Knight Rider with Greg Evigan, Not David Hasselhoff, Nearly Happened

Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: Greg Evigan, knight rider

Knight Rider with Greg Evigan, Not David Hasselhoff, Nearly Happened

Knight Rider may have looked very different if Greg Evigan had taken the lead role, but he explains why he turned it down in a new interview.

Published Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:37:09 -0500
by Gavin Sheehan
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Article Summary

• Greg Evigan says he turned down the lead in Knight Rider, a role that ultimately made David Hasselhoff a TV icon.
• Before Knight Rider, Evigan starred in B.J. and the Bear, where he played opposite a chimpanzee on the road.
• Evigan passed on Michael Knight because he feared being typecast as a driver paired with a nonhuman co-star.
• Knight Rider went on to become an iconic ’80s series, and Hasselhoff’s casting helped define its lasting legacy.

Knight Rider is one of the most iconic shows of the '80s, with its flashy intro of K.I.T.T. racing across the desert to a synth beat, setting the stage for adventures that always happen to be on or near roads. Starring a young David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a crimefighter backed by a millionaire and a tech assistant, fighting for justice against criminals who operate above the law. For four years, they were an iconic piece of television history, but it could have looked a lot different had actor Greg Evigan taken on the role.

Greg Evigan Could Have Been Michael Knight in Knight Rider

According to a recent piece in People, Evigan was offered the role when the show first came around, but turned it down. Prior to the offer, he had been in the lead role of B.J. McKay in the late '70s TV show B.J. and the Bear, an action-comedy series in which he literally played opposite a chimpanzee named Bear driving around in a truck. The show ended in 1981, and would have been a perfect jumping-off point to land the lead role in the sci-fi crime series, but according to Evigan, he didn't do it because he didn't want to be typecast as a guy who just drives around in cars talking to co-stars who aren't people.

"Well, you know, my daughter was just born, and I'm sitting out in the hammock with her, and I get a call [from my agent]," Evigan reflected. "And he says, 'Hey, Greg, I got a really good one. You're going to love it.' I say, 'Oh, yeah. What is it?' He says, 'Um, well, it's this guy in a car, you know, and he talks to the car.' And I go, 'Alright, but I've been talking to a chimp.' […] And I just wasn't… I didn't want to do the same thing again, you know?" Evigan added. "It seemed like very similar … I really got typecast in that role, you know, so it was hard to get other jobs after that, and you really do get typecast, and then I was looking for something different."

Honestly, we're grateful he turned it down, because to deprive the world of Hasselhoff in his prime would have changed the landscape of TV in ways we can't calculate.

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