• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

News Justin lin doing knight Rider

Well, here's hoping it's better than the last reboot.

Or the last four reboots -- Knight Rider 2000, Knight Rider 2010, Team Knight Rider, and the 2008 series. It's amazing how many times people have tried to revive the show. It's not like it was all that good to begin with.
 
Or the last four reboots -- Knight Rider 2000, Knight Rider 2010, Team Knight Rider, and the 2008 series. It's amazing how many times people have tried to revive the show. It's not like it was all that good to begin with.


Yeah, those too. And I was also thinking about how many times it's been given a revival. I mean, what the heck is it about the franchise in particular that makes it such a reboot darling? As you say, it's not like it was that good to begin with.There's nostalgia, sure, but it's been redone so many times now that it's kind of lost its luster, so that one can't really say it's the nostalgia anymore. It's like this show is rebooted every 10 years or so.

Part of the problem for me with the last one was the car. For one thing, it looked too boxy. For me, KITT was all about being sleek. I agree that the new Vette might work. Heck, they could go with a Tesla. Car already partly drives itself ;)
 
I want the old car or no car. And I want to be as cheesy as the old one. Why can't K.I.T.T. be a vintage car? To me that was a "problem" with all those failed reboots/sequels.
 
Yeah, those too. And I was also thinking about how many times it's been given a revival. I mean, what the heck is it about the franchise in particular that makes it such a reboot darling? As you say, it's not like it was that good to begin with.There's nostalgia, sure, but it's been redone so many times now that it's kind of lost its luster, so that one can't really say it's the nostalgia anymore. It's like this show is rebooted every 10 years or so.

I was going to say "I don't know," but on reflection, I bet that the reason it keeps getting rebooted has something to do with the fact that it's a show built around a sportscar, and that gives car manufacturers an incentive to fund reboots as a way of promoting their products. Remember the similar show Viper? That was even more blatantly about promoting that brand of sportscar -- they out-and-out named the show after it -- and they even gave the car the ability to change into two different models of sportscar so they could promote them both. The 2008 Knight Rider reboot did the same, giving its car the ability to change into at least three models. It's all one big exercise in product placement.


Why can't K.I.T.T. be a vintage car?

Same answer. If it were a vintage car, there'd be less incentive for auto makers to invest in funding the show.
 
While I think going with a Fast and Furious vet for the show is a good idea, I do have to wonder if why they rebooting this again. I've only seen a couple episodes each of the original and the last reboot, but neither of them were all that great, and I've gotten the impression none of the others were either.
 
I was kid, teen when the original show was on and thought it dull even than. KITT could do almost anything the Batmoblie or whatever car James Bond was driving. But there was so much more to Batman and Bond than just their cars.

I remember a conversation in my high school art clas about Knight Rider. This was at least a decade after it was done. But we were all kids who watched it at some point. Either in the original run or in reruns.

We compared it to the A Team the most and to a lesser extent MacGyver. Both of those shows had reoccurring villians. The Milarty was always after the A Team but the most memorable adversary was Colonel Decker. Of course MacGyver had Murdoc. Knight Rider really had no serious threats of any kind. Reoccuring or even any memorable one of villians.

MacGyver was a much better and smarter show than the A Team. But at least the personalities of that group of characters, actors made it fun to watch. Knight Rider had the Hoff...
 
We compared it to the A Team the most and to a lesser extent MacGyver. Both of those shows had reoccurring villians. The Milarty was always after the A Team but the most memorable adversary was Colonel Decker. Of course MacGyver had Murdoc. Knight Rider really had no serious threats of any kind. Reoccuring or even any memorable one of villians.
C'mon, how many shows are there where the star and his car both have evil twins? :)
 
I was kid, teen when the original show was on and thought it dull even than. KITT could do almost anything the Batmoblie or whatever car James Bond was driving. But there was so much more to Batman and Bond than just their cars.

I was never much into cars. What I liked about KITT was his personality. I've always been fond of nonhumanoid AI characters in fiction, and William Daniels made KITT a very fun character -- certainly more charismatic than the guy behind the wheel.
 
I was going to say "I don't know," but on reflection, I bet that the reason it keeps getting rebooted has something to do with the fact that it's a show built around a sportscar, and that gives car manufacturers an incentive to fund reboots as a way of promoting their products. Remember the similar show Viper? That was even more blatantly about promoting that brand of sportscar -- they out-and-out named the show after it -- and they even gave the car the ability to change into two different models of sportscar so they could promote them both. The 2008 Knight Rider reboot did the same, giving its car the ability to change into at least three models. It's all one big exercise in product placement.
.


Good answer, and I suspect you're right. At the same time, I felt the last reboot was even more blatant with its promotion than any others that I can remember. And Val Kilmer was the wrong choice for the voice. Needs someone with more charisma and enthusiasm. Val Kilmer was just flat, which is the antithesis of what KITT should have been.

Now all this talk makes me want another Smokey & The Bandit. I know years ago they tried to do something similar with The Bandit, which if I remember was one of the first from the Action block. I'd rather they look at something like this than yet another Knight Rider reboot. Not to mention that it probably would be easier to reboot by using any muscle car seeing as there's less baggage attached to it.
 
Now all this talk makes me want another Smokey & The Bandit. I know years ago they tried to do something similar with The Bandit, which if I remember was one of the first from the Action block.

Yeah, the Universal Action Pack syndication package that also launched Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and TekWar. In fact, Knight Rider 2010 was part of that too.
 
IIRC the reason they chose to go with the Pontiac Trans A't is that a cargo train full of new cars derailed. GM couldn't sell and let the production company have them for pennies on the dollar.

I really hated the Knight Rider 2008 with the vehicle transforming into pickup trucks and such. Super Pursuit Mode was OK since it used existing body parts, but the complete morphing in that new show was too much.

William Daniels really made that show fun- and as mentioned he had more personality than the human star.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top