Tonight on Sci-Fi UK - Knight To King's Pawn

K.A.R.R.!

It's the one that we've all been waiting for... Knight To King's Pawn!

"Time to fight back -- Sarah is not coping well with her father's death and decides to leave town. Concerned, Mike goes looking for her and in return gets the answers he has been searching for about his past. Meanwhile, the NSA has decided to dismantle the SSC now that Dr. Graiman is dead and they can then move forward with K.I.T.T.'s nemesis K.A.R.R. With Torres' permission they take out K.I.T.T.'s chip that contains his personality and memories and place it in K.A.R.R. Upset by what has happened, Mike, Sarah, Billy and Zoe devise a plan to find where K.I.T.T. has been taken and get him up and running and destroy the evil K.A.R.R. once and for all."

It's on the Sci-Fi Channel UK at 8pm, and you do not want to miss this one!

Sci-Fi is available as channel 129 on Sky, and channel 135 on Virgin. The show is also available in HD.

Knight Writers on Knight To King's Pawn

Eric Buchman fills in for writers Patrick Massett and John Zinman in the latest installment of NBC's Knight Writers Blog. The duo also write for Friday Night Lights, and were unable to contibute to Knight Writers.

"[Knight To King's Pawn] hopefully answered a few questions for you," Buchman writes: "What Mike had 'forgotten' in Iraq and why, what has Torres been secretly up to, and even what happened to one of the trademarks of the original series (F.L.A.G.). For those of you who are new to the Knight Rider universe, The Foundation for Law and Government is the organization that operated the original K.I.T.T. in the 80s series.

"Our effects guys worked around the clock these last few months on the showdown between K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R. I'm writing this right now at 7:30pm on the west coast, and I can't wait to watch it all in high definition when it airs a half hour from now over here. Our effects are done by a company called Master Key Films that formed to do this show. They started as just two people last spring, and they've grown into a small army today. In the video section of this site, you can see highlights of their work from season 1, and you can go to MKVFX.com to see even more."

On the subject of visual effects, Buchman also reveals a few trade secrets: how they shoot the satellite images, and how they achieve the effect that K.I.T.T. is driving by himself. "The original series had a variety of tricks they used," he says. "We added one more trick. If you look in this photo, you'll see a driver wearing all black. In the final shot, we'll use computers to simply erase him, a luxury they didn't have back then. This works for distance shots, but for close-ups of the seat, well... we still have to use some of the old tricks."

Buchman also pays tribute to departing actor Yancey Arias, who is pictured with writers Rachel Mellon and Teresa Huang (I Wanna Rock & Roll All Knight).

Next week sees another change to the running order -- Exit Light, Enter Knight the last episode filmed for Season 1, preempts I Love The Knight Life.

Knight Writers Blog: Knight To King's Pawn

Knight To King's Pawn Highlights!

NBC's Official Knight Rider Website has posted highlights from Wednesday night's episode, Knight To King's Pawn. In this clip, you can see the shutting down of the SSC! It's only available to Knight Rider fans in the US, but if you can, check them out!



NBC.com: Knight To King's Pawn Highlights

Tonight... K.A.R.R.!

K.A.R.R.!

It's the one that we've all been waiting for... Knight To King's Pawn!

"Time to fight back -- Sarah is not coping well with her father's death and decides to leave town. Concerned, Mike goes looking for her and in return gets the answers he has been searching for about his past. Meanwhile, the NSA has decided to dismantle the SSC now that Dr. Graiman is dead and they can then move forward with K.I.T.T.'s nemesis K.A.R.R. With Torres' permission they take out K.I.T.T.'s chip that contains his personality and memories and place it in K.A.R.R. Upset by what has happened, Mike, Sarah, Billy and Zoe devise a plan to find where K.I.T.T. has been taken and get him up and running and destroy the evil K.A.R.R. once and for all."

It's on NBC at 8/7c, and you do not want to miss this one!

Next Week: K.A.R.R. Returns!

Knight Rider Online caught the teaser for next week's epic battle between K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R.! The episode -- Knight to King's Pawn -- airs next Wednesday night, 8/7c! Don't miss it!

New Behind-the-Scenes Video

NBC's Official Knight Rider Website has a new "making-of" video focusing on the series' green screen process, used for special effects and driving sequences. This one takes us behind-the-scenes on an upcoming sequence with K.A.R.R.! Unfortunately it's only available to Stateside audiences, but if you can, check it out!



NBC.com: Green Screen Action

New Set Reports at KRO

The lucky folks over at Knight Rider Online have been invited back onto the set of the currently-filming season finale, Exit Light, Enter Knight, and had an opportunity to speak to the cast and crew about what we can expect from the remaining episodes after the reboot, and NBC's worrying decision to bring production to an early finish.

"The show is not cancelled," Gary Scott Thompson tells them. "We're doing a reboot, and a lot of people don't know this but NBC cut a lot of costs by cutting episodes on a lot of shows, but also laid off 750 people in their production offices and their other offices, so this is a cost cutting measure, not a cancellation measure." Thompson encourages fans of the show to write in to the network to show their support for Knight Rider.

"We're making [the show] more like the original one," Justin Bruening says of the reboot. "The natural progression of the story is that it just becomes more like the original. It's K.I.T.T. and I, and we're on the road and I'm the only person K.I.T.T. really needs. I drive around, I find a mission, I solve it. It's smaller crimes, you know, I'm not trying to save the world each week."

Writers Rachel Mellon and Teresa Huang agree. "It's very exciting," Rachel explains. "It's more like the original where it's a guy in a car saving the world, or saving the little guy, depending on the week and the writer." Teresa Huang adds, "I think it's really going to bring a lot to the show because it's simplifying all the elements. We thought very big at the beginning of the show, and I think we saw that it's really the smaller stories, the saving the guy of the week, saving the everyman that's exciting to us."

One episode that fans are anxiously waiting for is the twelfth installment, Knight to King's Pawn, which features the return of K.A.R.R. Justin can't hide his excitement over it: "He's a scary mofo, let me tell you," Justin says. "It's epic, it's huge. It's bigger than [the season finale]. I can't say anything because it might give it away... I'm just gonna tell you it's K.I.T.T. Vs. K.A.R.R. That's it. And that's not even the big part of it." He describes the showdown as being "like 20 rounds with Tyson, it's awesome. Take the original K.I.T.T. Vs. K.A.R.R. and multiply that by a thousand, it's nuts. And I'm stuck in the middle of it."

The finale looks to be filled with action: a beat-up Justin says that he is involved in several fight sequences and rides a motorcycle, while around 4000 rounds of ammunition were expended in an exterior scene involving K.I.T.T.!

Knight Rider Online: GST Says KR NOT Cancelled

Knight Rider Online: Knight Writers On Set Interview

Knight Rider Online: Justin Bruening On The Set

On This Day: 19th November, 1982

26 years ago today, K.A.R.R. burst onto the scene! Created by writer and producer Steven E. de Souza, K.I.T.T.'s not-so-friendly prototype was the focus of the ninth episode of the series, and the segment that cemented the series' popularity and saved it from cancellation. In his autobiography, David Hasselhoff says:

"We were in danger of cancellation when Jan McCormack [David's manager] contacted her connections at Universal and pleaded, 'Give us another four weeks.' She got us a reprieve and in those four weeks we pulled things around, thanks largely to an episode called Trust Doesn't Rust in which writer Steven de Souza introduced K.I.T.T.'s evil twin K.A.R.R.

"Trust Doesn't Rust was probably the best episode of the first season and one of the best in the series' entire run. It certainly was the Jekyll and Hyde of talking cars. In December, Knight Rider got better numbers for NBC on Friday nights at 9 pm than its twenty-six previous shows in that slot."

K.A.R.R. would return in 1984's classic K.I.T.T. Vs. K.A.R.R., and is due to return in the new series' episode Knight to King's Pawn!

Knight Writers Updated

The Knight Writers Blog has been updated last night with a behind-the-scenes perspective of last night's show. Knight of the Living Dead was originally supposed to air on 29th October, a couple of days before Halloween, but unfortunately it was preempted to make room for President-Elect Obama's commercial. Even more unfortunately, another tie-in was nixed by the move to November:

"October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Ford and Knight Rider partnered to make Kitt one of their "Warriors in Pink" for this very special cause. This limited edition Warriors in Pink Mustang is for sale at many dealerships across the country, and proceeds from the sale of each one are donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. You can find out more about this project and other Warriors in Pink at "the Ford Warriors in Pink website."

GST also teases about the return of K.A.R.R. (to be seen in the episode Knight to King's Pawn), and reveals that more content is on its way to the Knight Industries Research website. You just had to be paying attention when Sarah entered her father's password into the computer.

Knight Writers: Knight of the Living Dead

It's Official -- K.A.R.R. Returning to Knight Rider!

Preparations are being made for the next episode to enter production, currently titled Knight To King's Pawn. This site attempts to remain spoiler-free, but I can reveal that the first Knight Industries vehicle, K.A.R.R. is re-activated! Expect a lot of buzz around this show -- the twelfth episode -- which if everything goes according to plan should air in December!

Keep your scanners peeled for more!

KITTSite Interview Dave Bartis

KITTSite.com have just finished rolling out their San Diego Comic-Con interviews, and last but not least is Knight Rider producer Dave Bartis. He has some interesting things to say about the series versus February's TV movie, about the new series versus the original, and about the possible return of fan-favourite K.A.R.R.

He says of the new episodes, "It is feature quality action, and it's fun, aspirational escapist storytelling. To me, I can't come home from a hard day at work and sit down and watch something as intense as The Sopranos; I need to prepare myself for that. But this is fun. It's something you can watch with your whole family. My kids happen to think this is the coolest thing I've ever done. They've never said that about anything I've ever done before. So, I could watch the show with my nine-year-old. My wife liked it, and my parents actually liked it -- this is truly an 8 o'clock broadcast show."

KITTSite.com: Dave Bartis Interview