Knight Rider TV Series Coming This Fall
Posted on 28 July 2008, at 12:21 pm, by Allen Hong
When the made for TV movie, Knight Rider (2008) came out earlier this year, I had issues with the new KITT (see my post), and I had completely written off watching any future Knight Rider productions. Now based on the pilot movie doing so well in ratings (thanks to all of us being curious), NBC had green-lighted the TV series. Last week, NBC revealed the newly redesigned Attack KITT and released a preview of the TV show at Comic-Con 2008. It looks like NBC did take Knight Rider fan comments seriously, and they went back to the drawing board on how they could make the TV series better than what was seen in the pilot movie, as the one minute preview footage looks pretty cool. I don’t want to spoil any surprises, just watch the promo video below:
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4 Comments For This Post
July 28th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
It’s a good thing I like Ford if I am going to have to sit through an hour-long commercial.
The best thing about the teaser is we get to see glimpses of the new 09 F150 customized (not too mention the convertible Aston).
And the jury is still out as to the answer to that “way too personal” question from KITT…
July 30th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Hey David, I think Ford got all the exposure they wanted on TV. I see more and more new model Mustangs on the road now and because of the pilot movie, I say there’s KITT!
July 30th, 2008 at 9:10 am
But it still can’t outrun the ford edge crossover :^)
I wanna see a tricked out ford flex, slammed with airbag suspension kit. that could be the girlfriend’s ride…
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:32 am
I don’t mind the car – it’s not bad. But the Ford would not have been my first choice. The 2010 Chevy Camaro (the same car they had in the Transformers movie) would’ve been my choice (just not in yellow, of course). The body style of the new Camaro looks a bit more bad-ass, and edgy, if you will. And that would’ve made it more aesthetically appropriate and appealing, IMO, for a 21st century update of Knight Rider. Go take a look at the Camaro at the following links, imagine it in another color if you wish, and tell me if you don’t think that would’ve made a better choice:
http://www.newcarpark.com/blog.....amaro1.jpg
http://www.thetorquereport.com.....t_new2.jpg
Now, the voices in this remake? Ugh! No, no, no, no, no! All WRONG!
The voices in the old Knight Rider were just right. David’s voice was husky or manly enough (but not too deep or over the top) to be taken seriously, and William Daniels’ voice for KITT was perfect – KITT spoke like a normal human being but with just the right range and balance of personableness, emotion, vocal inflection, and calm. His voice was interesting and appealing – one that you liked to listen to every episode. William’s voice was so fitting – KITT had personality!
In contrast, they chose all the wrong people for this remake. First of all, the new Michael – his voice is so thin and high-pitched. He doesn’t sound masculine enough and you can’t take him seriously – he sounds like a little squirt – I don’t know if I want to pat him on his head and hand him his lunchbox or slap him upside his head and steal his lunch money! LOL! What made the producers choose this guy?
And the voice of the new KITT is so B-O-R-I-N-G. He sounds too reserved and computerized – not personable, emotional, and inflectional enough or in the right ways. His voice, although not stressful, is not interesting or appealing. And he has absolutely NO personality.
You’re working with subtleties of the voice when finding the right range and balance of personableness, emotion, vocal inflection, and calm, not to mention environment, when attempting to be the voice of a machine or computer; and few people can pull it off just right, without having too much or too little of each, or having them imbalanced, while being able to understand why one type of voice would be more appropriate for one environment as opposed to another, etc. William Daniels’ voice naturally accomplished this successfully in the original series. But the voice of the new KITT – whoever they hired for that – his voice is all wrong. And in some cases he has a combination of normal speech and discrete speech (similar to how we had to talk to our computers back in the day when we were using Dragon speech recognition software).
In the very first episode of this remake, both my SO and I listened to KITT for about thirty seconds, looked at each other in disgust, and turned the channel. His voice is just awful because it’s so devoid of personality! Finding people with the right voice for this I’m sure is no easy task, but I’m sorry to say that the producers of the new Knight Rider series failed here (and in other areas, too).
And KITT asking Michael if he’s a homosexual? I can’t say that’s exactly humorous. Quite frankly, I think it’s stupid, ill-fitting for the show, and disrespectful. The original KITT would never have asked questions like that – they never would’ve written that into the script.
They need to change the car (although I could deal with that), the main character, and the voice of KITT. These are the primary components that make the whole show, and IMO, they got them all wrong. In fact, the whole feel of the show overall is one that’s over-processed and doesn’t take itself seriously enough to make the viewers want to invest their time watching it. It’s like some strange amalgam of 90210, Ally McBeal, special effects, failed humor, and a talking-car that in so many ways looks too road-common on the outside but with a great wax job and a boring voice, LOL. And there’s nothing that draws you in or endears you to the characters, including KITT. Even if you could be, you may not be able to get past the voices long enough to even have the chance to connect. It just seems like one giant recipe for failure.
I don’t think this show will last long. My dislike for the show is certainly not because I’m opposed to a remake – rather, I embrace remakes! I’m a Knight Rider fan and it’s about time Knight Rider was brought back. But this show is so wrong on so many levels. Of course, no one is always right – I could be wrong here, and perhaps there’s some small sliver of a chance the show will grow on me over a bit of time, but at this point, I can’t say that it will. My instincts are pretty sharp, and because of everything I’ve mentioned above, they tell me this show won’t last long on the airwaves. Then again, who knows? Maybe I’ll be surprised… after all, “Rock of Love” is in its second season now, headed for a third, and that show is a total car wreck – but in a different way. Que sera sera.