If the television movie adaptation of Knight Rider shown earlier this year is any indication of what to expect in the upcoming television series, then… no, that's not how it will go.  Gary Scott Thompson, the show's executive producer, said he learned many lessons from the backdoor pilot, and will use them to take the revamped classic to a new direction.

“I didn't have anything to do with the two-hour [television movie],” he clarified in a recent interview.  “I was brought in after the movie to create the series, but what I found was that fans missed certain things, like the turbo boost and the interaction [between Mike Traceur, played by Justin Bruening, and the KITT, voiced by Val Kilmer].”

Thompson, who was executive producer of the gambling drama Las Vegas, expressed his excitement for the project.  He aims to pay homage to the original Knight Rider series, which aired in the 1980s and starred David Hasselhoff, but he also wants to push the concept forward to keep it at pace with the times.  “I came in and wanted to revamp,” he said.  “I went back and watched the original series, the first season, and I asked, ‘What's the mythology?  Where are we going, and how do we create this 25 years later?'  It's been all about taking the concept to the next level.”

Among the more obvious changes concerned advances in cars and technology: the KITT, for instance, is now a 2008 Ford Mustang GT500KR, equipped with loads of cutting-edge science.  But most importantly, at least for Thompson, are the new issues and realities that shape the world.  “We live in a world where two wars are going on, and there is terrorism,” he said.  “It's not as simple as it was in the early ‘80s, when you just go and get the drug dealer down the street.  There is a much larger threat out there.”  One of the more obvious changes: Mike's an Iraq war veteran.

“I think the biggest thing was embracing technology and owning it and making it our own,” Thompson concluded.  “We realize it is an iconic show and that [David] Hasselhoff is an iconic person, but we couldn't redo the same thing over again.  I don't think the other half of the audience would stand for it. And there's a new generation who has never seen it.”  He ended with a story about the audience's reaction when they showed a transforming KITT at the show's Comic-Con panel.  “The kids went crazy,” he said.  “I think we are doing the right thing.”

Knight Rider hits the screens on September 24 on NBC.


-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Sources: Sci Fi Wire, io9
(Image courtesy of NBC)