Niggle Snoosh wrote:FX23 wrote:there's nothing sad about being proud of the legend Knight Rider
A Statement that no-one in this forum would disagree with since if anyone of us really thought that was true we would not be on here and the Knight Rider community like a certain shadowy flight would not exist.
However there are those outside our (great and wiser) community that grew out of it or never liked it at all and as large as the community is, it's not large enough to warrant a series made just for us and after the disappointing attempts for a reboot that were KR2000 and TKR we are lucky we have any kind of new series at all.
As sad as it is Universal is a business and as such will want to milk some money and get high ratings from public if it can. Knight Rider was a product of the 80's, it's a series that would surely only have been thought up in that decade and when it was on it was awesome. Yet the ratings decreased and the show ended. Now Universal are not going to bring back a show the way it was because the only ones that would watch it are those who never stopped watching yet obviously weren't enough for Universal to continue the series.
That was 22 years ago, times have changed and so has the needs of today's target audience. Knight Rider has to evolve to live in today's world, a lot of what KITT could do wouldn't cut it with the kids of today, technology has more or less caught up with what we saw then, what makes the show work outside of the relationship of the car and his driver is the fact that it is the car of tomorrow. As cool as KITT was and is, knowing what we know now the believability of certain functions outside of their coolness are (as much as i hate myself for saying this)a little ridiculous and frankly impossible. Perhaps transforming is stepping a bit close to the edge but it does put itself in the car of tomorrow territory and beyond what is currently or likely to happen anytime soon.
A problem i have with the attack KI3T is that it was designed with today's laws in mind as to what it needs to make it more powerful, now it's all well and good trying to make it plausible today in some respects it just looks like a racers custom fittings not the unique superior technological advancement it is supposed to be. Now of course this is due to a need to satisfy today's audiences affection of fast and the furious and muscle cars but why make it look so barely above average and (quite possibly) uglier than the standard version when in reality it should really at minimum be a racers wet dream. Arguably it would be far more spectacular for a car that doesn't have such obvious modifications to still do the same things and surpass the heavily modded vehicles of today. Now we still have yet to see Attack KI3T in context and with luck when we do it will all be ok, even though i don't fully embrace the Attack KI3T i'm still willing to accept as a necessary tool to keep Knight Rider alive.
KITT was a sexy beast in his day (and still is) The Mustang doesn't have the same appeal to me as the Pontiac Trans Am/Firebird but i can't deny the fact a lot of that maybe due to nostalgia. Back in the day the Pontiac pretty much pwned all opposition in it's greatness which is a much harder feat these days. To get something that sets itself miles apart from the vehicles of the time yet not stick out like a sore thumb/look too unconventional or unrealistic (
coughKIFT
cough) Such a task is not easy and near impossible to keep the masses happy. Perhaps the Mustang isn't as special as it could be but it does have a bit of personality and at the very least (brand whoring aside) is a reasonable successor. Also it's always good to remember this is a KI3T, not The KITT. It is a different entity and should not be bound to KITT's mighty shadow.
William Daniels was the KITT we all knew and he did a damn find job, it can't be easy to give personality to a car that will live on for decades to come but he found a way. Not to mention the sad fact that him now being 81 does prove troublesome if you're considering someone for a role that has the potential to last for multiple seasons. Alot of people are overly negative towards Val Kilmers KI3T yet i was satisfied since he's not there to take KITT's place but rather to give a new spin on a proven idea. We know that KITT still exists somewhere so i don't see why others can't embrace a another charismatic AI. Nostalgia will stop Val Kilmer from outshining William Daniels regardless of the direction he takes with KI3T. People lay into Val about his less expressivce KI3T but William Daniels performance in the original pilot is sub par compared to later efforts and he wasn't brought in at the last minute. GST already acknowledges the fact we will see his voice and personality evolve as the series progresses, i don't know about you but i thinks that great. Although we did see KITT evolve somewhat in the original series it was never really explored just accepted and i think that this new spin will be more involving to the viewer and allow for a more intimate realtionship with the character. I for one what i've seen from Val Kilmer so far, such as it was, he's not KITT but he does have a certain something which can only get better.
Now speaking of big boots to fill we also have the role of the Knight Rider, one Mr Michael Knight who was of course played by the mighty David Hasselhoff. Back then he was one popular dude, he was eye candy to the ladies, a man to aspire to for the men and a heroic icon for us all. Now he still has an iconic status today but not necessarily for the right reasons. Now what i'm about to say isn't nice but you have to understand its not personal attack just an unfortune observation. Sadly my affection for the Hoff generally gets me laughed at (I for one think he's great, well how can i not because after all he is Michael Knight, a face of my beloved childhood memories) and sadly the cold hard truth is there is a far more sinister stigma attached to most peoples view of him. Today he is seen more as a figure of fun than a top celebrity he deserves, just the fact of who well he puts up with that crap is a great testiment to his character and he deserves respect not ridicule. That is why his role in the new series is/will be so small. Given the time and money that is spent on new programming it is sadly all too understandable that they avoid risk whenever possible, even if that does mean they overlook or forget his importance. We all know helped get this new series off the ground only to be slapped in the face with the possibility to being kept out of the new show permanently. However Univeral and GST do seem to now understand that he can't simply be cast aside and there is a place for him after all. Now he may not be given the importance he should and we desire but we atleast we can be happy for small graces.
As much as all of us here love The Hoff, most of us understand that one man making a difference is a young mans game and as wonderful it would be for us to see the original Michael Knight continuing his adventures it would be of no interest to a fresh audience, for those who crave Hoff in action there 4 seasons to see him in his prime.
Justin Breuning to me is a worthy successor to the name Knight, we should bear in mind he is not a replacement for the character we know and love but an alternate take on the role in different times. It's great we have a true fan of the show as a lead, what made David hasselhoff so cool was that he believed in the show and the character and loved what he was doing. From what I see we have been lucky enough to have that happen again. Plus Justin's Mike has a lot of personality and i thought immediately likeable, he also can live upto a higher standard in combat sequences that we expect these days. In the advent of Martial arts and great fight choregraphy becoming so important to mainstream audiences the days of the simple punch and macho brawling are long gone. Mike traceur may be the guy for today but to me that takes nothing away from the man we grew up with. Like KI3T and KITT there is no reason Mike and Michael can't coexist quite happily. Justin's role isn't to outshine our beloved Knight but to help a new legacy live on.
As great as the original series was the powers that be deemed it unsuitable to continue and such it can't exist as it did. This is not the 80's, this is now, Knight Rider as we knew it has been and gone but lives on forever in our memories and can still be enjoyed on DVD. Todays audience have different expectations, they grew up on a whole new breed of movies and programming that we did and rightly or wrongly a new Knight Rider must abide by new laws to be popular. We all have to remember this incarnation will have changes and not necessarily for the better (as many of our quibbles and rants have shown) just adapted to suit a new generation. We have to accept this as a new chapter in the world of Knight Rider, one that has all the potential to sit quite happily along the original and understand because it is not and never can be a replacement to the original series and nor should it be but it can survive and be enjoyable on its own merits.
