I was in Walmart a few days ago... I was looking for any cool new PC or Nintendo games. I didn't find any, and I wasn't really surprised... everything I want is still too expensive (at least for me and for now) or Walmart didn't carry it. I managed to pick up another LAN cable and some funky cable that has connectors for GCN/SNES, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Playstation on one end (that's right, four connectors), and SVideo/RCA Audio/Video on the other. At first it looks insane and completely unrealistic... but it actually works pretty well. I leave SVideo plugged into the VEG and plug the consoles into the single cable and boot up whichever I want to play... being the curious canine I am, I tried playing two consoles at once over it... it flicked and warped and generally didn't look good, so I stopped in a hurry.

Anyway... SVideo really is a ton better than RCA/Composite. Especially when you're playing it on a computer monitor. I can actually READ the text on Halo... I was shocked, haa.

My brother was printing photos at the one-hour station, so we hung around and browsed the electronics section. After admiring the HDTVs (for which I've new-found fascination, as read in previous posts), I checked out the DVD movie section.

I really didn't find anything... until we were about ready to leave. There... on the "DVD Collections" display... I saw the DVD box of something I haven't seen in a very, very, very long time. In fact, since I was about 4 or 5 (I saw re-runs, sadly).

It was... *drum roll* ...Knight Rider! Hands down the best series, period, of the 1980s. Nothing comes close to the pure awesomeness of this series for me. I grew up with it, and I was crushed when channel 23 stopped airing it at 3pm on weekdays. I vaguely remember they started shifting days and timeslots all around and then we eventually just lost it altogether.

But there in the Walmart electronics department, I was reunited with Seasons 1 and 2 nearly 20 years later. I was overjoyed to later learn that 3 and 4 have been released, as well, and are available online. I shall be getting those very soon.

I've just finished the first season... in a matter of a couple of days. My verdict? It's still as super cool as ever, and even better than I remember it. Maybe I'm just happy to be hearing KITT talk again, I don't know. Most people I've read say that Knight Rider is a horrible, stupid, cheesy series that should peacefully die and become a thing of the past. Grr... stupidheads. 1980s special effects aside (which are still fun to watch... especially all the car stunts), Knight Rider is a heck of a lot more wholesome than a bunch of this other crud on TV these days... and it's still entertaining and fun and just plain cool to watch.

If you watch it and start picking out all the flaws... you're going to make yourself miserable. Every now and then, I'll see something that makes me go "haha, that's insane"... but then I stop and glue my eyes to the screen again and see what happens next, anyway.

What makes this find even more interesting, is that I recently learned that Knight Rider was created and written by Glen Larson, who is also know for creating and writing..... 1978 Battlestar Galactica! My interest in BSG being kindled at this particular time is just... weird... but it makes it even more fun! I noticed an actor from BSG made a cameo appearance in the pilot for Knight Rider, and in the episode Merchants of Death, I noticed a prop that came right out of a BSG Viper fighter. It's neat all the subtle things you can see carry over from previous serieses.

Some people say KITT was built from Cylon parts... I'm not sure that's entirely accurate, unless the Cylons were really big to fit KITT's red wooshy light scanner on their faces... but I'm more apt to say that his design was inspired by Cylons.

Man... I've decided that I want to buy a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am and make it look like KITT... at least on the outside. Go cruising the nearby towns in a sleek, black sports car with a red light scrolling back and forth between the headlights... hwahaha.