knight rider online

In Netflix, if you watch "The Final Verdict," at 21:53, there's a huge round gash in the driver seat. What in the world did that?

Yeah. Someone newer to the series asked me about that a couple of years ago, and I forgot to ask here.

I used to look at this same scene and wondered where were kitt's button pods behind the steering wheel.

I have seen that before. It looks like a huge burn mark or something.

Just a guess, maybe some sort of camera support had been connected to the seat frame for some shots? Or some stunt device? Looks too perfectly round to be from some sort of accident.

KITTfan wrote:Just a guess, maybe some sort of camera support had been connected to the seat frame for some shots? Or some stunt device? Looks too perfectly round to be from some sort of accident.

I bet you are right. After all, this is a season one episode. And, I'll take evidence from Trust Doesn't Rust. (There's also another episode or two that can give evidence.) In one scene during the night, we get what could possibly be the only external shot that looks over the hood from the outside. While it's suppose to be KARR, the darkness gives away that the internal dashboard is responding to the vocals and it's illuminated red instead of yellow. Which tells us that at least in Season one, they were intending to use shots that happen inside the car. And, there's a ton of footage where Michael interacts with the dashboard. Also remember that this was the early '80s. Camera technology isn't what we have, today. It was big, bulky and heavy. Especially for the high end, quality camera equipment. So, having an internal mount to harness those amazing, steady shots does make sense.

Another thing to consider is that Knight Rider was a TV show...on a TV's demanding schedule. They were really lax on a bunch of details...like that hand that comes out to work the driver door. Obvious marks in the walls for crashing through. And, one of my favorites, keeping the shot where KITT drives by...and has the whole camera crew with that rigging so clearly in the reflective paint job. So, (and I have to imagine that there was some kind of round cover that went over this hole.) when they shoot a scene where the hole isn't plugged for presentation's sake, I'm not surprised that they let it pass for the sake of keeping up with a tight schedule.