HARDCASTLE AND MCCORMICK DROVE A COYOTE X AS QUICK AS KITT COULD TALK

Catching the bad eggs action TV shows were in plentiful supply
back in the macho and politically incorrect 80`s, i hardly ever
missed an episode of Knight Rider, featuring David Hasselhoff,
who of course would become better known as the bloke who
got to perv on Pamela Anderson and all the hot and scantily
clad babes down at Baywatch Beach, and KITT, the talking
car that use to drive him and all the viewers nuts because it
wouldn`t shut up. I will always remember KITT, who i dont
want to confuse as a person, it was in fact a make believe car
that had a robot in the thinktank (not the petrol tank, that`s
gasoline tank for my american readers), going ballistic when
Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) antagonised him and got
on his goat by not doing what the cyborg on four wheels told
him to do. One minute Michael would be driving along mind-
ing his own business in cruise control, the next minute he`d
be jumping this heavily modifed pontiac trans-am onto the
back of a semi trailer by doing a rocket jump off the ground
through mid air to pay his mentoring boss Devon (Edward
Mulhare) a visit. The shows premise is based on the after-
math of when Michael Long, an undercover police officer
who gets shot in the head and nearly dies but is brought
back to life miraculously thanks to the efforts of Wilton
Knight, gets some plastic surgery and the new identity
of Michael Knight and goes around catching crims with
KITT the talking car. Knight Rider of course has been
regurgitated as a new incarnation in recent times, but
the new series (without all the old characters) just did-
n`t have the charm of the original series that ran from
1982 to 1986. While on the subject of go-get-em action
TV shows, who could ever forget the classic satirical in-
spired odd couple action show Hardcastle & McCormick.
Brian Keith starred as the retiring judge Milton C. Hard-
castle who wants to settle a few scores by trying to pinch
a heap of the bad guys that he didn`t get to put away in
the courtroom, and he enlists the help of a greasy `ol car
thief, Mark McCormick (Daniel Hugh Kelly) and one car
he stole, a red convertible Coyote X, to get the job done.
Judge Hardcastle stitched up a plan to spare McCormick
from a long stint in the clink and in return McCormick be-
comes a servant and enforcer under his command. They
end up breaking a few noses and whipping up some bull-
dust every time the wild child McCormick takes the Co-
yote for a spin. The shows original storyline is based on
the premise that his best friend is murdered & that the
Coyote X was designed by his best friend, and that mur-
derer is one who escaped punishment in the courtroom
of Judge Milton C. The show went from there and in the
end it lasted for three years, from 1983 to 1986. A good
action TV show, equal to Knight Rider as far as the car
chases and action sequences go, but probaly better for
the fact that it was more believable and the satire was
a bit more amusing. Both shows are responsible for all
the good traits which i have today. All the love scenes
i saw on Miami Vice, when Crocket and Tubbs scored
some `mmmm`, must have been my moral undoing.