When I watched the show as a kid I never noticed the shell but instead always thought the hood had been left open, like it was just on the safety catch by accident instead of being fully closed. Used to actually think this was how KITT was meant to look with a raised hood line.
Watching the show as a kid, I always marveled at the continuity errors of just the car, and the ever-changing body features of KITT. I knew it was supposed to be "one" car, and that storylines explained most of the features that came and went, but my gut was telling me that it was due to limited production budget even back then. The worst was the bleeding paint lines during the "super pursuit" mode transition shots when all the little wings popped out of the car. It screamed low budget, even then.
@@realityhitsmehardbro Wow, I never noticed any of these things, but I was ~4-7 years old when it was airing, and watching on a relatively small (by today's standards, anyway) CRT TV. (And most of the TVs my parents had were black-and-white ones, but we did have one color TV.) Now in high-definition, I notice things like those squibs on the rubber shell that I never noticed during the original airing.
haha, when I was a younger I thought that for stunts they would just take a stock car and open the hood a little bit and stick the red light scanner in there, and that was why the hood looked a little bit open. I had no idea it was an entirely rubber shell
I thought the hood was unlatched so the scanner lite would show because they didn't always have the piece with the custom molded opening that goes around the scanner lite & covers the two Pontiac running lites which they often just bolted on some black plexiglass covers. (that looked like shit.) Yeah, there was a lot of laziness around the details. Look, I understand only having 4 cars for the 1st season. The show was an instant hit in prime time. You think that would open the budget after the first season. They used "Hack job" cars way too much in closeup shots where nothing is happening. No gun fire no off road driving no skidding. Just in [CRUISE] -ing down the bulivard 30mph WITHOUT the custom molded front bumper. Why not use the "Hero car" for scenes where nothing is happening to the car? I lost all respect for George Barris because I think HE is LAZY! I think he designed all those famous T.V. & movie cars but I don't think he did any of the actual work himself. I took pictures of a General Lee that was at the Sacramento Auto-rama somewhere around the year 2000. The windows were all rolled up closed tight and blacked out with the super dark Limo tint. Even the windshield. So I "cupped my hands" to peer inside. It looked like it was just pulled out of a barn inside. The inside had NEVER been restored! The upholstery was thrashed there was exposed rusty metal & rotten wood, a wheel & tire, old newspapers & garbage. There were 12" George Barris decals on the front fenders though. The car seemed noticably shorter than it should've been. I think it probably wasn't even a 1969! I don't what model year would be shorter & still work but seeing this car up close was a disappointment. I blame Barris for that because I've heard other people, (Adam Carolla) say the same thing about the 1966 Batmobile when they saw it up close. I know there are at least 9 different ones that are constantly touring the country. In 2015 I took details photos of one, AND The Batcycle that looked great! Barris' name was nowhere to be found. My mom saw one, in the early 70's that was covered in black felt or velour. The material was actually glued on, to the outside, metal & fiberglass body panels! Sounds cool in theory but I guess it looked like shit. That was a Barris because she saw it in his showroom at his shop in HOLLYWOOD. Anyway Barris is a "Hack"!
Makes more sense that it would’ve been fibreglass.Or at least rubber coated fibreglass as it’d be hard to keep rubber all together as a unit without a hard base to hold it all together.
Another great informative video. Speaking of George Barris’ old garage shop on Riverside Dr in NoHo. I drove by it the other day and it’s completely empty/closed and up for lease. Can you imagine all the KR history that took place in that shop?! Also a quick personal George Barris story. Back in 2004 I decided to stop by at his shop because I would always drive by and see a KITT car (replica I assume but I could be wrong) and the original Batmobile (from the 60s TV show) inside his showroom. I walked in and there was George Barris looking somewhat grumpy and told me that his garage is not open to the public. I kindly asked him if I could just take a quick glimpse at the KR car since it was my favorite show growing up. To my surprise he agreed but told me not to get inside the vehicle. I snapped a bunch of photos on my Motorola Razr phone and even took a couple with George himself. Unfortunately I have no idea what happened to that phone but whenever I drive by that location I get really said knowing that it’s now closed. RIP Mr. Barris.
THIS would now hopefully ring a big alarm on the Historians!!! Go down to the shop, get permission and keys for these location - and make some interior shots there. Dont expect anything at all to be unveiled of value on the TV show at all - but show us what equipment and what works could have been there or done there to realize the thing. If you miss that then the whole complex could be sold, getting inaccessible, changed and altered, or maybe even demolished soon! Can you go to that place - is that possible to you?
@@alexanderstohr4198 Barris’ old shop has been emptied out for a while now. Nothing in there and just a “For Lease” sign on the outside. Don’t think that would serve any value to the KR Historians.
I think the thing behind Barris's shop is a body for the dune buggy instead of a shell. The shell didn't have windows. Wasn't that around the same time the dune buggy was for sale?
I've known about the shell through many watching of these KRH episodes, but it wasn't until now that I wondered: what does the driver do?? Does he get sealed in when the shell is put on until they take it back off? Or do you just General Lee it out the window?
Thanks for the history lesson. I always notice this frame issue on the car. But I thought it was because the lid was damaged or something. I never considered they put a protective cover over the car. It's actually a pretty smart move. Reduceing damage to the actual frame.
As a kid I just figured it was a part of an impact absorbance technology "tbey" did not tell us about. Kit seemed to have alot of tech we only found out about later on. So if the bumper was in a bit Kit just took a little time to push it back out. Like it was supposed to do that in an impact. That's why he is practically undamaged from smashing through walls, fences, ect. Thats what sold it to me . The idea that he was built to do things we never even found out about. A do anything go anywhere car.
The windshield being kind of deeper in, gives a look, like in many toy cars. In fact I even have since the Knight Rider days in the 80's, a 3rd gen Pontiac Trans-Am toycar, which has the windows installed like that from inside the body, looks like there's the rubber shell on it :D Lovely toycar btw, has working popup headlights too :)
If you go back and read the text posts under the photo of the shell, they state that it was the shell for the flivver car. The fact that it has the windows molded in, or at least attached, would indicate that to be a likelyhood. Since the flivver wasn't one of the train derailment cars, it likely could have escaped the crusher, literally with it's skin intact.
i just posted the same thing about the possibly of it been off the flivver car, removed and put into storage after the show ended, and the chassis sold on or re used for something else.
@@procta2343 It actually says it right there on the screen. Go back and pause the video. It does beg the question somewhat, that if Barris had the shell, did they have the chassis, too?
@@TheAquabears yeah i had another look afterwards, and it does state off the VW buggy, The chassis was said to have been for sale in 1987? so maybe they did have the chassis too at some point, and then sold the chassis off, and the body was just let out side for many years. Then just scrapped off when they cleared the site.
I always thought KITT with the extra fog/driving lights low in the front bumper were from later seasons. But the other day I watched the two part pilot episode and the car with those lights gets mixed in with the car that doesn't have them. It's hard to believe as kids we didn't notice all these discrepancies.
Like the differences between the super pursuit KITT driving car that has all the pieces permanently deployed and the non-driver version where the parts move. Both made in the same shop but they couldn't be bothered to make them look as identical as possible. A lot of 1980's TV series just didn't care at all about such continuity.
Also bear in mind the quality of TV images was really bad compared to what we have now. You were probably watching on A much smaller TV with less resolution.
@@marco1862 Plus you were only watching one episode a week, which contained regular ad breaks. It's easier to notice continuity when watching episodes on a box set.
@@brentleedy79 one episode of "The Fall Guy" has a chase where there's a red pickup truck with white wheels. But the truck keeps switching between a Ford and a Chevy. Even worse, one truck has plain wheels, the other has spoked wheels. I don't recall which truck had which wheels, but the one with spoked wheels is the one that ends up flying off a parking garage to end the chase. The studio was too cheap or lazy to get a set of plain steel wheels for that truck. A similar instance was in a terrible episode of the Hawaii Five-0 reboot where two obviously different trucks were used, crudely painted to sort of look alike. Why is it a terrible episode? McGarrett has to defuse a "dirty bomb" and straps a car battery to his chest for "radiation shielding". The show also regularly had "infrared" cameras that violated the laws of physics.
Like many other kids back in the day i watched knight rider allot and loved the things kitt could do.I was making thoughts of how cool it would be in the future to have the luxury to buy a kitt and have the gals and everyone around me really impressed.When someone was telling me that kitt was fake & all those wasn't real i was yelling at the saying that i don't believe him and that it is true.And with the end of an era and growing up the truth came piece by piece together,all those weird changes in the car's appearance here & there,and seeing weird stuff happening after each turbo boost you see as a grown up the mistakes that was all in front of us and couldn't admit it because we were too young to stop to believe!
9:06 Maybe on April Fools' Day you could do a video on KITT's evil windshield wipers, which were used as part of "Project Satan", a car made of parts of various evil cars, in the Futurama episode, "The Honking". (They said that KITT wasn't evil, his windshield wipers were, but it didn't come up in the show much.)
500th time suggesting RC's bike for a vid....Kitt, the tractor, the trailer, all get love, but a supporting character's bike he adored is left out in the cold. A door handle would get a video first🤣
I never noticed any of this as a kid! 😂I remember going back and watching a few episodes out of nostalgia and I had no idea they used so many scale models, obvious as an adult, I never noticed as a kid! Including the famous KITT floating on water by spinning his wheels fast! 😂 Has anyone ever tracked down any of the screen used scale models?
I had the opportunity to actually sit in one of the cars when it came to a car show in the 80's in Ontario, Canada. I remember there were a crap ton of lights inside.
Joe back in the day when i wached the show i touth that the shell acualy was just that that they had a bareley open hood on kitt i kinda looks like that when the shell is on
George has a interview on TH-cam about his cars and his work for movies and tv. A marvel of automotive Craftsman's . Where he talks about night rider and kitt. Shows his scrapbook of photos with kitt and hoff.
Yeah I remember even as a kid wondering why KITT looked different in some action scenes. Young me just figured there was probably one stunt car, and it looked like that for some reason. But like others (like realityhitsmehardbro) have noted here, I did catch on even pretty young that KITTs nose shape changed a lot during the series.
Please do a video on all the different season 3/4 switch pod buttons, if they were on the left or right pod, the differences being the hero car pods and studio set pods, and was the season 4 C button on the left or right pod?
Hi Joe. I'm surprised to see KITT's "molecular bonded shell" in reality, but not just in the actual show. How would you feel if this was ever on a real vehicle today? By the way, I'm still waiting for that Visual Effects video to commence anytime soon. Thanks!♥✌
A special effects man, named dan allenbaugh greased the body of a new one, then it was shot with a chopper gun,fiberglass shooting machine. That's how the jump car bodies were built. I know I have pictures. Used to work at that show.
If you go to the Retro Recipies Channel, They just did a behind the scenes tour of that car with AJ from Knight Rider Historians. It was a great tour. Hello from Phoenix Arizona❗🔥
It would have been soooo cool if the original kitt from the pilot presentation (with scanner on the front of the nose instead of the top of the nose) was KARR the prototype in "Trust Don't Rust" and KITT VS KARR. It would have been a lot easier to tell KITT and KARR apart. Lol.
That amazes me bcz Iv always Wonder why some Knight Rider car scenes did they had the hood of the car semi open? So this finally explains it was a rubber shell WOW now I understand better😎👍
1:3 wow KITT looks like he'll fall apart at any time lol, never saw this when first watching Knight Rider around 10 years ago. Need to rewatch it again to see what I catch as a 25 year old :)
my aunt and uncle"s last name is Knight. he is a car guy and in the eighties they had a black TA with a KNIGHT licence plate. I was a kid and it owned me
George Barris certainly had experience making casts of cars. He made a cast of the 1966 Batmobile to pop off replicas to be sent out to make appearances. Is it possible the Volkswagon really had a fiberglass shell, and not rubber, made from the same mold?
Probably. If you watch some episodes in season one, the shell on the VW chassis has some weird flexing and vibration when it lands like it's some sort of hard plastic/fiberglass.
I hope the last shell is still alive today, somewhere!! Anyway, I am not sure that shall was always enough to protect the car during some stunts... as example in the scene we saw in Knight Racer commentary and we see again in this video, when the blue sedan hit KITT on the front right fender and the shell pops out so much, I think the gap between shell and fender was not enough to protect the car and they damaged the fender too! Lol
When I was a kid I always thought that the shell was a hard shell all the time especially when they always shoot at Kitt and it would always bounce off when they were shooting at Kitt!
It was such a dumb show, but as a kid, I was a fan... Thanks, keep up your awesomeness and go enjoy some nature today...! Don't forget to compliment someone today...
Hey guys how you been. This might be a little off topic but there’s something called Line X spray that just come out a few yrs ago would you consider that the closest thing to the real molecular bonded shell ?
Another great video Joe. Totally off topic. I’m bringing my family over to California next summer from Scotland for a holiday. I’d love to take my kids to see KITT in The Petersen Museum, could you tell me if it is still going to be in there next summer?? 🙏🏻
When watching the show I kept wondering what was going on with the gaps at fenders and hood appearing during stunt shots. The lack of clarity on classic TV made it difficult to figure out, I concluded that maybe the stunt car is misshaped after all those crashes and does not fit together properly anymore, lol.
Speaking of shelton lee worthy, he was having lots of health issues recently. He was on my friends list, but now I can't find him. I hope something didn't happen to him.
I loved the show as a child/teenager and the Trans Am was one of the classic American super cars for me, just like the Dodge Charger, Ford Mustang, the Ford Grand Torino and to be fair, nothing else. The Trans Am was completely ahead of time of the others.
Hey, I’m curious. Seeing you’re on the last season of the show and are still covering material that are related to it. Is there any chance you’ll be covering the three novelizations of episodes that were released? They technically count as canon, as they are based on episodes.
be interesting to see if they can, but i think that's long gone now, from their video on it, it was stated it was last seen for sale in the 1987 or something like that, and never seen again, so strong change that will be long gone. But then again i said the same thing about the trailer, and look what they found.
I remember taking the old tour at Universal Studios. And on part of the tour they had K.I.T.T.'s stacked up like firewood they had wrecked so bad they were most likely the ones that got crushed. That would have been in late 1982 or early 1983.
@@KnightRiderHistoriansOfficial No. I had forgot my camera at home. They most likely would not have been any good because I was on the tram and it was moving at the time so they would be out of focus.
Great info! Would it be possible to reach out to anyone who worked with Barris or find out and talk to any businesses that might have been next to his back then?
I wonder if maybe Barris did make the shell, it could have been because of the Batmobile? the Batmobile never really saw any 'hard use', could have been he imagined the car doing more destructive stunts and was never able to get it implemented in the show. and this was the solution that came from that eggshell treatment.
I'd imagine Joji or Brett Barris might know maybe and I'd also bet George had taken photos to. Barris kustom is going to reopen eventually and they'd have all George's archives still.
As I recall the shell is a combination of latex rubber and fiberglass to reduce the warping of the car during stunts the last known shell was badly damaged but used as a body mold for KITT replicas can't remember where it ended up but hope the recipe for the shell can be reproduced.
@@KnightRiderHistoriansOfficial Oh, that clears up my confusion. I may also be mixing up your recent statement that you hope there is one more screen used car hiding somewhere. I got all excited that you had found it!
It was the 80ties - we all thought we were invincible! "Be careful" was something parents said to their young kids, but not a guidline for adults. And so I assume they overestimated the capabilities of the film cars frequently. From past episodes of the "Knight Rider Historians" it becomes clear, that they had to do massive repairs on some of the cars after most stunt filming occasions. Luckily they had a capable repair shop backing them up, and so they were quite free doing heavy damage and implementing elaborate special functions if needed. If I look back now, I see close connections between the use of the stunt men and stunt cars inthe script and the foundation policy presented on the screen: If its for a good cause - risk it! I'm pretty sure this show would not be possible nowadays. You would not even find the right people to do it, We all got so cautios to not risk anything.
They may have had only one dune buggy car, and if it was damaged from a previous stunt and a new stunt was needed, they had to use whatever KITT car was available to film the scene.
i am confused as to how a rubber shell can do much but protect the body from scratches. also, how would they get paint on it that can flex and look so shiny and perfect? fiberglass should be easier to make look good, but no way hey are going to bend it to get it on the car.
When I watched the show as a kid I never noticed the shell but instead always thought the hood had been left open, like it was just on the safety catch by accident instead of being fully closed. Used to actually think this was how KITT was meant to look with a raised hood line.
Watching the show as a kid, I always marveled at the continuity errors of just the car, and the ever-changing body features of KITT. I knew it was supposed to be "one" car, and that storylines explained most of the features that came and went, but my gut was telling me that it was due to limited production budget even back then.
The worst was the bleeding paint lines during the "super pursuit" mode transition shots when all the little wings popped out of the car. It screamed low budget, even then.
@@realityhitsmehardbro Wow, I never noticed any of these things, but I was ~4-7 years old when it was airing, and watching on a relatively small (by today's standards, anyway) CRT TV. (And most of the TVs my parents had were black-and-white ones, but we did have one color TV.) Now in high-definition, I notice things like those squibs on the rubber shell that I never noticed during the original airing.
Same here!
haha, when I was a younger I thought that for stunts they would just take a stock car and open the hood a little bit and stick the red light scanner in there, and that was why the hood looked a little bit open. I had no idea it was an entirely rubber shell
I thought the hood was unlatched so the scanner lite would show because they didn't always have the piece with the custom molded opening that goes around the scanner lite & covers the two Pontiac running lites which they often just bolted on some black plexiglass covers.
(that looked like shit.)
Yeah, there was a lot of laziness around the details.
Look, I understand only having 4 cars for the 1st season.
The show was an instant hit in prime time. You think that would open the budget after the first season.
They used "Hack job" cars way too much in closeup shots where nothing is happening.
No gun fire no off road driving no skidding. Just in [CRUISE] -ing down the bulivard 30mph WITHOUT the custom molded front bumper. Why not use the "Hero car" for scenes where nothing is happening to the car? I lost all respect for George Barris because I think HE is LAZY! I think he designed all those famous T.V. & movie cars but I don't think he did any of the actual work himself. I took pictures of a General Lee that was at the Sacramento Auto-rama somewhere around the year 2000.
The windows were all rolled up closed tight and blacked out with the super dark Limo tint. Even the windshield. So I "cupped my hands" to peer inside. It looked like it was just pulled out of a barn inside.
The inside had NEVER been restored!
The upholstery was thrashed there was exposed rusty metal & rotten wood, a wheel & tire, old newspapers & garbage. There were 12" George Barris decals on the front fenders though.
The car seemed noticably shorter than it should've been. I think it probably wasn't even a 1969! I don't what model year would be shorter & still work but seeing this car up close was a disappointment.
I blame Barris for that because I've heard other people,
(Adam Carolla) say the same thing about the 1966 Batmobile when they saw it up close.
I know there are at least 9 different ones that are constantly touring the country.
In 2015
I took details photos of one, AND The Batcycle that looked great! Barris' name was nowhere to be found.
My mom saw one, in the early 70's that was covered in black felt or velour. The material was actually glued on, to the outside, metal & fiberglass body panels! Sounds cool in theory but I guess it looked like shit. That was a Barris because she saw it in his showroom at his shop in HOLLYWOOD.
Anyway Barris is a "Hack"!
The shell at Barris’ shop looks to have a front on it and has windows. I don’t think it is an overshell but possibly from the VW jump car.
Makes more sense that it would’ve been fibreglass.Or at least rubber coated fibreglass as it’d be hard to keep rubber all together as a unit without a hard base to hold it all together.
I agree, it's the Flivver car's shell most likely!
Another great informative video. Speaking of George Barris’ old garage shop on Riverside Dr in NoHo. I drove by it the other day and it’s completely empty/closed and up for lease. Can you imagine all the KR history that took place in that shop?!
Also a quick personal George Barris story. Back in 2004 I decided to stop by at his shop because I would always drive by and see a KITT car (replica I assume but I could be wrong) and the original Batmobile (from the 60s TV show) inside his showroom. I walked in and there was George Barris looking somewhat grumpy and told me that his garage is not open to the public. I kindly asked him if I could just take a quick glimpse at the KR car since it was my favorite show growing up. To my surprise he agreed but told me not to get inside the vehicle. I snapped a bunch of photos on my Motorola Razr phone and even took a couple with George himself. Unfortunately I have no idea what happened to that phone but whenever I drive by that location I get really said knowing that it’s now closed. RIP Mr. Barris.
THIS would now hopefully ring a big alarm on the Historians!!!
Go down to the shop, get permission and keys for these location - and make some interior shots there.
Dont expect anything at all to be unveiled of value on the TV show at all - but show us what equipment and what works could have been there or done there to realize the thing.
If you miss that then the whole complex could be sold, getting inaccessible, changed and altered, or maybe even demolished soon!
Can you go to that place - is that possible to you?
@@alexanderstohr4198 Barris’ old shop has been emptied out for a while now. Nothing in there and just a “For Lease” sign on the outside. Don’t think that would serve any value to the KR Historians.
I live nearby too - it makes me very sad - I have been in there a number of times over the years.
I was not a big knight rider fan but I do love how you found and restore this car and restoring the tractor trailer.
This is so amazing,I always wondered how those shells worked and fitted the cars.Thankyou for this Joe.
Fascinating as always Joe, we never stop learning from you guys 👍
I think the thing behind Barris's shop is a body for the dune buggy instead of a shell. The shell didn't have windows. Wasn't that around the same time the dune buggy was for sale?
I've known about the shell through many watching of these KRH episodes, but it wasn't until now that I wondered: what does the driver do?? Does he get sealed in when the shell is put on until they take it back off? Or do you just General Lee it out the window?
Definitely climb in through the window!
There's a porta potty in the side seat, and they pass food through the vents.
Thanks for the history lesson. I always notice this frame issue on the car. But I thought it was because the lid was damaged or something. I never considered they put a protective cover over the car. It's actually a pretty smart move. Reduceing damage to the actual frame.
The 2006 photo looks like the fliver car shell as it has windows? The other ones were just openings to sit around the glass.
That'd be my guess. Looks like the flivver body.
Good call. I noticed the windows and rear hatch, too.
It also has the front bumper!
As a kid I just figured it was a part of an impact absorbance technology "tbey" did not tell us about. Kit seemed to have alot of tech we only found out about later on. So if the bumper was in a bit Kit just took a little time to push it back out. Like it was supposed to do that in an impact. That's why he is practically undamaged from smashing through walls, fences, ect. Thats what sold it to me . The idea that he was built to do things we never even found out about. A do anything go anywhere car.
The windshield being kind of deeper in, gives a look, like in many toy cars.
In fact I even have since the Knight Rider days in the 80's, a 3rd gen Pontiac Trans-Am toycar, which has the windows installed like that from inside the body, looks like there's the rubber shell on it :D
Lovely toycar btw, has working popup headlights too :)
I live in Toluca lake near Barris shop. They still have it. You need to contact them asap
Glad you posted this. I mentioned in another comment that Brett or Joji would probably know where it was.
David, can you email us at knightriderhistorians@gmail.com? We'd like to talk to you more about this. Thanks
Really well made video guys! Nice work 👍
When I saw this as a kid, I always thought it was extra armor that K.I.T.T. could activate.🤣🙈
If you go back and read the text posts under the photo of the shell, they state that it was the shell for the flivver car. The fact that it has the windows molded in, or at least attached, would indicate that to be a likelyhood. Since the flivver wasn't one of the train derailment cars, it likely could have escaped the crusher, literally with it's skin intact.
i just posted the same thing about the possibly of it been off the flivver car, removed and put into storage after the show ended, and the chassis sold on or re used for something else.
@@procta2343 It actually says it right there on the screen. Go back and pause the video. It does beg the question somewhat, that if Barris had the shell, did they have the chassis, too?
@@TheAquabears yeah i had another look afterwards, and it does state off the VW buggy, The chassis was said to have been for sale in 1987? so maybe they did have the chassis too at some point, and then sold the chassis off, and the body was just let out side for many years. Then just scrapped off when they cleared the site.
I always thought KITT with the extra fog/driving lights low in the front bumper were from later seasons. But the other day I watched the two part pilot episode and the car with those lights gets mixed in with the car that doesn't have them.
It's hard to believe as kids we didn't notice all these discrepancies.
Like the differences between the super pursuit KITT driving car that has all the pieces permanently deployed and the non-driver version where the parts move. Both made in the same shop but they couldn't be bothered to make them look as identical as possible. A lot of 1980's TV series just didn't care at all about such continuity.
Also bear in mind the quality of TV images was really bad compared to what we have now. You were probably watching on A much smaller TV with less resolution.
@@marco1862 Plus you were only watching one episode a week, which contained regular ad breaks. It's easier to notice continuity when watching episodes on a box set.
Have to love the 80s. You could often find differences between vehicles in shows. Like a wrecked car suddenly having different wheels.
@@brentleedy79 one episode of "The Fall Guy" has a chase where there's a red pickup truck with white wheels. But the truck keeps switching between a Ford and a Chevy. Even worse, one truck has plain wheels, the other has spoked wheels. I don't recall which truck had which wheels, but the one with spoked wheels is the one that ends up flying off a parking garage to end the chase. The studio was too cheap or lazy to get a set of plain steel wheels for that truck.
A similar instance was in a terrible episode of the Hawaii Five-0 reboot where two obviously different trucks were used, crudely painted to sort of look alike. Why is it a terrible episode? McGarrett has to defuse a "dirty bomb" and straps a car battery to his chest for "radiation shielding". The show also regularly had "infrared" cameras that violated the laws of physics.
Like many other kids back in the day i watched knight rider allot and loved the things kitt could do.I was making thoughts of how cool it would be in the future to have the luxury to buy a kitt and have the gals and everyone around me really impressed.When someone was telling me that kitt was fake & all those wasn't real i was yelling at the saying that i don't believe him and that it is true.And with the end of an era and growing up the truth came piece by piece together,all those weird changes in the car's appearance here & there,and seeing weird stuff happening after each turbo boost you see as a grown up the mistakes that was all in front of us and couldn't admit it because we were too young to stop to believe!
Nice video. I am a super fan too and watched all episodes but I always learn something new.
9:06 Maybe on April Fools' Day you could do a video on KITT's evil windshield wipers, which were used as part of "Project Satan", a car made of parts of various evil cars, in the Futurama episode, "The Honking". (They said that KITT wasn't evil, his windshield wipers were, but it didn't come up in the show much.)
Well, only the wipers on the cars that doubled as KARR. ;)
Since discovering your channel, I've actually started watching the show.
500th time suggesting RC's bike for a vid....Kitt, the tractor, the trailer, all get love, but a supporting character's bike he adored is left out in the cold. A door handle would get a video first🤣
Never noticed back in the 80s when t.vs were boxes on legs but with hd oled 4k you can see everything
Amazing secret of kitt from knight rider amazing discovery!
I never noticed any of this as a kid! 😂I remember going back and watching a few episodes out of nostalgia and I had no idea they used so many scale models, obvious as an adult, I never noticed as a kid! Including the famous KITT floating on water by spinning his wheels fast! 😂 Has anyone ever tracked down any of the screen used scale models?
I had the opportunity to actually sit in one of the cars when it came to a car show in the 80's in Ontario, Canada. I remember there were a crap ton of lights inside.
Joe back in the day when i wached the show i touth that the shell acualy was just that that they had a bareley open hood on kitt i kinda looks like that when the shell is on
From the picture, it looks like it has the front nose on it. I wonder if that was the shell from the pilot episode.
George has a interview on TH-cam about his cars and his work for movies and tv. A marvel of automotive Craftsman's . Where he talks about night rider and kitt. Shows his scrapbook of photos with kitt and hoff.
Yeah I remember even as a kid wondering why KITT looked different in some action scenes. Young me just figured there was probably one stunt car, and it looked like that for some reason. But like others (like realityhitsmehardbro) have noted here, I did catch on even pretty young that KITTs nose shape changed a lot during the series.
Please do a video on all the different season 3/4 switch pod buttons, if they were on the left or right pod, the differences being the hero car pods and studio set pods, and was the season 4 C button on the left or right pod?
My friend Kevin Shanly did most of the dashboard electrical for the car. He made a similar dashboard for his personal car as well.
This show is so much more impressive when you considerr the behind the scenes logistics.
Hi Joe. I'm surprised to see KITT's "molecular bonded shell" in reality, but not just in the actual show. How would you feel if this was ever on a real vehicle today? By the way, I'm still waiting for that Visual Effects video to commence anytime soon. Thanks!♥✌
th-cam.com/video/IhuDXpQEgKA/w-d-xo.html we have how to do it, just need to implement it onto a car :)
A special effects man, named dan allenbaugh greased the body of a new one, then it was shot with a chopper gun,fiberglass shooting machine. That's how the jump car bodies were built. I know I have pictures. Used to work at that show.
How do they make the sparks for the bullet scenes? It’s probably simple but I have always wondered.
Most likely just very small explosives about like a firecracker wired with ignitors to be set off electrically
a very interesting video, as always! I wait for the next one. greetings from Spain
I feel like the shell from behind George Barris's shop is the one from the dune buggy and is probably fiberglass not rubber.
So neat to have the history of the rubber shell used on knight rider now we know where kitts molecular bonded ended up at lol great video Joe 👍
I can't wait to see you episode about Peterson Automuseum KITT.
Yeah hope he dose a long detailed video in it!
If you go to the Retro Recipies Channel, They just did a behind the scenes tour of that car with AJ from Knight Rider Historians. It was a great tour.
Hello from Phoenix Arizona❗🔥
@@pinball541 Yeah I saw that!!!
It would have been soooo cool if the original kitt from the pilot presentation (with scanner on the front of the nose instead of the top of the nose) was KARR the prototype in "Trust Don't Rust" and KITT VS KARR. It would have been a lot easier to tell KITT and KARR apart. Lol.
I never knew this was even a thing! I watched knight rider as a kid and thought it was just a normal trans am body! Thanks for this!
When the rubber shell was on K.I.T.T. the door probably was not usable, so getting in and out is only possible via the window.
After all these years, I never thought of that
Just like the General.
That amazes me bcz Iv always Wonder why some Knight Rider car scenes did they had the hood of the car semi open? So this finally explains it was a rubber shell WOW now I understand better😎👍
Love your videos Joe! Keep them coming! I’d love to see a video on the Jack Sessums miniatures~ Gene
1:3 wow KITT looks like he'll fall apart at any time lol, never saw this when first watching Knight Rider around 10 years ago. Need to rewatch it again to see what I catch as a 25 year old :)
When these shows first came out, I thought they were stupid and I wasn't a fan. But now that I've seen your videos, I've really done a 180 on this.
my aunt and uncle"s last name is Knight. he is a car guy and in the eighties they had a black TA with a KNIGHT licence plate. I was a kid and it owned me
Thank you for this information - it is definitely both interesting and enlightening.
Those cars came through the Norwood Assembly plant I put the rear bumper on
I wonder if NBC/Universal (now one company) would consider a remastered version of the original show with digital KITT stunts.
Thank you I watching your very interesting videos watching from South Africa
Reminds me of a kitt toy car I had when I was a kid. It had a launcher. The car was about 8" long and had rubber bumpers
George Barris certainly had experience making casts of cars. He made a cast of the 1966 Batmobile to pop off replicas to be sent out to make appearances. Is it possible the Volkswagon really had a fiberglass shell, and not rubber, made from the same mold?
Probably. If you watch some episodes in season one, the shell on the VW chassis has some weird flexing and vibration when it lands like it's some sort of hard plastic/fiberglass.
a pure rubber shell would not stand up - unless you put some epoxy/fibre-glas structure underneath - thats quite easy to do.
This question is a little off topic, but was Michael Long's regular Trans Am a separate car or was it reused as one of the KITT cars?
We did an entire video on that car on this channel ..check it out!
I hope the last shell is still alive today, somewhere!! Anyway, I am not sure that shall was always enough to protect the car during some stunts... as example in the scene we saw in Knight Racer commentary and we see again in this video, when the blue sedan hit KITT on the front right fender and the shell pops out so much, I think the gap between shell and fender was not enough to protect the car and they damaged the fender too! Lol
When I was a kid I always thought that the shell was a hard shell all the time especially when they always shoot at Kitt and it would always bounce off when they were shooting at Kitt!
Now i need to rewatch knight rider
This would explain the weird look of the hood opening. (I never noticed the windshield and pillar section being abnormal). I miss Knight Rider!
The shell is also visible in the Goliath ep. Also, Id check to see what Dean Jefferies has in his lots?.
How about an episode on the mail-order 'KITT Kit?' I still have mine. :)
interesting, I had always thought that the gap in the hood, was from damage on a previous take, or from a scene that was cut.
It was such a dumb show, but as a kid, I was a fan... Thanks, keep up your awesomeness and go enjoy some nature today...! Don't forget to compliment someone today...
Hey guys how you been. This might be a little off topic but there’s something called Line X spray that just come out a few yrs ago would you consider that the closest thing to the real molecular bonded shell ?
I'm pretty sure you guys will find it, and claim it for the collection.
We can only hope!
Another great video Joe.
Totally off topic. I’m bringing my family over to California next summer from Scotland for a holiday. I’d love to take my kids to see KITT in The Petersen Museum, could you tell me if it is still going to be in there next summer?? 🙏🏻
It will be there at least through June of 2023! After that I can't tell you yet!
@@KnightRiderHistoriansOfficial Thank you for that. We are going the first 2 weeks in July so I’ll keep my fingers crossed 🤞🏻
Hey Joe! I need a special edition 4 hour long pay per view episode about Elliot’s moped. Thanks.
When watching the show I kept wondering what was going on with the gaps at fenders and hood appearing during stunt shots. The lack of clarity on classic TV made it difficult to figure out, I concluded that maybe the stunt car is misshaped after all those crashes and does not fit together properly anymore, lol.
in TV shows you quite regularly do see the internally added roll-over cages. and maybe even the stunt driver wearing a helmet.
Could the "fiberglass" shells have been what were used to create the molds for the "rubber" shells?
i think that was it what the KRH vid from above wanted to tell.
Speaking of shelton lee worthy, he was having lots of health issues recently. He was on my friends list, but now I can't find him. I hope something didn't happen to him.
I loved the show as a child/teenager and the Trans Am was one of the classic American super cars for me, just like the Dodge Charger, Ford Mustang, the Ford Grand Torino and to be fair, nothing else. The Trans Am was completely ahead of time of the others.
Lol.
- trans am
- "super car"
Would you ever think about buying the new remake of kitt to add to your collection to make sure you have apart of the remake too
Hey, I’m curious. Seeing you’re on the last season of the show and are still covering material that are related to it. Is there any chance you’ll be covering the three novelizations of episodes that were released? They technically count as canon, as they are based on episodes.
Just got the Playmobil KITT delivered today. Christmas come early 🤣
Ever try to track down the VW-powered dune buggy chassis?
be interesting to see if they can, but i think that's long gone now, from their video on it, it was stated it was last seen for sale in the 1987 or something like that, and never seen again, so strong change that will be long gone. But then again i said the same thing about the trailer, and look what they found.
@@procta2343 They found the semi and the trailer
@@CR7659 yeah i know,
I remember taking the old tour at Universal Studios. And on part of the tour they had K.I.T.T.'s stacked up like firewood they had wrecked so bad they were most likely the ones that got crushed. That would have been in late 1982 or early 1983.
Did you take any photos?
@@KnightRiderHistoriansOfficial No. I had forgot my camera at home. They most likely would not have been any good because I was on the tram and it was moving at the time so they would be out of focus.
Sadly 10811 Riverside Dr, North Hollywood, CA 91602, United doe no longer seem to be occupied by George Barris workshop.
What ever happened to the season 4 insert car?
maybe you can do something with the location of the gas tanks changing
could that last remaining shell be off the flivver car? it looks like it was a full body
Was the shell really rubber or poly urethane? If rubber have did they get it so shiny?
Great info! Would it be possible to reach out to anyone who worked with Barris or find out and talk to any businesses that might have been next to his back then?
I wonder if maybe Barris did make the shell, it could have been because of the Batmobile?
the Batmobile never really saw any 'hard use', could have been he imagined the car doing more destructive stunts and was never able to get it implemented in the show. and this was the solution that came from that eggshell treatment.
I can never watch knightrider with the eyes of my past self again 😊😊😊
I just realized, was this the first predecessor of the modern rubber phone covers?
I'd imagine Joji or Brett Barris might know maybe and I'd also bet George had taken photos to. Barris kustom is going to reopen eventually and they'd have all George's archives still.
Did anyone see shell on the forecourt? It would be great to have one of the rubber shells if it still existed.
As I recall the shell is a combination of latex rubber and fiberglass to reduce the warping of the car during stunts the last known shell was badly damaged but used as a body mold for KITT replicas can't remember where it ended up but hope the recipe for the shell can be reproduced.
Hopefully at at least two of the three people entrusted with a half of the formula will come forward.
Knight rider. 😎
They gave KITT Lego man hair.
Wow, since you have pointed it out now it's kinda obvious, but still cool. 😃
Four cars!? You just recently told us you were now sure there were only three originals. What did you learn and when does that video drop!?!?!?
They had three cars for the pilot presentation but got a fourth car to film the rest of the pilot
@@KnightRiderHistoriansOfficial Oh, that clears up my confusion. I may also be mixing up your recent statement that you hope there is one more screen used car hiding somewhere. I got all excited that you had found it!
My friend was out drinking driving his Smokey and the bandit firebird ended up out running some cops wound up passed out in the backyard !
We need to find whoever bought Barris's shop. They'll know.
The last rubber shell from KITT was probably sold on Facebook Marketplace.
Is this still available?
Have a ask: My English is not the Best : Why they used not only the dune buggy for stunts ? when the cars was so important?
It was the 80ties - we all thought we were invincible! "Be careful" was something parents said to their young kids, but not a guidline for adults. And so I assume they overestimated the capabilities of the film cars frequently. From past episodes of the "Knight Rider Historians" it becomes clear, that they had to do massive repairs on some of the cars after most stunt filming occasions. Luckily they had a capable repair shop backing them up, and so they were quite free doing heavy damage and implementing elaborate special functions if needed.
If I look back now, I see close connections between the use of the stunt men and stunt cars inthe script and the foundation policy presented on the screen: If its for a good cause - risk it! I'm pretty sure this show would not be possible nowadays. You would not even find the right people to do it, We all got so cautios to not risk anything.
They may have had only one dune buggy car, and if it was damaged from a previous stunt and a new stunt was needed, they had to use whatever KITT car was available to film the scene.
@@themobseat Thanks
Thanks for all
i am confused as to how a rubber shell can do much but protect the body from scratches. also, how would they get paint on it that can flex and look so shiny and perfect? fiberglass should be easier to make look good, but no way hey are going to bend it to get it on the car.
I do remember seeing a behind-the-scenes clip where someone peeled a shiny black coating off the car. It wasn't a shell.
Cool video be awesome if you found one of those shells!
Please tell me rubber could not crash through actual concrete. Like what were the walls made out of?