The Return of KITT: Local "Knight Rider" hunts down show's vehicles
This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Sunday's Butler Eagle.Joe Huth's car has taken him to Jay Leno's garage in Burbank, Calif., and to the set of “Good Morning America” in New York's Times Square.That's not bad for a vehicle Huth barely drives and never takes out on the road.That's because the Clay Township resident, a big fan of the old TV series, “Knight Rider,” owns one of the only five remaining modified Pontiac Trans Ams used in the series.“Knight Rider” aired on NBC from 1982 to 1986. The show's star, David Hasselhoff, played Michael Knight, whose crime-fighting career was assisted by KITT, an artificially intelligent and nearly indestructible car.Huth, 39, who's also co-authored a book about the series called “Knight Rider Legacy: The Unofficial Guide to the Knight Rider,” said about 20 Trans Ams were used on the series.“They had the 'hero car' for close-ups,” Huth said. “They had a full-time convertible and a bunch of stunt cars.”Huth's KITT was a stunt car.“I actually saved it from a salvage yard in Los Angeles,” he said.
With the help of fellow “Rider” fan A.J. Palmgreen, Huth's latest "Knight Rider" acquisition came after unraveling a mystery that would have made Michael Knight proudIn the television show, Knight and KITT travel in a tractor-trailer that takes the two to missions assigned to them by the Foundation for Law and Government, the entity they work for.Inside the trailer are the computers and diagnostics. It's where they brief and service KITT.The two set out to track down what had become of the GMC General tractor used in the show.It proved to be exceptionally difficult.<I>This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Sunday's Butler Eagle.</i>
