The Reason why Knight Rider Endures: NBC is Happy with Ben

[Luis]

Check this out:
http://www.jossip.com/somehow-someway-b ... -20081114/

NBC peeps are happy with Ben Silverman. Supposedly, profits are up 50%.

The reboot makes a lot of business sense:

a) Knight Rider is profitable -- lots of car ads // Ford $$$
b) Actors are cheap (the show is already cheap enough as it is. Even the special FX are cheap because of the in-house crew)
c) Three actors gone -- one of them B list = even more profits

So Knight Rider keeps NBC in the limelight, costing LESS than the pilot and less than the series after episode 13.

The Hoff comes in, ratings go up, the show gets better, on to season 2.

With a Mustang 2010 to top it all, so they have an excuse to fix Attack mode or get rid of it altogether.

"Mike, KITT now doesn't need Attack mode to reach top speed!"
"Cool! Come on KITT, I dare you."

I think we can relax a little now

[tosil]

Speaking of the 2010 mustang, it's going to be shown to the world Tuesday night on Speed channel.... so the question is; in the future, will KITT either transform to a regular 2010 Mustang while under cover and then back to the GT500 KR we currently see, because remember, there is no GT500 KR for the new model yet, that is yet to be unveiled. Or, do what I would do. Have KITT updated as a 2010 Mustang GT, nice stealth factor, and attack mode becomes the old GT500 KR normal mode... or heck, have him as a "prototype 2010 GT500 KR". I'm sure Ford has a design for the next GT500 out there somewhere, maybe ther won't be a KR version of the next model, but at least a GT500...


Cheers

[tamatt27]

See...the problem I have with Graiman leaving with his high salary, is that Hasselhoff would command a much higher salary than Bruce Davison I would imagine.

[PHOENIXZERO]

I doubt it, besides I think he has a bit more bargaining power. Besides that, like I said in the Hasselhoff topic, I'm sure he wants a bit of creative control and maybe even a producer credit, which could be used to justifying taking a bit off the price. I'm sure Hasselhoff also knows that this is pretty much the last chance for Knight Rider on television and there's pretty much no way he's going to be involved with the film, this is his last chance also to go back to it outside of funny spots in movies.

[Knight-Armen]

The way things are going I would recommend Hasselhoff to use his leverage and earn as much salary as he can. The creators & producers of this new line series enjoy living on the edge with just that much money to succeed. As the article explains, lots of Ford advertisement increases the salary - what are they trying to do? Selling and marketing Ford vehicles or give us a full blown Knight Rider action?
Secondly, the fact that the actors are cheap doesn't surprise me at all! If someone would approach me in the streets and ask me to do the lead in Knight Rider I wouldn't turn him down and neither will you. As far as the special effects are concerned, well, I think there is absolutely no other way of making the series as cheap as it turns out now! The only thing they've got is really that Mustang with fancy leds in the front and a Kitt cave which looks like a dungeon!
Three actors are gone? GREAT, kick them all for all I care!

You see, they want to just barely make it to a second season and once the viewer ratings reach its absolute bottom they'll give people a shot of David Hasselhoff to make them last longer...

[original_cruz]

See...the problem I have with Graiman leaving with his high salary, is that Hasselhoff would command a much higher salary than Bruce Davison I would imagine.

It's a tough call agreeing with that. Bruce Davison has been in more successful films than the Hoff, but the Hoff had Baywatch, and that was super successful worldwide. The Hoff might be a bit more expensive, I guess, especially if he was both a producer and actor in the show. Axing the characters of Alex Torres and FBI Agent Rivai (either or both of which I think the show could easily do without...but I'd rather see Zoe or Billy go more than them) and Bruce Davison would free up plenty of budget room for the Hoff (assuming he even wants to be in the show at all).

They should also scrap the SSC set, start calling it FLAG or "The Foundation" like it was supposed to be, and that whole base-inside-a-hangar idea, and go with the mobile unit in the semi-truck like TOS. Why have a fancy dungeon-like base when you already have a fancy supercar?

[DevonStyles]

It does not matter what high priced high profile actor they insert into the cast... One simple fact remains true!

The Hoff is Knight Rider

[Skav]

It does not matter what high priced high profile actor they insert into the cast... One simple fact remains true!

The Hoff is Knight Rider

I agree. Stallone is to Rocky what Hasselhoff is to KR. Even though the new show seems to be pretty good in a lot of fan's eyes, the presence of The Hoff is sorely missing.

[PHOENIXZERO]

I know what you're saying but I don't think Rocky is the best example since Stallone created the character and wrote them all. I think Rambo might be better since Stallone didn't create that character, or maybe Arnold and the Terminator or Christopher Reeve and Superman, not so much his Clark, never cared for the bumbling goof thing but people who aren't that familiar with Superman still think of it as well, even with Lois and Clark, Smallville and the animated series doing something something significantly different in the mainstream media. Not counting comics since the vast majority don't pay attention to them.

But yeah, when someone hears "Michael Knight" they think Hasselhoff, when someone says "Knight Rider" they think Hasselhoff and the talking car, even if they don't remember the name of KITT, they remember the car and the voice.. There's never going to be another Michael Knight as in how Hasselhoff did it since much of how the character worked was his own doing. He may not have created the character but he made it his own.


That said, I'm dreading the A-Team movie that's coming out and I'm not even a fan.