What could make a new Knight Rider generation fresh?

[jup]

Continuing on the theme from a few posts ago, if there was to be a new Knight Rider series, what kinds of things would make it fresh?

After all, our everyday cars are about to start driving themselves. And our computers are about to start hosting conversations with us. (Or, at least both can become potential upgrades.) We've seen super cars jumping, crashing though things and even transforming. But, how would the new, cutting edge super car of tomorrow outdo what reality is already in motion on making?

[Knight Racer]

Well many shows are bringing back older television shows for a newer generation by having the old cast meet a new cast such as Get Smart, Boy Meets World, to name a few. I think I noticed it as early as the 90's. In 1998 there was this great fan fic called Knight Rider Legends/1998 where F.L.A.G. was disbanded for over a decade.Devon remained on the board at Knight Industries. Bonnie was his assistant. Michael Knight and RC3 have been retired. Knight Industries has a board meeting and Jennifer Knight surprises Devon by officially reinstating F.L.A.G. but they needed to double it's efforts by bringing back Karr and hiring a second operative in addition to Michael Knight and putting both AIs in new 98 trans ams. Karr's memory would be wiped and he would think he was a new CPU with no prior interactions with the F.L.A.G. It was a great series. Imagining a new operative being paired with Karr as a new team.

[james olden]

Something like knight rider 2008 pilot movie (not the the 2008 because the 2008 series screwed up by involving the fbi and not involving the original cast and not shedding light on what happen between the scent of roses-knight rider 2008 pilot movie)

This would work

*keep the story focused on a man and his car
*devon has passed on and it's up to michael knight Sr. As the new chairman director of flag with Bonnie rc3 and April as other board of director of flag.
*ki2t Ai has been put in the new flag mobile unit while ki3t is a 2015 Chevy Camaro with Michael Jr. (Mike) as a new driver of ki3t
*garth knight estranged son vows to destroy flag blaming Michael Sr for the death of his father
*(just like T.O.S)keep up with new music hits for the season
*while the series is on going the franchise should release toys and video games
*sometimes have flashbacks from the T.O.S.
*recreate the story of Martin jantzen "team knight rider series" which was suppose to been Michael Sr and ki2ts replacement. this episode must be recreated for the new series.

[Knight Racer]

Another idea I had years ago was Michael Knight now being one of the members of the board to Knight Industries which heads up Flag decides to reinstate ut. You see the original Kitt AI only when no one else is in the room as the computer that runs the foundations HQ at the mansion. Michaels son is the new driver for a new ki3t as a camera Kitt. I also liked this idea David Hasselhoff once discussed of a virtual Devon Miles.

[K2000kid]

I Honestly hate to be the voice of negativity but the new gen likely wouldn't get into it.
KR was a product of its time and that's all, It's akin to bringing back Disco music and 8 track tapes

I couldn't imagine sitting with the girls (11 and 14) and half expect them enjoy a show about a talking car
Solving the crime of the week. Eighties TV at its best but that's where its doomed to stay

[james olden]

I Honestly hate to be the voice of negativity but the new gen likely wouldn't get into it.
KR was a product of its time and that's all, It's akin to bringing back Disco music and 8 track tapes

I couldn't imagine sitting with the girls (11 and 14) and half expect them enjoy a show about a talking car
Solving the crime of the week. Eighties TV at its best but that's where its doomed to stay

I think it could survive longer than kr2008 if they focus on a man and his car instead of that working for the fbi crap and make it more dark like they did with kr2008 pilot movie. That's just my opinion

[jup]

Know what one of the things that some successfully modern action shows have learned about? Taking a kind of Anime style approach to the episodes.

Don't get me wrong. All the KR shows 'kind of' had it. But, this is an approach where every episode slightly ties in to every other one and has a tiny bit of a teaser that makes you want to see the next one. I suppose the best way to put it is if in these types of shows, if you miss out on a few episodes or randomly shuffle them around, you'll probably be confused. Because key things happen and if you miss them, things won't make sense. And, when it clicks, I know that I can get carried away with a marathon...even without intentionally going into the show to be doing.

However, let's say with the original KR, I can watch almost any episode out of order and from any season. It hardly makes a difference. Main features in KITT are always there. Most new features are explained and used in the same episode and may never be revisited. (Silly Pop Out Mode is an exception.) Michael fights crime. Devon gives information. Bonnie fixes KITT. (Or April. Which could mildly confuse a new viewer in a random shuffle. Once you establish that she, too, tinkers with KITT...conflict mostly over.) About the only real draws are the cliff hanger two parters. I know that in season one, there was the whole Silicon Valley lingering ghost bit. But, it was so mild that I never really cared to remember those characters, once the episode concluded.

[tosil]

If I had it my way, Knight Rider's story has not been fully revealed yet. Think of the potential....

Why not have the next gen movie or show for that matter, start before Kitt was even thought up. Tell Karr's story. Show how development of the Knight Foundation and it's prototype leads to Kitt and eventually Michael Knight... Then presto. If this idea is used for a movie, you set yourself up for a sequel... Kitt's story.

If a series is chosen instead, why not have Karr exist as well as Kitt, but instead of Karr being locked up, released, chased by Kitt, Yama Yama, have Karr out on his own, somewhere else in the country helping out people in exchange for fuel and direction. Somewhere in the future, have both Kitt and Karr join forces to fight a very dangerous Garth and Galiath.

Pardon men if these ideas have been mentioned before, but I think there is potential for sure.

[Knight Racer]

I once posted that idea for someone to create a fan fiction with Dr. Graham developing Karr for Wilton Knight. The in-between period before Kitt was activated in a mainframe in Washington as mentioned in Goliath Returns.

[Nicholas Knight]

Personally, I think it would be kinda cool to use elements from all the spinoffs to create one single storyline. Have a powerful madman with superior technology and/or a vehicle with MBS or Nanotechnology with ties to FLAG's past (like Martin Jantzen from TKR) plotting to kill the remaining living FLAG members (like Garth or Marco), have him attacking Bonnie, April, and. RC3. Have Micheal Knight AWOL having left FLAG due to Devon Miles being poisoned.(Like Knight Rider 2000). Since the government knows the main baddie has ties to FLAG, they consider Micheal Knight, now referred to Micheal Long a fugitive (Like Knight Rider 2010) hoping his capture will lead to his assistance. Have him captured and asked to command a revived Knight Rider project with several candidates with experience to become the next FLAG operative. And have the final candidate given the newest KITT. (Either an updated vehicle or a customized one).

[The shadowy flight]

My 2 cents:
ditch everything about 2008 and TKR. Nothing of it has happend. I know, some will agree, some won't.

Concentrate on what made Knight Rider so popular. It's the sophistcated futuristic theme of a buddy cop theme. Plain and simple as Glen said. Just that the other buddy is an AI built into a virtually indestructable car to fight crime with high tech. That's the primary aspect. The secondary aspect, it's the talking computerized car. It had feats which was way ahead of our time +30 years. Lots of the technological themes are in our grasp. Self navigating cars, GPS tracking, MBS, enviromentally friendly combustion turbine engine, digital maps and analysis, etc.

Now, how could this fit into a 21st century series? We take a look into today's TV landscape. Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Games of Thrones, etc. - they all have one thing in common: they sophisticated, story telling with developing characters over time and overarching episodes, sometimes intertwined. And they sometimes look at the current state of society.

How could we start (again) with Knight Rider?

As a proposal, we could reboot Knight Rider as it would happen today, which was Glen's last known approach of the movie. We could start way back to Knight Industries, what it does, who Wilton Knight is; all in a brief manner. To make it "real". It was never stated what actually Knight Industries does, only that it is involved into computer science, philanthropist and founder Knight also sees crime as a problem and works with the LE. Creates a Foundation for those in need, "…the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operates above the law." but why does he do it? It'll be more interesting to see his motivation (maybe his wife was killed in a mugging or so), to see behind the man, the personal crown of his lifetime archivement the Knight Industries Two (Three) Thousand from a government mainframe, his failed prototype KARR and why he has choosen Michael Knight.

We see Garth and Jennifer Knight and how Garth was banned and Jennifer estranged from his father, the board members of the Knight Industries (Multi-national, multi-conglomerate of science, technology, research and industry company), Wilton's power to override descisions of the board. His involvement with science branches, who told him that the AI and CPU was used as a crime and terror prediction hardware. Get to know the two head programmers and project leader of KITT, which one lend his voice for KITT. We see the fruition of Wilton's idea for a better use of the CPU/AI (KITT was always way underpowered for just this desk job ) and see him talking with KITT about this idea. We see that he gets sick and told by the doctors, that he has not much time left and should get things in order.

And so on and on. The new Knight Rider should be built as a world which is believable. We see then, how he speeds up things to complete the cars interacting with Bonnie Barstow and briefly April Curtis (no Chevy or Camaro - something similar in shape of the Pontiac Trans AM like the Acura NSX) and the choice of choosing the pilot. We see, how he appoints Devon Miles as the new CEO of Knight Industries, since he's his old best friend and confidance.

Later an updated form of "Knight of the Phoenix" happens and Michael Long is chosen, acting as a start point for becoming Michael Knight, telling newer contemporary stories relevant today.