Who thinks KR is ridiculous?

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Who thinks KR is ridiculous?

Post by ramon88us » Sun Nov 02, 2003 11:56 pm

A lot of people that are close to my age think KR is ridiculous? My damn cousin thinks it is. He hates the parts where Michael ejects from KITT and also the part where Michael opens up the locks with the comlink.
But his favorite parts are the car chases and the fight scenes.He is 12.

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Post by knightimmortal » Mon Nov 03, 2003 12:05 am

Well, I think that asking that on a Knight Rider board is sort of useless, since the majority of us are going to reply that it is not that ridiculous, since the majority of us are here to talk about it, and keep up conversation about it.

Everybody is going to have their differing opinions about the show, and they are free to have them, what matters the most is what you feel for yourself, and if you are content with that opinion. The rest of them, they still watch it, and if they don't, that's their loss.

KI

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Post by Michael Pajaro » Mon Nov 03, 2003 12:21 am

You betcha, I think Knight Rider is ridiculous. And that's part of its charm for me.

I truly believe that everyone involved with the show knew that - on some level - they were working on a ridiculous show. And they embraced it with some tongue-in-cheek writing and a beautiful performance by Hasselhoff.

There were a lot of ridiculous shows in the 80s which took themselves too seriously. But Knight Rider had an attitude of "yeah, we know it's ridiculous, YOU know it's ridiculous, but we all love it anyway." That's what made it so fun.

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Re: Who thinks KR is ridiculous?

Post by Knight Industries 3000 » Mon Nov 03, 2003 12:27 am

ramon88us wrote:A lot of people that are close to my age think KR is ridiculous? My damn cousin thinks it is. He hates the parts where Michael ejects from KITT and also the part where Michael opens up the locks with the comlink.
But his favorite parts are the car chases and the fight scenes.He is 12.
I love the show, but in many ways Knight Rider is ridiculous. Much of KITT's technology remains almost unattainable today. I was between the ages of 6 and 10 when the show first aired, and even then I knew that KITT's ability to open mechanical locks through transmissions from Michael's comlink was impossible. Given the confining compartment of a Trans Am, there's also no way that any person -- particularly someone as tall as Michael Knight -- could be ejected from the car while seated without suffering serious leg injuries. The occupant would likely become caught between the seat and the front of the T top frame.

Twenty-plus years after the fact, I've seen no evidence of any automobile with anything approaching the ability to self-initiate long-distance jumps or extended travel on two wheels. Super pursuit mode, as kewl as it looks, is also a feature best left to toy lines like MASK.

KITT's distinctive steering wheel is completely impractical for high-speed travel and tight maneuvers, given how accustomed most drivers are to having a full 360 degrees of steering wheel to use. I doubt many Indy 500 drivers would want to use a KITT-style steering wheel installed in their racing cars.

Since many of KITT's functions -- such as oil slicks, ski mode, etc. -- are designed to be usable at high speeds, their controls should also be made more easily accessible to a person with both hands on the steering wheel. In other words, critical controls should be on the steering wheel.

KITT's interior lacks a rearview mirror on the dashboard and any visible vents for a temperature control system.

KITT's body design is impractical for jumps. Given the pitch angle that would likely be involved in takeoffs and/or landings from its turbo-boosted jumps, the nose, and possibly also the rear bumper, of the car would almost always scuff the roads during turbo boosts. Even with the molecular bonded shell -- itself a seeming impossibility -- why would the designers of such a super car allow the performance car to be hindered so significantly by friction?

Is there a reason to mention KITT's AI and personality?

So in many ways, Knight Rider is ridiculous. It's also a damn fun show to watch. :D

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Mon Nov 03, 2003 1:23 am

Well, the answer to that question is "yes" and "no." It's like this was a good idea to come up with for a show, but a lot of the episodes kind of seem silly. I like those ones that are a big deal. They meant something to me. Yes, I do feel like if I had made the show, I would have had some things happen differently. I don't like it in the pilot episode how Michael is one minute busy driving with music on, then he just simply crashes. I would have done it that he spent hours driving, then when it got dark he started feeling groggy. GOOD DAY AT WHITE ROCK is like my favorite episode that isn't something extremely important. But I don't like the way it begins. I wish they had just started it off to do with what went on in the episode instead of Michael busting the drug dealers who have nothing to do with the remainder of the show. Also, I think in the second one they should have introduced us to Bonnie. And in the first with April, they should have said something about Bonnie being on leave while April would be taking her place. Then when Bonnie comes back, they say something about April no longer being with them. But this is a good show. Better than any show now. This stuff was pretty cool back then. It is hokey now. The only show I like better than this is MacGyver.

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Re: Who thinks KR is ridiculous?

Post by Dome » Mon Nov 03, 2003 1:56 am

ramon88us wrote:A lot of people that are close to my age think KR is ridiculous? My damn cousin thinks it is. He hates the parts where Michael ejects from KITT and also the part where Michael opens up the locks with the comlink.
But his favorite parts are the car chases and the fight scenes.He is 12.
hehe why do you listen to your cousin?

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Post by sofchance » Mon Nov 03, 2003 1:59 am

Uhmmm I don't remember Michael crashing his car with the music on in KOTP.
Bonnie WAS introduced in the second episode.
And when Bonnie came back, it was explained that she was at Santa Clara University studying mechanics under David Holston.

I don't want to make a big deal, but you should get your facts straight. There are plenty of episode guides areound to check if you need help.

Getting to the matter at hand, first of all, this has been brought up so many times already. Yes, in some aspects (especially during the first 2 seasons) the show was corny. But that's why we love it. IT's by no means the best show ever made, but it's my favorite just because - even if that time has passed - at one time it was the coolest thing around.

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Mon Nov 03, 2003 2:42 am

Michael did not crash the car. I meant he fell asleep at the wheel while driving. But it happened when he is acting wide awake and got music playing. KITT started playing a song to wake him up, but cops saw him leaning against the window and pulled them over. Yes you know that, but that was what I was talking about when I said he crashes. It would make more sense if he had been driving a while and it was getting real late. He just simply dozed down. And about Bonnie, they act like you already know who she is. I meant they should have done it that Michael is meeting her for the first time. In the first episode with April, she is just there as if she always had been. I think they should have said something about Bonnie being on leave. Yes, I know it turns out Bonnie was away at a university when she comes back in the third season premiere. Patricia McPherson left the show to do other things and Rebecca Holden took her place. But people said the show wasn't the same without her, so they asked for her to be brought back. That you probably already know anyway. Just making my point.

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Post by Miked » Mon Nov 03, 2003 2:53 am

I think KR is definitely a rediculous show. That's why I love it so much. Doing a show about a supercar with a personality, and a "lone crusader" cowboy of a driver? What made it so much fun as a kid, was the fact that they dared to make it so dramatic & straight-faced.
-----------------------------------------------

Newer shows & actors don't have the guts to be half as "rediculous" as KR & David Hasselhoff were. So the new stuff is just unreal to a lesser extent, with lots of half-hearted explanations for things.
And the result is the worst of both worlds: Neither realistic, NOR cheesy-fun.

Give me KR & David any day.

.

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Post by neps » Mon Nov 03, 2003 7:59 am

To stop and give time to explain Bonnie would slow down the show and create exposition that wasn't really necessary. If they had done it, it probably would have been a nice way to show the human relationships on the show which they didn't always make a priority, instead focusing on the story-lines and getting the bad guy.

KR is a show that isn't for everyone. Some enjoy it right off the bat, some have to have it grow on them, like Vegemite. Whether it is ridiculous or not is one persons opinion over anothers. Let them think what they want, you don't need their approval to enjoy what you do, otherwise you wont get very far constantly seeking it.

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Post by knightimmortal » Mon Nov 03, 2003 2:13 pm

ColeGrad01 wrote:Michael did not crash the car. I meant he fell asleep at the wheel while driving. But it happened when he is acting wide awake and got music playing. KITT started playing a song to wake him up, but cops saw him leaning against the window and pulled them over. Yes you know that, but that was what I was talking about when I said he crashes. It would make more sense if he had been driving a while and it was getting real late. He just simply dozed down.
It's TV time, they even show the passage of time through the passage of different songs. He WAS driving for a fairly long while before he passed out. He was already sleepy, as was mentioned in the wording before about Michael still not being fully recovered, and KITT offering to take the wheel.

He didn't JUST pass out.

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Post by Michael Pajaro » Mon Nov 03, 2003 2:47 pm

neps wrote:KR is a show that isn't for everyone. Some enjoy it right off the bat, some have to have it grow on them, like Vegemite.
I've been a Knight Rider fan for 21 years, and I thought I've seen it all. But I have never, ever seen the show compared to Vegemite! :)

(I tried it once. Never again.)
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Post by Benjamin Knight » Mon Nov 03, 2003 4:27 pm

Humm... I do find somethings in KR to be little silly, and my mom thinks its crazy. My cousin things its corny, and says A-Team is better. :evil: But I love KR, and in my mind its only a little silly, I love it so much I just can't get enough! 8) lol neps you need to make a smily with big MK sun glasses! lol lol lol. I don't know why he had those. They made him look funny. :lol: 8)

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Post by ramon88us » Mon Nov 03, 2003 7:19 pm

I do not think KR is ridiculous is just my stupid cousing hes real modern nothing 80s.

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Post by ColeGrad01 » Mon Nov 03, 2003 7:29 pm

The best shows I have ever seen are MacGyver, Knight Rider (definitely), Quantum Leap, Highlander, and Incredible Hulk (80's TV show). A-Team is okay, but it's just a silly 80's show. I said them in the order I like them. They are all shows (including A-Team) that I have seen the first and final episodes to. And the first episodes to all of them (except MacGyver and Highlander as I have said before) seem to be my favorite. Today when I watched the pilot episode of Knight Rider, it seemed rather touchy. They kept playing sad music. Mainly because of Michael's near-death and Wilton's death. I noticed Devon was crying when Wilton passed away. I kept on thinking how he's going to be dead one day as well (even though his death is not natural). Michael Long does not look anything like Michael Knight. Last time I thought it was just a younger version of Michael being fixed to look older. The first is the best. The show starts to seem different after the episode with Goliath. It seems like a totally different show at the end. David Hasselhoff looks like a totally different guy with the same face. Almost as if his character is played by a brother that looks exactly like him. Garthe seems like he is played by a cousin that looks a lot like him.

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Post by Miked » Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:35 am

I can't get too into the A-team, because I never loved it as a kid.

They shot at stuff all day, and never hit anything. Boring. As a 7-year-old, I knew that was hard to swallow. Somehow, KITT was easier to suspend my disbelief over.

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Post by Knight Industries 3000 » Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:50 am

All Knight Rider needed was for Michael Knight to wear a Cylon helmet left over from Battlestar Galactica, and the series would be perfect... ly ridiculous. :lol:

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Post by JL » Tue Nov 04, 2003 11:03 am

Michael Pajaro wrote:You betcha, I think Knight Rider is ridiculous. And that's part of its charm for me.

I truly believe that everyone involved with the show knew that - on some level - they were working on a ridiculous show. And they embraced it with some tongue-in-cheek writing and a beautiful performance by Hasselhoff.

There were a lot of ridiculous shows in the 80s which took themselves too seriously. But Knight Rider had an attitude of "yeah, we know it's ridiculous, YOU know it's ridiculous, but we all love it anyway." That's what made it so fun.
I think you summed it up really well, Mike. Part of what made both KR and The A-Team so memorable was that they didn't take it seriously. You can see it on the faces of the actors, that they're having a whole lot of fun doing what they're doing, and that spills over onto the audience.

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Post by knightimmortal » Tue Nov 04, 2003 2:37 pm

Somehow, I would call that campy, or not serious. Maybe even fun. But the word 'ridiculous' has too many negative overtones to be used, wouldn't you think? Unless you honestly think that it was ridiculous, at which point, why do you call yourself a fan?

Cop Rock was ridiculous. Do you want Knight Rider put in that same vein? Think about the word, a bit, and even from ramon's views, it's a rather negative word, not even necessarily meaning that it was a fun show, that it didn't take itself seriously.

ri·dic·u·lous ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-dky-ls)
adj.
Deserving or inspiring ridicule; absurd, preposterous, or silly. See Synonyms at foolish.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[From Latin rdiculus, laughable, from rdre, to laugh.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ri·dicu·lous·ly adv.
ri·dicu·lous·ness n.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


ridiculous

\Ri*dic"u*lous\, a. [L. ridiculosus, ridiculus, fr. ridere to laigh. Cf. Risible.] 1. Fitted to excite ridicule; absurd and laughable; unworthy of serious consideration; as, a ridiculous dress or behavior.

Agricola, discerning that those little targets and unwieldy glaives ill pointed would soon become ridiculous against the thrust and close, commanded three Batavian cohorts . . . to draw up and come to handy strokes. --Milton.

2. Involving or expressing ridicule. [r.]

[It] provokes me to ridiculous smiling. --Shak.

Syn: Ludicrous; laughable; risible; droll; comical; absurd; preposterous. See Ludicrous. --- Ri*dic\"u*lous*ly, adv. -- Ri*dic\"u*lous*ness, n.


Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.


ridiculous

adj 1: inspiring scornful pity; "how silly an ardent and unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on in years"- Dashiell Hammett [syn: pathetic, silly] 2: so devoid of wisdom or good sense as to be laughable; "the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework"; "ask a nonsensical question and get a nonsensical answer"; "a contribution so small as to be derisory"; "it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion"; "a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history"; "her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous" [syn: absurd, derisory, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous] 3: broadly or extravagantly humorous; resembling farce; "the wild farcical exuberance of a clown"; "ludicrous green hair" [syn: farcical, ludicrous]

It honestly wasn't this bad, was it? Some of them fit, but the word as a whole still has a negative connotation to it, so for those who think it was fun, and love it even though it didn't take itself too seriously, couldn't we come up with a better warm and fuzzy word to describe it? One with less associative negativity?

KI

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Post by Skav » Tue Nov 04, 2003 3:32 pm

I'll go with some of the definitions such as Absurd, comical, maybe even preposterous.

But I love it because of the way it is. The whole point of watching something like KR is you put your mind over that way....and watch the show to escape reality for 45 mins or so.

So yeah, it is ridiculous but so are most fantasy/action tv shows/movies.

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