myKITT.de within the official German "Knight Rider" Blu-ray set!

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Unboxing-Video

My unboxing video with tons of exclusive background info on the making of the "Knight Rider" Blu-ray set. Created on 10th December 2022 - almost 3 weeks before the official release!
in German language (autmated English subtitles available)

"Knight Rider - 40th Anniversary Edition" on Blu-ray!

On 30th December 2022, "Knight Rider" has been released for the first time completely uncut in HD on Blu-ray in German from Turbine Medien! The box set also contains English audio and subtitles.

Excursus: What does uncut mean?

The series was broadcasted in the USA with several commercial breaks. For this purpose, the scene image was frozen and reduced in size in front of an image from the intro (see picture). In addition, an excerpt from the title music was played, which often started already in the scene before.
For the old German TV masters, these sequences were cut out. For this, the scenes before or after the break were often removed as well, because the music could already be heard there. This often happened before the dubbing had started, so that the scenes in question have never been dubbed into German.
When the 1st + 2nd seasons were released on DVD from 2005, the uncut US masters were used and German audio was added. The scenes around the commercial breaks had only been subtitled back then, if there was no German dubbing.
On these DVDs, seasons 1+2 also did not include the teaser intros, which always ran before the opening intro on TV and briefly summarized the plot of the upcoming episode.
For licensing reasons, not all original songs from the TV broadcasts could be used for the DVDs. In the English version, the music tracks were extracted and replaced with new ones. In the German version, this was not always possible due to the mono soundtrack. Sometimes the music was simply removed (in the dance bar in "Knight Of The Drones" the ladies dance without music playing). For the episode "White Line Warriors", the German dubbing was completely omitted due to various pieces of music. This episode is available on DVD only in English with a changed soundtrack. On Blu-ray, the original soundtrack is included for all episodes for the first time!
For the German DVDs season 3+4 Universal Germany simply used old German TV masters. Although the teaser intros were intact, the commercial breaks were missing and the picture quality was significantly worse than the remastered US versions. Especially in season 4 the picture quality was far below standard DVD level.
In fall 2011, the series ran for the first time in native HD on German pay TV on TNT Serie. Unfortunately, they used shortened U.S. TV masters, which were again heavily cut for syndication broadcasts on third-party stations for advertising time reasons. These shortened HD versions were subsequently also shown on NITRO, SKY, Amazon Prime, and RTL+. Already in the pilot, for example, the scene in which the car thief is hit on the head by the brick was missing, as well as the scene in the hospital at the end and half the dialogue on the plane. In the pilot for season 3, the scene where K.I.T.T. introduces his new functions was completely missing and also in many other episodes something was missing again and again. Sometimes there are missing 3-4 minutes per episode!
The episode "Dead Of Knight" is completely missing from the HDTV broadcasts. Probably due to music rights.
For the Blu-ray from Turbine Medien, on the other hand, the uncut HD masters were used. The German audio was completely re-mastered to match these masters. Scenes that were only subtitled on DVD have either been found or were dubbed with new, suitable voice actors. (see below).
Missing teaser trailers were elaborately reconstructed in HD using old worse versions. The Blu-ray version is therefore now completely uncut for the first time. In addition, the Blu-rays contain the original music tracks again, so that this shortcoming of the DVDs has also been remedied.
On the German DVDs, two complete scenes were also missing in season 4. In "The Wrong Crowd" (S04E06), a conversation between Nicholas and Scott at Nicholas' parents' party was missing (approx. 65 seconds), in addition to the teaser (approx. 30 seconds). In "Knight Sting" (S04E07) the beginning was missing, where you see a dying monkey on a TV screen in an experimental lab (approx. 29 seconds). The scene with the monkey is originally from "The Andromeda Strain".

The limited edition "40th Anniversary Edition" (3,939 copies) contains not only "Knight Rider", but also "Knight Rider 2000", "Team Knight Rider" and "Knight Rider 2010"! The whole thing comes with many bonus stuff in an approx. 31 x 25 x 6 cm box!
There is also a lot of new bonus material including a approx. 13-minute featurette called "myKITT.de - A child's dream coming true" about my little hobby, which I am very proud of!
In addition, my K.I.T.T. can be seen on the official cover as well as the 4 digipacks of the original series! The cover motif is also included as a poster!
Plus: For the enclosed book (German), for which I also provided editorial support, I was allowed to write an article on the topic "Fan memories: Knight Rider"!

Contents of the limited "40th Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray box set:

23 discs (20x Blu-ray "Knight Rider", 1x SD on Blu-ray "Team Knight Rider", 1x Blu-ray "Knight Rider 2000" (upgraded from SD) and "Knight Rider 2010" (SD), 1x Blu-ray bonus disc incl. 13-minute special "myKITT.de - A child's dream coming true")
Elmar A. Schulte's great book "Knight Guide" as a new version of "The Knight Rider Book" with many pictures and additional chapters - including "Fan Memories: Knight Rider" with a contribution by me! (see below for more information)
4 posters (one of them with the cover motif with my K.I.T.T.!), 2 sheets printed on both sides, size A1 (approx. 84 x 59 cm)
2 round stickers (Knight logo and Knight head)
6 Photo cards (s/w)
1 Premium artcard (Design by Michael Scheffe)
Michael Knight's Identity cards and vehicle documents (5 parts)
- Driving license (pilot, laminated)
- Vehicle documents (pilot)
- Social security card (pilot)
- Fake ID Card US Government (Season 4, episode 19, "Knight Flight To Freedom")
- Fake press card from "Tombstone Variety" (Season 4, episode 16, "Redemption of a Champion")

Contents of the bonus disc (Blu-ray):

Interviews (HD):
- Stu Philips (Soundtrack/Score) - 11:22
- Rebecca Holden (Actress, April Curtis, Season 2) - 17:29
- Steven de Souza (Producer & writer) - 31:35
- Jack Gill (Stunt coordinator & K.I.T.T. driver) - 33:41
- Deborah Davis (writer) - 17:04
- Tom Greene (Producer & writer) - 49:34
- KnightCon 2011 - Greetings by Tom Greene (Producer & writer) - 27:59
- myKITT.de - A child's dream coming true (My K.I.T.T. replica) - 12:44
Universal Archive (SD, bonus features from the old DVDs):
- Knight Rider: Below the hood - 15:52
- Knight Sounds - 06:39
- Knight Stunts - 06:09
- Sketch gallery - 03:10
- Photo gallery - 02:56
- K.I.T.T. manual - 03:03
Easter Egg [where?] (menu page 2, go to "Knight Stunts" and then to the left):
- Knight Rider Bloopers & Gag Reel 1+2 - 19:10

Additional bonus material on the series discs:

Audio commentary on the pilot "Knight of the Phoenix" by David Hasselhoff and Glen A. Larson (Season 1, Disc 1)
The menus have been created in the K.I.T.T. cockpit design. The designs match the respective season and voicebox version. K.I.T.T.'s original German voice can be heard the first time you open the menu and when you select individual items (this function depends on the compatibility of the player - unfortunately, there may be players that cannot play the audio files).

Unboxing photos

The contents of the Blu-ray box set:

myKITT.de on the official German "Knight Rider" Blu-ray

As a long-time fan of German TV show "Kalkofes Mattscheibe", of which I had actually recorded all episodes on video cassettes since the mid-1990s, I stumbled upon the DVD label Turbine Medien back in 2004, which gradually released all episodes on lovingly designed DVDs. In 2009, Turbine Medien finally released the cult series "Parker Lewis" on DVD and you could even get a free T-shirt (» image) if you bought all 3 seasons, which I also did. Turbine Medien has always been a company that puts a lot of effort into their releases and especially takes care of rare classics.
Since I also run the largest German-language fansite for the "Back to the Future" trilogy (www.ZidZ.com), I then received an email from Phil, the CEO of Turbine, for the first time in 2015, in which he drew my attention to the upcoming release of the BTTF animated series and asked whether I had any wishes or ideas for the bonus material of the DVDs, which I also passed on to our community. When the series was released in the fall of 2015, I received the set from Turbine by mail as a thank you and was also allowed to raffle off 3 more copies in our ZIDZ.COMmunity. Half a year later, surprisingly, there was another box in my mailbox with a personal autograph from producer and screenwriter Bob Gale. So Turbine had the box signed again especially for me (» image). "From fans for fans" is not just an empty phrase here, but a living motto 🙂
In December 2016 I was with my K.I.T.T. and David Hasselhoff at the German Comic Con in Dortmund. In the queue for a photoshoot with David Hasselhoff I met Phil from Turbine Medien, who told me that they are now also trying to get "Knight Rider". When a label like Turbine takes care of this series, it can only become something big. He also asked me directly if I would like to participate in the publication with photos or something similar, and of course I agreed.
In April 2019, I met Phil again at the German Comic Con - Spring Edition in Dortmund, where Turbine was represented with its own booth at the neighboring "Weekend of Hell" event. Here it already became more specific. "Knight Rider" was now firmly planned and should probably be released before Christmas 2019.
In July 2019, I received the request whether I would like to be represented within a short featurette in the bonus material of the set. What greater honor can you get as a fan of a series than to actually be represented in the bonus material of the official release on Blu-ray? TV appearances come and go, but THIS is something for the ages. So of course I agreed and then on 18th August 2019, two editors came to Erfurt with camera equipment to shoot interview scenes with me:

In addition, I supplied extensive video and image material from my archives to accompany the interview.
At the time, the planned release date was December 2019, but this quickly became impossible due to the volume of series material. In addition to the original series with 90 episodes in HD, the sequels "Knight Rider 2000" (Upgraded from SD), "Team Knight Rider" (SD) and the relatively unknown film "Knight Rider 2010" (SD) should also be released in the box. Plus a lot of bonus material and a thick fan book (new edition of the book by Elmar A. Schulte), posters, photos and various stickers.
For the book, I was then asked to contribute an article for the new chapter "Fan Memories: Knight Rider", in which some fans of the series tell how they came to Knight Rider (» see below).
The original series should of course also be completely uncut on this release, which is almost unique in HD with German audio, because the TV broadcasts on TNT Serie, NITRO, on Amazon Prime and RTL+ are unfortunately partly massively cut. This resulted in major delays again and again, especially since later picture quality issues also appeared in the footage provided by Universal Pictures.
On DVD, some of the scenes in seasons 1 and 2 were not available in German due to the longer US material. Here Turbine decided to do additional dubbing with suitable actors. For this, I suggested Holger Löwenberg for K.I.T.T. and Uwe Büschken for David Hasselhoff, who had already appeared on "Moped Rider" and proved that their voices fit quite well as replacements for the original voice actors, who unfortunately had already deceased. For K.I.T.T., only one sentence was needed, but at least with Büschken, quite a bit more had to be dubbed. Romanus Fuhrmann was added for Devon as well as some supporting roles. For the latter, Bernd Vollbrecht and Marko Bräutigam also provided their voices. Turbine also had all four of them write a few autographs (» images) in the recording studio. One of them was sent to me afterwards.
There were also some female voices used, including Bonnie in S01E21 ("Nobody Does It Better"). Magdalena Helmig, who was available in the studio at the time, took the role. Furthermore, Melanie Pukaß and Heike Beeck each spoke short sequences.
Overall, however, only a few sentences had to be dubbed new. In season 1 it concerned 7 scenes, in season 2 actually only 2. In season 3 it were 7 and in season 4 it were 6 scenes.
Also due to the compilation of the previously missing scenes and the dubbing, the release was postponed further and further. Good things come to those who wait.
In total, even 80 speaker takes were necessary, as well as about 2,500 cuts (technical cuts, no time cuts!) to create the German audio tracks! Missing music and sounds were supplemented from the M&E track (Music & Effects). In addition, the complete original music is again included, which had been missing on DVD. By now, this is the only release worldwide that contains ALL original music again!

Link: For a list of new dubbed scenes see German version

Due to the increased effort with the masters, we now also had more time to take care of the other details. Over the months, I kept up a lively exchange with the product manager at Turbine Medien and was able to answer numerous questions about backgrounds and details as well as provide deeper insights or simply suitable screenshots or images. In return, I received exclusive insights into the progress, was allowed to preview the menu and cover layouts as well as the replications of ID cards, driver's licenses, and stickers, and to make suggestions for improvement and also to incorporate my wishes again and again. In total, we have exchanged almost 1,500 emails in 3.5 years!
I also received the already finished discs in advance for viewing. So I could view the bonus disc already in April 2021, KR2000 and the first season discs 1-4 in August and October 2021 and make suggestions for improvement, as well as report a few minor and major errors (» example). In mid-December 2021 I received the complete 2nd season, as well as KR2008 and Team KR, at Christmas 2021 even the complete 4th season. Season 3 and the missing Disc 5 from Season 1 I received in mid-February 2022, so I had all discs complete. I also got a list of what exactly was changed, repaired or inserted when and where. I was also able to note a few small things.
Unfortunately, KR2008 could not be released at the end - as originally planned - due to legal reasons.
On 13th October 2022 I also received the finally printed 332-page "Knight Guide" in advance by mail. Two days later, the first printed documents and the premium artcard with Michael Scheffe's cockpit design also arrived in my mailbox.

Excursus: The opening credits of season 3

The pilot for the third season started directly with the plot when it first aired. Since K.I.T.T. received its new dashboard at the end of the 2-hour-episode, they didn't want to show the new opening credits of the third season yet, because the dashboard would have already been visible here and they would have spoiled the surprise.
In Germany and in later broadcasts on television, the opening credits of the third season were nevertheless inserted after about 5 minutes. On the German DVDs, they even showed the opening credits of the pilot from season 4 with Peter Parros as RC III, who was not even in the third season. Of course, that was complete nonsense. Here you see the new dashboard and thus spoil the plot, too. A mistake that was not made with the Super Pursuit Mode in the pilot for season 4. Here, the pilot got a one-time opening credits, in which RC III can already be seen as a new character, but neither the Super Pursuit Mode nor the Convertible Mode appeared, which were introduced only at the end of the pilot... A perfect solution.
The first test Blu-rays of the 3rd season from Turbine Medien also contained the standard opening credits of the 3rd season during the pilot episode. This was not optimal. I therefore suggested to create a separate intro for the 3rd season instead - following the example of the special opening credits for the 4th season - in order not to spoil the new features already in the opening credits, even if most fans know them by now, of course. Alternatively, it would be more original not to show any opening credits at all, just like it was during the first broadcast, but that would have been kind of dumb, too.
Turbine decided to go for the fan solution and actually created their own opening credits for the pilot. The standard opening credits of season 3 served as the basis, but all scenes that show the dashboard were replaced by similar scenes from the opening credits of season 2. So nothing is spoiled, but the sounds you hear in the opening credits match the scenes shown. In my opinion, this is the perfect solution 🙂
As it turned out later, the opening credits actually existed in this form originally. So we unconsciously reconstructed the original opening credits. But the match is purely coincidental 🙂

A special honor was already granted to me in May 2020: For the cover of the box I was able to contribute a photo of my car, from which the cover artist Ronan-Wolf Chuat designed his artwork! Thus, on all Blu-ray boxes you can actually see my K.I.T.T.!

But that's not all! My K.I.T.T. can also be seen on the 4 individual covers of the digipacks of the original series. Here designer Sascha Meurer has done a great job and created a great artwork out of a simple side view of my car in October 2020. Well, the actual driver had to give way for Michael Knight... but I can live with it exceptionally 😉
The picture with Michael Knight at the seat was spread over the covers of the 4 individual seasons. The blueprint artwork can be found inside the digipack of season 1.

In November 2020, I received my bonus feature for preview once again. The editor of the feature had previously shown it to me in March 2020 as well. Since some time had passed since the shooting in August 2019, I suggested to add some more content to the feature and provided much more footage, which ended up in the final feature. Thus, the feature with now 12:44 minutes running time extended again by more than 4 minutes compared to the first cut version and now reflects very nicely what I was allowed to experience with my K.I.T.T. over the years.
And for all those who always complain that I speak too fast, there are even subtitles in German and even in English 😉

For my assistance in creating the box, I am credited as "edition consultant" on the back of the back cover 😎 (» see image)
In addition, I was allowed to exclusively announce the release of the box on 6th December 2022 at 07:00 as the very first on Facebook and Instagram. Turbine themselves announced it 4 hours later. On 10th December 2022 I received the very first externally shipped box for an exclusive unboxing video on YouTube, which I published on 12th December 2022 at 18:00. Even the press received their copies later.
Furthermore, I had the honor to choose 3 wish numbers from the limitation. I chose the 2000 (Knight Industries 2000), the 0309 (my birthday) and the 1707 (my wedding anniversary and at the same time - by the way coincidentally - David Hasselhoff's birthday). Somewhat later, I also received a VIP copy without a limitation number for my collection. These 4 copies remain original shrinkwrapped. I had only opened number 2628 for the unboxing video.
In addition, I received 3 of the 4 posters as test prints without folding plus 5 empty boxes and 12 more "Knight Guide" books from Turbine's warehouse. I'll display an empty box with my K.I.T.T. at shows. Some of the books I will soon raffle on social media.
"myKITT.de - A child's dream coming true" - proud part of the official German "Knight Rider" Blu-ray! There can't come more than this now 😎

Videos

My exclusive unboxing video with lots of background information on the release (German)
My Blu-ray shelf
My lenticular picture frame with cover motif and working scanner light
My picture board for K.I.T.T.'s rear window (» more information)

Knight Guide - The Knight Rider Book

Back in 2009, Elmar A. Schulte published the "Knight Rider Book", a German fan book with lots of background information on the series. At the time, about 1,300 copies were printed by BOD Publishing. After the contract expired, the book was out of print for years. At that time, the book did not contain any pictures for licensing reasons. Only on the back cover were a few pictures available, which Universal had released for this purpose.
Included with the "40th Anniversary Edition" of the Blu-ray box set is a 332-page new edition of this book titled "Knight Guide". Elmar has once again updated his texts in detail. There are also three new interviews by Christian Genzel, an interview with David Hasselhoff by Michael Scholten, a guest article about Glen A. Larson by Dominik Starck as well as a contribution by Michael Scheffe about the designs for "Knight Rider", a contribution by Oliver Kalkofe and a new chapter: "Knight Rider: Fan Memories". Here, besides Elmar, two other fans who were involved in the making of the box set answer a few questions about how they came to the series. One of them is me 😎 (see p. 324-327).

I was also supporting the book as editor (» see image) and contributed numerous photos, because this edition is printed in full color for the first time and a total of 248 pictures loosen up the texts. Exactly half of them (124 pictures) were provided by me. Among other things, I supplied the complete screenshots for the functions of K.I.T.T. (pp. 31-56) and the film locations (pp. 250-267). In addition, there were some scene pictures as gap fillers in the episode guide, but also a few actor pictures from "Knight Rider 2000" (pp. 139-140), pictures of the creation of K.I.T.T. (pp. 197-205), the tricks and goofs (pp. 225-235) as well as a picture of a meeting of the Knight 2000 with the Knight 3000 (p. 244), a current picture of David Hasselhoff with my K.I.T.T. from the ZDF Fernsehgarten 2019 (p. 293), all pictures for the chapter "KITT replicas" (p. 311-317) and of course the 6 pictures for my interview (p. 324-327). In addition, I was involved in many places as a content consultant and also completely "proofread" the entire book again before the final release in October 2021, making a total of about 400 comments (original typos + many suggestions for additional images).
By the way, the cover of the new edition is based on K.I.T.T.'s repair manual, which could be seen in the episode "Goliath" (Pilot Season 2), after Goliath had rammed K.I.T.T. and Michael had to help himself in the desert. This manual had a black leather cover with a golden frame and a chess piece. For the book, this design has now been taken up.
The book has 332 pages and is only available within the "40th Anniversary Edition" box set, which is limited to 3,939 copies.

Exterior:	100%
Interior:	100%
Other stuff:	100%