Knight Rider is an American action crime drama television series created and produced by Glen A. Larson.

The show stars David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a sleek and modern crime fighter assisted by KITT, an advanced, artificially intelligent, self-aware, and nearly indestructible car.

Wilton selects Michael to be the primary field agent in the pilot program of his public justice organization, the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG).

The other half of this pilot program is the Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT), a heavily modified, technologically advanced Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with numerous features, including a highly durable shell and frame, controlled by a computer with artificial intelligence.

Glen Larson wanted the talking muscle car to have a heartbeat and asked Scheffe to design a beam of light like the Cylons had in Battlestar Galactica to be used on the front of the vehicle.

[5] The series DVD bonus material contains an interview about this lead music, where Glen A. Larson says he remembers a theme out of a classical piece ("Marche Et Cortège De Bacchus" Act III – No.

Peake took over scoring duties with the 14th episode of season 1, "Hearts of Stone", in 1983, when Larson moved to Twentieth Century-Fox and Phillips was working there on his projects.

In 2005, FSM released a disc of music from the series, featuring the series theme, ad bumpers and Phillips' scores for "Knight of the Phoenix" (the pilot), "Not a Drop to Drink", "Trust Doesn't Rust", "Forget Me Not" and the composer's final episode "Inside Out", as well as the logo music for Glen Larson Productions.

The intro throughout most of the episodes began with this narration: Knight Rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist.

"[7] Tom Shales, writing for The Washington Post, commented: "'Knight Rider' is all revved up but has no place to go, except, maybe, headlong into a large brick wall.

Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly called the show "a relic from a simpler time, when audiences demanded less from their TV".

[16] On March 8, 2016, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1; they subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD on May 3, 2016.

[18] In Japan, NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan—a subsidiary of NBCUniversal—released a Blu-ray box set containing all four seasons, replicas, props, and memorabilia under the title ナイトライダー コンプリート ブルーレイBOX (Knight Rider: The Complete Series).

[20] On December 30, 2022, the German company Turbine Medien worked with Universal to put together Knight Rider: The 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray Collection.

In 1988, Angelo di Marco made a French comic strip based on the series, titled K2000 and published by Dargaud.

[26] Zen Studios released a digital pinball table inspired by Knight Rider as part of the Universal Pinball: TV Classics downloadable content with other well-known nostalgic hit NBCUniversal TV shows like Xena: Warrior Princess and Battlestar Galactica.

These books consisted of a mix of text stories and cartoon strips, as well as photos and articles on the show's stars and KITT.