KITT

Posted on By Wil

Earlier today, I posted the Greatest Picture, EVER!
There was much discussion about Knight Rider, and I have wondered this all day: Am I the only person who was crestfallen upon finding out that the voice of KITT was not, in fact, the voice of the car, but was, in truth, the voice of actor William Daniels?
When Bill was president of SAG, I had lots of meetings with him, because I am on the Board of Directors, and was part of our TV and Theatrical negotiating team. When I would have a meeting with Bill, I’d call Anne, and tell her, “I won’t make it for dinner tonight. I have a meeting with KITT.” And she’d say, “Is it in his office? Or is he meeting you around back in 5, buddy?”
Continuing the trip down Knight Rider lane…back in the old days, when there was only one Universal Studios, and the main focus of the whole experience was the tour, not the damn animal shows and gift shops…well, okay, it was the gift shops, but not as transparently as it is now…
But I digress.
Back in the day, at Universal Studios, they had a KITT car parked in this area where you could go and sit in it, and, I am not making this up, talk to KITT!
You could ask KITT all sorts of questions, and while you waited in line, you could hear the questions asked, and the answers given out by none other than KITT HIMSELF!
So people would sit in KITT, and ask all sorts of questions about the show, and “what did you do in episode [whatever]?”, and all sorts of technical questions about the specifics of his design, etc.
I so badly wanted to get into the car, and say, “Hey, KITT, I was wondering, do you ever cut loose when the people go home? I mean, tell me the truth. You can kick the A-Team Van’s ass, right? Do you ever just head on over to the backlot and do donuts, just because you can?”
But I totally chickened out, and, when I got up there, I froze, and asked, “What’s your top speed, KITT?”
The sad thing is, I can’t even remember what the answer was.
update: 8:41 PM PST: Cherish, a cool girl and helpful soapbox mod, just sent me this picture of her, sitting in KITT!
Second. Best. Picture. EVER.
Rock.

Discover more from WIL WHEATON dot NET

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

random thoughts

Comments (301)

  4. I just wish they hadn’t cut up all the cars at the end of the series. I used to wish I could drive one of those things when i was a kid. Especially the hard top convertible ones…

  6. Crestfallen? Hell no! He’s one of my favorite actors (no offense), and he always seems so prim and proper, that to realize he took on the roll of a CAR blew me away! — and then I realized why I had a crush on a car 🙂

  7. Shhhh…. You’re letting everyone know my secret identity! ™
    I am JSc! Evil incarnate! Hard and crusty and unlovable!
    And stuff….

  8. Talk to KITT?!?!!?
    I missed a lot, growing up in Cleveland…
    We didn’t even have the Rock Hall or good old Drew back then.
    But hey, the Browns were good.

  9. Heha my friend’s father made an audio tape of KITT and played it in the car for my friend and her older brother and actually convinced them THEY had a talking car too.

  10. Didn’t C3PO introduce himself as “C3PO, Human Cyborg, relations.”
    If he’s a cybernetic organism, then doesn’t he have a meat brain with a partially or completely electronic body?
    p.s. I wanted a KITT car, until everyone starting modding their cars like that… and we all saw how desperately uncool it was.
    Don’t you find that Mr. Baywatch looks micro thin in that picture? Was he on drugs?

  11. Whew.
    What a concept. A talking car.
    I often wonder what my car would say back to me after listening to me talk to it for all the years I’ve owned it…

  12. I, for some reason, never realized you were on the board of directors of SAG.
    Holy bejeezus, I think I just passed a gallstone.
    What does that entail, exactly? How does that happen? How much can you tell us?
    You didn’t ask KITT if he’s ever tried to kill Dr. Ehrlich?!?

  13. JsC=Jon?? *lower lip tremble* no… No.. I WON’T believe it.. I can’t…
    whoa… Ok, I’m done… Major sugar rush tonight… who knew there was that much sugar in grape juice??
    Wil, WUSS!! Kidding, kidding… I could offer a comparison, but I don’t have any… I’m just a boring person who wonders what you call it when you mix grape juice and vodka… I want to try it, but I want to know what it’s CALLED first… help??

  14. You know Wil, at least you had a chance to sit in the car–some of us kids could only dream about it.
    WB started replaying all the old episodes a couple of years back at seven o’clock in the morning. I used to watch the beginnings to see if I could remember the episode before taking off to class.
    You know what the sad thing was–when classes ended in June and I could actually go out on a Tuesday night and drink my ass off not having to worry about teaching with a hang over the next day, I actually got up and watched the damn thing with a bowl of cereal feeling like I was twelve again. Ahhh, the nostalgia.

  16. There were these two guys down the street from me when I was growing up who had a car painted to look just like the one in Starsky and Hutch. I was convinced it was the real deal for the longest time, and was devastated when my dad wouldn’t let me accept their offer to take me for a ride in it…

  17. Did you know?
    Did you know that if you rearrange the letters in the name Wil Wheaton, you get this:
    Wil on wheat.
    Yes, you know that is funny. If you don’t think that that is funny, then go eat some sausage on the new Bakula Bastard Rooster Roaster, much better than a crappy George Foreman grill that will break if you throw it into a toilet from a 7 story building! Remember, Bakula Bastard Rooster Roaster – you’re rooster will be happy you chose the Bakula Bastard Rooster Roaster!

  18. Grape juice + vodka = pretty rough.
    Try some whiskey and orange soda instead. I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s some smooth drinkin’.

  24. Herbie the Love Bug would have taken care of Kitt in pretty short order, let me tell you what.

  26. don’t forget his Austrian cousin, Khitty Khitty Bang Bang. now THAT’S the car I wanted when I was little.

  28. I always thought that CP30 introduces himself as “CP30: Human-Cyborg Relations.” As in he specializes in the relations between humans and cyborgs (i.e. he’s a translator). But I could be wrong.
    <soapbox>
    Of course, it’s hard for me to say. It’s been ages since I’ve actually seen the movie, since I REFUSE to ever rent it again on video cassette – and because of this fact coupled with the fact that Mr. Lucas is evidently determined to never release the movie on DVD, I guess I’ll never see it again… 🙂
    Speaking of which, Wil: I don’t know if you ever get a chance to rap with George Lucas, but if you ever do, do me a favor and tell him there are millions of screaming, teeth gnashing fans out here that would gladly pay $25 for a crappy, thrown-together-with-bailing-wire-and-bubble-gum DVD version of Star Wars NOW, and like $50 for a really-cool-ultra-extended-dance-remix version of same, sometime in the far far away future. He’s like totally missing the boat here.
    </soapbox>
    BTW, Wil, that IS hands down the BEST PICTURE EVER.
    Bob.

  33. DEWD, I totally have a pic of me sitting in KITT when I was a kid!!!!!
    I asked….
    Q:What is your favorite color?
    A:Black
    Q:Do ya ever get tired of running Michael around?
    A:No, I don’t ever get tired of anything. It’s not a part of my program.
    Totally, the answer to that last one was copped out…BUT STILL!!!
    Out of EVERYTHING at Universal Studios, that is one of the most intact memories, the other was the A Team Van thingw here some big ass burly dude lifted it off of two of it’s tires with his bare hands!! Oh yeah and the giant black phone and the Jaws ride….Ahhh!!! Back in the day!!

  34. okay, C3P0 was always calling himself “human cyborg realtions” and a bot. anyway, who cares, it was a guy in a suit.

  35. RFB is RIP, until I can get some technical support from the guys at Winamp who had hooked me up with a server there.
    I’ve emailed them, but I haven’t heard back, and I let my live365 account lapse. 🙁

  36. Hey, Wil do you ever wonder how far around the world your posse reaches. I wouldn’t mind knowing myself.
    Personaly I live in Canada, Born in Holland.

  38. Hey! I remember that setup. I visited universal waaay back, and I wanted to sit in KITT. But I vaguely remember the comment from my parents “We’re not waiting in THAT line so you can sit in a car!” Looking back, the line was pretty damn long.

  39. Art;
    South Central Wisconsin currently — MidWest (IN/MI/WI), USA my whole life.
    I hope you get a lot of responses on this one, it would be great to learn where everyone is from!

  40. I’m still jealous… Cedar Point wasn’t even cool back then. We had the Berenstein Bears wandering around the park. They didn’t talk at all, and they were definitely not as cool as KITT…

  41. They are, I fear, missing out on a huge opportunity. Instead of Ask Jeeves, they could do away with the old duffer, and get the car to do the business. Ask KITT. Now we’re running on gas.

  44. Good. We’re still off topic….
    Born in Milwaukee, moved to Cedarburg (15 miles north of Milwaukee) when I was in 7th grade, spent 3 years in Madison thinking I wanted to become a chemical engineer, spent another 3 years in Cedarburg attending UW-Milwaukee, and have recently moved to Columbia, SC for grad school.
    Also, I’m on the cusp between Taurus and Aries, my favorite color is….

  45. Flann–
    (sorry to go completely off-topic)
    Where are you attending? I’m also from NJ and going to school in CT next year. Big difference?

  47. Art: Born down Wil’s way, Santa Monica to be exact … now living Somewhere in Northern California(tm).
    Wil: did you just ask if *Herbie the Love Bug* could speak Bocce?
    IIRC, KIFT (or whatever it was, in the movie Knight Rider 2000) could speak several languages. I don’t remember which exactly.

  48. You want the coolest car – like apart from KITT – the one in Automan that the little dude cursor ‘drew’ to specification.
    *ponders* although it did not take to corners too well …
    and pity about it disappearing as soon as the toasters get plugged in …
    Tish

Comments are closed.