Autoblog

Hey kids, don't forget: the new, not-at-all-improved Knight Rider becomes a weekly series on Wednesday, September 24th. As was the case during the pilot that aired back in February, I'll be on my couch with my laptop, liveblogging the proceedings and adding much-needed "perspective" each week, right until the show's cancellation. Maybe you couldn't care less about the liveblog, though. Or maybe you're just a glutton for punishment. If that's the case, you're in luck -- the Peacock is posting the season premiere online at NBC.com and Hulu.com on September 17, a week before the network broadcast. I'm gonna pass on the sneak peek, because I don't want want to taint my initial reaction to KITT's new Attack Mode (above). That, I'm saving for you guys. Mark your calendars. In the meantime, I'll watch this again instead.


[Source: Inside Line]

While it might be a dubious pursuit to rehash old B-level (or lower) TV series for a new generation, the possibility of a crap product has never stood in the way before. Indeed, the retreading of Knight Rider is underway, with shoots already taking place. Love it or hate it, it will hit the small screen, and if you can get over the fact that it's not the original, it might be fun. If it's rotten, it won't hang around long anyhow. It's not like the original series was Citizen Kane, so let's just be thankful that there's a new shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist.

Hollywood blog The ODI managed to finagle some time on a location shoot for the new series and snapped some stills. There's no shots of the new KITT, but our old pal the Knight Industries Two Thousand is there in this garage scene. The premise apparently is that the old KITT is being rebuilt in a garage/lab after being totaled. The shop is set up with automotive parts and tools, as well as much-later F-Body than the original (check out the taillights). We would have imagined that KITT's powerplant was something more exotic than a carbureted small block with an Eaton-style supercharger. Maybe that's the engine they removed to put in the exotic hydrogen turbine, or nuclear reactor, or whatever. Can we get a rewrite?

[Source: The ODI via SpoilerTV, Photos: The ODI]

Photo from Jay Ohrberg's Hollywood Cars. Click for more photos of the car on that Web site.

So say our colleagues over at Jalopnik who quote their "validated connection" at an L.A. special effects house. Writing for the blog, Ray Wert nominates the Roush Blackjack Mustang for the role and even has photochopped one in full K.I.T.T. livery. But it wouldn't be the first time K.I.T.T. has appeared as a Mustang. In 1994, in a badly failed attempt to revive the Knight Rider series, Universal Television produced "Knight Rider 2010", in which K.I.T.T. is replaced by a Mad Max-styled Ford Mustang seen above. The car is now in Jay Ohrberg's collection of movie cars.

Reading Jalopnik's readers' comments is pretty funny, like the one from Papercutninja, "The Mustang is as technologically advanced as a Trans Am from the '80s." And this one from Seth, "It's like putting the A-Team in Mercedes Sprinter!" But the best might be from SRT8Six, "Maybe the pilot episode will have Michael driving KITT around just so he can figure out where that annoying rattling sound is coming from."

But we have to give props to one of our own readers, James F., who predicted way back in May, 2006 that the Mustang just might be cast in the movie's lead role. Congrats, Mr. F!

So, Autoblog fans, what say you? Will a Mustang be able to save the ass of Michael Knight's son just as well as a Firebird? Will the next special edition Mustang have oscillating LEDs in the grille like Jalopnik's chop? Is this in fact, as Jalopnik commenter Novaload says, where "Mustang AND Knight Rider jump the shark together!"?

[Source: Jalopnik, photo from Jay Ohrberg's Hollywood Cars]