Could TKR have been a success?

[Crusing]

I wondered, could TKR have been a success? I thought mabey if they stuck with the original Knight Rider plot and not gone overboard with a bunch of cars and drivers.

They could probaly have used just a Firebird and still kept the original Trans Am but the Trans Am was only used as a back up or something in that way.

As well Team Knight Rider, this title should have been changed. What would you call the title?

[rusti_knight]

There were a few episodes of TKR that were, in my opinion, very well written and executed. Better than the others, as in, stood out. Everything to Fear is one. For those of you who like the 'man and his car' theme. Although Duke and Beast didn't get a long nearly as well as Michael and Kitt. Choctaw L9 was also pretty good. And Legion of Doom, the last one.

I may be partial, but I like the entire series. The episodes that focused on one partnership between operative and vehicle with the rest of the team supporting were the better ones. I don't think there were too many vehicles, just that the writers could have handled it a little better.

Rusti

[IceKnight]

The problem with the show is that it wasn't given a chance to gel. It ran one season. All of the networks expect shows to come out and give us all this amazing first season. And what happens to those shows? They usually get canned after the third season.

Then, you have shows like those that started in the late 80's/early 90's. The ones that started with a small fan base, got the formula right around season 2 or 3, had another 4 great seasons, and although the last couple of seasons were kind of a denouement, they still had the group following.

Maybe if we had gotten a second season, we'd be able to judge the show better. Hell, even this board can agree that the first season of the original KR was spent working out kinks. Unfortunately, TKR never got that chance.

As for too many vehicles, it could go either way. At the time, I didn't think 5 were too many. But now that I think of it, 2 or 3 would have been more reasonable and far better for writing plotlines.

[Michael Pajaro]

I've always felt that TKR's primary flaw was that it focused so much on the humans that it forgot about the cars. And the car is what caught the imagination in the original.

The 5 operatives had good back-stories and played well against eachother (particularly Trek & Erica). But the vehicles fell short of the original plans for the show and became sort of generic. The combo car was supposed to be a super-pursuit vehicle, but they never really took advantage of that. Dante was supposed to be a mobile command center. Beast was supposed to be almost tank-link. Domino, a stunt queen. And there are cool things you could do with super-cycles that you can't do with cars, but we never saw any of that.

It wasn't just about budget. It was more of a philosophical decision to turn away from the cars. And if you carry the name Knight Rider, people are going to expect to see the cars in the limelight.

Mike

[March2875]

I always felt funny about the Combo car being the Pursuit vehicle. Logic to me says that would have been Domino.

[Michael Pajaro]

"Logic?!" The cars talked for crying out loud. I think it's pretty safe to throw logic out the window.

Mike

[Rockatteer]

I always felt uneasy about the way they refered to themselves as TKR.

Micheal never refered to himself as a knight rider, nor did anyone else in the show. Yet TKR had the emblim everywhere...it just didn't fit the Knight rider story line

I never really saw any corrilation between Knight Rider and TKR other than the fact that they used the Knight Rider name.

I think (as already mentined) the single biggest mistake was the show was about people... instead of cars and people.
Knight Rider was about Kitt and Micheal and the people supporting him.
TKR was about people who drove annoying argumentative cars.

The show was doomed from the start.

[JennKitt]

TKR could've been very good. I can't say if a different name would've helped it or not. Over all I liked the storyline and the characters. For a TV show the stunts were pretty good too. When I think about it, I do believe they focused on the cars enough. Many times they would pause while the cars badgered each other.

In the midwestern part of the country I believe it suffered from a very bad time slot. When it's at 1 am there's only so much you can do. I didn't even find out about it until it was half way through that first season and I was very disappointed when they cancelled it. Leaving it hanging like that was murder to those who where watching it.

My opinion... I believe it would've been a popular show if it weren't for the time slot they gave it in the midwest, but that's only my 2 cents.

JennKitt

[KITTvsKARR]

Now correct me if I'm wrong here.. but wasn't the original idea of TKR that KITT was going to be one of the cars and Michael was going to be making atleast SOME appearances?? And the whole comment about how cars don't talk.. well.. technically they do now.. some have those new mapping systems that you say where you want to go, and it TELLS you where to turn etc. So thats a start.

[knightimmortal]

My full dollar:

1) Them referring to themselves as TKR sort of ruined the illusion, it was irritating, and against the original.

2) TKR would have been a great program, if they didn't have the Knight Rider name. Having multiple talking cars and a general reflection back to the series is not Knight Rider, it is on par with what KR2010 did (but not as insulting to the original fan base) If they had just focused on the story, the action, and not tried to shove it down Knight Rider fan's throats with the name, I think a whole lot more fans would have flocked to it anyway.

3) The time slots sucked pretty much across the country.

4) There was too much concentration on the humans, they threw in the cute moments with the cars to remind you that the cars were still there.

In summarization, and upon final reflection, TKR would have been neat, if they deserted the Knight Rider idea, and made it its own entity. Yeah, we would have been comparing it to Knight Rider, but it might have had a bit more of a fighting chance.

KI

[KITTvsKARR]

You're 115.2% correct on that one.. everytime I saw parts of that show, I kept saying, oh thats dumb, thats not "Knight Rider" And I was comparing it and hated it because KITT nor Michael was in it at all. But Oh well.. you win some and you lose some.

[Katt]

Even I thought TKR was pretty good, and there were acouple of good episodes that I liked, but I agree, the time slots were terrible. TKR was a pretty good show, but not good enough for me to stay up and watch at 1 or 2 in the morning.

[knightynight]

I never saw a single episode of TKR, and from what everyone's been posting I'm glad I didn't. It seems that most people here only moderately liked the show. Although the original Knight Rider included both realism and fantasy I think it's safe to assume that TKR leaned more towards just pure fantasy. True cars today can baarely talk, let alone cars twenty years ago, but if TKR followed the premise of helping the helpless and aiding the powerless, against those who would consider themselves untouchable by the law, then I MIGHT have liked the show. I fear that TEAM Knight Rider might have just spread this concept out to thinly over the whole five operatives team thing, and took away from the "one man (person) can ..." you know? I guess I'll never really know, but it looks like the producers knew what they were doing when they dropped the show. Whether or not it was good, it just wasn't up to "par". If it sounds like I'm just rambling on without knowing what I'm talking about then just ignore this post. I guess what I'm saying is that in MY Knight Rider universe there is no TKR.