Knight Rider - The UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide

KNIGHT RIDER
60 Minute Drama
Action / Adventure

ORIGINAL TRANSMISSION
1982 — 1986
2008 — 2009

BROADCASTER
NBC

SEASONS / EPISODES
4 Seasons / 85 Episodes (1982 — 1986)
2 TV Movies (1991+ 1994)
Pilot (2008)
1 Season / 17 Episodes (2008 — 2009)

Police officer Michael Long gets seriously injured and after plastic surgery awakes to find himself with the face of Wilton Knight's son and working for the Foundation, an organisation devoted to crime-fighting, and whose latest innovation is a talking car named KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand).

Great theme tune, great car, but it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny over twenty years later. Two TV movies later followed (but no one counts the abysmal Knight Rider 2010), as well as the ludicrously bad Team Knight Rider spin-off which was put out of its syndicated misery after just one year.

The original series is best known for launching the career of David Hasselhoff, who went on to star in Baywatch and, er, Baywatch Hawaii...

More recently the show has returned for a sequel on NBC (once again titled Knight Rider) in which the son of the original series' Michael Knight gets paired up with the Knight Industries Three Thousand, which luckily enough still produces KITT for a name!

Despite promising ratings for the pilot, which included a cameo appearance by the Hoff, the series itself quickly showed how little mileage is left in the format, and was cancelled after just seventeen episodes.

Novelisations

Knight Rider

by Glen A Larson and Roger Hill

United States
Paperback
Pinnacle
1983

Other Editions

Knight Rider

UK / Paperback / Star Books / 1984 / 0352314990

Novelised Episode
Knight Rider

Back Cover Blurb — Pinnacle
A MAN WHO TOOK A DARE

Michael Long was officially dead. All the newspapers ran his obituary. But secret, reconstructive surgery gave him a second chance to live, and he took the name Michael Knight.

A MAN WHO TOOK A CHANCE

No stranger to deep cover, he had worked in counter-intelligence in 'Nam. Under his new identity, Michael Knight accepted a dangerous assignment to unmask a corporate espionage network. He was teamed with a very special, ultra-sophisticated microprocessor — the KNIGHT 2000.

A MAN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

Back Cover Blurb — Star Books
A MAN WHO TOOK A DARE

Michael Long was officially dead. All the newspapers ran his obituary. But secret, reconstructive surgery gave him a second chance to live, and he took the name Michael Knight.

A MAN WHO TOOK A CHANCE

No stranger to deep cover, he had worked in counter-intelligence in Vietnam. Now he was teamed with a very special, ultra-sophisticated microprocessor — the KNIGHT 2000. Together, they would take on the sharpest criminals of the decade.

A MAN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

Notes

A novelisation of the feature-length opening episode.

Knight Rider: Trust Doesn't Rust

by Glen A Larson and Roger Hill

United States
Paperback
Pinnacle
1984
Book Number: 2

Other Editions

Knight Rider: Trust Doesn't Rust
Cover image needed

UK / Paperback / Star Books / 1984 / 2 / 0426197720

Novelised Episode
Trust Doesn't Rust

Back Cover Blurb — Pinnacle
ROAD WARRIOR

Michael Knight is no stranger to deep cover. In 'Nam he spearheaded missions for counter-intelligence. Now, he's teamed with a very special, ultra-sophisticated microprocessor. The Knight 2000 is the supercar of the 21st century. Michael Knight is the...

KNIGHT RIDER

In KNIGHT RIDER II, KARR — the retired prototype for the Knight 2000 — is ripped off by a pair of deadly toughs who use it to commit a wave of robberies.

The Knight Rider's Assignment: to find out if one indestructible supercar can stop another.

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
THE ROAD WARRIOR RIDES AGAIN

Michael Knight is no stranger to deep cover. In Vietnam he spearheaded missions for counter-intelligence. Now, he's teamed with a very special, ultra-sophisticated microprocessor. The Knight 2000 is the supercar of the 21st century. But it's got a rival...

Karr, the prototype for the Knight 2000, has been ripped off by a pair of deadly toughs who use it to commit their vile robberies. The Knight Rider's assignment — to pit one indestructible supercar against another in his endless fight against crime.

Notes

Trust Doesn't Rust was the first episode to feature KARR, the deranged prototype of KITT. There was a re-match between the two super-vehicles two-years later in the episode KITT vs. KARR.

Knight Rider: Hearts of Stone

by Glen A Larson and Roger Hill

United States
Paperback
Pinnacle
1984
Book Number: 3

Other Editions

Knight Rider: Hearts of Stone
Cover image needed

UK / Paperback / Target Books / 1984 / 3 / 0426197054

Novelised Episode
Hearts of Stone

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
MICHAEL LONG IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE MICHAEL KNIGHT!

Michael Knight and the Knight 2000 — a man and machine, bonded in a futuristic alliance dedicated to the righting of wrongs.

MAYHEM IN MEXICO

In HEARTS OF STONE, Knight penetrates the lush, treacherous jungles of Mexico in order to find and destroy the Corazones de Piedras, a cut-throat ring of Black Market arms dealers. Knight and KITT become embroiled in a blood feud between rival gunrunning gangs. Their only way out? Through a firing line of ultra-sophisticated, hi-tech weaponry...

Knight Rider: 24-Carat Assassin

by Glen A Larson and Roger Hill

UK
Paperback
Target Books
1984
Book Number: 4

Novelised Episode
Mouth of the Snake

Back Cover Blurb
THE MOUTH OF THE SNAKE

Michael Knight's mission to clear the name of a murdered attorney brings him and KITT face-to-face with a multi-million dollar gold-smuggling operation, a deadly arsenal of ultra-sophisticated military weaponry, and a slick, vicious, half-breed killer in the middle of a desert back-water called Boca Culebra — the Mouth of the Snake.

Notes

24-Carat Assassin was never released in the United States.

Knight Rider: Mirror Image

by Glen A Larson and Roger Hill

United States
Paperback
Target Books
1985
Book Number: 5

Novelised Episodes
Goliath / Goliath Returns

Back Cover Blurb
FACE TO FACE WITH DISASTER

Michael Knight and his supercar the Knight 2000 are prepared to take on anything — and anybody — in their quest to defeat crime. And now they've taken on their biggest challenge yet.

For Michael and KITT are face to face with their evil opposites: Garthe Bishop, the sly and deadly 'twin' to Michael, and his fourteen-ton truck Goliath — a two-tier monster made of the same indestructible materials as KITT...

Notes

Mirror Image was never released in the United States.