Although Street Hawk saw closure in 13 episodes, and Knight Rider lasted a lot longer, somehow SH managed to be a lot cooler, lighter and entertaining by far compared to Knight Rider. I recently watched the new Knight Rider direct-to-TV backdoor pilot and realised why that was.
SH focussed primarily on street crime and it makes sense to have a super-advanced bike to fight street crime (especially bike gangs). Makes good for car chases where criminals have been escaping the police due to high speed and high risk pursuits. It was also a lot more realistic – plausible technology – no speaking AI and stuff. Street Hawk showed the Man + Bike combo at all times. Even inside buildings. And there were very few occasions where they had to be separated – in which case the bike itself didn’t play a major role in the situation, and you could do with some other secret superhero altogether.
The point is Street Hawk, as the name suggests, focussed on street crime by bike gangs and quick-getaways.
Knight Rider, on the other hand, introduces this cool new car that does little but drive itself and being bullet-proof, and being chatty. I mean really, what does it “do”? Or maybe it was the movie that made it look that way. But come on, couldn’t the characters just be driving KITT instead of it driving itself? And if you need programmed AI to figure out how to get out of a tight spot, or to strategize, then you shouldn’t even be making a movie out of such people!
All in all, Knight Rider seems pretty lame if you wanna watch a watch a sports car drive itself pretty damn fast only in places accessible by smooth roads, and assist dumb-ass human characters in figuring out what to do.
