April 2009 Archives

News broke last week that David Hasselhoff will once again participate in the Gumball 3000, an annual car event in the vein of "Cannonball Run". This year the cars will trek from the west coast starting in Los Angeles, all the way to the east coast finishing in Miami Beach Florida.

We followed the Gumball 3000 last year and even got to catch up with David Hasselhoff at the LA finish line. Hopefully we'll have the same luck this year.

The official word from Gumball 3000:

STOP PRESS: HASSELHOFF FOR GUMBALL
20.04.2009 Rally News

Alert the media, alert the authorities – David Hasselhoff will be driving this year’s "Coast to Coast" Gumball 3000.

Accompanied by his daughters, Taylor-Ann and Hayley, the Hoff will be joining over 100 supercars in the seven day drive from Los Angeles to Miami, which departs from Santa Monica Pier on Saturday 2nd May.

The actor, whose hit show ‘Baywatch’ remains the most watched television show in the world with over 1.1 billion viewers, waved the starting flag in San Francisco for the 2008 Gumball.

Gumball blogger, Georg Fecthter, convinced the star to join him on last year’s rally. As the Hoff’s godson, Georg was given one of the original Knight Rider KITT cars as a gift on his birth and, after spending $40,000 on restoring the 1982 Pontiac Trans Am to its original condition, entered the world famous car in the 2008 rally.

Unfortunately, KITT came a cropper with a broken fuel pump in Los Angeles just one day into the rally. Luckily though, the Hoff had already swapped vehicles to a more up to date and reliable Audi R8.

The star, who in 2006 saw a musical based on his life open in Australia, is still to confirm what he will be driving on this year’s rally. But you can rest assured it will be one of the most photographed cars on the route.

thanks to dhasselhoff.net for spotting it first.

66/365, originally uploaded by eurocrispín.

As part of the promotional tour for Spain, Knight Rider - or El Coche Fantastico has a KITT on display. We had heard a few months ago that they were sending a KITT over for promotion, and here it is!

In part two of our interview Don Peake continues recounting some of his many adventures from Rock and Roll to racing. Taking over the reigns of the Knight Rider sound track from Stu Phillips, whose work he greatly admired, Don discusses how he used elements of the established theme and wove them into his own work. Don then gives us a special treat, getting out his guitar, Don plays for us samples of his work with such bands as the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, and the Jackson five. Check out the video above!

Don Peake, the composer of 77 of the original Knight Rider episodes, joined the Knight Rider crew at episode 13 "Hearts of stone." A classically trained musician, Don has had a very diverse career ranging from the classics to early synthesizer work, rock, and hanging out with Elvis and the Beatles. Check out our video interview above to hear the fascinating and unexpected twists and turns of Don's career from rock and roll to Knight Rider. Be sure to check back for part two where Don tells us about his car racing days and his more recent projects.

for more info on Don Peake or to buy a Don Peake music CD check out his website. donpeakemucic.com

Paul Casey, the producer behind Knight Rider Festival, has put up on eBay some parts he received from Cinema Vehicle Services that were screen used from the Knight Industries Three Thousand for the current series. Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Children's Miracle Network. Remember - Knight Rider Festival returns next year March 19-20, 2010. Auction Link

At the opening night of Knight Rider Festival, Mayor Goodman presented Paul Casey and Knight Rider Festival a proclamation dedicating March 21's as "Knight Rider Festival Day." Here now is that proclamation, what an amazing honor for all those involved!

Proclamation
From the office of the Mayor

Whereas;
Knight Rider Festival pays homage to the television series both past and present and the revolutionary car of the future KITT; and

Whereas;
Paul Casey and the cast and crew of Knight Rider will be recognized for their contributions to the entertainement community in Las Vegas; and

Whereas;
The observance of Knight Rider Festival raises public awareness about family values and broadens our understanding and appreciation of the Knight Rider Theme "One Man Can Make A Difference"; and

Whereas;
Money raised at today's event will be donated to Children's Miracle Network to help children and their families across the country; now

Therefore;
I, the Mayor of the City of Las Vegas, County of Clark, State of Nevada, hereby proudly proclaim March 21st to be:

Knight Rider Festival Day
In the City of Las Vegas and ask all citizens to show their support for Paul Casey, the Cast and Crew of Knight Rider and the KITT replica car owners.

In witness whereof:
By the powers granted to me,
I have hereunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the
City of Las Vegas to be affixed
this 21st day of March, 2009.

Honorable Oscar B. Goodman
Mayor, City of Las Vegas

Check out this hilarious clip from "American Contestant" with Bob Odenkirk: Episode 7. It's great to see Deanna's comedic side a little more than we've seen on Knight Rider.

We mentioned last week, that the UK channel Living aired The Hoff: When Scott Came To Stay, a look into Scott Mills, a UK radio personality, and his week living with David Hasselhoff. This week they've aired part 2 which features when we caught up with David and Scott filming back in January as they met the members of the Knights of the West Coast organization and their fleet of KITT Replicas.

Head over to YouTube if you want to see some clips, or check out their official website for behind the scenes info and pictures.

[Thanks to Natalie and Sarah for the alert]

In an exclusive interview for our 11th edition of the Knight Rider Online Podcast, Honnziva speaks with Paul Casey. Paul was the producer behind the Knight Rider Festival, that took place this year in Las Vegas for Knight Rider and Children's Miracle Network. We catch up with Paul and get his thoughts about how the event went, the money raised for the charity and talk to him about the future. In particular he lets us know about the confirmed date for Knight Rider Festival 2 - March 19-20, 2010.

Please welcome Honnziva and Weeezl for their first podcast for us! There is more than just the interview with Paul, so please check it out! We hope to get under a regular schedule for these, so please check back. You can find the podcast here.

And thanks again to The Shadowy Flight for hosting last weeks podcast!

This week, the UK channel Living aired The Hoff: When Scott Came To Stay, a :45 min look into Scott Mills, a UK radio personality, and his week living with David Hasselhoff. This is a really unique and humanizing look into the behind the scenes world of David.

We caught up with David and Scott filming back in January as they met the members of the Knights of the West Coast organization and their fleet of KITT Replicas.

Someone has posted on YouTube the complete episode for people not in the UK to see. We've included embeds to those videos after the jump.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, we had to put the Knight Rider Online podcast on hiatus back in January. Since then we've been busy preparing for the Knight Rider Festival and launching the Campaign for a Second Season, that our beloved podcast fell down in priority.

While we aren't ready to announce a full return to form or even a rebirth, we do have a special edition episode available now. The fine hosts of another Knight Rider podcast - The Shadowy Flight - were gracious enough to help us with an episode during our transition and we are very thankful that they did.

If you're not familiar with Jason and Dan, their podcast The Shadowy Flight, started a little after we did back in August, but their episode style is completely different. Where as ours had tended to wrap up the news of the last few weeks, theirs is more episode focused. Each edition they spend at least an hour having a healthy discussion about an episode. It has been mostly for the Knight Rider 2008 series, but they've also done Knight Rider 2000, Knight Rider 2010 and some of TKR. They'll begin reviewing the original series very soon as well, so be sure to give them a listen.

We'll be back very soon with more on the podcast future. Thanks again to Jason and Dan for their hard work. We had the pleasure of meeting them at the Knight Rider Festival and they really are a class act, so check them out!

* If the latest episode isn't displayed in iTunes, you can download it directly.