Air Date: December 13, 1985
Writer: Burton Armus
Director: Georg Fenady
Production Code: 60230
RC3 convinces Michael, Bonnie, and KITT to skip a Detroit mission and visit his old Chicago neighborhood. There's trouble brewing: a blind piano player named Josh Bevins runs the "New Tenement" nightclub, and famous blind singer Charley Conners is performing to raise funds for the neighborhood—but blockbusters (predatory real estate developers) are trying to force everyone out.
The R&B group New Edition (featuring Bobby Brown before he went solo, later of Bell Biv Devoe) appear as "The Kids," a group of young people helping to clean up and restore the theater. They hang out outside the venue, lending an authentic mid-80s musical flavor to the episode.
The climax sees Charley Conners (the blind singer) get behind the wheel of KITT—and when KITT takes off, he freaks out a traffic cop who can't believe what he's seeing. It's a feel-good ending that sums up Knight Rider's appeal: an underdog community standing together, with help from an artificially intelligent car.
This episode is notable for featuring New Edition, one of the biggest R&B groups of the mid-80s. The show was clearly trying to attract younger viewers in Season 4 by bringing in high-profile musical guests—a trend that also included Don King and boxers in "Redemption of a Champion," magician Lance Burton in "Deadly Knightshade," and Playmates in "Knight of a Thousand Devils."
The blind piano player storyline was handled with sensitivity, and the character of Josh Bevins was portrayed with dignity—a contrast to how disabilities were sometimes portrayed in 80s television.