New 'Knight Rider' Project Planned

American television network NBC plans to bring Knight Rider back in a new project based on the hit show from the 80s.  The show, about a cop who gets shot, is reported as dead (but isn't), gets facial reconstructive surgery, comes out looking like a new man, and then finds himself working for a reclusive billionaire with a penchant for justice, featured a Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am converted into an artificially intelligent car.

The cop was renamed Michael Knight, and the car was called K.I.T.T., short for Knight Industries Two Thousand.  And it talked... not like your dad's Oldsmobile Delta 88 telling you your parking brake is not released.  K.I.T.T. was an endearing, somewhat wimpy smart-ass.  Sort-of like C-3PO, if C-3PO were way cooler.

If you are anything like me, this show meant the world to you at one time.  I remember being so upset when my hockey practice schedule was changed to Sunday nights in 1984, because it meant I would miss episodes of my favorite show.  I was six years old, and was very lucky my parents had a VCR.

K.I.T.T. could do everything.  Jump a lake?  No problem.  Wheelies between two trucks?  Cakewalk.  Blast through walls?  Of course.  But if you wanted to ram an evil version of K.I.T.T. (called K.A.R.R.)  head-on, then you'd get "Michael, what are you doing?"

The robot car could even drive itself and conduct surveillance.  So of course I wanted one.  A few years later my family headed off to Universal Studios in California where they had one of the K.I.T.T. cars.  But sadly, the voice of the car on that lot was some wannabe actor, and not the great William Daniels from the T.V. show.

I grew up pretty quickly after that.  It was like finding out Santa Clause doesn't exist.

So far, NBC has yet to decide on what car K.I.T.T. will be, but it will likely be able to shape-shift.  And with the huge deal Paramount Pictures signed with General Motors to feature GM cars prominently in Transformers, the honor of being the next K.I.T.T. will probably be auctioned off to the highest bidder.  There are also plans to introduce more evil cars in the new version of Knight Rider.  The same automaker will likely build these cars as well.

NBC's plan is to produce a two-hour T.V. movie to serve as the pilot for the show.  Current plans are for the film to air sometime in the spring of 2008, according to Variety.  If the movie draws a large enough audience, we might see a new series of the show beginning next fall.

As long as the voice of William Daniels makes a return, I will probably be content.  Then again, Knight Rider 2000 really sucked, didn't it?