Honestly, as a little kid growing up in the 80's I loved Knight Rider. Back then the Hoff was still cool in America's eyes. I'm not sure how to classify the Hoff's antics nowadays, but I'd love a "Don't Hassel the Hoff" shirt regardless. I bring this up because today NBC unveiled the newest version of KITT, the talking car from Knight Rider, and to be honest I'm already underwhelmed. (link) When was the last time a remake/revamp of a television show, either in the movie theaters or on the small screen, was good!?! I'd say 99% of them are horrible and a complete waste of time for both viewers and the people who made them. So why oh why did NBC think this was a good idea!?!
I know NBC is scrambling for viewers and it’s obvious they have no idea how to pick a schedule but come on...saying no to a Knight Rider revamp should have been easy. Instead we have a made for TV movie that focuses on Mike Tracer (what a horrible name), the estranged son of Michael Knight (Hasselhoff). Thankfully there's going to be a Hasselhoff cameo, making this movie only slightly watchable. I still remember the NBC made for TV movie Knight Rider 2000, which stared the Hoff and was pretty bad in its own right. I can't even begin to imagine how bad this new version of the show will be.
Besides the fact that the new car isn't that impressive looking (where's the famous red light in the front?), William Daniels (St. Elsewhere, Boy Meets World) was not brought back to be the voice of the talking car. Instead, it’s being reported by TV Squad that KITT will be voiced by Will Arnett (Arrested Development). I'm not sure if KITT is supposed to be funny or if Arnett is going to be playing it straight, but I'm already turned off by the selection. There's just something about Daniels' voice. The fact that it’s so recognizable and that I already automatically associate his voice with the show/car tells me that for any car to be accepted as KITT needs Daniels talking for it.
What's worse is that NBC is hoping the new Knight Rider movie will garner high enough ratings to flip it into a new primetime show. Knowing how poorly NBC is doing in the ratings, I would imagine no matter how low the ratings are the show is sure to be picked up for next year. It’s too bad NBC couldn’t learn from the mistake it made with Bionic Woman and leave popular shows from our past alone!
The TV Squad article also mentioned that the newest version of KITT has the ability to change shape and color due to nanotechnology. Because of this there are multiple versions of KITT on the show. To see additional photos of the three cars unveiled today check out the TV Squad article here.
