Knight Rider 1980s Retrospective Review

I'll get right on it, Michael. And keep Piscana

peeled. Right. Ladies and gentlemen, TFJOMike

here. Before we get into episode 34 of Beyond

the Night, just want to let you know that Beyond

the Night is moving its air date. It will now

air every Monday as of episode 34 on until the

end of the show, end of the podcast. So I just

want to let you know, Mondays is the new air

date for Beyond the Night. Now, let's get on

with the show. Knight Rider, a shadowy flight

into the dangerous world of a man who does not

exist. Welcome to Beyond the Night brought to

you by the GCR and I am one of your host Steve

Jermike. Joining me is Dion the Music Man. Hello.

Hey, what's going on? Oh Not much. We are back

in the saddle and this time around we're gonna

be taking you Beyond the Night and giving our

overall thoughts on the Total of the 1980s Knight

Rider series I still you know, I know we tort

saw a lot of the episodes to shreds in the first

uh... thirty -one episodes thirty -two episodes

of show but you know i still love the series

i still think it you know it it basically is

timeless it basically is you know a lot of people

go back and be like oh well that show is so dated

well of course you know some shows are most shows

you know once you reach you know twenty thirty

years are going to be dated but you can still

go back and remember a time of when that was

the first. And Knight Rider will always be one

of my favorite TV shows. I wouldn't have done

this podcast if I didn't love the series, if

I didn't love the characters, if I didn't love

the humor, the situations, the turbo boosting,

all that stuff. It's just one of those things

where it's damn good. It was an awesome show.

It was ahead of its time. Nobody had ever heard

of a talking car as a TV show You know or you

know in a TV show really nobody had heard of

LEDs and this type of thing and you know now

you have all these cars that have LEDs and and

they talk and they have GPS and That type of

thing, you know, nobody had ever heard of that

back then It's uh, it's gonna be interesting

to see how the other series I wouldn't say match

up to the original but um No comparison. I can

already tell you that they Well, one of them

is alright. The other one just yeah There are

just certain bad things from the 90s that you

don't revisit I know a lot of people are gonna

be like, oh they are so brave for reviewing You

know You know, all the favorite episodes that

I listed in the previous recaps, you know, still

hold true today. I mean, I can still watch the

Goliath two -parters. I can still watch Scent

of Roses. I can still watch Junkyard Dog. It's

just, it was at a time where you needed something.

And I remember as a kid, like every night or

whenever it came on, I was like, ooh, Knight

Rider, everybody leave me alone. Go away. Shut

up the shows on damn it. You know it's just one

of those things where okay, nobody talked for

the next hour I Remember you know when it used

to come on you know when I was a kid obviously

I would watch that but then when they started

you know doing syndications The first network

I saw it on in syndication was USA they would

have it in You know they would have it on for

an hour 30 minutes You know a piece Unless you

know unless it was like a two -parter, you know,

obviously on TV They would they were there were

different scenes. You didn't see that you saw

on the DVD on the DVD sets They were just cut

out and it was only because of restraints for

time But Great show all in all all four seasons.

I mean, yeah There were there were different

episodes like TFG said that we just tore to shreds

But I think they deserve to be torn depending

on what they were. I could watch the two part

Goliath episodes Obviously night of the phoenix

I could watch let it be me white bird sense of

the scent of roses You know, I could I could

watch some of the stuff that RC3 has done from

season four. Oh, yeah that type of thing I could

watch Night Sting because everybody was in the

field at that point. Yeah, Night Sting was awesome.

It was great. Some of the special guests that

they had were also terrific. Those guest stars,

just amazing. Yeah, it was great. Simply amazing.

Just think of what... What a revolution and what

a culture that that show started. Look at everything

that that show has done over the last 30 years.

Yeah. I mean, now you've got conventions. You've

got conventions in Los Angeles, Las Vegas. People

build custom kit cars. I mean, no, they don't

respond like the ones on the TV, but they build

these cars. They spend like $30 ,000 or more

to build these cars. Because they're such fans

of it. I used to have a huge Knight Rider collection.

As a kid, I had almost everything. I think the

only thing I didn't have was that stupid Kenner

talking kit car. The only reason why I call it

stupid is because a friend of mine, quote unquote

friend of mine in first grade had it, and it

was like, you know, I'm not letting you even

touch it. Little stingy bastard, but anyway.

Did you have the LJN set? Do you remember? I

had a bunch of stuff. I don't remember. I had

a bunch of stuff. I remember specifically having,

like, Knight Rider books on tape. But it wasn't...

I didn't know they even did those. Well, it wasn't...

I mean, obviously it wasn't the original voices.

It wasn't books on tape like you think of nowadays.

It was more so... Think of Teddy Rocksman. Yeah.

It's the best way I can put it. Think of Teddy

Rocksman where you put a tape inside of him and

he has animatronics and whatever else. Well,

the books that I had were, they came with a tape

with them and they told you, it's basically teaching

kids how to read is what it was. And I believe

one of them was Kit Vanishes. I found it at one

time or another. I'll have to look again and

see if I can't find it to be able to show it

to you, but it was basically a reading book and

a cassette tape. the tape had the story on the

book right either listen to the tape or you could

read along and listen to the tape or just read

the book yourself right and They were just such

Back then it was just so great. I had the head

the Knight Rider board game I Had you know, I

had almost everything I had Knight Rider lunchbox

and thermos the thermos actually Surprisingly

you still have it. I still Don't use it mind

you because it's you know got three years of

gunk in it, but I I still have the thermos the

lunchbox didn't Didn't survive, no. I believe

I saw one on eBay. I don't remember what the

price was, though. That thermos threw some serious

soap and water, hot soap and water. Oh, I know

it, yeah. But the problem with my thermos is

it's the image on it. You can still see it, but

it's... Is it fading? It's been... It's not currently

fading now, but it is faded. Oh, really? Yeah.

It's not you know, it's just something from my

childhood and well, you know They actually did

this was on a record and I don't know if you

ever got a chance to do you know to have this

I don't know if you were into records back then

but it's available on well somebody posted it

on YouTube, but it's called the night kit save

Christmas and It was and kind of a it was centered

around Knight Rider Everyone thought it was David

Hasselhoff and kit. Unfortunately. No, it's not

It's someone acting as Michael and someone acting

as kit, but whoever the kit voices was damn good

So I have to I have to give that person credit.

I don't know who they are I've never seen the

original album or well, it wasn't an album, but

it was a single basically and You know if you

guys look up the night that kit saved Christmas

You'll see it on YouTube. Just go look it up

on YouTube. Yeah, the funny thing about the lunchbox

is the supporting cast on one of the sides of

the lunchbox is they don't look anything like

what they're supposed to look like. But yeah,

I remember having this. I'm looking at one on

eBay. Probably because it's vintage but somebody

is selling a used one. Obviously it's used but

Someone's selling one for 50 bucks and probably

because it has that bad considering There's one

on here with the thermos that works that's Buy

it now for 3299 or the current the current starting

bid is $24. So From what it is, it's not it's

not that bad at all But yeah, no, I am I have

some nightwriter stuff here. I actually have

Remote I have an AM transistor Radio car, you

know that it's kit yeah, and then I have the

I Have an I have a remote control kit car and

then I have one that I'm actually sitting in

front of that is made by diamond that is kit

and There are two versions of this you can get

the one without the Michael night figure or you

can get it with the Michael night figure But

if you buy the Michael night figure separately,

it's 40 bucks Yeah, I at the time I bought one.

I also bought one for a friend of mine who listens

to this podcast And I bought it from Toys R Us

actually they were 50 bucks But these when people

found out that these are going I asked the person

when I was talking to them I said how are these

selling and she said oh we can't keep them in

stock They're selling like mad you're she's like

you're like the second or third person now and

once you get these Because at that time there

were nine left. So once I got mine plus my friends

there were like seven left So Yeah, I found Well,

that kinda sucks. Oh, no wonder it's Canada Post.

Duh. What'd you find? Well, I found the book

I was talking about. 1984 Listen and Look book.

It's called Kit Vanishes. It's for the book only.

It's not for the tape. It doesn't have the tape.

It doesn't have the tape with it. It's just for

the book. But this is basically what I was talking

about. It's the Listen and Look book. And it's

selling for $3 with $8 shipping. That's not bad,

but it's kind of bad when you think about it

doesn't have the book with it. It's kind of sad,

actually. So but no I mean there was a there

was a bunch of stuff back then I mean a whole

and even now going back and listening to the

music There was damn damn good I need to find

out if there's going you know I need to find

out if they've put the You know anymore out by

dawn. I I have no idea. I know that they were

think so I don't remember Know they were supposed

to this summer because in Germany they were supposed

to be a Knight Rider convention But I don't know

if anything got released. I've been trying to

you know Yeah, talk to my friend in LA, but I

haven't heard anything I tried to leave on my

message, but his messages are you know something's

wrong with this machine I think so I'll need

to email him and ask him Yeah, yeah But overall

I mean Knight Rider we've said already is you

know For most people at least that grew up in

the 80s It's a cornerstone of 80s action television

along with a team and MacGyver and quantum leap

and air wolf and all that stuff and it's just

absolutely amazing and it just is You know, like

I said, I know we tore a lot of the bad episodes

apart and that's kind of what the podcast is

about but we also gushed on a lot of the good

episodes right I still Don't remember oh, I think

it was the the night song episode that I Never

did I'll use it in this episode, but I never

did get to use can Michael Jackson moonwalk No,

that wasn't a night song That wasn't it. No that

was in that was in I Don't junkyard dog. Oh,

that's that's right. That's right Wow, the Kenner

83. Someone has 8 hours left. Bidded up to over

$120 on the old Kenner car with Michael. Oh my

god. I have a friend in Pennsylvania that actually

has one. She has the Kenner kit car. Very cool,

very cool. She found it in her basement and she

said, you know the funny thing? I said what?

She said, I found it with Michael. Michael might

turned upside down in the seat. I was like that

kicks ass So wonder what he's doing down there

But no, so the plan for the podcast is that we

are We next week we're going to be tackling team

Knight Rider and God help us Thank God there's

only 13 episodes Are you sure about that Wasn't

there 13 or were there 22? I think there's 22.

Oh No, I know Yeah Yeah, there's I'll have to

look at it again, but no no there is 22 Yeah,

there is 22. We're gonna go to a break, ladies

and gentlemen, so we can actually gag off air.

We'll be back with closing thoughts after this.

Hey, this is TheMusicMan08, one of the co -hosts

of the Knight Rider podcast heard on Geekcast

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you so much, Jason David Frank, for that ringing

endorsement. Yes, that's right, folks. Starting

in Episode 29, From the Command Center is going

back and celebrating 20 years of Power Rangers

with the From the Command Center commentaries.

We'll be doing 15 episodes from MMPR Season 1.

And after that, who knows? I know we're doing

commentaries from Seasons 2 and 3, and we'll

do a commentary on the film. After that, who

knows, commentaries could take us through a number

of episodes. There's a very, very, very long

list. So I hope everyone enjoys it. As I've said

before, we will get to Megaforce once that series

completes itself on Netflix or whatever else.

Thank you so much, and now... Prepare yourself

for, from the command center commentaries, our

way of going back in depth and noticing stuff

we did not pick up on in the original overview

episodes of the podcast, or stuff we missed when

we watched them as children. Thank you very much.

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Network from the producers of XRG. New name,

same ****. Alright, they got a head start. It's

a real good time for super pursuit mode. Oh good.

I know this has been a really, really short episode.

We were supposed to go in depth with a lot of

the stuff. I mean, it's just one of those things

where we've gone in depth already over the last

32, 33 episodes. This episode is meant to be

final thoughts, so it's not meant to be an hour,

two hours, whatever. My final thoughts on the

series are I still love it today, as I said before.

I still love the legacy of it. I love, and I

know Deon and I are gonna fight over this when

we get to it, but I love what I love what they

did with the 2008 series actually now I have

to admit now hang hang on because I actually

went back and I watch the 2008 series and I like

Like I said in the beginning of the podcast.

No, I didn't like it and the reason I didn't

like it is was because They did shy away from

the foundation for law and government. They called

it the SSC and I'm like No You know, okay, you've

got night industries. Okay, that's fine. That's

great Obviously, you don't have the mobile truck

anymore because that's pretty outdated. Yeah

You know, but I did go back and watch it I did

actually go back and watch it and there were

some episodes that had heart You know we get

to see car one last time And and things of that

nature, but I you know when I first watched it

I was just like no I can't get into this I it's

not the same it had nothing to do With the fact

that David wasn't in it or that William didn't

voice the car It just was it was a complete turnaround

from what the original series stood for they

took it in another direction And I didn't think

it would work Well, we'll get into it when we

get to 2008 series, right? Yeah, the 82 the the

original series Yeah, 82 to 86 was was absolutely

awesome. It's still great. It still holds up

to this day. So If you never get tired of watching

a classic TV show and if that if you guys if

anyone listening to this podcast any of the episodes

if you've never Seeing the classic episodes of

Knight Rider or if you've only seen bits and

pieces Get the DVD box set. I guarantee you and

I'm sure that TFG one will agree with me You'll

you will not be disappointed. Oh, yeah. No, not

at all. Not at all Alright. Thank you for joining

us here on Beyond the Night. There's always get

in contact with us or leave feedback for the

show. Visit the website geekcastradio .com. You

can email us feedback at geekcastradio .com.

Follow us on Twitter. Beyond the Night is the

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-5821 We hope you enjoyed this episode of Beyond

the Night and wish you'll join us next time when

we will be reviewing the first three episodes

opening team Knight Rider with Fallen Nation

the Magnificent TKR and the A list For now, I

am DFJ Mike with the music man 08 Dion Get 2000

close the show for the final time that you will

be on it as Michael would say. Thanks pal