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)

  1. hey – he had ‘good hair’ at least once! I have seen proof!
    anyway … we might have just as much luck in capturing the actual character as we do the actor …
    although I do have a sister living in London now… *ponders*
    Tish

  2. Hmm… I remember the Girl Scout sleepovers at COSI. I think the last one I went to was in 1985, and we got this run-down bus with an overactive heater that couldn’t go over 45mph without feeling like it was going to shimmy itself to pieces right there on I-71…
    Oh yeah, we also got snails to take home with us.

  5. She was just on Jay Leno out here, so if you’re lucky you might get to see her in an hour or two.

  6. You mean Wm Daniels voice in the play 1776 in the late 1960’s was done offstage by… by a car?
    Far out, man!

  7. Interesting point, Wil. I guess the reason why you get to make bad movies is your unending quest for another anthopomorphized automaton that can speak Bocce..

  12. Don’t ask me why I remember that at 1:23 in the morning.. but I’m working on a paper, so there are lots of random bits of trivia popping up…

  13. But Santa wasn’t the only one who told him that, Chris… Didn’t his teacher laugh at him while dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West in his little daydream?

  19. You know it’s a real shame that whole families can be torn apart by something as simple as wild dogs.

  20. Australian free-to-air has decided to start running Enterprise…
    Dear God, or Q, whatever,
    don’t let them shove it to late night and then make me to the video store to see the end of the series, like DS9 and Voyage that free-to-air still have yet to finish.
    oh, and a new series of Bab5 wont go astray either.
    Ta much, I’ll try and be good, well, yeah…
    Tish

  25. Yellow Eyes. Scott Farkus had yellow Eyes. So help me, Yellow Eyes.
    —
    I like the Wizard of Oz. I like the Tin Man.
    —
    My aunt Clara, who was laboring under the impression that I was not only 6 years old, but a girl.
    —
    All from memory, kids.
    Gauntlet.
    Thrown.

  27. Hey Wil! Second post in 2 days, I must be improving 🙂
    This is one of the things I love about this site…because I can relive memories that I had forgotten all about!
    I, too, got to sit in KITT, when an Auto show came to my hometown, Ottawa, Ontario, and they had KITT! I have a picture (somewhere) of my little brother and I sitting in the car, and…I remembered that I was SOOOO wanting to push the Turbo Boost button and test that bastard out hehe 😉
    I didn’t though 🙂
    And he (yes, I refuse to believe it was an actor…it was just that they BASED KITTs voice on William Daniels because they thought it sounded good on St. Elsewhere!) talked to me too 🙂
    Thanks again, Wil, for bringing me back down memory lane 😉
    Jay

  30. Last one:
    “Ralphie! Tell us, son, what brought you to this lowly state?”
    “It. Was…..Soap! Poisoning!”
    And:
    Sand people always ride single file, to hide their numbers. These tracks are side by side, and those blast marks are too precise for their weapons.
    But if they [something something, cut me some slack, it’s late], then they’d know that we gotthe droids from them, and that would lead them back…HOME!
    Wait, Luke! It’s too dangerous!
    Daaa-dahhhh-da-dahhh-da-da-daaaa-daaaahhhhh….da-da-da-daaahhhh-da-da-da-da-da-da-daaahahhhhhh….
    Good night, monkeys. See you tomorrow.

  32. I had to post again…because with all this talk about Universal, I got another memory. When I was 6, my mother took me to Anaheim, and we went to Universal. I didn’t get the KITT experience there, but…tell me SOMEONE remembers the BattleStar Galactica Space Battle part of the tour! 🙂
    That was awesome 🙂
    Jay
    It’s a MAJOR award!
    Fra-gil-ay…it must be Italian!

  33. I step up to your challenge, Mr. Wheaton.
    “What do you want little boy?”
    “Uhhhh uhhhh.”
    “How about a nice football?”
    Football, what’s a football?
    “What is that thing?”
    “It’s a major award.”
    “It looks like a lamp to me.”
    My father, on the other hand, worked in obscenities the way other artists worked in oils..
    He looks like a deranged rabbit.
    Aww… it’s a bowling ball, thank you dear.
    I suddenly realized I was not about to be destroyed.

  34. Hey, I’m from Wisconsin myself. I grew up in Wausau and then escaped to Madison when I was eighteen.
    Wil,
    If you’re really interested in doing RFB, my husband and his friends have a server that they broadcast through and currently they only use it on Thursdays. If you wanted to shoutcast on their server, I’m sure they’d be willing to get you set up. Just a thought…
    Steph

  37. Okay, Chris wins.
    I have numerous memories of the BattleStar Galactica thingy…I’ll write tomorrow about how I got to GO INSIDE IT!
    YEAH!
    YEAH!
    🙂
    Night.

  38. David Hasselhoff is actually planning a new Knight Rider series that will be called “Super Knight Rider 3000”. This will be the 3rd attempt to bring KR back after the two failed attempts in the ’90s.
    Hasselhoff will return as Michael Knight, but he plays the older guy role, while some other person plays the driver of the new car. Hopefully William Daniels will return as the voice of KITT. IMDB even lists the upcoming series.
    This site has some articles about it:
    http://www.newknightrider.com

  41. Apocalpyse? Nah dude this is so cool!!
    Look at all the ’80s stuff that is back in vogue. A new Knight Rider series, Mr. T commericials, ALF commercials, it doesn’t get better then this. Heck there’s even an A-Team and Greatest American Hero movie in the works!
    But I pity the actor that tries to replace Mr. T as B.A. 😉
    Funny how KITT would always accelerate, but never hit a top speed huh? Especially in super pursuit mode.
    🙂

  43. Speaking of ALF… there he is!
    I’m so pleased they’ve brought him back into the fold, especially into such a flexible genre as the 10-10-220 ads.

  44. K, few things to say…
    1) Melb Australia
    2) Tish, don’t trust the TV networks, you know they’ll screw you, just like with DS9 and Voyager (but with Voyager no-one cared!) We’ve seen Enterprise to latest episodes, been getting them off the internet *cough cough*. If you want to know where, email me and I’ll give you the details
    3) Help required please?! WHERE can i find a mp3 file of the A-team theme song. I think it’s been running practically constantly in my brain for the last few months and I want to know if it is, in fact, the A-team theme song.
    4) You’re a god damn blood sucking vampire Michael, ooh you wait til mom finds out!
    5) Cherish – power convertors – Har!! 🙂
    *sigh* Anyone else a dork like me and watch Star Wars like at least once a year?

  45. firemage,
    I have the A-Team song, but I honestly don’t remember where I downloaded it from. Go to Stephen J. Cannell’s website, and look in the “Fan Links” section. There are links to several fan made A-Team websites there, and one of them should have the A-Team song.
    http://www.cannell.com

  47. Dorks of the world UNITE 🙂
    Power to the people!! 🙂
    Thanks John you are a legend!
    —-
    Comb the desert!
    Yes sir, combine the desert…

  48. *LOL*!
    I am such a dick! That was meant to read combing the desert!
    Geez – can you tell I’m thinking its choc ice-cream and hot fudge dessert time???

Comments are closed.