film was-why the time jump? Why set it less than a decade later, knowing that it’s going be noticeably dated by the time the (hypothetical) series is ending pretty damned close to the year it’s set, if it was successful. This isn’t hindsight. The night it aired, I was literally yelling at the TV, “we’re not going to have cryo-prisons in under nine years!!” That was ridiculous at the time. The original series displayed levels of technology we haven’t achieved today, but you could believe it, because it was “top secret” technologies isolated to KITT and the Foundation-so it worked beautifully to have it set in a relatable present day. This vaguely futuristic “year 2000” felt dated the same night it aired, especially as we saw more advanced secret technologies in the original series (i.e. where’s the turbo boost?). I hated KITT’s new design, as it looked like a fake plastic body draped over some other car (alas, that’s exactly what it was!) and no turbo boost! The original KITT was a real car from modern day. The new KITT looked fake and less capable. It looked like a car they wanted to drive very slow and carefully, no crazy maneuvers, because they were too afraid of its fake plastic body would come apart (which I suspect was actually the case). All these things went through my mind the night I watched it-which took me out of the story. I suspect that’s why it failed for others, too. But for some reason, I still have a soft spot in my heart for it. I still want to twist my head canon to where it works…as canon. And to that end… Yes, do Team Knight Rider and 2008.
Thanks for confirmiing that opening KITT shot being unused footage from the 1982 desert shoot. I figured that had to be the case because I never saw that shot during the re-runs and I looked for it. I knew there was no way they would have gone to the work to shoot it for KR2000. Reallly cool they dug that up for the TV movie.
I remember a bit of history when it comes the Knight 4000 car. The car itself was sold to a company that leased vehicles for various TV and movie productions including the first episode of Power Rangers Time Force where it was repainted into a futuristic police car. After that, the car was sold again to a private individual who happened to be RUclips personality VideoBob Moseley. He builds replica show cars for a living. He held onto the car for at least 10 years and it sat in his back lot. I remember him saying he had plans to restore the car, but never got around to it. He said the car's engine was blown and it needed repairs because the car was driven hard on an episode of a show called Scare Tactics. The last thing he did to the car was give it a matching coat of red paint and got the original scanner bar working again. He put up a video saying he was selling the car, but I don't know if he actually sold it yet. For more information on the car itself, check out his channel.
Speaking of Peter Parros, he was starring in the new Adam-12 at the time I believe. Coincidentally, another famous KR guest star was starring in a similar reboot of Dragnet around that time as well. That actor was Jeff Osterhage from KITT vs KARR.
Thanks for doing commentary on this one Joe! Gotta admit though, I’m shocked that you made no mention of the Pontiac Banshee that the K4000 is obviously supposed to be based on? I’ve always wanted the inside scoop on that.
The Pontiac Banshee was first developed in 1964 under the XP-833 code name. It's a concept car that was intended to be brought to production by the head of Pontiac John Delorean. The trouble was the suits at GM feared that such an extremely styled sports car would rival Corvette which no car under the GM brand was ever allowed to do. Because of that Banshee was forced to remain a concept car from which Corvette and Firebird borrowed styling from over the years. The Banshee IV built-in 1988 is responsible for the overall design of the Knight 4000 and the forth gen Firebird and Camero.
Great commentary as expected Joe! You mentioned about losing track of the season 3/4 dash instrument panels...I remember an episode of SeaQuest (don't recall the title, unfortunately; this would have been 1993 or 1994 timeframe) where they seemed to use season 3/4 dash parts in a mockup of a computer counsel that Roy's character Nathan was communicating with. Could Universal have reused these dash parts for the SeaQuest prop? In addition, would love to see commentaries on TKR and KR08...and perhaps metions of Street Hawk or even Viper as well!
Thank you so much for doing this. I feel like I was the only one who actually liked this movie. I had the amt /ertl model kit of KITT from this before it came on tv I was in school when it came out and I remember it came on tv like I think at 9 or 10 at night I could not watch it as I had to be in school the next morning my dad stayed up and recorded it on vcr tape for me so I could watch it the next day. I think I still have that tape some where
Great job. Watching this movie in that amount of detail is a truly heroic endeavor. I remember being so excited to see this and then doing my best to forget it ever happened as the end credits rolled. BTW: CRT touch screens had been around since 1965, that was one thing that wasn't a prediction of the future, they had actually been around longer than the Chevy. ;)
Shawn and Michael getting out of KITT: I always just assumed, since power windows were an upgrade option on the '57 Chevy, Michael had manual windows and they just cracked them, let water fill the cabin, then swam out the windows.
Joe! Amazing job here. I remember seeing this when it originally aired. I was actually born the day before KR debuted in '82, so I had dim memories of the show until this aired in 1991, and I remember seeing it sporadically on the USA network, so the promo you had at the beginning here took me back. I still like the opening theme from this, so if for nothing else, congratulations to Jan Hammer for that job. Rob Hedden also wrote (and directed) Jason Takes Manhattan.... So take that for what it's worth for the quality of this script.
Thanks again for these commentaries. I just finished re-watching the original series, along with your commentaries, ending with this movie. I for one hope you do end up doing TKR and the reboot show, I'd at least like to re-watch them myself soon.
Where KITT "docked" was just outside the River Walk Mall food court in San Antonio, he actually enters into the food court, and the shoot out was inside that mall. I stayed next door at the Minger Hotel right across from the Alamo back when I was in Job Corps. We were there for the Academic Olympics. I was at that mall at least once a day cause it looked failure.
Thanks for this re-visit of Knight Rider 2000. I saw that movie and I wanted to point out two things. One Dan Quail was president only because he was V.P. under George H.W. Bush who was president at the time. When Kitt dove off the pier, he assumed that the occupants would be rescued when the car was pulled up by Devon, because the car was perfectly sealed from the water.
KR2000 was written by Rob Hedden, who also wrote and Directed Friday the 13th part 8 Jason takes Manhattan. I remember when this came out and I was so hyped up for it until I seen he wrote it. The same guy who put Jason Voorhees on a boat for a movie that bombed so bad Paramount sold the rights to New Line! This had so much potential 🤦♂️
Great commentary, Joe! Happy you did this one! Interesting thought: KR2000 aired in May 1991, about a year after NBC had canceled Baywatch. Baywatch eventually returned as a first-run syndicated show in the fall of '91. So, had Baywatch been an immediate hit & not canceled in 1990, there wouldn't have been that year-and-a-half gap without it, & KR2000 may have never happened. Even more interesting considering how popular (& long-running) Baywatch eventually became. A lucky break for KR fans, even if it wasn't ultimately the movie we wanted.
What a nice opening of the new year from you Historians, thank you! KR 2000 was not introduced here officially at all - probably because unfortunately the KR series didn´t have a chance to become very popular here. DVD available from abroad but no Czech subtitles ... so the audience was/ is limited (again). One thing I know for sure - Jan Hammer and his parents come from former Czechoslovakia (divided now into two states) and I actually do remember his mother, Vlasta Průchová, because she was a good jazz singer. They moved to the USA after 1968. And I like his music. Anyway - I suddenly feel such a nostalgyafter the "old days of Knight Rider"... I am very grateful for your commentary again and I do hope we will meet again. Because nothing more about KR following series has ever been seen here either and I enjoy your research very much.
@@williammitchell4417 not a Corsica or a Cavalier. The normal cop cars were berettas and the vans were lumina APV aka dustbusters. The car that got blown up was an 80s dodge charger hatchback.
@@pdennis93 Those were the kinds of cars I was thinking of. I owned a 98 Cavalier. I do remember the Charger then as well which reminded me of the Omni 024.😁
We had touch screens in the 1980s. We also had fiber optic technology well before the 1980s. Great video nonetheless. Glad to see you have the front end of the car. Nice to see preservation. As an edit: they got out of the car through roll down windows. It has a hand crank, and was commonly available on cars into the late 90s.
Thanks for confirming that the one in dezerland florida is the legit car. I travelled from Scotland to florida this year to visit dezerland so happy to know that its the real car from my childhood vhs
Knight Rider Historians Official- Where can I find the song that plays around 52:44?... Assuming that it's from the original 'Knight Rider' TV sound-track, I looked all over RUclips for it & I can't find it.
I love how Michael tells KITT to be careful because the 57 Chevy had its original paint but you can see the car had yellow paint when Michael pretended to breakdown (to gain access to the police mainframe).
Love it joe keep it up . I watch the video you did on the shooting locations and that was good too. Didn’t know you had the half car love to a video on that. When you was talking about he while mall scenes it was kinda a throw back to return to Cadiz (I know spelled it wrong) when Michael “it either sink or swim I thought it was funny cause he kinda said the same when they went to the water in the show “you didn’t sink buddy”or he have be talking about with he was in the 57 Chevy. Would like to see your view of team knight and knight rider 2008!
They did have touchscreen technology by 2000. I worked at a company in Massachusetts in the 1980's that was developing them, which were originally used in point of sale registers in fast food restaurants.
The ONLY questions I have is - Why was the Knight 4000 Red instead of the Original Gloss Black??? And why wasn’t the Original Dash not inside the Knight 4000????
This is SO awesome! So - weird story - my first exposure to the KR universe? KR 2000! The mother of a friend in 7th grade had taped it (on VHS!) from NBC and I saw it sometime after the original airing. Oddly enough - it was that being included on the extra DVD that was included with Season 1 when it was released on DVD that prompted me to buy the set. It was the first thing I watched - then decided I should watch the entire season, since I'd bought it. Got hooked - never looked back!
Yes please for both Team Knight Rider and 2008. They may not be the best but still interesting for a history of the franchise. I do think 2008 pretty much did a Star Trek Enterprise; ended good but was too late. 2010 should only ever be a footnote of what happens when name recognition is all you have going for you. Lol.
Devon visits Michael at the beginning. Best scene of the entire movie, one of the best scenes of the entire franchise. Also, overall concept of 'Knight Rider 2000' is pretty cool. With a bigger budget, better new KITT design, Michael as the one and only hero, different and descent script (even with the same base themes) and some cool stunts it could be a really awesome movie. Without Devon death and awfully boring Shawn McCormick character, of course.
I hadn’t seen this since I was a kid, and even taped it. Didn’t even realize it had been shot it SA until I saw it run on AceTV or Decades or somesuch in the last couple of years. My Dad’s from SA, and I’ve spent so much time there that I know 99% of those locations. How I didn’t realize it as a kid, IDK. They also used the American Bank building in Corpus Christi for an exterior, which still stands today (somehow).
I wish I had known you had the buck of the Knight 4000. Fellow youtuber Video Bob Mosely owned the car for a while. I believe it was the hero car. It was in pretty rough condition. He put it up for sale about 2 years ago. I dont know where it landed. He was able to trace its origins and could twll that it appeared in CHiPs 99 as a concept car and the Power Rangers movie as a futuristic police car. It then wound up in police livery on a reality show about fear. Fear Factor? I dunno. It was driven through a fake wall several times for the show. He said it had less than 500 miles on the clock but still the engine was destroyed. I think it would have been a great car for the KRH to own....especially if you have already the insert buck. Oh well.
Watched KR2K for the first time last month. Looking forward to listening to this commentary. I live in Texas so was fun to see San Antonio on screen. I've been (as i'm sure many have) to pretty much all of those filming locations, the Hoff was sitting right near out hotel at one point. Anyway, the strangest thing about this film is how little car action there is, considering its Knight Rider. Its like they just carried on where season 4 left off.
Being a Star Trek fan I recorded from the television, because of James Dohan being it and having seen a handful of Knight Rider episodes over the years. I then started again watching reruns of Knight Rider so when the DVD box set came out I was quite happy to find out this was part of the set as well. The movie itself is quite patchy relying on the set in the future with no guns. It remind me a lot of Demolition Man, but there are few redeeming features, it Michael and Devons relationship is fun but there endding is sad, we get to see/hear KITT and it doesn't paint Michael as abandoning his family as the other show after this does. If I was writing the moive I would have had someone one break into old foundation building and find KITT in one piece, over the passing years FLAG has been disbanded because someone pushed Michael and Devon out. KITT and the thief put the band back together as it were even Bonnie turn up. But just because I can Devon still die but of old age and Michael take his role.
I loved the original Knight Rider show. KITT doing burnouts and drifts were awesome. Then I saw Knight Rider 2000 and KITT was front wheel drive. I was a kid then and my dad said KITT is probably a dressed up Cavalier. I was so disappointed.
Thank you for the commentary! I was hoping you would do one of Knight Rider 2000. There were a few things I knew, others I didn't. There is a video on RUclips of some guy who got one of the Knight Industries 4000 cars. It was beat up and he was trying to get it running, As for James Doohan, his appearance may have been for comic relief, and to show things were not working just right. I don't know how well known it was at the time but Star Trek VI was to be original cast's final act, and the movie came out later the same year., Star Trek's 25th anniversary.
We'll never forget you Devon Miles🖥🏜🚗🌹
If for no other reason, Edward Mulhare's appearance and performance was enough to watch this movie. The reunion with Devon and Michael was so heartwarming, the scene where he flipped out on Maddock was powerful, and the death scene was a total tearjerker. The fact that he passed away several years later and that scene really gave closure. RIP Edward and Devon. 💔😪
I think in some scenes Edward had some heavy makeup on, so he may have been in poor health, when they filmed this.
Perhaps if Edward had only known the dangers of cigarette smoking from the beginning. He used to smoke big time, but quit some time before Knight Rider premiered in 1982. Unfortunately the damage was done, and it was just a matter of time before the effects of cigarette smoking would eventually catch up with him on May 24, 1997 in the form of lung cancer.
@@FormulaPunRacer the same thing happened to George Peppard from the A team.
@@FormulaPunRacer yes, I'd forgotten about that.
@@procta2343 it’s a shame that this has happened to millions of people throughout history. And it’s also unfortunate that more people will continue to pay the price for it. That’s why I hate smoking and I will never touch a cigarette as long as I live. Except to sweep them up off the ground and throw them in a garbage can where they belong
I remember being pretty excited to watch KR 2000 then being very disappointed with the route the story took and what they did to KITT.
Me too
I felt the same way. I was hoping and expecting to see KITT the way he was in the show. I was excited when I saw the intro and you see KITT as the black trans am racing by and then the title sequence appears after that. It was like a tease that made you excited for it. Then you're let down when you learn that KITT is dismantled and the trans am body for him is gone.
👍
I hated it! It’s a huge slap in the face to all Knight Rider fans and should be erased from existence! My personal opinion.
@Steve Bellmore atleast they got the banter with Michael and KITT and the father and son relationship between Devon and Michael right
My family has made fun of me for 31 years for crying when Devon died.
We taped it when it aired and I watched it so many times it feels weird to watch it now without the commercials.
Even in this commentary video i've got tears in my eyes as soon as Devon dies and you see all that memory scenes. Sure he wasn't technically there ... but they knew what they did when they edited that stuff back then ... because it hurt's .... every damn time ...
Actually Knight Rider 2000 is the movie that brought me into Knight Rider . I was around 10 years old when i saw the scene where KITT is in all his single pieces on the table and Michael is trying to get him fixed up (it was a rerun in german tv). i was always interested in electronics and this scene took my attention. So i went to the local DVD store and bought the original series and started watching it .. and 8 Years later i bought my Pontiac Firebird and started my project to build my own K.I.T.T. ... i know many people don't like Knight Rider 2000 but i think it isn't a bad movie ... and without this movie i would't be a Knight Rider Fan , building my own replica !
My favorite line from the reunion movie was KITT in the 57 Chevy talking about the 4000.
"There's nothing worse than a smartass automobile"
Oh the irony! 🤣🤣🤣
Everybody wanted KITT in his car... Everyone was so upset when they saw this!
It's all they had to do, one job, take the stupid idiotic red car out of this film & it's amazing, a reboot after this with a black car would have killed it big time imo, I'm English & didn't even know about this till 3 years ago, major ball drop!
Macgyver also drives an old Chevy in the later seasons. The early 90s was a resurgence for the classic American hotrod.
the old 50's nomad.... loved that car... not quite as capable as his jeep, but still looked cool
Although I realize that Edward Mulhare may not have wanted to do more Knight Rider, I was completely shocked and upset over Devon being killed. I think many people don't appreciate what a tremendous actor Edward was and just how key Devon was to the success of Knight Rider. RIP Edward - never forgotten.💔🍀
Although I don't care much for KR2000, one thing I do love is how KITT's voice now sounds uncompressed. Like his voice doesn't sound like he's coming from an intercom, radio or phone like in the series. Almost makes it sound like William Daniels was actually there with them filming even though he probably recorded his lines in studio like he did in the series.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw a VHS copy of Knight Rider 2000 in my local video shop back in 1992. Sadly at the age of 10, something just felt a little off when watching it, even at that age it didn’t feel as cool as the series. Still I always go back to it every few years as it’s a fascinating subject as what might of been compared to what we got.
Thanks for doing a commentary on it Joe as you did provide some new insights I wasn’t aware of 👊
I used to work in the Century Building, that was used for Quayton Prison, back in the late 1970s. I was interning at an architecht''s office. KR 2000 was actually filmed in both San Antonio, as well as Corpus Christi Tx. It was fun to watch them drive down a street in SA, turn a corner and be in Corpus. Then they would turn another corner and be back in SA.
I was 16 when this aired and had friends over to watch because we were excited to see the potential return of KR. After seeing Michael washed up, KITT dismantled and Devon murdered our happiness faded. To me this always felt like our beloved KR characters were pulled from their universe into a different one. The 2008 pilot felt more like KR than this one even though in that we see KITT and Michael very briefly. Thank you for the commentary, great work as usual.
This was one of your best commentaries I actually laughed a few times where I would normally fall asleep.
Jk, thanks for all the ep commentaries and keep up the good work on ur channel!
You made my day! 1991 was one of the first years in Poland with the new system... So we could get (buy) a satellite TV and everything. I was a huge KR fan since I saw it on RTL. Yes, it was with German dubbing. Then KR2000 was released in TV. I recorded it (from RTL again) and then I saw an ad of a sound studio that was providing translations. I mailed them the tape with the money inside. I was 12 by the way. Few weeks later when I was starting to think that I lost the tape and the money, it came back beautifully translated to Polish. I was watching it every single day and it didn't bother me at all that the car is red and of a different brand, and what they did to Devon... Now your commentary is a kind of fullfillment to my story ;) Thank you!
I remember getting into Knight Rider around 2012 and around that same year I just gotten Season 1 and 2 on DVD. Me and my aunt were going to a summer camp a year later and I brought my laptop and Knight Rider DVD's with me on the trip and on the way I was watching Knight Rider 2000 only an hour later finishing the movie and into the trip we happened to pass through San Antonio so it felt like deja vu going to the mall and other filming locations from the movie. Great memories to remember.
Would love to get a copy of that original script. I read everything on the screen at the start…looked incredible…certainly an improvement on what we ended up with
Thanks for doing this. I must admit more I've watched this movie, the more it grows on me. Well it's the little things in it!
As a mechanic, the most far fetched part of this movie is that chevy being water tight
You’re right, that Chevy probably wasn’t even rain proof. 😁
Knight Rider 2000 was my first exposure to Knight Rider thanks to my dad taping it when it originally aired.
Buick actually had a touch screen CRT in the dashboard of the Riviera in 1986.
The Knight 4000 was based on a Dodge Stealth chassis. The filmmakers added many details from Pontiacs 1988 concept car Banshee IV.
Knight Rider 2000 was the best thing to ever come out of the franchise. The music is great, the story is fun and not only is it a passing of the torch, it's also meant to be about retirement and how you don't need wallow; you can very much still be useful, even if it's in a reduced capacity.
Great job as always Joe. 👍 Every so often I replay the episodes. There's always I would like to say about this as Dusty Rhodes would say, " Major motion pictures and Sitcoms" I still love rewatching these commentaries it's like watching Me TV.
It is so cool that I finally get to see how they did the behind the scenes of Knight Rider 2000 but I can tell you this there is a place here in New Jersey not too far from my house from the border of Elizabeth New Jersey and Newark New Jersey that's probably a car body shop that has the same replica car of the Knight 4000 I seen it once while I was traveling on a New Jersey Transit train heading into New York and I saw it and I glanced it in his big red car it looks just alike i said oh my gosh that's the Knight 4000 so it must be some car body shop that's probably collecting it but it was out in the open and in the public's eye lol so just want to tell you guys that 😊
Great video Great show thanks
This made my day seeing this.
wow, THIS is how I find out we past the year 2000 ? Thank God for you and your timely information !
the video looks great so far, keep up the good work. I'd never thought I'd enjoy a video of just text on a screen with commentary so much.
I remember watching this on TV thinking it was awesome. Really hoped that it would turn into a new show. I actually still have the vhs recorded tape of the show from its original showing.
Correction on the filming of KR2000: It was shot on 35mm and printed on 35mm. The film was seemingly sourced from a video master (maybe a broadcast copy?) Big problem from the era also was the nascent use of digital video editing, which could only be mastered in standard definition (see also latter-day Star Trek shows like TNG, DS9, etc.), but I don't think that's quite the case here. Would love to see someone do a proper scan of the original negative. All the same, hats off to the fine folks at Promethean Digital for the upscale. Looks terrific.
To me it's crazy but also kinda cool how the dudes that created this channel have centered a big part of their lives around a cheesy TV show from the 1980s. Oh yeah I have been binge watching these unofficial commentary videos.
Loved your knight rider 2000 commentary. That unused script for the kr2000 movie I never knew existed sounded amazing. If it would have been used might have been good enough to green light the 5-6 future movies of the week David wanted to make for kr 2000 per year he mentioned in an interview. Michael installing kitt in his Cadillac would have me believe he was planning to drive off with kitt after he helped Devon cement the contract with the government. Would have made for a great ending. Decades ago I was thinking the same thing of how so many functions kitt had in the knight 4000 series body, he already had in the knight 2000 body in the 80s. I remember using your A-z list of kitts functions to look up each one including the aroma scanner. Think he used it in the episode with the boxer in season 4 where he detected the nurses perfume in the deaf journalist's home just before the place blew up.
Thanks. that was really interesting.
For escaping the car underwater, you would roll down the window, since those cars had a manual handle to roll the window down. Once you have it rolled down, you either escape out the window, or wait for the pressure to equalize inside the car as the water fills it up, then open the door.
Really enjoyed your commentary and pointing out all the little nuances we’re not really meant to notice in freeze frame-but there they are. I watched this the night it aired. As a Texan in college at the time, I knew those San Antonio streets, locations, and river walk very well. There was also a scene or two filmed in Corpus Christi where I hung out a lot, and those scenes at Michael’s house look quintessentially Texas Hill Country. As the film never stated otherwise, I have always assumed that the story was set in and around San Antonio, Texas, given the landmarks-which was exciting. In my head canon, the Foundation had setup shop in Texas!
What I did find annoying about the film was-why the time jump? Why set it less than a decade later, knowing that it’s going be noticeably dated by the time the (hypothetical) series is ending pretty damned close to the year it’s set, if it was successful. This isn’t hindsight. The night it aired, I was literally yelling at the TV, “we’re not going to have cryo-prisons in under nine years!!” That was ridiculous at the time.
The original series displayed levels of technology we haven’t achieved today, but you could believe it, because it was “top secret” technologies isolated to KITT and the Foundation-so it worked beautifully to have it set in a relatable present day. This vaguely futuristic “year 2000” felt dated the same night it aired, especially as we saw more advanced secret technologies in the original series (i.e. where’s the turbo boost?). I hated KITT’s new design, as it looked like a fake plastic body draped over some other car (alas, that’s exactly what it was!) and no turbo boost! The original KITT was a real car from modern day. The new KITT looked fake and less capable. It looked like a car they wanted to drive very slow and carefully, no crazy maneuvers, because they were too afraid of its fake plastic body would come apart (which I suspect was actually the case). All these things went through my mind the night I watched it-which took me out of the story. I suspect that’s why it failed for others, too.
But for some reason, I still have a soft spot in my heart for it. I still want to twist my head canon to where it works…as canon. And to that end…
Yes, do Team Knight Rider and 2008.
Great info Brother Joe
Thanks for confirmiing that opening KITT shot being unused footage from the 1982 desert shoot. I figured that had to be the case because I never saw that shot during the re-runs and I looked for it. I knew there was no way they would have gone to the work to shoot it for KR2000. Reallly cool they dug that up for the TV movie.
I remember a bit of history when it comes the Knight 4000 car. The car itself was sold to a company that leased vehicles for various TV and movie productions including the first episode of Power Rangers Time Force where it was repainted into a futuristic police car. After that, the car was sold again to a private individual who happened to be RUclips personality VideoBob Moseley. He builds replica show cars for a living. He held onto the car for at least 10 years and it sat in his back lot. I remember him saying he had plans to restore the car, but never got around to it. He said the car's engine was blown and it needed repairs because the car was driven hard on an episode of a show called Scare Tactics. The last thing he did to the car was give it a matching coat of red paint and got the original scanner bar working again. He put up a video saying he was selling the car, but I don't know if he actually sold it yet. For more information on the car itself, check out his channel.
Is that the same guy with an attitude that claims to build "accurate" KITT's but they look horrible & over priced?
Speaking of Peter Parros, he was starring in the new Adam-12 at the time I believe. Coincidentally, another famous KR guest star was starring in a similar reboot of Dragnet around that time as well. That actor was Jeff Osterhage from KITT vs KARR.
Gee, thanks for making me feel so old. Love your channel!
This one will always be, near and dear to my heart. A lot of good memories.
I love the music in this movie that is played often (including in the intro).
According to the IMDB this was shot and mastered on 35mm film.
Dammit Jim, I'm a Knight Rider Historian, not a doctor! 🖖
Thanks for doing commentary on this one Joe!
Gotta admit though, I’m shocked that you made no mention of the Pontiac Banshee that the K4000 is obviously supposed to be based on? I’ve always wanted the inside scoop on that.
The Pontiac Banshee was first developed in 1964 under the XP-833 code name. It's a concept car that was intended to be brought to production by the head of Pontiac John Delorean. The trouble was the suits at GM feared that such an extremely styled sports car would rival Corvette which no car under the GM brand was ever allowed to do. Because of that Banshee was forced to remain a concept car from which Corvette and Firebird borrowed styling from over the years.
The Banshee IV built-in 1988 is responsible for the overall design of the Knight 4000 and the forth gen Firebird and Camero.
Another great commentary! Learned a few cool new facts! Thank you so much!
Happy new year knight rider historians .+ keep up the good work .
Great commentary as expected Joe! You mentioned about losing track of the season 3/4 dash instrument panels...I remember an episode of SeaQuest (don't recall the title, unfortunately; this would have been 1993 or 1994 timeframe) where they seemed to use season 3/4 dash parts in a mockup of a computer counsel that Roy's character Nathan was communicating with. Could Universal have reused these dash parts for the SeaQuest prop? In addition, would love to see commentaries on TKR and KR08...and perhaps metions of Street Hawk or even Viper as well!
Thank you so much for doing this. I feel like I was the only one who actually liked this movie. I had the amt /ertl model kit of KITT from this before it came on tv I was in school when it came out and I remember it came on tv like I think at 9 or 10 at night I could not watch it as I had to be in school the next morning my dad stayed up and recorded it on vcr tape for me so I could watch it the next day. I think I still have that tape some where
Woohoo! Thank you for doing this, Joe!
Great job. Watching this movie in that amount of detail is a truly heroic endeavor. I remember being so excited to see this and then doing my best to forget it ever happened as the end credits rolled.
BTW: CRT touch screens had been around since 1965, that was one thing that wasn't a prediction of the future, they had actually been around longer than the Chevy. ;)
Shawn and Michael getting out of KITT: I always just assumed, since power windows were an upgrade option on the '57 Chevy, Michael had manual windows and they just cracked them, let water fill the cabin, then swam out the windows.
I remember having touch screens at the Del Amo Mall in Torrance CA in the 90s. It was used for the directory!
Amazing connections
Wonderful commentary Joe and AJ!!
That first trailer is great
Joe! Amazing job here.
I remember seeing this when it originally aired. I was actually born the day before KR debuted in '82, so I had dim memories of the show until this aired in 1991, and I remember seeing it sporadically on the USA network, so the promo you had at the beginning here took me back.
I still like the opening theme from this, so if for nothing else, congratulations to Jan Hammer for that job.
Rob Hedden also wrote (and directed) Jason Takes Manhattan.... So take that for what it's worth for the quality of this script.
Thanks again for these commentaries. I just finished re-watching the original series, along with your commentaries, ending with this movie. I for one hope you do end up doing TKR and the reboot show, I'd at least like to re-watch them myself soon.
Great job on the commentary! I’d love to see more 4000 car stuff.
Where KITT "docked" was just outside the River Walk Mall food court in San Antonio, he actually enters into the food court, and the shoot out was inside that mall. I stayed next door at the Minger Hotel right across from the Alamo back when I was in Job Corps. We were there for the Academic Olympics. I was at that mall at least once a day cause it looked failure.
Round house kick? Great commentary Joe, happy new year KR fam!
Thanks for this re-visit of Knight Rider 2000. I saw that movie and I wanted to point out two things. One Dan Quail was president only because he was V.P. under George H.W. Bush who was president at the time. When Kitt dove off the pier, he assumed that the occupants would be rescued when the car was pulled up by Devon, because the car was perfectly sealed from the water.
Excellent job Joe!!
KR2000 was written by Rob Hedden, who also wrote and Directed Friday the 13th part 8 Jason takes Manhattan. I remember when this came out and I was so hyped up for it until I seen he wrote it. The same guy who put Jason Voorhees on a boat for a movie that bombed so bad Paramount sold the rights to New Line! This had so much potential 🤦♂️
Awesome vid. Is the original script available for us to read?
Great commentary, Joe! Happy you did this one! Interesting thought: KR2000 aired in May 1991, about a year after NBC had canceled Baywatch. Baywatch eventually returned as a first-run syndicated show in the fall of '91. So, had Baywatch been an immediate hit & not canceled in 1990, there wouldn't have been that year-and-a-half gap without it, & KR2000 may have never happened.
Even more interesting considering how popular (& long-running) Baywatch eventually became. A lucky break for KR fans, even if it wasn't ultimately the movie we wanted.
I bet NBC was kicking themselves for years for cancelling Baywatch.
@@pdennis93 100%! For 10 years they got to watch it rake in the viewers (and dough) for others. haha
What a nice opening of the new year from you Historians, thank you! KR 2000 was not introduced here officially at all - probably because unfortunately the KR series didn´t have a chance to become very popular here. DVD available from abroad but no Czech subtitles ... so the audience was/ is limited (again). One thing I know for sure - Jan Hammer and his parents come from former Czechoslovakia (divided now into two states) and I actually do remember his mother, Vlasta Průchová, because she was a good jazz singer. They moved to the USA after 1968. And I like his music. Anyway - I suddenly feel such a nostalgyafter the "old days of Knight Rider"... I am very grateful for your commentary again and I do hope we will meet again. Because nothing more about KR following series has ever been seen here either and I enjoy your research very much.
3:33 note the "Beretta" getting blown up is actually a mid 80s Dodge Charger LOL
Actually the Corsica and Cavalier were fairly close
@@williammitchell4417 not a Corsica or a Cavalier. The normal cop cars were berettas and the vans were lumina APV aka dustbusters. The car that got blown up was an 80s dodge charger hatchback.
@@pdennis93 Those were the kinds of cars I was thinking of. I owned a 98 Cavalier. I do remember the Charger then as well which reminded me of the Omni 024.😁
@@williammitchell4417Charger was an omni 024. They renamed it at some point but both are the same car.
7:52 Why didn't they not use this script? This would've made an amazing movie & this would have brought back the show, IMO.
that was the best yet
Also, I love how the new BMW concept has a HUD similar to that of the Knight 4000.
We had touch screens in the 1980s. We also had fiber optic technology well before the 1980s. Great video nonetheless. Glad to see you have the front end of the car. Nice to see preservation. As an edit: they got out of the car through roll down windows. It has a hand crank, and was commonly available on cars into the late 90s.
Thanks for confirming that the one in dezerland florida is the legit car. I travelled from Scotland to florida this year to visit dezerland so happy to know that its the real car from my childhood vhs
Knight Rider Historians Official- Where can I find the song that plays around 52:44?...
Assuming that it's from the original 'Knight Rider' TV sound-track, I looked all over RUclips for it & I can't find it.
Was the KITT 4000 based on the Pontiac Banshee that was a concept car in the 1990s?
Unfortunately yes. But GM didn't want anything to do with this. So, that's why they tried with a Dodge.
I was in San Antonio in November, I always like pointing out some of the film scene locations! Especially the Rivercenter Mall.
Knight Rider Historians Official- Where & how, exactly did you find the clip that we see around 25:54-26:48?...
I love how Michael tells KITT to be careful because the 57 Chevy had its original paint but you can see the car had yellow paint when Michael pretended to breakdown (to gain access to the police mainframe).
Love it joe keep it up . I watch the video you did on the shooting locations and that was good too. Didn’t know you had the half car love to a video on that. When you was talking about he while mall scenes it was kinda a throw back to return to Cadiz (I know spelled it wrong) when Michael “it either sink or swim I thought it was funny cause he kinda said the same when they went to the water in the show “you didn’t sink buddy”or he have be talking about with he was in the 57 Chevy. Would like to see your view of team knight and knight rider 2008!
KN2000 Made Me Cry for one thing the soundtrack is so sad and meloncony.
Would love to know more about the kI 4000 insert car
I will second that. Joe did an episode showing pictures of the show.
We released a 20 minute video with AJ showcasing the insert car on our Patreon page!
They did have touchscreen technology by 2000. I worked at a company in Massachusetts in the 1980's that was developing them, which were originally used in point of sale registers in fast food restaurants.
I have to ask, do you know what happened to the hero car after it was sold by Bobs Prop Shop?
The ONLY questions I have is - Why was the Knight 4000 Red instead of the Original Gloss Black??? And why wasn’t the Original Dash not inside the Knight 4000????
Cool! I was hoping you would do a video on this. And yes I would love to see the insert car.
Love the reverse Star Trek reference, "I'm a historian, not a doctor." 😅
Glad someone noticed that!!
Carmen’s performance is standout my favourite part of that film.
At 25:00 The scanner that is not original is later seen when you show the front of the 57 Chevy. Notice the pattern in the lenses.
This is SO awesome! So - weird story - my first exposure to the KR universe? KR 2000! The mother of a friend in 7th grade had taped it (on VHS!) from NBC and I saw it sometime after the original airing. Oddly enough - it was that being included on the extra DVD that was included with Season 1 when it was released on DVD that prompted me to buy the set. It was the first thing I watched - then decided I should watch the entire season, since I'd bought it. Got hooked - never looked back!
Yes please for both Team Knight Rider and 2008. They may not be the best but still interesting for a history of the franchise. I do think 2008 pretty much did a Star Trek Enterprise; ended good but was too late. 2010 should only ever be a footnote of what happens when name recognition is all you have going for you. Lol.
Devon visits Michael at the beginning. Best scene of the entire movie, one of the best scenes of the entire franchise.
Also, overall concept of 'Knight Rider 2000' is pretty cool. With a bigger budget, better new KITT design, Michael as the one and only hero, different and descent script (even with the same base themes) and some cool stunts it could be a really awesome movie. Without Devon death and awfully boring Shawn McCormick character, of course.
I hadn’t seen this since I was a kid, and even taped it. Didn’t even realize it had been shot it SA until I saw it run on AceTV or Decades or somesuch in the last couple of years. My Dad’s from SA, and I’ve spent so much time there that I know 99% of those locations. How I didn’t realize it as a kid, IDK. They also used the American Bank building in Corpus Christi for an exterior, which still stands today (somehow).
I wish I had known you had the buck of the Knight 4000.
Fellow youtuber Video Bob Mosely owned the car for a while. I believe it was the hero car. It was in pretty rough condition. He put it up for sale about 2 years ago. I dont know where it landed.
He was able to trace its origins and could twll that it appeared in CHiPs 99 as a concept car and the Power Rangers movie as a futuristic police car. It then wound up in police livery on a reality show about fear. Fear Factor? I dunno. It was driven through a fake wall several times for the show. He said it had less than 500 miles on the clock but still the engine was destroyed.
I think it would have been a great car for the KRH to own....especially if you have already the insert buck.
Oh well.
We were unable to work out a deal at the time.
Watched KR2K for the first time last month. Looking forward to listening to this commentary. I live in Texas so was fun to see San Antonio on screen. I've been (as i'm sure many have) to pretty much all of those filming locations, the Hoff was sitting right near out hotel at one point. Anyway, the strangest thing about this film is how little car action there is, considering its Knight Rider. Its like they just carried on where season 4 left off.
Being a Star Trek fan I recorded from the television, because of James Dohan being it and having seen a handful of Knight Rider episodes over the years. I then started again watching reruns of Knight Rider so when the DVD box set came out I was quite happy to find out this was part of the set as well. The movie itself is quite patchy relying on the set in the future with no guns. It remind me a lot of Demolition Man, but there are few redeeming features, it Michael and Devons relationship is fun but there endding is sad, we get to see/hear KITT and it doesn't paint Michael as abandoning his family as the other show after this does. If I was writing the moive I would have had someone one break into old foundation building and find KITT in one piece, over the passing years FLAG has been disbanded because someone pushed Michael and Devon out. KITT and the thief put the band back together as it were even Bonnie turn up. But just because I can Devon still die but of old age and Michael take his role.
I thought it was hilarious that KITT stunned Jimmy RIP 🙏
I loved the original Knight Rider show. KITT doing burnouts and drifts were awesome.
Then I saw Knight Rider 2000 and KITT was front wheel drive. I was a kid then and my dad said KITT is probably a dressed up Cavalier. I was so disappointed.
Thank you for the commentary! I was hoping you would do one of Knight Rider 2000. There were a few things I knew, others I didn't. There is a video on RUclips of some guy who got one of the Knight Industries 4000 cars. It was beat up and he was trying to get it running,
As for James Doohan, his appearance may have been for comic relief, and to show things were not working just right. I don't know how well known it was at the time but Star Trek VI was to be original cast's final act, and the movie came out later the same year., Star Trek's 25th anniversary.
"The future is here and it's in big trouble."
That aged well.
If y'all ever come to San Antonio look me up and I'll show you the filming locations