Not many people know that "Hasselhoff" is German for "Bitchin' T/A, dude": "Knight Rider"

I may have covered this before, but it's a given that not everything you enjoyed as a child remains enjoyable once you're an adult. "Strange Brew," for instance. In sixth grade, we walked around calling each other "hoser." It was hilarious. Then I saw the movie again 15 years later. Not so funny. Good thing Rick Moranis moved on to those "Honey, I ... " movies. Can't wait for that box set.

Same thing happened when my friends and I saw "Land of the Lost" recently. Everyone was pumped to see Bill Laimbeer as a Sleestak. Before we even got to that part, though, the "special effects" and inane acting -- not to mention monkey-boy Cha-Ka -- were just too excrutiating. It really wasn't even campy, just painful.

You might think "Knight Rider" would fall into this category, especially since David Hasselhoff went on to greater, international glory -- defying all logic along the way -- with "Baywatch" and a German singing career. But you know, early '80s action shows and iconic characters -- not Hasselhoff's Michael Knight, but rather KITT, the supercar -- never really get that old. I mean, who among us doesn't appreciate the uncanny ability of "The A-Team" to keep breaking Murdock out of the loony bin, and the villains to avoid all those bullets?

I recently was given the first season of "Knight Rider" on DVD, which gave me a chance to see the pilot movie. I must have seen it the first time around, but that would have been, geez, almost 25 years ago, when I wasn't even 10. Now I'd be able to absorb all the subtle nuances of Hasselhoff's relationship with KITT -- that's the Knight Industries Two Thousand, to you and me, Russ -- as well as his amazing red turtleneck/black leather jacket wardrobe.

Our story has Hasselhoff starting out as Michael Long, an undercover cop double-crossed and left for dead in the desert outside Las Vegas. He's rescued by billionaire Wilton Knight, who has doctors reconstruct Michael's face -- making him Michael Knight -- while engineers put together a souped-up Trans Am: bulletproof, superfast, can drive itself and jump over things. Oh, and did I mention it talks?

Knight and KITT go after the bad guys as their first adventure, getting involved in such tomfoolery as a charity demolition derby and a jailbreak. Meanwhile, a couple of car thieves provide comic relief by trying to steal KITT. Hey, it's a T/A, baby!

(One quibble: I can't believe I didn't notice before now that KITT's back-and-forth red light and the corresponding sound are totally borrowed from the Cylons in the first "Battlestar Galactica." I know that both shows were by Glen A. Larson, but c'mon ... break a sweat, man. And yes, I'm a complete nerd. Shocking, I know. Who wants to play Risk?)

In addition to the generally silly acting by Hasselhoff and blow to dignity suffered by KITT's voice, William Daniels, I enjoyed spotting people I had seen elsewhere. Hey, that doctor working on Michael played Oscar Goldman, the Six Million Dollar Man's boss! Hey, one of those car thieves was "My Main Man Vern" in "Rain Man!" Hey, that hired thug played a cop who gets gutted by Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs!" (You also may recognize him as the front man for the Good Ole Boys in "The Blues Brothers." You know ... the guy who tells Jake, "You're gonna look pretty funny tryin' to eat corn on the cob with no f*ckin' teeth!" Yeah, that guy!)

Of course, another benefit was no commercials, meaning I breezed through the two-hour pilot in something like 90 minutes. Nice. As for the rest of the first season, I'm not sure I'll dive in right away. I need a little more time to digest the pilot, as well as the future. My only question with this new version is whether everyone will speak German given Hasselhoff's only remaining fan base. Achtung, baby.