knight rider online

We (here in the forum) have had plenty to say about the promotion of ford during the 2008 TV movie, (pilot doesnt seem the right word now its effectively being rewritten) but watching TOS from start to finish can everyone remember there was a point where instead of KITT being called 'a black Trans Am' the references became 'a black T Top...'

Didnt I read somewhere that Pontiac (GM) were inundated with requests for the "Knight rider car" and in the end actually requested that KITT no longer be named as a Trans Am...????

Will Fords over promotion (KITT was completely unbadged, which IMO really worked...) in the new series backfire on them???

I don't think so. I mean hell I was totally shocked and elated to see the Ranchero pull up to the hotel in the Pilot/Movie.

I myself have a 76-77 Ford Ranchero 500 in my drive way I'm going to be restoring. Not to mention my Uncle drag races a 71 Ford Ranchero that does 9.5 secs in a 1/4 mile.

I just hope that Ford comes out with a new one as well as do a 30th anniversary Mustang for the Fox Body for their 2009 Mustang. Doubtful but wishful thinking.

pheonix_knight wrote:We (here in the forum) have had plenty to say about the promotion of ford during the 2008 TV movie, (pilot doesnt seem the right word now its effectively being rewritten) but watching TOS from start to finish can everyone remember there was a point where instead of KITT being called 'a black Trans Am' the references became 'a black T Top...'

Didnt I read somewhere that Pontiac (GM) were inundated with requests for the "Knight rider car" and in the end actually requested that KITT no longer be named as a Trans Am...????

Will Fords over promotion (KITT was completely unbadged, which IMO really worked...) in the new series backfire on them???

Yes, you are right, what you are referring to is on the first season DVD bonus materials when Larson was talking about how they came about using the Trans Am . And Pontiac thought about doing a KITT model Trans Am but, decided against it because someone decided to jump a train with a Trans Am.
As for Ford over promoting Knight Rider. Yes, it is possible that it can backfire on them. The first thing I noticed when I saw one of their previews was that dang blame Cobra emblem. It's like everyone knows that it's a Ford Shelby Cobra, they just don't need to shove it down the viewing public's throat. And maybe it is because in the original KR there was no emblems on the real KITT. You knew it was a Trans Am. No over the top advertising. Just a thought.

No emblems except for the Pontiac logo on the hubcaps we saw in close up almost every episode...

There was major sponsoring then and there is major sponsoring now... it is just different in the way it is done. GM fans will think the showing of Ford emblems is a commercial which is "shoved down their throat", Ford fans will think the same of the Transformers movie... people who are more open minded will say... cool the car is a Ford/GM/Nissan/Studebaker/Lada.... so what? Shows and movies need money to be made... and that´s the way how to do it... by having "partners" who are willing to play an ACTIVE part in the project.

Fans of a franchise should judge it based on how the show actually is, not by "owww my lord I saw 3 Ford logo´s".

My 2 cents...

You could barely see the Pontiac logo on the hubcaps unless you were looking for it or paying close attention, the point is that they weren't intentionally being focused on, it was just a common camera angle and wasn't there due to promotional purposes, same deal with the blacked out tail lights. Just leaving the emblems on the car isn't shoving it down our throats (and it has nothing to do with car bias) but having the camera move around the car just to stop and focus in on them as they did in the TV movie at points, as well as how many shots seemed to make them stand out and almost every car being a shiny new Ford, is. On the bright side, I guess it might help a little with how the cobras are going to be explained away in the show, even if it's still blatant, it's going to bring about a lot of "Viper" cracks. According to either Ben Silverman or the other guy whom I can't remember the name of said even Ford thought it was too much.

There's nothing wrong with the sponsoring, but bashing it into our heads, that it's presented/powered by Ford to the point where it can be called FordRider IMO, is.

PHOENIXZERO wrote:You could barely see the Pontiac logo on the hubcaps unless you were looking for it or paying close attention, the point is that they weren't intentionally being focused on, it was just a common camera angle and wasn't there due to promotional purposes, same deal with the blacked out tail lights. Just leaving the emblems on the car isn't shoving it down our throats (and it has nothing to do with car bias) but having the camera move around the car just to stop and focus in on them as they did in the TV movie at points, as well as how many shots seemed to make them stand out and almost every car being a shiny new Ford, is. On the bright side, I guess it might help a little with how the cobras are going to be explained away in the show, even if it's still blatant, it's going to bring about a lot of "Viper" cracks. According to either Ben Silverman or the other guy whom I can't remember the name of said even Ford thought it was too much.

There's nothing wrong with the sponsoring, but bashing it into our heads, that it's presented/powered by Ford to the point where it can be called FordRider IMO, is.

Oww believe me, the show was shot to show off the car it was just that it seemed unintentional but in the first season of the original show the car was really shot in a way that we would be sure of what it was (by looks anyway). Not that I am complaining, as like I said its part of the game.

And calling the new show Ford Rider is really just pushing it... you could call the A-team the GM-team in the same way... All I am asking for is an open mind from the fans... It's about personality and not just looks... meaning if the series is good be happy, inspite of the car not being the old one (which is good in my opinion).

Personally, I wouldn't want the old Trans-Am back either as the "star" the car being as old as it is would just be silly. Yeah, in this day and age "product integration" is needed but I feel there's an art to doing it to where people see something and don't immediately think "product placement". To me they unfortunately completely missed the mark and made it way too in your face. It certainly turned out to be FordRider. I just hope lessons were learned for the new show which, even with my dislikes on the design and how next to nothing was done to the interior, I'm look very much looking forward to. At the very least I'm going to give it a decent enough chance, hell I'd probably still watch it if it regularly made me extremely annoyed, kind of like Smallville's last few seasons.

Like was mentioned, Ford and the Execs thought the sponsorship of the 2-hr was too much. I highly doubt we'll be seeing "this nbc presentation is brought to you by ford" all over the place like we did with the 2-hr.

The fact is this people. It's a different world. From what I've heard, the money per-episode (as well as for the 2-hr) is small for a show of this possible scale. Without a sponsorship like Ford providing cars and moneys, we probably wouldn't have had this 2-hr and it certainly would affect the level of quality we are expecting from them in the series.

We all have this rosy colored vision of what the original Knight Rider is, and I'll be the first to admit that I was always drawn to the coolness of KITT, vs the one man message or Michael Knight as a character with the original. But if seeing a few Ford vehicles on screen keep the action well packed, the technology well stocked and the story lines intellegent, then I could care less what car marker is helping pay the check.

It's only a problem for me if it distracts from the story, and it wont. They're not that stupid.

Neil