"Knight Rider 2000" Continuity Vs. "Knight Rider (’08)"

[Lost Knight]

This was briefly brought up in another thread but I feel it deserves its own topic. As we all know Knight Rider 2000 has always been heavily hated by most fans, but I always felt it had some good continuity with the main characters. I'm not talking about President Quayle, cryogenic prisons or ultrasonic handguns here, I'm talking about Michael, K.I.T.T. and Devon. I've said it in the past but I will say it again: There were logical extrapolations of Michael, K.I.T.T. and Devon's fates. The writers even went so far as to bring back the ’57 Chevy that Michael spoke about in one episode. (It was terrible how K.I.T.T. was installed into it, but I'm just pointing out how much they paid attention to details of the original series.) The original series kept hinting at Michael burning out, and KR2K showed him burnt out. They explained IN DETAIL what happened to K.I.T.T. and it made sense that he would be discarded, dismantled and rendered obsolete. It also made perfect sense that Devon would continue his work with the Foundation with new members who had their own agenda (sound familiar to what's going on with the new show, hmm?). It was realistic that Michael and Devon would try to salvage K.I.T.T.'s sold-off parts (bizarre where the story went with it, but again it's logical that they'd make an attempt to get the parts). Alright, so Michael is all of a sudden an electronics whiz when he never was in the original series. But it's a lot easier of a pill to swallow to presume that in the 10 years since Michael left the Foundation that he tinkered around with some electronics at some point.

With the new series starting with the backdoor pilot, we were treated to revisionist history where we were supposed to accept that Michael fathered a child and had the woman he knocked up and his child relocated without ever thinking about them again. It's a big stretch, but thinking about it hard enough, fans were able to arguably force it to make it work with various theories. We also had to accept that this new character, Charles Graiman, was truly the one who built the original K.I.T.T. and not Wilton Knight. We saw literally bits and pieces of K.I.T.T. in a garage but never an explanation as to why they were there or what was really going on.

Flash forward to the new series. Mike mentions that his father's name is Michael Long. Check. Alex Torres mysteriously picks the names Devon and Bonnie for Billy and Zoey when they go undercover. If this were a real sequel, that's a big coincidence that Torres would pull those names out of a hat when he should've been aware of the real Devon and Bonnie. Clearly it was a nod to the fans of the original, but that simple nod doesn't even completely make sense. We never heard of the Knight 2000 again, either. We finally got a mention of F.L.A.G., at least, which seems to make sense since they acknowledge it once existed but was shut down. However, they decide to bring back a character by the name of K.A.R.R. (at first it was the Knight Automated-cybernetic Roving Robotic-exoskeleton or some crap like that, and then he ends up being the Knight Automated Roving Robot again). Well, the acronym with all the extra in-between words would have worked much better because it implies that it's a new character. But what do the writers do? Drop the extra words and stick to the original acronym further confusing anyone trying to figure out if it's the same character or not. Then to top it off, they get the same voice actor to return to voice a new character of the same name. Good luck trying to figure that out. Oh, yeah, and who was that mysterious Jenny character again? When and where was she supposed to be in the original show? Another case of "we'll figure that out later...maybe"?

With all of the bashing KR2K gets for being watered down and depressing and sometimes downright bizarre, it paid way more attention to details of the original series than the new series has. As KR2K proved, continuity and returning stars aren't enough to make a good movie. But it certainly makes all the difference when trying to establish yourself as a sequel. You know things are bad when a bad movie pays more attention to detail than the new series does.

As you can see, it drives me crazy when continuity is botched up or just downright ignored. But then some members here shrug it off and say, "I'm no slave to continuity" as if anyone who actually cares about the storyline is an overanalyzing die-hard fan. We all post on this board and are all die-hard fans to a degree. And going by that logic, I guess the writers can literally do whatever they want and it's OK with some people. If anything, I may be cynical but I think people need to realize the bigger picture here sometimes.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

[Harry Singh Jr.]

I couldn't agree with you more Lost Knight. I'm all for it's a new show and times move on. That's cool. We couldn't expect Micheal in his late 50's to still be fighting bad guys. Old KITT will always be the best, But I accept the new one. Technology changes, and things go outdated. How many of us are still driving cars from back in 1982?

But history shouldn't change. Everytime it seems they throw a hint of somesort to link to the old and then slap us in the face. The mentioned they were re-making KARR a character from the 80's. Well other than the voice, this KARR had nothing to do with it.

The main fan base of this show is the fans of the original. If they keep up this way how do they expect rating to go up?

Overall the show is entertaining and I'm still going to watch.

[Knight94]

In KR08 there is no KR2000 story. It would mess things up, as KR2K has the KI4T, KR08 has KI3T. That alone
would mess up the continuity. I mean really, take a look @ the two cars: The KI4T, while being advanced over
the KI2T, has nothing on the KI3T. The nanotech, the gps, etc. that they use in KR08 are way better than what
was used in KR2000. The KI4T would have to be able to supercede K3T, in a big way, and not look tricked out,
but more streamlined than K3T. Face it, KR08 is way better than KR2000, except the part where KITT & the
KI4T are talking:
KITT: So it's going to be "Mine's bigger than yours" is it? K4T:Mine is bigger than yours. KITT: So it talks. And
sounds suspiciously familiar. K4T: I only speak when necessary. KITT:Maddock's voice. I knew the man had an ego,
but please. K4T: We have nothing further to discuss. KITT: There's nothing worse than a smart-ass automobile.

[Lost Knight]

In KR08 there is no KR2000 story. It would mess things up, as KR2K has the KI4T, KR08 has KI3T. That alone
would mess up the continuity.

Seeing as how bad the continuity has become, the issue of the Knight 4000 coming before the Knight 3000 at this point has somehow become completely irrelevant compared to everything else. That just goes to show you the original intentions of honoring continuity in the backdoor pilot, because it was decided at the last minute to remove the Knight 4000 since it wouldn't make sense coming before the 3000.

Anyway, I'm not saying they should have acknowledged Knight Rider 2000's existence. I'm merely trying to remind people how important continuity can be. Believe it or not I think it was best for the new series to not acknowledge KR2K which would not necessarily mean it never existed, nor would it mean it did exist. There just isn't enough of a reason to need to refer to it. Devon's death would be the only real reason to have to acknowledge it, and if they aren't even bringing up Michael and classic K.I.T.T., then I don't think we'll be hearing about Devon.

[Lexicon]

The new series follows the mythology and not the continuity. One thing GST is always talking about in his interviews, at least the earlier ones anyway, is the mythology of Knight Rider and how important it is for the new show to follow it while bringing something new and exciting to the table. That does not mean it will adhere to the continuity in any way whatsoever. At any rate, K2K is not part of any Knight Rider continuity except for the Hasselverse (yes I made that one up) alternate reality.

[knightprobe89]

lost knight i totally agree with you about the continuity issue. also knight rider 2000 was much better written and more serious then kr08 will ever be, granted it wasn't perfect but it would have gotten better if it had went to series.

[coach41]

Good points. I was trying to post a message about other shows that a "continuation" or "re-imagined" series.

The Star Trek series is a good example of a continuation. Star Trek: TNG (and others that followed) continued the story of the original Star Trek TV and movie series.

Battlestar Galactica is an example of a show taking the re-imagined route. Despite complaints from fans of the original Battlestar series, the new show went 4 seasons.

KR08 seems like it never had a clear direction and I think that hurt. Choosing a route early allows you to focus efforts on where the stories should go. A continuation would have probably been better given that the original KR had an extensive backstory. We could have developed the existing characters backgrounds and also referenced what happened to the original characters.

But regardless of the choice, it all boils down to the writing and story telling. I think the writing (at least early) was a little poor and hurt the early episodes.

[taoworm2323]

lost knight i totally agree with you about the continuity issue. also knight rider 2000 was much better written and more serious then kr08 will ever be, granted it wasn't perfect but it would have gotten better if it had went to series.

I couldn't agree more KnightProbe!
Knight Rider 2000 got most things right and I would have LOVED to seen it as a series of tv movies. I think those would have done really well. It was in a much more mature vein and was written much more realistically.
I don't try and mix em just consider them to be 2 diffrent timelines.

But if they did exist side by side it would look like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYxjkI6_qhQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[the original KITT]

erm Knight Rider does kind of make things up as they go along. An example of this in the pilot (Knight of the phoenix) the doctor says to Wilton knight "the bullet went straight through his face....We'll never now what he looks likes" then in Goliath Michael goes "what did Wilton do reconstuct my face in Garthes image?" or something like that. If plastic surgeory had been done, the doctor would have obviously known so y say this line?

Great epiosde though, maybe the doctor didn't know but i find that hard to believe, don't really care though, cuz that was a wicked episode.

Knight rider 2000

Good points - Featured KITT, Devon, alright storyline

Even better if - KITT was in his original body (A red car! Y?! looked crap) - Bonny was there - TURBO BOOST, not set in 2000. Just a normal wicked Knight rider epiosode. Devon didn't die. loll

I do believe the only reason i liked Knight Rider 2000 was becasue KITT, Devon and Michael was in it. It was good to see them.

[Korris]

From what I had read when the Pilot movie was gearing up, the Knight Rider 2000 had been retconned out of existence. None of those events took place. Continuity goes from the original series, to the new pilot movie and onto Knight Rider 2008.

If anyone has seen the original Pilot movie from the 80s, you'd notice that during the show, Wilton Knight is in failing health. He's dying. Of course he didn't build the original Knight 2000. It was his money that funded it, it was his vision, but Graiman was likely the lead engineer working on the project, he is the one who most likely designed the systems and got under the hood so to speak. Not to mention a laboratory of extra white coats who also worked on the project. So, they most likely built the original KITT as well.

The original KITT was likely handed over to Graiman when Michael Long retired from the Foundation, so that the modifications done during the vehicle's operational life time could be studied. It was probably far cheaper to hand the car over to the original project leader then to stick it in some warehouse for storage. Following KARR '08 malfunction, Graiman probably decided to build the 3000 model. If he had known what the government intended to do with the new CPU and AI program, I doubt he'd have even built the 3000.

But, that's just my hypothesis.

[Vegasmike]

Devon had KI2T built, at wilton's request. Watch "Trust Doesn't Rust" Devon explains some of it.