In episode 56 of Knight Rider, "Lost Knight," an accident causes KITT to lose his memory and KITT and Michael to be separated. A young boy, Doug Wainwright, played by '80s TV child actor Jason Bateman, befriends the car and keeps him a secret from his mother. As Doug leaves KITT in a hiding place in the hills, they have the following exchange:
Doug: So you gonna be OK, or what?
KITT: I'll be fine. And I think my memory is improving.
Doug: Well good. I'll be back tonight, late, when everyone else is asleep.
KITT: That sounds like fun. Goodbye, Elliott.
Doug: Doug. My name's Doug.
KITT: Then who's Elliott?
Doug: How do I know? I thought your memory was getting better.
KITT: Yes, well, at least it's not getting any worse.
The episode, first aired on December 9, 1984, obviously refers to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (June 1982). According to TV Tome, the episode was originally titled "K.I.T.T. Phone Home." As with the premise of E.T., the premise of the episode seems especially targetted towards young boys, a big demographic for the show. Knight Rider appears to use pop culture references of its era in various ways; almost every episode has 30 seconds or so of a pop song from the era, which always makes me think it was placed their promotionally.
I find this especially amusing because E.T., in addition to well-executed product placement for Coca-Cola and Reese's Pieces, has several blatant Star Wars references, including Elliott excitedly introducing E.T. to his Star Wars action figures, and E.T. excitedly chasing after a child in a (pretty nifty) Yoda costume while they're out for Halloween. (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace returns the favor with a background E.T. cameo.) It's as if these children's pop-culture powerhouses, despite their own merits, felt it necessary to include each other to lock themselves in to the pop culture pantheon.
I got the same vibe from episode 52, "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.," when some guy sits in KARR's driver's seat and says something to the effect of, "I bet George Lucas drives one of these."
They usually used cover versions of the songs in Knight Rider due to budget constraints. Some of them were pretty atrocious, like the version of "Crumblin' Down" that figured prominently in one episode.