Knight Rider - 1982

Michael Long (wink wink) was a Las Vegas police detective. Then he was shot in the face and nearly killed. Lucky for him billionaire Wilton Knight heard of his case and put up the money to save him and give him a new face via plastic surgery. The reborn crimefighter was christened Michael Knight, given a tripped-out, artificially intelligent Trans Am named KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) as a sidekick and sent forth to do battle with the forces of evil for the elder Knight's vigilante group FLAG (Foundation for Law And Government).

Knight Rider starring David Hasselhoff was launched on September 26, 1982 and became an immediate hit. The chicks liked that Hasselhoff dude and teen nerds all over the country got all pimply over KITT. The story lines were ridiculous, the acting hammy and KITT sounded like he'd swallowed C3P0 but nobody seemed to care. It was classic American escapist TV and was a ratings monster for the first couple of seasons. But after four seasons it was cancelled when those ratings began to decline and several attempts to resuscitate it have proven largely unsuccessful. Hasselhoff himself though went on to become quite a pop music sensation in several northern European countries and had a second hit series a few years later when silicone and sand were combined to create the even more ridiculous (and so of course more successful) Baywatch.

David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight with KITT. Isn't he dreamy? The guy isn't bad looking either.