Cars as characters: why NBC might get it right this time

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DarylKnight
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Re: Cars as characters: why NBC might get it right this time

Post by DarylKnight » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:27 am

I think many people are being way way too hard on the Mustang. We have to take a step back and remember something. KITT does NOT have to be sleek and sexy. The 82 Trans Am was sleek and sexy because, overall, GM was covering for, by far, the worst T/A to ever roll off the line. A proud car that, was of once, 300+HP from the factory, was stripped down to a 305 with a mere 145 - 165HP from the factory. What they didn't have in HP, they made up with in looks, and aerodynamics, to squeeze out any bit of acceleration of the car. Even with it's majestic, at the time record setting, 0.37 wind drag coefficient, the car was still taking upwards of 10 seconds to go 0-60, a '73 TA can do 100 in the same amount of time. At the time our precious KITT was created, the American car line had to keep with the demands of exotic lines, that were so prominent in the Euro-cars, and even the Nissan Z's of the time. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE KITT, and I love ALL that IS KNIGHT RIDER. That show is responsible for me having been a GM Technician for 7 years, and the proud owner of an 87 Formula, which I know inside and out, and it pains me to know, that KITT doesn't even compete with my formula ie: Better wing, 16" wheels. The big thing here, is the majority of the public, when not caught up in import tuner cars, and suv's, are craving some of those old school muscle car lines, and now that we are back up to some MAJOR power, of 500+ available, cars DON'T need to be sleek and sexy, especially since they peaked with sleek in the mid 90's to early 00's. So, basically, muscular lines are back in style, and if GM were to produce a Trans Am right now, chances are, it would have nothing in common with KITT or the 80's, but be more like a modern day '77-'79 Bandit era style inspired car. So, again, sleek and sexy would probably be out, but "tough" would still be in, which the Shelby is, a tough looking car. Another thing too, everyone dogs the mustang v. the old T/A, no matter how you look at the T/A, it was, in fact an American Muscle Car, which, the mustang was a proud member of, so although the companies are different, the cars are in the same family. Muscle cars, or Pony cars, take your pick.
One last thing, I don't think we really need the old features anymore, such as ski mode and turbo boost, as freakin awesome as they were, the demographic just doesn't seem to be into the senseless trashing of cars like they used to be. Knight Rider was, in fact, on in a very special time for TV, where we looked forward to cars jumping over trains, and "skiing" between motorcycles. It seems that demographic migrated to the movies. I do think the new twist on Knight Rider with a super hot car, such as a Shelby Mustang does indeed have a good chance of being successful.
Now, with all that said, before the classic KR guys smite me, PLEASE keep in mind, I am keeping an open mind. I love the original KR, I have them all on dvd, I have a Formula, and I'm so happy to be able to communicate with a group of fellow Knight Rider Fans. It's an honor to be here, and I look forward to seeing more and more of this awesome forum. I hope noone takes any offense to anything I said earlier. I did bash the 82 T/A a little, but that's only coming from a historic and Technical side, as I worked on them for Buick/Pontiac/GMC. Never the less, it is still my favorite car to this day, and I owe all of it to KITT. Let me finish with, I welcome the Knight Three Thousand with open arms BUT, LONG LIVE THE KNIGHT INDUSTRIES TWO THOUSAND!! Later guys, sorry it was so long :?

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Re:

Post by cloudkitt » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:20 am

Knight Rider Archive wrote:
but where NBC messed up is they picked the wrong car to do it in...
As soon as this project was announced, I got the feeling that this K.I.T.T. would be a "muscle" car. That's just the times we live in. This K.I.T.T. is going to be facing different challenges to the Knight 2000, so I think we need to be objective about it. It's not the Trans Am, inside or out, but I have high hopes that the movie will deliver.
The Trans Am is muscle car too though. The 80s one was more of a sports car, true. But every other generation of T/A was muscle. The fact that he's a muscle car doesn't bother me. Just...a Ford.... Friends don't let friends drive Fords.

On topic, that's a great point Mike. That is more trouble then NBC has gone to in the past, so even if KITT is ugly, perhaps they'll treat him right this time around.

Speaking of the past. What changed that NBC is so gung ho about this all of a sudden? Did the management change or are they just really hurting for a hit?
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Re: Cars as characters: why NBC might get it right this time

Post by young-nyc » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:51 am

DarylKnight wrote:I think many people are being way way too hard on the Mustang. We have to take a step back and remember something. KITT does NOT have to be sleek and sexy.
well that's your own opinion dude.
just like a majority of us believes KITT should be sleek and sexy.
but ur opinion is well noted... =)
it just pains me to see that the new KITT has the scanner on the bonnet...

KITT SHOULD be a car where the hoodlines are sloped so that the scanner can be integrated into the front bumper area.
doesn't matter if it's a ford or gm.

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Re: Re:

Post by Michael Pajaro » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:05 am

cloudkitt wrote:Speaking of the past. What changed that NBC is so gung ho about this all of a sudden? Did the management change or are they just really hurting for a hit?
I would not call it "all of a sudden", but I think there are many factors why NBC is gung-ho about the project now. Universal proved that old franchises could be re-imagined with the success of Battlestar Galactica. With Heroes, NBC was excited about sci-fi in primetime again. Three years ago NBC and Universal merged which gave NBC easier access to Universal's properties, so Bionic Woman and Knight Rider were available. And the success of Transformers was an influence. Keep in mind that although NBC didn't announce the writer and producer until September, they were publicly developing a new Knight Rider since at least May.

If your question is more along the lines of "why so much publicity this week, as opposed to last month?" I think that's just a question of logistics. They would obviously want to wait until the cars were built so they could show them off, but wouldn't want to interrupt the filming schedule too much. The writer's strike probably moved the air date up a bit so rather than do a big push in January for an April-or-May broadcast, they launched in December for February's airing.
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Re: Cars as characters: why NBC might get it right this time

Post by JJSoCrazy » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:41 am

I am sure GM wouldn't mind some publicity with the new KR Pilot/Series. If they were approached I am sure they would at least consider the fact of using their Production Camaro if it was out allready instead of the concept.
DarylKnight wrote:I think many people are being way way too hard on the Mustang. We have to take a step back and remember something. KITT does NOT have to be sleek and sexy. The 82 Trans Am was sleek and sexy because, overall, GM was covering for, by far, the worst T/A to ever roll off the line. A proud car that, was of once, 300+HP from the factory, was stripped down to a 305 with a mere 145 - 165HP from the factory. What they didn't have in HP, they made up with in looks, and aerodynamics, to squeeze out any bit of acceleration of the car. Even with it's majestic, at the time record setting, 0.37 wind drag coefficient, the car was still taking upwards of 10 seconds to go 0-60, a '73 TA can do 100 in the same amount of time. At the time our precious KITT was created, the American car line had to keep with the demands of exotic lines, that were so prominent in the Euro-cars, and even the Nissan Z's of the time. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE KITT, and I love ALL that IS KNIGHT RIDER. That show is responsible for me having been a GM Technician for 7 years, and the proud owner of an 87 Formula, which I know inside and out, and it pains me to know, that KITT doesn't even compete with my formula ie: Better wing, 16" wheels. The big thing here, is the majority of the public, when not caught up in import tuner cars, and suv's, are craving some of those old school muscle car lines, and now that we are back up to some MAJOR power, of 500+ available, cars DON'T need to be sleek and sexy, especially since they peaked with sleek in the mid 90's to early 00's. So, basically, muscular lines are back in style, and if GM were to produce a Trans Am right now, chances are, it would have nothing in common with KITT or the 80's, but be more like a modern day '77-'79 Bandit era style inspired car. So, again, sleek and sexy would probably be out, but "tough" would still be in, which the Shelby is, a tough looking car. Another thing too, everyone dogs the mustang v. the old T/A, no matter how you look at the T/A, it was, in fact an American Muscle Car, which, the mustang was a proud member of, so although the companies are different, the cars are in the same family. Muscle cars, or Pony cars, take your pick.
One last thing, I don't think we really need the old features anymore, such as ski mode and turbo boost, as freakin awesome as they were, the demographic just doesn't seem to be into the senseless trashing of cars like they used to be. Knight Rider was, in fact, on in a very special time for TV, where we looked forward to cars jumping over trains, and "skiing" between motorcycles. It seems that demographic migrated to the movies. I do think the new twist on Knight Rider with a super hot car, such as a Shelby Mustang does indeed have a good chance of being successful.
Now, with all that said, before the classic KR guys smite me, PLEASE keep in mind, I am keeping an open mind. I love the original KR, I have them all on dvd, I have a Formula, and I'm so happy to be able to communicate with a group of fellow Knight Rider Fans. It's an honor to be here, and I look forward to seeing more and more of this awesome forum. I hope noone takes any offense to anything I said earlier. I did bash the 82 T/A a little, but that's only coming from a historic and Technical side, as I worked on them for Buick/Pontiac/GMC. Never the less, it is still my favorite car to this day, and I owe all of it to KITT. Let me finish with, I welcome the Knight Three Thousand with open arms BUT, LONG LIVE THE KNIGHT INDUSTRIES TWO THOUSAND!! Later guys, sorry it was so long :?
BTW if you watch the behind the scenes on the KR DVD's, you can watch how Glen was discussing using the Trans Am because of its sleek look and lines that made it have a spy car type of appearance. Now if GM were to produce a Trans Am it should look like this:

Image

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Re: Cars as characters: why NBC might get it right this time

Post by PaoloM » Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:21 pm

Totally agreed with the OP. In my opinion, KITT driving itself as an intelligent being was the most thrilling and exciting thing about Knight Rider. Hi-tech, remote controlled cars/tools are not so cool. A car that is intelligent, smart and capable of making choices is still the futuristic point of view that can keep the show alive.

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Re: Cars as characters: why NBC might get it right this time

Post by Rockatteer » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:03 am

I wonder if the fact that they choose a more "harder" looking car, over the "sexy sleek" look is an indication that maybe Kitt will have a harder attitude and maybe be more of a muscle car in this new show?

If you think about the original kitt, his personality was sleek and elegant, he likes classical music and almost spoke correct english etc, so the personality really did match the sleek outer shell.

Maybe this new Kitt's personality will match his outer shell too?
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Re: Cars as characters: why NBC might get it right this time

Post by PaoloM » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:00 am

Rockatteer wrote:Maybe this new Kitt's personality will match his outer shell too?
I hope not. KITT as a kind and polite british gentleman (gentlecar?) was a very delicate and deep touch that generated sympathy. I will hate a bully, strong and "noisy" personality. That will definitely drop any link to the KITT we know and love.

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