Knight Rider's 5th anniversary

[Michael Pajaro]

This Sunday is the fifth anniversary of the premiere of the new Knight Rider. Wow. FIVE YEARS?! I’m feeling a little nostalgic, and I have to say that for me personally 2008 was the most exciting time in the history of the fandom.

When the original series was on the air, I felt I was a fandom of one. I knew other people who watched the show, but not with the passion I did. It took the internet to really connect all of us. We had Team Knight Rider, but even before the show aired we pretty much knew it was going to be the show we wanted. There were plenty of GREAT fan events over the years, but they were essentially isolated gatherings. The big news items we discussed were things like Columbia House releasing Knight Rider.

But then we got a new TV movie. To NBC’s credit, when they announced they were bringing back Knight Rider they did it in a big way. There were commercials and interviews and articles and press events. It was an exciting time for us. People liked the Mustang. People hated the Mustang. And we debated it endlessly. Remember how cool it was the first time you saw the scanner? The previous the iterations of KR didn’t even have scanners. There was just so much to take in.

Most people probably haven’t seen the original movie since the series aired. I really suggest you give it a look this weekend. If you don’t have time to watch the entire thing, just watch the first 15 minutes or so, up through the scene where KITT rescues Sarah from campus. It has the best-filmed auto cruise scenes in the entire franchise (and pity they didn’t keep the “cage car” for the series.)

Happy 5th, New Knight Rider.

[Amir]

Those certainly were exciting times. Unfortunately the whole thing left a bitter taste in my mouth. The show could and should have been done better and treated better. I'm not saying we should have been into season 5 or something like that now, but it wasn't handled well and a nice dream died, possibly forever.

[blowersho]

Not only did they ditch the cage car, they also threw away the remote KITT Ford had built for them. The two items that made the new KITT come alive were trashed, I will always wonder what was the motivation behind that.

[Matthew]

Other than my gut instinct saying it was down to complete and utter stupidity, I can only assume it was a budgetary decision. When we consider just how much money they had to have used on the CGI effects, it's easy to imagine them firing the people that were trained to operate the cage and remote control cars since most of the stunt work wound up being done digitally anyway.

Matt

[KoehlerIndustries]

I met my wife in 2008 when all this came about with a new Knight Rider. It has become an Important part of our life and we are big fans of the 2008 Knight Rider. When we first met my wife and I, I had a Trans Am from my single days. My family called me Michael Knight and ironic, my first name is Michael. before we got married, I decided to let go of the Trans Am and surprised my wife with a New Mustang for our wedding in 2010. It was both our idea to convert it into KITT or KI3T as its prefered. we now are 99% complete on our KITT build and people around our town turn there heads still at it! my 9 year old step daughter even calls it KITT and I smile everytime she does! It will always hold a place in our lives and will live on through the fans that it Impacted!

[86678]

I was a BIG fan of mustangs at the time, Not that I'm not now I'm just obsessed with Pontiac-R.I.P.
And I saw a promo NBC had for the new KR when we had tv, I thought it was an entirely new concept, A talking computerized car. When I watched the premier my parents thought it was stupid, But I loved it. Then my uncle rented the original series and burned us a copy, Of course then I saw a difference in the quality of the acting. But ever since that day I saw a mustang under a tarp with a red light, Little did I know my life would change forever:) - FYI in a good way. Thanks for reading. Did not mean to write to much,