What I took away from seeing it again

[ck37]

I have to say, once you get all the shock out of your system after you watch it the first time the second viewing is even that more enjoyable.
But you know after reading a lot of the complaints on this board and many others I think what one of the missing keys is this: When you take such an iconic show like Knight Rider and you try and reincarnate it its quite hard to do. as a matter of fact i don't envy the production team at all. they must of knew the slack they were going to get in some way. But hats off they went ahead and made their vision of the next Knight Rider.

I will say I think what they missed here is a true link to the past. It's hard to create a fictitious character in this world like Charles Graiman and link him from past to present. Especially when you have such a following of the original series.

The True link I believe, and just my opinion here, would have been KITT. William Daniels to be exact. Keep the Mustang, and the rest of the story, thats fine, but the original KITT would have had all the knowledge about the secret of Mike's real father, Sarah, everyone. The Dynamic of the relationships with KITT would have been greatly enhanced, with great writing of course. KITT knowing that this Michael Knight's son would be in my opinion be great television. The banter, the sensitivity, the guidance. It would have been great to see.

Now don't get me wrong, I liked Kilmer in this. Look it's obvious this new KITT wasn't ready to fully go into action, and I mean that in the sense he was still being worked on. Like the scene on the road when he stated all the tests weren't completed. Kilmer brought that rawness to it as well as his dialogue conveyed that.

But I think a lot of people would have looked past all of the issues with the film if they had that bridge from old to new define for them in such a way.

It worked for transformers.

[PHOENIXZERO]

But do you think William Daniels would have wanted to come back to do it? He's 80 now and retired, I could see him taking a day to do a guest appearance for the original KITT but not the work to do an entire series. I very much prefer the car having new AI than putting the original KITT into a new body like was done in the mess that was KR2000. It would have been harder to accept plus the dynamic between a new AI and a new driver would have been lost. If the original KITT is alive, he belongs with Michael though I have a sinking feeling KITT will end up being "Prometheus" (either David Andron played too much Chrono Trigger as a kid or it's in reference to Greek Mythology) in some way. They did enough to link the old show to new, now they just have to occasionally revisit it.

I do agree that it was better the second time without the initial shock.


It wouldn't have matter if it was the original KITT was the AI behind the new car, the Trans-Am fanboys/fangirls who can't let go of the fact that their car isn't made anymore nor will it be in the near future and that it doesn't make sense to use a vehicle that isn't in production, especially when you would need permission to use it. Someone might come here and say they don't but well you do UNLESS you're not making something for commercial purposes or to make any sort of money on.

[ck37]

Well there are definitely pros and cons using the original voice in a new car, but to me, and maybe my imagination is getting the best of me here but the dialogue would be interesting and colorful between Michaels son and daniels KITT.

As for Voicing KITT, I don't think it would be that taxing on Daniels to do it really, unless he is in really bad health, or has no interest at all. Having done voice work myself, you pretty much are in a booth for a number of hours for a day or two saying the lines with different inflections for variety. Everything else like placement etc is done by the sound engineers. Wouldn't be to bad. Neither here or there I guess. In the end it's all just good conversation.

Yeah I read that thought about KITT being Prometheus. Interesting take I guess, but I agree revisiting the past will definitely help the show.

also on the old TA or protype, they would need a number of cars to shoot every week, and if they are not available as in being produced, it is not possible to pull it off financially unless the show has a very large budget per episode.
The Mustang is good. debadge a bit, fix the interior and it will be golden.

[PHOENIXZERO]

It's not taxing and can be done most anywhere sure, but eh, I'd just rather the original KITT remain separate from the new AI, then at least there's an opening for the occasional return and interesting conversations.

The car certainly needs the Cobra emblems removed. I'm sure it was a condition with Ford that they remain and get the attention they did along with the other emblems. Same with how almost every time the "Attack KITT" stopped and people got out, it'd revert back to the base Hero car.