Knight Rider 08: February 2008 Archives

The aptly titled blog Cars + Movies were first to report that two KITTs used in the production of the new Knight Rider telepic, will be auctioned off for charity.

A Hero version and "Attack" version, two of the six that Ted Moser's Picture Car Warehouse had built for the TV Movie, will be auctioned off in Palm Beach, Florida in the end of March.

Barrett-Jackson, known as having "The Greatest Car Show on Earth", will auction these two vehicles off on March 29th at their four day event running from the 27th till the 30th. These are genuine vehicles, and while it doesn't explicitly state, are most likely screen used. The one catch tho? You have to buy in a pair.

More info after the jump

It seems we missed an appearance by "KITT" last week. In order to help support Knight Rider, Conan O'Brien had his desk retro fitted with a Voice Modulator reminiscent of the new KITT. For four minutes Conan and KITT discussed the new show and his many "advanced" features.

Program Note! Will Arnett, who was to have played the voice of KITT in the new Knight Rider movie, is scheduled to be a guest tonight on Conan O'Brien, we'd recommend everyone watch, as much as Conan ribs Knight Rider constantly, we can't see him not bringing the topic up. Conan airs at 12:35am on NBC.

We've added a YouTube embed for the Conan skit after the jump

David Hasselhoff who played Michael Knight and Peter Parros who played RC3 have recently chimed in seperately about the new Knight Rider pilot and their involvement.

First we had David Hasselhoff who posted on his website in advance of the original premier on February 17th. David reprises his role for the movie.

Hey guys, I'm really excited about the return of Knight Rider to television,

Sunday, February 17th at 9 pm (8 c) on NBC.

It was a blast from the past and I did it for you, my fans. Want to see more Knight Rider and more of The Hoff? Let NBC know you Hoffta have it by clicking here!!

Ride on!
David.

Peter Parros who played RC3, let his opinion be known via Knight Rider UK today:

Yes, I saw the new show. I thought the story was weak.

You can read his complete take on the movie at Knight Rider UK.

If you missed the original airing last week, and the web streams just aren't doing it for you or you just want to watch it again - you have a second chance to watch Knight Rider tonight at 9pm.

To prepare, be sure to check out our coverage of the TV movie. After watching it, you might want to stop by our forum and join the active topics!

Broadcasting Cable ran a story today dealing with NBC's newly announced UpFront Plan. UpFronts are what the TV stations use to introduce the new seasons shows to advertisers. While the majority of the article didn't deal with anything important to Knight Rider fans, the last bit of the article has a quote mentioning Knight Rider by NBC Entertainment co-chair Marc Graboff.

NBC's meetings with advertisers also may not have locked in dates for everything. Graboff said. For example, it may present strategies such as running a show like Heroes without repeats for a spell in the fall, then bringing it back at a certain time later in the year.

"We don't know that this schedule will say, 'On this particular Monday in January 2009 will be the return of Knight Rider,'" Graboff said.

Note, that they aren't saying Knight Rider will be on in January 2009, but rather talking to the fact that their schedule will remain fluid for some time. Still - it's always a good sign to see an Exec name drop Knight Rider.

Read Article

In an article published in the New York Times, Ben Silverman was quoted as saying that the success of the picture on Sunday night, means good things for a potential series.

Ben Silverman, the other co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, who will travel the country with Mr. Graboff making the presentations to advertisers, has been an advocate of linking advertisers to shows. He made a deal with Ford Motor Company, for example, to supply the car used in a remake of the 1980s series "Knight Rider." A version of that aired Sunday night on NBC as a made-for-TV movie, and Mr. Silverman said Tuesday that its ratings success makes it a likely addition to NBC's schedule when it is announced in April.

Knight Rider aired this past Sunday on NBC. It attracted 12.7 million viewers and had the highest ratings for the 18-49 demographic in over three years for any channel.

It reairs this Saturday, Feb 23, at 9pm.

Read Article Here

In an interview with MTV, Will Arnett reveled the real reason behind the change to Val Kilmer. Pretty funny.

via Jalopnik

• Top 18-49 Rating for Any Movie on Any Network in Nearly Three Years
• In total viewers, attracks NBC's biggest Non-Sports viewership in its time period since the Emmy's in August 2006
• First place in Adults 18-49 & Total Viewers

It goes without saying that the internet is completely abuzz with discussions of the Knight Rider movie. Our forums practically melted last night, as it saw it's highest traffic ever!

Ratings for the movie have also started to trickle out:

"EM: Home Edition" jumped up to 8.4/13 at 9 p.m., keeping ABC on top. NBC's "Knight Rider" movie/back-door pilot scored a 6.9/10 to take second, beating "Cold Case," 6.1/9, on CBS. "Family Guy," 4.3/6, and "American Dad," 3.3/5, were fourth for FOX. The CW finished its night with reruns of "Girlfriends" and "The Game."

At 10 p.m., "Knight Rider" delivered a 7.3/12 (and a healthy 5.1 adults 18-49 rating) for NBC. ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" posted a 5.7/9, while the debut of a cleaned-up "Dexter" on CBS earned a 5.2/9.

This basically means that every half hour, the viewership kept increasing. [Zap2It] Now it's in NBC's hands to decide if it goes to series.

So what did you all think of it? If you were one read and believe the other sites - you would be hard pressed to not think negatively of it, but that wouldn't be fair. These sites are mostly built around communities that feed off negativity - as negativity fuels discussion, and arguements - you wont see that here. Of course we are biased towards Knight Rider.

What did we think of it? We love it. While it is impossible to capture the series of our youth, they did a terrfic job creating an environment where the mythos we know is able to stay alive, while providing interesting characters in high action situations that can lead to great story arcs down the line.

It's really tough for anyone to relaunch a series that so many have near and dear to their hearts. But unlike Knight Rider 2000, or Team Knight Rider, David Andron did a fantastic job trying to stay true to the original core point of Knight Rider. Knight Rider wasn't about KITT being a Pontiac, that is too superficial. At the core Knight Rider was about one Man and the realtionship with his car, and you'ld be hard pressed to argue that this movie wasn't able to acheive that. Remember, that Knight Rider had 4 seasons to grow from, this is just an hour and 20 minutes of the beginning. We fully expect the relationships that we were just introduced to to grow, for the action to increase, and for the respect of this mythology to continue and flurish.

This is taking Knight Rider into the future, it's not the 1980s anymore.

• Good 'Knight' for NBC Sunday: ABC takes overall title, but 'Knight Rider' performs well
• TV Squad: Knight Rider: the car is nice, the movie is meh
• Jalopnik: The Official Unofficial Knight Rider Live-Blog
• Autoblog: Knight Rider: The Liveblog
• Variety
• Good 'Knight' for NBC Sunday: ABC takes overall title, but 'Knight Rider' performs well

Check out the new intro for the Knight Rider movie. Very similar in style to the original, but with a nice update to the theme and graphics.

Missed it? Need to watch it again? Hulu and NBC have you covered! Use the video player above to watch it again. (US based restrictions may apply)

As if we had to remind any of you, Knight Rider premiers tonight on NBC! And incase you did forget, it airs at Tonight at 9pm!

Be sure to check out our exclusive interviews with the Cast and Crew as well as our complete coverage here and here.

• Exclusive Interview with David Bartis - Part 1


• Exclusive Interview with David Bartis - Part 2


• Exclusive Interview with Sydney Tamiia Poitier


• BREAKING NEWS! Arnett Out - Kilmer In!


• Exclusive Interview with Kevin Dunigan


• Exclusive Interview with Deanna Russo Part 1


• Exclusive Interview with Deanna Russo Part 2


• Five Clips from Knight Rider


• Exclusive Interview with Ted Moser


• KITT Construction Photographs


• KITT in NYC
• Exclusive Interview with David Andron - Part 1


• Exclusive Interview with David Andron - Part 2


• Exclusive Interview with Sam Nicholson of Stargate Digital

NBC has done some last minute posting by putting on line four commercials that we believe will air tonight on NBC. These commercials feature Mike and KITT in Four different chapters: Suspicion, Guilt, The Date and the Alone Again.

The basic plot of the commercials is Mike taking a Ford Focus to a date, and KITT gets jealous. These commercials are voiced by Val Kilmer and also show a sneak peak at KITTs gages. They are a nice complement to the show, rather than an in your face "buy a ford" type commercials that it could have been.

Check them out here!

Sam Nicholson is CEO and founder of Stargate Digital the company responsible for the over 300 special effects shots in NBC's new Knight Rider movie.

Here is Part 2 of our interview with David Andron. David has been responsible for writing and creating the new Knight Rider on NBC

Read part two of our interview to find out what he had to say about the project, the process and the future if it goes (when) to series.

We are very excited for one of our last interviews to be with David Andron. David has been responsible for writing and creating the new Knight Rider on NBC

Read part one of our interview to find out what he had to say about the project

• Jalopnik takes KITT for a spin in Brooklyn and takes a peak under the hood. And it wouldn't be enough to say we were just a little jealous!
• Win a Car from Ford!: There's a Ford-sponsored sweepstakes in which people who tune in to the show on Sunday can win one of four new cars--The top prize is a limited edition Shelby Mustang GT 500 KR (the car that KITT's based off).
• The Power Jump game: A simple but flash game to try out
• Knight Rider Facebook: There are some cool applications on here, too--A Knight Rider countdown clock and an interactive KITT interior.
• Knight Rider Myspace: Add KITT to your Friends!
• Video Interviews and Clips: Check out on camera interviews with cast and crew (including david hasselhoff. Also Scene clips, trailers and behind the scene footage!

Justin Bruening was on the Today Show this morning, and was accompanied by KITT. Watch the video above. They also have an off air interview online as well.

We were actually there to witness the filming and got up close with KITT and Justin. Click to the next page to see our exclusive photos!

Muscle Car Blog has a pretty great article with the team behind the new dual light scanner on KITT in the new Knight Rider film. It's really an interesting read, so check it out!

As part of our continuing exclusive coverage of the new Knight Rider, we were fortunate enough to recently speak with Ted Moser (see our interview) of Picture Car Warehouse.

He was kind enough to provide us with construction photos of how a Mustang became a KITT. These photos show the Mustangs in various states of construction, and shows multiple versions of KITT such as Attack Mode, the cage driven one as well as Interior shots.

Building on a career as a Transportation Coordinator since the 90s and a long time love of cars, Ted Moser opened Picture Car Warehouse in 2003. Five years later he is the man behind the construction of the new KITT in the new Knight Rider airing this Sunday. We spoke to him about the process of bringing conceptual drawings to drivable machines.

We also have an exclusive gallery of the cars being constructed - and will post that later today.

With Knight Rider airing this Sunday, NBC was kind enough to send us 5 clips for you to check out. Each clip is approximately :40 seconds in length and are direct clips from the Knight Rider movie.

Bad guys find KITT - [00:57]

KITT saves Sarah from the Bad guys. - [00:39]

NBC aired the longest commercial trailer yet. We show how KITT finds Sarah, KITT meeting Mike, and plot details that might be a bit spoilerish. There is pretty amazing shots of KITT being hit in the windshield and "repairing" himself, and of course lots of action. If you want to keep clear of spoilers - you might want to stop watching thse.

Also another clip that had been airing recently is a Ford commercial talking about how in conjunction with Knight Rider they will be giving away four cars, one being a Mustang. That video is after the jump.

We are back with part 2 of our exclusive interview with Deanna Russo - who plays Sarah Graiman, daughter of Charles Graiman - creator of the Knight Industries Three Thousand and childhood friend of Mike Traceur.

Continue to read our exclusive interview with her. Also be sure to check out our previous interviews with David Bartis, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Kevin Dunigan.

Familiar to faces as Logan Armstrong in the Young and the Restless, Deanna Russo comes to Knight Rider very eager for action. In the NBC Knight Rider movie airing February 17th, Deanna plays Sarah Graiman, daughter of Charles Graiman - creator of the Knight Industries Three Thousand and childhood friend of Mike Traceur. We speak to her about her characters pivotal role.

Continue to read our exclusive interview with her. Also be sure to check out our previous interviews with David Bartis, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Kevin Dunigan.

After a successful career in security in the entertainment industry protecting people like Arsenio Hall, En Vouge and Toni Braxton; he decided he wanted to give acting a chance, and fulfill a life long dream. On Sunday February 17th you can see him in the character of "Smoke" as part of an elite force trying to capture KITT

Continue to read our exclusive interview with him. Also be sure to check out our previous interviews with David Bartis and Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

Sydney Tamiia Poitier plays Carrie Rivai, an FBI agent with connections to Charles Graiman, who in this version created the original KITT and the new Knight Industries Three Thousand. We were fortunate to speak to her about her character via telephone on January 17th.

Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with David Bartis the Executive Producer of he new Knight Rider movie airing on February 17th.

You can read part one here and learn about the backstory of this Knight Rider project - or continue on to hear more from our interview.

We were thrilled to get the chance to speak to David Bartis. Mr. Bartis is the Executive Producer of the new Knight Rider Pilot and we spoke to him via phone at the Dutch Oven offices on January 9th 2008. This is the first part of a two part interview.