Ben Silverman: The Entire Movie Cast will be Returning

[Joe Huth]

From Eonline.com:

"On Knight Rider Series Pickup: According to Silverman, the whole movie of the week cast will be in the new series, including Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT. Kilmer will also front a large miniseries event in January called XIII."

Joe

[KRAvengerII]

Scifi.com has an article where ben Silverman talks about how NBC learned from the mistakes of Bionic Woman, and are taking their time with KR, to make sure they get it right. Sounds encouraging.

[GarthKnight08]

Scifi.com has an article where ben Silverman talks about how NBC learned from the mistakes of Bionic Woman, and are taking their time with KR, to make sure they get it right. Sounds encouraging.

What did happen with Bionic Woman anyway?

[Judd]

Scifi.com has an article where ben Silverman talks about how NBC learned from the mistakes of Bionic Woman, and are taking their time with KR, to make sure they get it right. Sounds encouraging.

What did happen with Bionic Woman anyway?

It's a long, sad story. I was helping with a BW fan site during the series run. First of all the creative team had a number of copywrite restrictions placed on them. All they could use was the title, basic idea and the name Jaime Sommers. They couldn't depct mechanistic technology being attached to a human body.

NBC was not happy with the early episodes so they ordered a number of rewrites and reshoots. Episode two was heavily reshot and rewritten. Glen Morgan the show runner left and was replaced by Jason Kattims. NBC said they were going to relaunch the show with another show runner Jason Cahill after the WGA strike. It never happened.

The show faced tough competition from sporting events and awards shows. The lead in show was changed from Deal or No Deal to Phemomon which bombed.

A major storyline was planned involving Jaime's boyfriend Wil Anthros. The network had the character killed off in the pilot. This lead to a number of hasty rewrites.

The show had a number of behind the scenes problems many of which were down the network interference and restrictions placed on the creative team.

[Knight316]

I wonder if that means The Hoff too!

[whet]

I wonder if that means The Hoff too!

It's not impossable, if David has time I'm sure he'd like to be involved in some form.

[knightfan81]

Its been said before, but Hoff and the original KITT AI (meaning William Daniels' voice, but not necessarily the T/A body) need to show up. I wonder if new KITT could morph into old KITT, including the interior. Probably not since the new KITT is a Mustang. Just a thought...

[goldbug]

Scifi.com has an article where ben Silverman talks about how NBC learned from the mistakes of Bionic Woman, and are taking their time with KR, to make sure they get it right. Sounds encouraging.

Extremely so. BW had such potential and quickly turned into a trainwreck (for all the reasons listed below). I really tried to like it, stuck through about 6 eps and then I just gave up. It was clearly a "lost show" at that time. The change of creative staff and the interference of corporate was so clear they may as well have put a neon sign over scenes that said "This was altered from the original ideas!". I'm glad KR won't suffer the same fate. Despite various things that do need improvement, I think KR2008 struck a good tone and it should use that as a base to launch the season.

[cajunknight0153]

Its been said before, but Hoff and the original KITT AI (meaning William Daniels' voice, but not necessarily the T/A body) need to show up. I wonder if new KITT could morph into old KITT, including the interior. Probably not since the new KITT is a Mustang. Just a thought...

yes the Trans Am body, definately, otherwise its not KITT

[KnightLady]

Its been said before, but Hoff and the original KITT AI (meaning William Daniels' voice, but not necessarily the T/A body) need to show up. I wonder if new KITT could morph into old KITT, including the interior. Probably not since the new KITT is a Mustang. Just a thought...

yes the Trans Am body, definately, otherwise its not KITT

I agree.

[knightofthephoenix]

Interesting.

I don't think Carrie Riveri or Dylan Fass really needed to be in the series.

[PHOENIXZERO]

Yeah because all KITT was, was a Trans-AM. >_> It would be nice to see KITT in the same body but at this point KITT would be a technological dinosaur, outside of KITT himself of course. You can only upgrade so much...

I don't trust people/companies/whatever who say they learned their lesson, because more often than not, they haven't and are just blowing smoke and apparently their legal department hasn't learned anything with the mess NBCU has gotten itself into with Glen Larson. Bionic Woman was a mess from the initial pilot and before that even, I know I was rolling my eyes in the first ten or fifteen minutes. I dunno if they should have even bothered moving forward with the issues they had from the start.. I saw every episode but I never got hooked, I've barely seen the original but even still I was annoyed with it being a remake. Too much bad drama and not enough fun. To me Sarah Corvis or however her name was spelt, was the only good character.

Anyway, since this is a continuation the writers need to go and try NOT to work against the original, they need to find a good combination of the old and the new without going and contradicting the past. Throwing a bone or two to the original fans with a couple episodes here and there as well as sticking with the established history as well as a few nods but not to where new fans would be turned off if they hadn't seen the original or have an interest in it. The worst thing they could do is make it a total fan service. They need to stretch things out a bit so I wouldn't count on the "what happened to" questions being answered right away, just as they weren't in the TV movie.

Hopefully they find a new audience as well as do enough to not only keep the original fans on board but bring some of them back as well. I kind of agree Rivai and Fass aren't that important but I think they'll serve a purpose, hopefully Rivai is written a lot smarter and really, the characters should be somewhat minor support characters with maybe an episode or two. I wouldn't be disappointed of Fass left deciding this wasn't for him. Then they could later maybe do a guest spot so the character just doesn't disappear like Judy Winslow going upstairs and never coming down again... I just had a Family Matters flashback..... I need to lie down and weep. I've been up far too long as it is anyway.

[Lost Knight]

One of the problems with the new production is that I don't feel it tried hard enough to be a true continuation. I think David Andron put the continuation emphasis more on the "feel" of the original series rather than because of facts established as canon. I know the idea was to establish the movie so a series can hold its own, but I felt that it needed more than just a few throwaway lines and the terribly written scene with Hasselhoff to make it feel like a proper sequel. The problem I found with Hasselhoff's scene is that he's describing history that we all damn well know never existed. "She did a good job raising you." Really? If you were gone for 25 years, just how the hell would you know that, Michael?

They should emphasize the connection between the two shows more if anything just to get it out of the way if they really want to make the new series stand alone on it's own. I know there wasn't enough time in the movie to go into that much depth about it, but it would be wise to focus a lot more attention to the fact that the two shows need a stronger connection. Just as Michael Knight being in Knight Rider 2000 wasn't enough to save the movie, his appearance in the backdoor pilot isn't enough to bridge the gap between shows.

[goldbug]

The problem I found with Hasselhoff's scene is that he's describing history that we all damn well know never existed. "She did a good job raising you." Really? If you were gone for 25 years, just how the hell would you know that, Michael?

My automatic assumption was that he kept track of them from a distance, and Jenny kept him updated. I'm also sure the Foundation had agents keeping an eye on them and Devon probably gave Michael regular reports. To me, this added a whole new dimension to Michael Knight's character. This meant not only was he out there fighting because it was what's right, but he was doing it to make a better world for his son as well.

[Skav]

One of the problems with the new production is that I don't feel it tried hard enough to be a true continuation.

In terms of it being a sequel to the original series, I thought it was perfect in capturing that. There were references to the original series both in terms of subtle and not so subtle jokes and hints and mentioning events related to the original series.

Sure, the continuation might be a bit iffy but wasn't it like that with the original series too?

Using your imagination to create solutions to these problems can work wonders.

[KryptonSite]

I don't know that "the entire movie cast returning" is so much "learning from their mistakes." I didn't really care for Kilmer's last-minute addition as the voice, I thought Deanna Russo's character was extraneous, though I did like her father filling the Devon-like role. I also didn't know why a FBI agent needed to be involved.

If it were up to me, I'd probably keep Justin Bruening and Bruce Davison and move from there...

Part of the problem Bionic Woman had was that there were far too many characters - some of whom were played by very capable actors - where you just were kind of like "What are they doing there?"

[KRAvengerII]

Yeah- towards the end, i was warming up to Jonas and the technogeek guy, but the rest i found unneccesary.

[goldbug]

I thought Deanna Russo's character was extraneous, though I did like her father filling the Devon-like role.

She was the character that forced Graiman's hand to send KITT out. If he had no children and his life was the only one in danger, I'm sure he would have just hopped into KITT and took off like a bat out of hell on his own and just went straight to Rivai. Instead, he realized he needed to save his daughter and find a protector for her, hence bringing Mike into it. I find that hardly extraneous at all.

[kopiikat]

Hm... that brings up a good question, though. Why didn't Graiman just hop into KITT in the first place and go with him to save his daughter/pick up Mike? And why didn't he have a better backup plan than running wildly through the forest to his friend's house? (He should have known from horror movies that that rarely works out well!)

[Lost Knight]

My automatic assumption was that he kept track of them from a distance, and Jenny kept him updated. I'm also sure the Foundation had agents keeping an eye on them and Devon probably gave Michael regular reports. To me, this added a whole new dimension to Michael Knight's character. This meant not only was he out there fighting because it was what's right, but he was doing it to make a better world for his son as well.

While that sounds logical and is what we're led to believe since the audience is required to accept these facts as part of the original story, I feel that there should have at least been a mention of Jennifer in the original series. See, I can possibly accept the fact that Michael fathered a child and never knew about it. What is a hell of a lot more difficult to accept is that he knowingly fathered a child and had Mike and Jennifer relocated while seemingly forgetting about them with not so much as a reference. It's these types of aspects of the continuity that feel very contrived to me and I am not entirely sure they actually work. And of course Knight Industries being relegated to a Doc Brown-esque inventor's garage is a little difficult to accept as well.

Then again, the original series was pretty terrible when it came to reflecting on past people or incidents. Take the first episode after "The Scent Of Roses" which was "Killer K.I.T.T.," for example. Michael is in a perfectly fine, upbeat mood in the beginning of the episode as if Stevie's death hadn't just occurred. I don't know how much time is supposed to have elapsed between episodes, but she was also never mentioned again for the rest of the fourth season, too. So if a major character (and one of the very few who had her own story arc) could have been easily swept under the rug, maybe the idea of Michael never mentioning Jennifer might not be so difficult to accept. After all, Bonnie disappeared with no explanation or reference in Season 2, as April also disappeared in Season 3 and was never mentioned again.

[PHOENIXZERO]

Well to be fair, they were probably shot and/or written out of order seeing as Scent of Roses was originally intended to be season or series finale and the series generally had a lack of continuity like most similar shows of the time. But I do agree and it would have been nice if they put more thought into how these things would fit with the continuation, just because the original series didn't care that much doesn't mean the new people shouldn't. They could have had it Mike was the product of Micheal's fling with a girl of the week or one of the many we didn't see so then it could've played it off as Michael finding out until after the series ended but they didn't do that and worse they put Mike's DOB being before the original pilot's air date and when it may have taken place and then it'd make even less sense. Then there's the weird "on the very first day" comment which just sounds weird and to me a tease that hints at Jennifer not being his biological mother but someone assigned to put him into hiding for "protection" and just happened to love the infant from the very first day or whatever..

It's like they didn't try very hard to get things to fit right or at least explain it very well enough same with the Graiman issue.

[goldbug]

What is a hell of a lot more difficult to accept is that he knowingly fathered a child and had Mike and Jennifer relocated while seemingly forgetting about them with not so much as a reference.

To me that makes perfect sense. If you hid your kid and his mom away because you thought their lives were in danger, you never bring them up - not even in casual conversation. It's like people going into witness protection. You simply don't go talking about them at all unless it's absolutely necessary. During the run of the original KR, each ep was very "episode focused", generally not referencing events of other episodes unless it tied in somehow (such as KITT vs. KARR). It's not that big of a leap to assume that there were a lot of "lost tales" of Knight Rider in the 80's and that this was one of them.

Is it contrived? Absolutely - since clearly this didn't exist in the original series. Would I have preferred they use one of the "single moms of the week" or something? Sure. But still, it doesn't violate continuity to the point where the whole story falls apart. It just bends it...a lot.