May 2009 Archives

The Daily Mail reports of a new driverless vehicle soon to hit the streets at London's Heathrow airport.

Phone Rider is a neat little app, available from Apple's App Store for $0.99.

This app does one thing, and does it quite well - take the audio from your microphone and symulate it through a voice modulator interface that echos either of the Knight 2000 interfaces or KARR. It's really quite slick, with custom graphics that echo the Season 1 & 2 dash.

Check out our quick video review above. First 15 people to comment on this post with a valid email address will receive a free copy of this app, courtesy of p13development!

As we mentioned last month, Knight Rider Festival is set to return to Las Vegas on March 19th and 20th, 2010. The Festival and artist Nick Nugent have finalized the design for this years logo. Check it out above and visit the Festival website for a pretty slick animation.

In the months ahead, as the preshow preperations begin, we will be sure to keep you updated on Knight Rider Festival 2! In the mean time, check out our pictures and videos from this years event.

Tonight at 8pm is a new episode of Knight Rider for viewers in the UK! The episode is called "Journey to the End of Knight" and it airs as always on SciFi!

MIKE MUST INFILTRATE A RACING GANG WITH THE HELP OF AN OLD ARMY BUDDY Mike reunites with a former Army buddy to bring down a drag racing gang that is smuggling weapons overseas. Sarah joins Mike and KITT on this dangerous undercover mission, much to her father's dismay.

You can find more information including the trailer for tonights episode as well as photo galleries for this episode on it's episode guide page.

Please continue to keep Knight Rider such a positive success in the UK!

Universal's historic sound stage one, home of the original Knight Rider series, has gone through some major renovations to make way for the new Tonight Show starring Conan O’Brien.

For many who still work at Universal, the old stage holds a lot of memories. Steve Whiteside, the propmaster for both the original series and the new recalls,

“Stage one is where not only KNIGHT RIDER was filmed, but also where the Michael Knight wannabes did their film tests.”

Whiteside takes pride in the fact that he helped the shows star, David Hasselhoff, land the once in a lifetime roll by giving him the inside scoop on what his prop watch would be used for. Thanks to Steve, Hasselhoff had several more minutes to practice the trademark pose with the watch before auditioning on stage one that day.

Check out the time laps below of stage one’s transformation.

The last few weeks have been troublesome for this fandom at best, with very little good news emerging from the United States. However, the international premiere of the 2008 series has been creating some news of its own, with the backdoor pilot bringing in over 500,000 viewers on the UK Sci Fi channel last week.

The UK is the place of origin for our next piece of news, as this week, the first episode of the 2008 series, A Knight in Shining Armor, which was aired in a two hour block along with Joss Whedon's newly renewed Dollhouse.

As UK members of our community know, 500,000 viewers is a large audience for a niche cable and satellite channel in our country, and only Heroes had a substantially larger audience during its brief tenure on the channel.

This is where we get to the good stuff. In a piece of news that I'm sure NBC won't have missed, the UK audience jumped a whopping 35% last night, drawing in over 700,000 viewers, making Knight Rider and Dollhouse an excellent combination that has secured the 2008 series a solid second place on the channels list of most watched programs since the turn of the new millennium.

Whilst times are tough for us at the moment, it's important to remember the effect that the international audience had on the original series, as the fat lady may be bellowing her lungs out, but the final chord is yet is to be played in spite of the show being dropped from NBC's fall schedule.

For the full press release from the Sci Fi UK channel's website, hit the jump.

NBC's official press release went out today revealing their 2009 - 2010 fall schedule. It may not be happy news, but it is finally the official news for all the fans, cast and crew of Knight Rider who were still holding out hope.

We at Knight Rider Online along with many other fan websites and individuals out there have been campaigning to save the show. But we should not give up. Canceled shows have seen another day in syndication many times before. Nor should we completely stop the idea of fan campaigns.

As it turns out for Chuck, campaigns can be very effective. Only a few weeks ago at NBC's infronts, where they give a sneak peek of their schedules to potential sponsors, Chuck was a show that was nerve-rackingly left off along with Knight Rider. As Variety reveals, a Twitter campaign along with the support from Subway Sandwich Shop convinced the network to rethink their decision about the show. Part of this apparent deal is to incorporate a character who works at the sandwich shop into the show.

Knight Rider has only just started to show in other markets over seas. It is up to us if we want to take this as a call to action or a sign of defeat.

Here is the official press release:

Shared Time Period Strategy Around NBC’s Broadcast of 2010 Winter Olympics Along with Jay Leno at 10 p.m. Enables Network to Broadcast Original Programming Year-Round

Network Renews Returning Series "Law & Order" and "Chuck"

NEW YORK -- May 19, 2009 – NBC announced today its 2009-2010 schedule featuring more original programming than ever before and a shared time-period strategy around NBC’s Olympics platform that, along with "The Jay Leno Show" (Mondays-Fridays 10-11 p.m. ET), allows the network to broadcast all-new content year-round.

In addition, NBC issued renewals to "Law & Order" and "Chuck" (see accompanying release) as part of its strong slate of new and returning shows announced recently at the network’s highly successful Infront.

"NBC has picked up more scripted shows than last season even with 'The Jay Leno Show' at 10 p.m.," said Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. "We’re incredibly excited about our new and returning series and have more comedy programming than anyone else, as well as two of the most buzzed about new shows, 'Community’ and ‘Parenthood.’ We can’t wait for the fall."

"We are extremely proud to introduce these strong new series to NBC's schedule next season in strategic timeslots that position them for success," said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios. "They join some of the highest quality returning shows on television, which will serve as a strong foundation to the new schedule. I think viewers are going to be happy to see this lineup of great new shows that will truly fit the NBC legacy of quality, culturally defining shows."

NBC’s shared time period strategy will kick off this fall on Mondays with the premiere of "Heroes" (8-9 p.m. ET) continuing with all originals before "Chuck" assumes the time period after the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which will be a powerful launching platform with its broad, female appeal and strong ratings as the most-watched event of the year. Using "NBC Sunday Night Football's" potent promotional platform, the new high-octane drama "Trauma" will debut Mondays (9-10 p.m. ET) with the epic event series "Day One" taking over the time period following the Olympics.

NBC’s successful "The Biggest Loser" series continues Tuesdays (8-10 p.m.) and will help launch the new Wednesday lineup this fall, with the new family drama "Parenthood" debuting (8-9 p.m. ET) and the new hospital drama "Mercy" assuming the time period post-Olympics. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" will air 9-10 p.m. ET following ‘Parenthood.’

NBC’s Thursday marquee comedy night will begin with the only live comedy between 8-10 p.m. on any network, "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" (8-8:30 p.m. ET), followed by "Parks and Recreation" (8:30-9 p.m. ET), "The Office" (9-9:30 p.m. ET) and the new comedy "Community" (9:30-10 p.m. ET). After "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" completes its multi-week run, "Community" will move to 8 p.m. and "30 Rock" will debut at 9:30 p.m., enabling NBC to feature more original comedy than ever before.

On Fridays in the fall, the enduring drama "Law & Order" will return for its record 20th season (tying "Gunsmoke" as the longest running drama series in primetime) and will lead off at 8-9 p.m. (ET) while "Southland" follows at 9-10 p.m. (ET), building a great crime block.

Saturdays will be a showcase for "Dateline NBC" (8-9 p.m. ET) and encore episodes of "Trauma" (9-10 p.m. ET) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (10-11 p.m. ET).

"Football Night in America" (7-8:20 p.m. ET) and "NBC Sunday Night Football" (8:20-11 p.m. ET) – the number one show of the fall -- will return on Sundays in the fall with a fan-pleasing schedule of games to round out the fall season.

Utilizing the compatible demographics provided by the Olympics, NBC will launch the premieres of "The Marriage Ref" from executive producers Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen Rakieten ("Oprah") on Sundays (8-9 p.m. ET) and the third season premiere of "The Celebrity Apprentice" on Sundays with two-hour editions (9-11 p.m. ET). In addition, the new comedy "100 Questions" will debut on Tuesdays (9:30-10 p.m. ET) following a 90-minute edition of "The Biggest Loser" (8-9:30 p.m. ET).

And coming in the summer, NBC will telecast all original episodes of “The Jay Leno Show,” "Friday Night Lights," "America's Got Talent," "Breakthrough with Tony Robbins," "Dateline NBC," with additional programs to be announced later.

To catch up on season finales, watch new "Heroes" and "The Office" web series, and more, please log onto NBC.com.

NBC FALL 2009 SCHEDULE
*New programs in UPPER CASE

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. – "Heroes"
9-10 p.m. - "TRAUMA"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

TUESDAY
8-10 p.m. – "The Biggest Loser" (two-hour edition)
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. – "PARENTHOOD"
9-10 p.m. – "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. – "SNL WEEKEND UPDATE THURSDAY" (multi-episode run)
8:30-9 p.m. – "Parks and Recreation"
9- 9:30 p.m. – "The Office"
9:30-10 p.m. – "COMMUNITY" (moves to Thursdays 8-8:30 p.m. after multi-episode run "30 Rock" returns)
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. – "Law & Order"
9-10 p.m. – "Southland"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. – "Dateline NBC"
9-10 p.m. – "TRAUMA" (encore broadcast)
10-11 p.m. – "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (encore broadcast)

SUNDAY
7- 8:20 p.m. "Football Night in America"
8:20-11 p.m. "NBC Sunday Night Football"

NBC MID-SEASON 2010 SCHEDULE
(2010 WINTER OLYMPICS preempt regularly scheduled programming from February 12-28, 2010)

*New programs in UPPER CASE

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. – "Chuck" (season premiere)
9-10 p.m. - "DAY ONE"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

TUESDAY
8-9:30 p.m. – "The Biggest Loser" (90-minute edition)
9:30-10 p.m. – "100 QUESTIONS"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. – "MERCY"
9-10 p.m. – "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. – "COMMUNITY"
8:30-9 p.m. – "Parks and Recreation"
9- 9:30 p.m. – "The Office"
9:30-10 p.m. – "30 Rock"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. – "Law & Order"
9-10 p.m. – "Southland"
10-11 p.m. – "THE JAY LENO SHOW"

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. – "Dateline NBC"
9-10 p.m. – "Southland" (encore broadcast)
10-11 p.m. – "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (encore broadcast)

SUNDAY
7-8 p.m. – "Dateline NBC"
8-9 p.m. – "THE MARRIAGE REF"
9-11 p.m. – "The Celebrity Apprentice" (season premiere; two-hour edition)

Finally after much rumor and some delay, the first season of the new Knight Rider will be released on July 28th. TVShowsOnDVD was first to break the news today of it's release date.

A month or so ago we had told you that Amazon put up the pre-order, but no further information was available at the time. Last year, NBC had planned to release the two hour pilot separately but that was canceled once the show went to series. After that, Fry's made it available as a promotion if you bought another dvd. But this will be the first time it's available for all.

You can pre-order it at Amazon for $41.99 through our Amazon store and a percentage of your purchase will go back to support KRO.

This will be a 4-DVD set running 802 minutes, presented in anamorphic widescreen video. Audio is English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and English subtitles will also be provided. There will also be a few bonus features:

* The Icon Reborn
* K.I.T.T. - From 2000 to 3000
* Knight Rider - Legacy
* Knight Rider 2008 Commentary With Executive Producer David Bartis and Stars Justin Bruening & Deanna Russo

Package art isn't available yet, but here is the studio description of this release:

An iconic TV classic is back and better than ever in the reinvented, updated, and super-charged Knight Rider Season One. From executive producers Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity franchise), David Bartis (The O.C.) and Glen Larson (Battlestar Galactica) comes this action-packed series about the coolest car ever created, K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand), that's equipped with artificial intelligence capable of hacking into any computer, the weapons system of a jet fighter, and incredible custom body technology that allows it to transform into other vehicles. Relive every Season One episode as an elite team of crime-fighters work with K.I.T.T. to track down elusive, high-tech villains. You won't want to miss this fast-paced ride to the wild side!

Read the rest at TVShowsOnDVD

**UPDATE** Added new box art - thanks to TVShowsOnDvd

Last Weekend, George Barris hosted the Culver City Car Show and several KITT replicas were on hand. Check out these threads one or two, for more photos and reports from the event! Knights of the West Coast were on hand with their replicas, as was Michael Scheffe and Catherine Hickland and other friends of the Knight Rider community! Looks like a great time was had by all.

photo by 1991firebirdkitt. thanks to him, IHeartKITT and Victor Kros for sharing their stories and photos.

In the UK this week, they saw the 2 hour pilot of Knight Rider that originally aired here in February 2008. It was SciFi channel's highest rated program for the evening.

From SciFi UK:

Knight Rider is ratings winner for SCI FI

London, 13 May 2009: NBC Universal Global Networks today reveals that the premiere of brand new Knight Rider has delivered its SCI FI channel's best series ratings since the first run of Heroes in 2007. Over half a million viewers tuned in for the high-octane, feature-length pilot which guest starred David Hasselhoff.

The premiere made SCI FI the #1 non-terrestrial entertainment channel amongst all adults in digital cable and satellite homes.

SCI FI also enjoyed a steep uplift amongst young adults, with 33% of viewers aged 16 - 34, up nearly 60% on the channel's average. Surprisingly, women aged 16 - 24 outnumbered their male counterparts in the same age group by 6 share points, proving that cars aren't just for the boys.

Jon Farrar, Programming Director (UK), NBC Universal Global Networks commented, "We've always said that the return of K.I.T.T. is an historic TV moment and the viewers have clearly agreed with us. We're thrilled with the ratings and really proud to bring such an iconic series back to life on the SCI FI channel. We've introduced the show to a whole new age group... a generation of young viewers can finally understand why us over 35s get so excited about a talking car."

The series is based on the 1980s vehicle which helped drive actor David Hasselhoff to worldwide fame, but has been completely updated for the 21st century audience. K.I.T.T. is now voiced by actor Val Kilmer and boasts state of the art weaponry, plus the ability to transform or change colour. At the wheel is Justin Bruening, an actor new to UK audiences but a well-established heart-throb in the USA after starring in soap opera All My Children. Bruening plays Mike Traceur, the son of original character Michael Knight.

The series will continue to premiere on SCI FI every Tuesday at 8pm and is also available in high definition on SCI FI HD (available on the Sky platform). Following the feature-length pilot last night, Knight Rider will continue in one hour instalments and go back-to-back with the UK premiere of DOLLHOUSE, another highly anticipated fantasy from Buffy creator Joss Whedon, which starts next Tuesday 19 May at 9pm.

The 2 hour movie replays at 5pm, 11:10 pm tonight and 7:20 pm Sunday. On our Knight Rider 2008 pilot movie page, you can see some photos and videos from this premier as well as links to a lot of our exclusive interviews from that time with the cast & crew.

This weeks episode is A Knight In Shinning Armor, be sure to check out our episode guide for more details on that and our teaser from the US below:

[Thanks to Knight Rider Archive for uploading the UK Teaser! As a UK based site, they will sure to be ontop of the UK promotion of the series, so be sure to watch them too!]

Last night, the UK channel Sci-Fi finally premiered the new season of Knight Rider! They started with the two hour pilot and will follow through with the rest of the series each week. We think it will be a pretty interesting trip for the viewers, as they'll go from Andron's TV Movie to Gary Scott Thompson's series in much shorter time. We had nearly seven month break between the two, so the changes seemed more natural.

If you are in the UK - let us know how it was! And did you watch the series already via the internet? If you missed it's airing last night, it will be repeated at 5pm on Saturday and 7pm on Sunday.

Here are a few articles from the UK that was sent to us by Matt. Be sure to check out our Knight Rider 2008 section for synopsis, teasers and screenshots from all the episodes.

From Orange UK:

To men of a certain age, David Hasselhoff will forever be the epitome of leather jump-suited cool and absolutely not a washed-up alcoholic who’s never quite lived down that claim to have single-handedly dismantled the Berlin Wall. And sure enough, The Hoff crops up for a cameo at the end of this series opener, albeit in a scene emitting a more pungent stench of cheese than a 60-year-old slab of Stinking Bishop.

Continue Reading

In the original series KITT was no stranger to the police impound lot. Our new hero seems to be following in his predecessors footsteps.

Crewmembers were moving the famous car from a trailer to a nearby mall in Barcelona when local police stopped them for operating an unlicensed vehicle. All attempts to explain the situation by the television

show promoters failed and police hauled KITT away for a night in the impound lot.

After what was probably a long and unhappy night for the car, the matter was finally sorted out after several fines were paid. KITT now proudly sits in his place of honor at the Centro Comercial L’illa Mall until May 19th.

Source Mundo plus tv

Today NBC began to reveal it's fall lineup of programing as it began the process of it's "up-fronts". Today they focused on many of the new programs coming to NBC this fall. Missing from this announcement was many fan favorites, including our personal favorite Knight Rider.

This has been the day that many fans of Knight Rider both feared and hoped for. We knew things were not going well for some time as ratings declined after the Obama special in November, and NBC reduced the episodes of the season from 22 to 17. When the final episode of the season aired in March, many critics who had been negative towards Gary Scott Thompson's initial re-imagining of David Andron's Backdoor Pilot, started to smell the blood in the water. They began to write that Knight Rider was canceled, when in fact NBC had never publicly provided that confirmation.

They still haven't.

So what now? Well, NBC announced some of their fall schedule - but they wont be revealing it all until May 19th, still a few weeks away. Knight Rider is in good company in limbo land, as popular shows like Chuck, Law & Order and My Name is Earl, also do not know their fate. There are several ways that Knight Rider might still ride on.

While many of the shows announced today are for the fall, it is common practice for networks to also announce midseason replacements. Take last year, the show Friday Night Lights, thought by many to be canceled, survived for this year (and now two more) thanks to sponsorship by DirecTV. This is similar to Knight Rider's case, as the show might not have ever made it to a season had it not been for the promotional and financial support of Ford. Will Ford pick up the tab for another year? Yes, the automotive industry in America is in bad shape, but Ford is looking better than all of them. Will Ford save Knight Rider like DirecTV did for FNL...

Knight Rider is a 25 year old show, with millions and millions of fans around the globe. Just now, the show is starting to air regions across the globe. Regions like Germany, that some say single handedly gave Knight Rider the original support it needed and launched David Hasselhoff to singer stardom. If the ratings in these countries do so well that they ask NBC for more shows, it's quite possible it might happen...

Many shows in the past left NBC to thrive. The peacock hasn't been that affectionate to foster it's original programming. Take Seinfield that was nearly canceled several seasons before it finally found it's grove. Baywatch started there too, but thanks to Hasselhoff and financial backers, it moved to syndication and became a pop culture phenomenon. Viper is another that had several years in syndication. While NBC aired the show, Universal (NBCs parent company) owns it, and if NBC decides to pass on the series, Universal might find it still worthy enough to syndicate or move to another channel like Sci-Fi...

But none of this can happen, without you and without me. Our collective voices need to be heard now more than ever. We've been preaching this for sometime, but if you want Knight Rider, if you need it in your life, show it. Tell NBC, Tell Ford, write letters, sign the campaign and tell your friends. Knight Rider doesn't, and probably will never have, the critical support that these types of campaigns succeed with - we need the numbers of support to tip that balance. We can all make a difference, if you want it.

Friday David Hasselhoff was spotted by WENN photographers as he checked out some of the entries of this years Gumball 3000.

Fans had high hopes of seeing him in the race as it started on Saturday, but sadly the actor had to back out last minute due to his father's sudden poor health.

Early on there were reports that David might make an appearance at the Santa Monica Pier to wave the checkered flag and see the race off; but in the end the honnor was given to Dennis Rodman.

It is unknown if David will try to pick up the race at one of the other city stopovers as the race heads to Miami Florida.

Check out the video and pictures below to see David's and many other fast cars head out as the race kicks off in LA.