The "Knight Rider" telemovie may have pulled in good ratings -- enough to bring the show back as a series on NBC -- but if it's going to have any semblance of a future, KITT and his legendary driver are going to have to find their science-fiction roots.
New showrunner Gary Scott Thompson says the series version of "Knight Rider" will explore some of the writer's own roots with the Fast and the Furious franchise, and move beyond the novelty of a talking car, which may have been interesting in the early 1980s, but not so impressive in 2008.
"What was missing for me was, 'Can your car do this?'" Thompson recently told SFX Magazine. "I said to NBC, 'That's what you guys are missing and that's what you've got to do. This car has to not just change colors, this car has to transform into other vehicles. This car has to actually do things. Nanotechnology is limitless. Why would you limit what you can do when the whole world is open for you?"
The telemovie, Thompson said, seemed like it was taken right out of the 1980s, but audiences are more sophisticated than that now. An aspect that fueled that observation were Thompson's belief that the characters were too flat in the telemovie, and needed to be more three-dimensional.
Thompson, of course, said he plans to make sure that issue is addressed when the series returns to NBC this fall Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. ET, and will take on the old Wednesday timeslot of "Bionic Woman" for the network.
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Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha and the entire BlipNetwork. He owns Quantum Global Media Inc., the parent corporation of the BlipNetwork. He's a print journalist by day, and lives in Tampa, Fla.
