On This Day: 1984

Today marks the anniversary of the end of Knight Rider's second season, which concluded with the episode Big Iron. That show saw Michael and K.I.T.T. investigate the theft of heavy construction equipment -- the "Big Iron" of the title -- and get buried alive at a rock quarry. It guest-starred Stuart Whitman, and was actually filmed almost a year before -- in June 1983!

NBC Announces Date of Season Premiere!

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008. 8 pm. Knight Rider returns! Don't miss it!

It's just two days out from the original Knight Rider, which debuted on September 26th, 1982. September 24th also happens to be Justin Bruening's birthday.

On This Day: 1991

This is hard to believe -- It's 17 years ago today since the first ever Knight Rider revival first hit the screens! Knight Rider 2000 aired as a Movie of the Week and got fantastic ratings, but unlike the most recent telepic it failed to launch a new series. Set in an alternate future, 2000 sees Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare reprising the role for the last time) call Michael Knight out of retirement to investigate the assassination of the city's mayor. Michael is teamed with Shawn McCormick (Susan Norman), an ex-cop who has joined the Knight Foundation after having one of K.I.T.T.'s memory chips implanted in her brain.

You can read more about the movie here, with more coming soon!

Hasselhoff Talks Knight Rider 2008

Contact Music have some soundbites from David Hasselhoff regarding his opinions of the recent Knight Rider TV-movie. Apparently, he didn't like it.

"Basically, I brought the project into NBC," he told them. "They read my treatment, which involved Michael Knight and his son, and they called me up and said, 'Hey, we're going ahead.' They asked me to come in and do a cameo and promote it and I said I would. But it was not what I had in mind.

"I didn't get a chance to see the show until the final product and it was clearly not what it could've been. It was someone else's vision.

"I clearly could've brought more of Michael Knight and the past into it. The bottom line was they missed a big audience because it was not retro and that was the whole point of it -- being retro. I mean everybody grew up watching that show and they loved it. They missed the point of heart, humour and action. They didn't have heart, humour and I don't know how they didn't have action."

Why did NBC go the route they did? It's obvious that they were trying to cover all the bases -- set up a new series, leave room for Hasselhoff's involvement in other projects (America's Got Talent, the proposed Tales From The Hoff), and cater to a young, modern audience that has been raised on Smallville and the like -- and they did that. I have faith that the current production team can deliver when it returns in September as a series, but I also think that having Hasselhoff onboard would be a big, big plus. That's not just me speaking as a fan -- in recent years Hasselhoff has demonstrated a strong understanding of Knight Rider as a series, and the elements that make it work. Take another glance at the comments above. Would you rather have seen that movie?

From the sound of his statement, Hasselhoff's take on the material would have seen a more conventional passing of the baton -- like the earlier Knight Rider 2000. In fact, in August 2004 he told Jonno & Harriet's Breakfast Show (on the UK's Heart FM radio station) his plans:

"I want to bring a cool Knight Rider in with a new car but also at the end Michael Knight comes in with the old K.I.T.T. and saves the day. I'm probably going to take over the Devon character and have my son be like the Knight Rider."

It seems to me that the only chance Hasselhoff has of being reunited with the Trans Am would be in a straight-to-DVD special. That could work, and there'd be a huge market for it. It could be a lot of fun. If the new show is a success, us old-time Knight Rider fans still have a chance of seeing something along those lines. And, of course, there has to be room for him to return in the series, as a semi-regular if not a co-star.

Contact Music claim in their piece that Hasselhoff wants nothing to do with the new Knight Rider, but it should be noted that nowhere in their article is he actually quoted as saying that. I'll be keeping an open mind about that for the time being.

- Paul

Contact Music - Hasselhoff Unhappy He Was Driven Out of Knight Rider

On This Day: 1983

25 years ago today Knight Rider's first season drew to a close with Short Notice, guest-starring William Smith and Robin Curtis. The episode is kind of a neat book-end to the first year, demonstrating the problems that Michael's secret identity can create if he gets in trouble with the law. It's also notable in that it's the only episode of the entire series written and directed by the same person (Executive Producer Robert Foster).

On This Day: 1985

23 years ago today saw the original series' third season draw to a close with the airing of Circus Knights. The show was actually filmed 6 months earlier (directly after Knight of the Chameleon) but was held back to the end of the third year.

Some Thoughts on Where the New Series is Going...

The comments of Gary Scott Thompson, the new Executive Producer of Knight Rider, have impressed me. We've heard a lot of talk before about new producers inheriting classic properties with the intention of updating them, of reinventing them for the modern audience, and claiming that they're fans of the original. I'm keeping an open mind, but I'm really hoping that Thompson wasn't coached about his references to the original series.

He seemed to have a real understanding of what the original Knight Rider was. He referred to it as a modern Lone Ranger (instead of the more popular "American James Bond"). He recalled the Michael Long backstory. He teased us with plans to bring back the Turbo Boost, and to make this Knight Rider fast again.

One of the more interesting tidbits of info are the plans to introduce a "K.I.T.T.-Cave" -- a top secret lab where K.I.T.T. is upgraded, repaired, and -- ahem -- kitted-out for his missions. This brings back memories of Airwolf (the 1980s Knight Rider clone), but its roots go back to Batman, Zorro and... The Lone Ranger, which all share the same literary heritage. So, new Knight Rider sounds like it's going back to its roots, perhaps more so than any incarnation since the original show's third season, after which it lost its way.

It sounds like it's heading in the right direction.

Thompson has a proven history with action-adventure and cars (see The Fast & The Furious) which makes him a good fit for this show, and he certainly talks a good game. I really hope he delivers when Knight Rider returns in September!

The Injury-Proof Car...

Interesting real-world developments in car technology: Volvo have been working on their bid to create an injury-proof car by 2020. Experts say it will be able to steer, brake and find out about the road ahead from sophisticated electronic scanners housed in its bumper. Does any of this sound familiar?

Their ultimate goal is that in the event of a serious crash, the driver and passengers will escape unhurt. Claes Tingvall, the Swedish Road Administration's head of traffic safety, calls this "the biggest revolution in the auto industry since the seatbelt." The article states that automakers, parts suppliers, governments and global agencies from the United Nations to the OECD are all looking at ways to eliminate the approximate 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes each year.

More about this at the following link:

Reuters - Volvo's 2020 Vision: The Injury-Proof Car