Ford Motor Company...

[Renegade94]

Hey all, in all of our attempts to save Knight Rider through NBC, I think that we all have forgotten the one company that has really helped bring back Knight Rider and that is Ford! I know that everyone likes to bash Ford because most of the vehicles used in Knight Rider are Fords, but how we tend to forget that if it was not for Ford, there would never have been a Knight Rider Pilot and of course, no new series! I know that NBC decides on which shows that they choose to Cancel or re-new, however I know that they must have a contract with Ford and I for one plan on writing a strong thank you letter to the Ford Motor Company for their part in bringing back Knight Rider in a time where Ford as a company is in real financial trouble and they are the only American car company not taking money from the government to save their business! I would like to know what you all think, Neps, and all of the rest of the leaders of the Forum as well as this site, we need all of the help that we can get if we are going to save Knight Rider and I for one am not going to underestimate the pull that Ford has in keeping this series alive!

[KITTKARR85]

Yeah, why can't Ford plug KR on their commercials??? Just a banner or something during them.

[Knight007]

this is a very good point. I dont know how to do it, but if some one can start an online petetion similar to the one created for NBC so we can all start using it and signe it.

[Solid Snake]

Hear hear! They atleast give the show a shot! Thanks Ford! Knight Rider, powered by Ford...

That has been my sig for the past 4 years now!

[89IROCNDoug]

That's a good idea. Ford may have some pull as to whether it goes a second season.

Since the show has been improving, I would think Ford may want to get more positive exposure too. Or they might want it to die to not chance more negative exposure. TKR was negative exposure and this KR seemed generally negative (at least with all the KR bashing by people in general. If people viewed KR the way I did, it would of been positive exposure! ). Hmmmmm... I wonder if they like negative exposure better than no exposure. Is it still good advertisement? Would it make people buy less Fords or more Fords?

[Lost Knight]

I think we're giving Ford too much credit. Knight Rider was going to be coming back regardless of Ford's involvement. So to say that there never would have been a new KR without Ford is simply not true. They just happen to have one of the few practical American 2-door ponycars on the road these days, and they aggressively waved a giant offer in NBC's face. NBC was more or less bought in this case.

As I recall, at least 90 percent of the fans (including myself) complained that a Mustang was chosen because it looked nothing like the Trans Am. We stopped complaining about it (well most of us, anyway) because what's done is done and the problems the show was having went way beyond the vehicle choice.

I don't see how Ford has done anything for the franchise other than blatantly exploit its vehicles.

[Solid Snake]

I completely disagree, Ford did a lot to keep the show alive at all... I think that if there was any other US brand supplying the cars they would have stopped the deal (after they begged for tax payers money) as it is not a vital plan for a sustainable business that they have to present in two weeks time... If they don't there is a very realistic chance they might need to pay the money back! Guess which brand was the only one of the big 3 to not take any money... Ford. Hence they can do as they please... money wise as it is their money.

I say if GM or (*gasp*) Chrysler was the shows supplier... the show would have had more trouble (budget wise and car wise) than it has now.

I, for the record, loved the Mustang as KI3T from day one... in Hero mode!

[Knight007]

I completely disagree, Ford did a lot to keep the show alive at all... I think that if there was any other US brand supplying the cars they would have stopped the deal (after they begged for tax payers money) as it is not a vital plan for a sustainable business that they have to present in two weeks time... If they don't there is a very realistic chance they might need to pay the money back! Guess which brand was the only one of the big 3 to not take any money... Ford. Hence they can do as they please... money wise as it is their money.

I say if GM or (*gasp*) Chrysler was the shows supplier... the show would have had more trouble (budget wise and car wise) than it has now.

I, for the record, loved the Mustang as KI3T from day one... in Hero mode!

Well said Snake, I totaly agree with what you said.

[Harry Singh Jr.]

Couldn't say it better myself Snake:)

[Lost Knight]

Hey all, in all of our attempts to save Knight Rider through NBC, I think that we all have forgotten the one company that has really helped bring back Knight Rider and that is Ford! I know that everyone likes to bash Ford because most of the vehicles used in Knight Rider are Fords, but how we tend to forget that if it was not for Ford, there would never have been a Knight Rider Pilot and of course, no new series!

My initial point is that I don't believe it's true that without Ford there wouldn't be a new Knight Rider, which I still stand by. NBC wanted to move forward with this franchise before Ford came along; it's actually why Ford came along, because they heard of plans to resurrect the franchise.

That being said, while it's a smart business move, the blatant product placement in the backdoor pilot went too far where people felt like it was a Ford commercial, and that's why Ford got bashed. It's not as bad in the new series (save for the fact that 8 out of every 10 cars seems to be a Ford), but in Ford's defense I think they would have gotten bashed no matter what they did. If they didn't blatantly use product placement to get a lot of their vehicles in the show, they'd be criticized like Pontiac was for not wanting the Trans Am to be referred to by name. If they did use product placement, people would complain about the advertising as they have been.

I completely disagree, Ford did a lot to keep the show alive at all... I think that if there was any other US brand supplying the cars they would have stopped the deal (after they begged for tax payers money) as it is not a vital plan for a sustainable business that they have to present in two weeks time... If they don't there is a very realistic chance they might need to pay the money back! Guess which brand was the only one of the big 3 to not take any money... Ford. Hence they can do as they please... money wise as it is their money.

Unfortunately that's a matter of opinion and we'll never know for sure. Any company that took over would have supplied extra vehicles and featured their other vehicles just like Ford. However, it's very possible and likely that GM or Chrysler would have cut funds off, but I'm sure that would have resulted in some type of breach of contract, wouldn't it? Would they have put themselves in the position to hurt their finances even more by getting sued by NBC? I think they'd have likely used the money they took from Congress and kept the deal going.

I say if GM or (*gasp*) Chrysler was the shows supplier... the show would have had more trouble (budget wise and car wise) than it has now.

It's very possible and likely that the show would have had more budget problems if they used GM or Chrysler to supply the vehicles. I was never arguing anything regarding that one way or another.

[Luis]

Hear, hear.

[Luis]

I actually posted "Hear, hear" for Solid's POV, not Lost Knight's. I felt like I had to state that.

[Lost Knight]

Either way, I didn't get it.

[Solid Snake]

First, thanks for the nice backing people!

Second, Lost Knight, if it was GM and Chrysler there would have been a breach of contract you can count on it (with all the consequences)... why... because supplying cars to a show is NOT part of a plan for a sustainable business that they HAVE to present to congress in less than 2 weeks now! Just like Chrysler putting an add in the major news papers in the US saying "thank you for giving us your hard earned money"... those adds costed millions of dollars and people like you and me were not amused with that and actually were down right pissed off at Chrysler for spending the money so stupid.

And like I said, if they congress feels GM and Chrysler are wasting rather than investing the money wisely... they will need to pay it all back!

Just a friendly reminder .


Also, TOS has the same blatant "car adds" back in the day only it was not so obvious as all the cars looked so generic and essentially the same... except for a certain T-top.

[Knight007]

Either way, I didn't get it.

same here man

[FordFilly82]

Dude! Knight007 Where did you get that Kitt smiley!?

Ok back on topic;
I think that Ford might have more pull on NBC than we think. Writing letters to Ford is a great idea.

[Solid Snake]

We need to check this with Neps, but I would be willing to spearhead such a "Ford op" seeing how I know some people who know some people within Ford.