FanPost

RRRR: Knighttime binging

Before the advent of streaming video and everything on demand, you actually had to flip channels over and over and over to find something you’d settle for (Instead of scrolling through a menu over and over like now.) All of us have a few shows or movies that would be an automatic "stop here" while flopped on a couch during the weekend recovering from either work or alcohol. (Edit- as RWShow points out, the term for this is shawshanked)
Now that everything you could ever want is on demand and entire seasons are available for binge watching whenever you want, the channel flipping thing just isn’t quite what it used to be.
No more turning on the TV and finding "Back to School" on TBS halfway through and watching the rest of it. Or anything on TBS really, they were good at weekend time wastes.

Here is a chart of the total time you would spend watching the entire series of a number of popular shows- http://gizmodo.com/heres-exactly-how-much-time-youve-spent-binge-watching-1570352819. Makes me feel somewhat guilty about wasting so much time when I realize I’ve seen the entirety of most of the shows on that list. Some of them several times. The reason I mention this- An interesting thing happened a few months ago that brought together streaming and one of those shows that would always make me "stop here." I noticed that Knight Rider was on Netflix. For guys my age, Knight Rider was one of the best shows ever as a kid. I mean, come on, a futuristic "alive" Trans Am? That’s like the best thing ever to a young 80s me.

I’ve had like zero to do at work this week, and they don’t block netflix, so I have just finished what I started those few months ago. I watched the entirety of Knight Rider. All 4 seasons, 69 hours total. That’s 2.875 days of my life, but, it just kinda had to be done once I started it. The show is so awesomely 80s bad. It’s also kinda fascinating to see just how far technology has come since then, and see what is actually feasible these days. I mean, with Siri integration in cars, we’ve got the talking car thing. Google maps and real time traffic data blows away some of the stuff that the Knight Industries Two Thousand could do.

I really don’t recommend that anyone else attempt to watch all of Knight Rider, so I’ve compiled a list of the episodes that will really stir the childhood memories, and the ones that tell the true story of that Stoic Lone Ranger, Michael Knight.

Season 1-
E1-2 Knight of the Phoenix - The origin story
E9 Trust doesn’t rust - The introduction of K.A.R.R. (Knight Automated Roving Robot) the precursor to K.I.T.T. that turned evil due to it’s programing.
E15 Give me liberty or give me death - Not really essential to the cannon, but the story centers around alternative fueled vehicles. Interesting to see that addressed so long ago
E19 White Bird - We get to meet Michaels former fiancee who makes several more appearances and get treated the most excellent song of the same name.


Season 2
E1-2 Goliath - We get to meet Garthe, the "evil Michael." See, before there was a Michael Knight, he was a police officer named Michael Long. When Michael Long was shot, he had to have massive reconstructive surgery on his face, and the guy who paid for it all made Michael look like his long imprisoned really bad guy son Garthe. So, this evil guy Garthe breaks out of prison and is determined to crush Michael cause he’s all jealous about the father issue stuff. He steals the technology that makes KITT virtually indestructible and applies it to a Giant Semi Truck cause why not? This truck is named Goliath. Hilarity ensues.

Garth-knight_medium

E9 - Soul Survivor - A whiz kid steals KITT, but they somehow manage to take KITTs programming and put it into a little portable TV
E18-19 Goliath returns - Garthe breaks out of prison again, and they rebuild the truck. This episode features the best scene of all of Knight Rider- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4sjsifUlU
E23 Let it be - Here we get a reunion with Michaels former fiancee Stevie

Season 3
E1-2 Knight of the Drones - The return of Bonnie. Such a great role model for women she is. A no shit taking engineer lady.
E6 K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R. - Yet another in depth exploration of the nature of good versus evil
E14 Junk Yard Dog - A fantastic and inspirational rebuilding tale after KITT gets dumped in acid
E18 Knight & Knerd - Oh man the sterotype of the 80s "nerd" portrayed here is just overwhelming

Season 4
E1-2 Knight of the Juggernaught - This right here is the one to watch if you are gonna only watch one. So, The daughter of the founder of the whole F.L.A.G. operation wants to shut down the lone ranger with technology thing that they’ve got going and use the technology in much greater applications. When a series of events leads to KITT being crushed, the daughter gets her chance. Michael and Bonnie won’t let it go, so they take the remains of KITT TO CHICAGO!!!!!! Here we meet Bonnies aquaintance the vigilante known as the Street Avenger, but RC3 to his friends. He’s got a whole crew that can break dance and fix cars. So they will rebuild KITT. New and improved! Super pursuit mode gets used on the streets of Chicago for the very first time! Excitement!
E7 - Knight Sting- KITT gets disguised as an old ‘55 lynx imperial racer
E11 - Knight Song - They return to Chicago to help and old friend. KITT helps out some musically inclined youngsters.
E12 The Scent of Roses - Michael gets shot again and decides to leave the foundation. his old flame stevie makes her third appearance and convinces him otherwise.

There you have it. I actually did that.

So, what TV shows or Movies from the past make you stop flipping chanels?

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