Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo star in Knight Rider, a reboot of the popular 1980’s series which starred David Hasselhoff. NBC’s entertainment executives must think that re-envisioning old programs is the cats ass. Unfortunately, We’re all tired of half-heated reboots.
Either that, or they have simply run out of new ideas. Battlestar Galactica was a huge hit with both fans and critics, after all. I didn’t really see Knight Rider as a prime candidate for an update but there you have it. NBC aired the new Knight Rider last evening.
I’m wondering what you thought of it (if you watched it). There is always some lament from fans of classic TV programs when an updated version if produced. In the case of the Knight Industries Three Thousand being a Ford Mustang I am certain that a lot of people wailed in disapproval. There can be no doubt that the Ford Mustang rocks. Was it the right choice for the new K.I.T.T.? No. I don’t think so. I doubt fans would have accepted the Corvette any more than the Mustang but the Cadillac CTS (which is very nearly a corvette) would have been amazing done up in all black.
The made for TV movie was little more than a huge advertisement for Ford. Many of the vehicles seen in the program also happened to Ford products (except the SUV driven by the main antagonist which happened to be a General Motors product) that’s incredibly lame. If you remember the piss poor (and short lived) series Viper which was about a high tech crime fighting Dodge viper, all the vehicles seen in the series just happened to be Dodge/Chrysler products. There really should be a limit to product Placement no matter what portion of the bill a given company sponsors.
The cameo appearance of David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight was an interesting nod to the classic series. but not enough to make retro TV fans care about the new Knight Rider. But of course the new Knight Rider was doomed from the start. Thankfully it is now just a vague and unpleasant television memory. The NBC Knight Rider site is still up. Why hasn’t this been removed? If I were an executive at NBC, I would want to destroy all evidence of this abomination.
