In the storyline of Knight Rider, Michael Arthur Long was born on January 9, 1949, outside Los Angeles, California, and raised by a blue-collar working family.

Together with the high-tech automobile KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand), Michael carries on Wilton's crusade of aiding the powerless.

He is given mission objectives by the new director of FLAG, Wilton's longtime friend and confidant, Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare).

Michael was selected for his high level of self-defense training, intelligence, law enforcement experience, and his ability and preference to work alone without assistance or back-up.

Although most of Knight's cases were based in Southern California, where FLAG was headquartered, the operation was not confined there, travelling to whatever part of the country trouble arose in, sometimes even crossing borders into Mexico.

[4] The Garthe storyline didn't go beyond the second season as Hasselhoff requested that the doppelgänger villain be ended, due to the time it took to film both roles.

In 1984, Michael found out that the reason for him almost being shot in the pilot was having been the target of Tanya Walker's lover—and Wilton's long-standing enemy—Cameron Zachary (John Vernon).

Michael loved women, including his former fiancée Stephanie "Stevie" March Mason (portrayed by Hasselhoff's actual wife at the time, Catherine Hickland), eventually marrying her (seen in the episode "Scent of Roses") on the same day she is killed.