Autoblog

We all know what a disaster the 2-hour Knight Rider movie was (click here for a refresher). Regardless, the return of the series has been green lit for the Fall and Shadowy Flight recently sat down for an interview with Gary Scott Thompson, Executive Producer and Showrunner of the series. Thompson's credentials include creating the show Las Vegas and the original Fast and the Furious movie, and he also points out that he had nothing to do with the 2-hour Knight Rider movie that aired in February. The show's new EP revealed that he and his writers are leaving the 2-hour movie in the past. His new writing staff, which includes writers from Lost, Prison Break and Smallville, but also Walker, Texas Ranger and Charmed, is dealing with some of those plot points introduced in the movie that now can't be ignored, but are basically going to start all over again with the first episode.

You can check out the two-part interview by hitting the source link below, but the major bit of news revealed is that Turbo Boost will again be part of KITT's arsenal, though the technology will be reinvented for this era where fast cars that jump aren't all that mind blowing. Thompson also told Shadowy Flight that the overly winged Attack Mode KITT is being redone and will be different than the one seen in the movie. Finally, Thompson compares his Knight Rider series that's still in gestation to one of our favorite shows on TV, Battlestar Galactica. Both are reinventions of older TV shows, but BG is currently the shining light of modern television, while Knight Rider has gotten off to an extremely rough start. We hope it compares to the weekly trials of Admiral Adama and the crew of Galactica, but we're not holding our breath. Thanks for the tip, Neil!


[Source: Shadowy Flight]

Following quickly on the heels of our last late-arriving podcast, we're back for episode #91 of the Autoblog Podcast. Alex and John take time to discuss Knight Rider, Top Gear and TV in general, turning this 'cast into the AutoTVblogSquad show. We also cover the uncovering of Max Mosley and his strange predilections, our institution of a CarSumer Advocacy category, and answer the three legitimate emails out of our new podcast at autoblog dot com address. Thanks for your 44 minutes this week.

If you have a question, comment, bit of praise or heap of criticism for us, email us at podcast at autoblog dot com and we may read your email on the show.

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You'll see more of him this Fall. Click above for a gallery of the new KITT.

The Knight Rider TV movie was not good. The updated, Shelby Mustang-based KITT looked undeniably cool (when not in Ugly... er... Attack Mode, at least), but the acting was wooden and the writing was a horror show. Still, the ending completely set up a potential ongoing story. Today comes word that the ratings were apparently good enough for the suits to give a thumbs-up for a new weekly series starting this Fall. Early reports suggest a Friday night timeslot is in the works, but that's subject to change; all will be known on Wednesday when NBC presents its early upfronts.

We'll assume that at the very least, stars Justin Breuning (Mike Traceur) and Deanna Russo (Mike Traceur's Girlfriend) will return to fill our flatscreens with emotionless line reading. And since voicing KITT should be a relatively easy payday for Val Kilmer, we'd expect him to reprise his role, as well. As for the Hoff, who walked on for a brief cameo at the end of the pilot, who knows? The big winner here is Ford, which now gets an hour-long weekly showcase for the Shelby GT500KR KITT. Based on the stupendously lousy pilot, however, we're going to put on our prognostication hats and set the over/under for this Knight Rider reboot at 10 episodes. Unless NBC ups the quality in a big, big way, the under is a lock.

I am ordering Alex to live blog every single episode like he did the pilot, which probably won't be a long-term commitment considering. - John


[Sources: AICN via FARK, Variety, IGN, Screen Rant]

While we wouldn't give high ratings to the Knight Rider pilot movie on NBC, we are still fans of the star of the show, KITT. When Ford and Barrett-Jackson announced that a pair of KITTs would be sold in Palm Beach this year, we immediately went to check the balance in our savings account.

The two cars auctioned were not actually KR models, but regular GT models made to look like the KR for the movie. The "hero" KITT still has quite a few upgrades, including a Whipple supercharger system, Brembo brakes, upgraded suspension and exhaust, and an interior with props for the movie, while the "attack" mode KITT has the stock motor with an automatic transmission and a KR body kit with two-tiered spoiler.

The auction, which will donate all proceeds to the Salute to Education charity, started slowly but climbed steadily to $160,000. At that point, Mark Fields of Ford got on the microphone and announced the winning bidder would also get the rights to a single allocation of the 1576 GT500 KRs. That doesn't mean they would get the car for free but at msrp - a significant savings. With that announcement, the bidders had renewed interest and the highest bid climbed up to $240,000. However, Ford and Shelby had one more twist. The single GT500 KR allocation was not just a random KR. It would be the LAST KR produced in 2009 - #1576. At that point, the bidding turned into a fight for the last KR and the two KITT movie cars were forgotten. The final bid ended at an even $300,000, with the winner writing a check directly to charity.

The Barrett-Jackson auctions have seen no shortage celebrity cars cross the block, but is the sale of a pair of KITTs at the upcoming Palm Beach event a sign that the series has already succumbed to its crushing craptasticality? Given the movie's ratings, that's unlikely. It seems, rather, that we're going to be stuck with NBC's awful retread of a not-very-good original, and these auctions appear to have been in the works for a while. The proceeds from the sale of auction lots 665 and 665.1 -- a "normal" and an Attack Mode KITT -- will benefit Ford's Salute to Education charity. While we can all hope that the new Knight Rider either gets better – at least to be as bad as the original would be laudable – or is put down mercifully, Ford's scholarship program will be the big winner when someone ponies up for these ponycars.

[Source: CarsPlusMovies]

UPDATE: Back by popular demand, direct download of the podcast has been added as a link below.

The biggest news of the past week: the suckfest that was the Knight Rider movie. Alex liveblogged it so that we didn't have to watch. Sure it was crap, but was it really that bad? The original was a clunker, too, remember. There's car stuff going on, too, and we move on to covering what's in our respective Autoblog Garages. Keep an eye out for some new reviews, and John has a podcast-exclusive announcement, too.

We spin off into a small car smackdown, postulate on who should buy Jaguar if Tata flips them, and boomerang back to our MINI vs. Aveo sales number deathmatch. In this week's installment of "Fords We Don't Get," there's a new Austrailian Falcon that is available in full-on sinister. It's badass in FPV trim, not available here, and Alan Mullaly wants one, too. One Ford we are getting is the Fiesta (Verve) and that's something to actually be excited about. That's about it, thanks to Adam Curry for the plug, it's 52 minutes of fun this week.

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click above to watch the Knight Rider movie

I did not watch the Knight Rider made-for-TV movie last night. Instead, I checked out Alex's liveblog during the show, which took less time to get through and, from what I've been told, was a lot more entertaining. I have KITT's return to the small screen waiting for me on DVR, but for those of you who don't, our sister-site TV Squad has the entire thing, all 120 minutes, hosted within its review. We'll direct you here to view it and check out Joel Keller's review of the remake that actually dissects the many issues that kept the show from being entertaining, engaging, exciting and, well, any other adjective one would use to describe something good.

NBC earned a 6.9/10 ratings share at 9PM for the Knight Rider movie according to our friends at knightrideronline.com, who – big surprise – happened to love it, which was second only to an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Damn that Ty Pennington!). Now it's up to the peacock network to decide the fate of new KITT and his band of merry vigilantes. Our bet is that 13 episodes have already been ordered, 'cause the ratings share was pretty good and, more importantly, the demographic for this show falls within a sweet spot for most advertisers.


[Source: TV Squad]

Click image for high-res gallery

Well, as Dan Roth just put it in an IM that popped onto my screen, someone has to take one for the team, and that someone, my friends, is me. I'll be your host this evening as I provide live-ish commentary during the airing of the new Knight Rider telemovie. Note that I'm watching in the Eastern time zone, so you West Coast types, be advised: this contains spoilers. They'll all be after the jump, though, so you should be safe until you click through. To punish prepare myself for this epic (in NBC's opinion, anyway) television event, I bought Hoff-infused Knight Rider Season 1 on DVD. I watched the pilot episode for the first time in eons and came to the conclusion that what I thought was cool at age 10 was not necessarily...you know...good. As for this new edition, well, let's just say there's cause for concern.

And with that, let's continue after the jump.

As one commenter put it, Autoblog has become KITT Central lately. Two Knight Rider posts in one afternoon? Seriously. But we thought this was particularly interesting, so we're sharing. The Muscle Car Blog sat down with Pierre Hoffman, President of Auto Indulgence, Inc., which was the company tasked with recreating the iconic scanning red light bar for the new KITT. He revealed that a number of prototypes were considered, including one comprised of 288 LED lights that pulsed to an actual MP3 file of a heart beat. That idea was nixed, and the actual one used in the show car is comprised of 480 total LED lights, 240 on each side with three rows of 80 lights per side. It's hooked up to a custom circuit board that allows them to create any pattern, pulse or swoosh of crimson light they'd like. They also installed a dark tinted film so the lights can't be seen during the day, and another diffuser panel so that the light blends together when moving from side to side. And get this, Hoffman is considering selling some of the prototypes on eBay or his website. Hmm... the '99 Alero would look killer with this mod, no?

The interview is a great read, including Hoffman's tale of how his team failed to produce a satisfying prototype in time and the producers initially decided to create the light bar effect using CGI! Thankfully he persisted and at least one component of the new Knight Rider will be truly authentic. Thanks for the tip, Mike!

[Source: Muscle Car Blog]

click above for more new high-res images of KITT

As we all know, Knight Rider will be returning to television this Sunday at 9PM EST on NBC. The new Michael Knight played by Justin Bruening and his car companion KITT, voiced by Val Kilmer, made an appearance on the Today Show this morning (disclaimer: the Today Show is also an NBC program) to promote the mini-movie that will eventually become a full series next fall. Bruening reveals a bit more about the story we'll be watching this Sunday, some of which we already knew and a few new bits. His character is playing the estranged son of the original Michael Knight, a role that will be reprised by David Hasselhoff himself in the movie, though the new Mike Knight is unaware the guy standing next to him with the same name is his dad. Bruening also reveals the loophole that supposedly fills in the 25-year gap between the original series and the new one, which is that the original writers never identified KITT's inventor. OK, well we'll have to see how that one plays out. Ford, meanwhile, which paid a pretty penny to have the GT500KR Mustang play the part of nuevo KITT, has released three more photos of the Knight Industries car, which make lovely desktop wallpaper backgrounds if you're a true fan. We'll decide our degree of fanboyosity after we watch the movie this weekend.


[Source: Jalopnik, Ford]