Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 September 21

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September 21

The Old Gray Mare

Please look at Talk:The Old Gray Mare for a message about the song's origin that reveals Wikipedia differs from other sources on how the song started out. Georgia guy (talk) 01:00, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

How was KITT driving itself filmed?

I just watched an episode of Knight Rider, where KITT finds out Michael Knight has parked it in the wrong spot, and moves to the correct spot all by itself. It's fairly well known in the fiction that KITT is capable of this, but how did they film it in real life? Was it radio-controlled or was there a midget crouching down in the driver's seat or something? Or was it driven by a driver as normal and the driver was later digitally edited out? JIP | Talk 17:52, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

According to this site: "In some scenes, K.I.T.T. drives himself. When that happens, the driver was actually in the backseat driving blind, or K.I.T.T. was being towed on a cable." There you go. --Jayron32 18:04, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

Knight Rider Legacy confirms:

"Jack Gill [ Morgan Brittany's husband ] was responsible for performing this as well. 'The blind-drive seat was probably the most innovative idea that we came up with. Up until Knight Rider, everyone was trying to drive with video cameras or cutting a portion of the grill away and laying down to drive. I had a car for blind-driving from the driver's side and blind-driving from the passenger's side.' Jack would extend his arms and legs through the seat while sitting out of sight behind it.

Robert Ewing, the show's associate producer, adds, "In some scenes, K.I.T.T. is filmed so you can't tell that the car is actually being towed by a truck. In other scenes, where a towing cable might be visible, K.I.T.T. has a backseat driver. The driver is hidden in the back seat behind dark glass."

(Knight Rider Legacy: The Unofficial Guide to the Knight Rider Universe, Joe F. Huth, Richie F. Levine, iUniverse, 2004, p 52, ISBN 9780595298488) ---Sluzzelin talk 18:14, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

FYI, that is the same source as the original link that Jayron posted uses. Dismas|^(talk) 18:26, 21 September

Note that it could never have been digital editing, as you're talking about the 1982 series and there was no such thing in 1982. To achieve that sort of effect on film they would have had to use a traveling matte or similar process, which as far as I know was always too expensive for TV use. If they were shooting on video they might have been able to use chroma-key somehow, but I doubt it would be useful for this sort of effect. --65.94.51.64 (talk) 12:55, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

I wonder if, for safety, they could have put an unobtrusive CCTV camera on the front of the car and used that to display an image to the back seat driver. Cameras were bigger then, but I think they could have found a way to explain it (call it an infrared camera, for example). StuRat (talk) 13:36, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

How many of such scenes were on public streets, as opposed to parking lots? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:43, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

T.R. Bowen

It seems to be impossible to get any information on the man Trevor Bowen. I would like to know his date of birth or anything about his private life. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.223.86.170 (talk) 20:01, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

To help us, can you tell us what he is notable for? Where did you learn of his existence? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:50, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

We do have an article on him - Trevor Bowen. He's a (fairly) well-known British actor. @OP - Any details about his private life will need to satisfy WP:BLP before they can be included in the article. Tevildo (talk) 20:52, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

Given that the Wikipedia and IMDB give different years of birth, the OP might have to do a little bit of his own investigation. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:46, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, Tevildo. I assumed one of the first places the OP checked out was whether a WP article existed, but given the claim that it "seems to be impossible to get any information on" Bowen, I assumed such an article didn't exist. Or maybe he's wanting to improve the article. Hard to tell. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 01:10, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

Of Course there is an article about the actor and writer Bowen, but what about the man? Can anyone atleast tell me, if he is stil alive? and if yes, what has he done since 2007 (Sir Michael Nivan in Judge John Deed)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.200.251.192 (talk) 11:02, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

I admire your confidence in Wikipedia (Of course there is an article ...). WP:WHAAOE is not actually, literally true, you know. There's still a teensy disconjunct between "all knowledge" and WP's coverage of said knowledge. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:04, 23 September 2014 (UTC)