Sorry to bring bad news

[DevonStyles]

In my efforts to bring new viewers to check out the new improved Knight Rider through various websites that I go to I met someone who knows someone who works where knight rider is Filmed. Before you read this keep in mind that my informant could be wrong, so don't get mad at me but here is the deal on what is going down. This could be hearsay but this person has no reason to lie to me so take it for what it is. Remember things can change if everthing with the reboot goes awesome. I suppose.


Hey, can you see if you can find out some info on the knight rider show for me. It would be greatly appreciated. This reboot as their calling it is their last ditch attempt to get some ratings togther so justify a second season. if it tanks it probally will be cancelled.

Sure. I'll ask ****** to make a call tomorrow. Most everyone is on hiatus right now though. But, he did tell me that it was canceled a few weeks ago. The networks are being really stingy with the possibility of a SAG strike in the future. A lot of shows are getting canned and reality shows are taking over. That's not good for any of us! I'll see if he can find out anything new for you. I don't know if they have abandoned the stages over at Santa Clarita Studios yet or not. I'll let ya know

I know they shortened the season to 17 episodes to cut costs so we will see what happens. But everone is saying so far that it is not cancelled yet.

Well, canned and canceled are two different things. Canned is kind of like 'shelved'. I heard it was canned. But, in the last year since the writers strike... everything that got canned, ended up being canceled. Did you ever see 'Drive' I was upset when that got canceled. A ton of shows have been canceled that you guys haven't even seen yet. Pilots that never made it to air time. The industry is in a really bad place right now. So, I'm hoping that SAG will sign their damn contracts so everyone can get back to work!
I'll let you know what I find out.

I know they shortened the season to 17 episodes to cut costs so we will see what happens. But everyone is saying so far that it is not canceled yet.

I just wanted to let you know that ******** said that as far as he knew, it was canceled. Started up again and then canceled again. Like I said. The studios are messed up right now. But... He said that he will be going to Santa Clarita Studios tomorrow and if the set is open and running... that he will find out what's going on for you and also if it's open... he'll get some pictures of the set for you if he can. I'll let you know tomorrow. And I'll send you any pictures he is able to get for you.

Cool, I really appreciate ya going out for me like this.

Well, here ya go kiddo. ****** was on the lot today and the stage was closed. He talked to someone that told him it was gonna be canceled. They were out on location so he couldn't get any pictures of the stage for ya. But, he did get some of the cars used that are on the lot as he was driving out. He also pulled this sign for ya. We use these to show people how to get to lots or locations and he thought you may want one. So, he snagged it for you. I'll ship it out to you if you want it. Here's some pictures. He's going back tomorrow and said that if they are there, he'll get some pics on stage for you

Pics










OK, here's the deal.
He just got back and says that the stages are all on lock down. He did talk to the construction coordinator and he said that they are done. Special effects set is already torn down and the others are scheduled to strike as well. (striking sets means tear downs) The only set left is the big metal one that they use as the entrance to the HQ on the show. That one will be last to strike cuz it's the hardest. But, he also said that if for some reason that they pick up again, (you just never really know... these people in this business are fickle lol) that they would be moving all the sets to Universal Studios.

So, there you have it. Everyone in this business lives on the fly and you just never know anymore.


Just thought you guys might like to know...

[Michael Pajaro]

I'm not putting a lot of credibility in the messages. I'm not saying the "informant" is lying, but may just be misinterpreting things. Why use the phrase "cancelled again"? That makes no sense. They were done with most of the filming several weeks ago, so we wouldn't expect there to be a lot of activity. If the show comes back, they probably wouldn't start filming again until maybe July or so, so why would they keep those very valuable soundstages unused? We also heard that they were planning on doing away with the KITT cave (or greatly reducing its importance) so it wouldn't surprise me if that set started to go away.

When shows get cancelled, it tends not to be done in secret: it makes the news. And if it was cancelled "several weeks ago", well I think by now we would have heard something.

It just seems to me that this is a lot of circumstantial evidence.

[taoworm2323]

This sucks so hardcore...

[DevonStyles]

Well honestly who knows.... they are tearing down the sets for a reason I suppose. maybe they will set them up at universal..... Your guess is as good as mine. I just thought I would let everone in on what they said was happening.
We knew something was going on with the shortened season and all that. If you read what they wrote they say the indrustry runs on the fly so to speak.

The ratings for the rest of the episodes need to be spectacular.

[Sue]

I wouldn't worry about it for a number of reasons. First of all when I was on set most everything was in the process of being packed away for hiatus. It's normal for shows to shut down for a time over the holidays. Number two there are lots and lots of people who work on a show. Many of them come in part time as a member of a union. These people seldom know the full story of the shows they are working on. Many of them asked me these questions. If it was canceled what the deal was. When you work on a large show you might not be so privileged as to talk to GST on a daily basis. And if you are just temporary and will be moving on to build your next set you don't worry about it as much. Some were very appreciative that I spent the time to tell them what GST and others had told me.

Also there were other shows being filmed on that same lot who have access and can take the same pictures as you show. When I walked by some of them they were all saying that KR had been canceled because they saw them packing up set. I knew that they were misinformed because I had only just walked away from an interview with Paul Campbell on how it was not canceled. So its easy to see on a large lot how rumors can spread.

This is why the two GST videos are so important. He is open and honest about what is happening. There is always the chance it could be canceled yes if it doesn't do well. But right now the ratings are going up and things are looking very very hopeful for us.

So chin up.

[vespurrs]

Well... I hope it's not cancelled, and that's about all I can say. I've been enjoying the show a LOT more than I thought I would, given my devotion to the original. I'd love to see this new series succeed and continue.

[Sue]

Oh and I have official KR signs too.. only mine weren't stolen from the parking lot.

krsign.jpg (65.15 KiB) Viewed 20158 times

...And I love how his pictures were taken out his truck window for a quick get away.

[Faithful Car KRO]

This is more like "bad speculations" rather than bad news.
Debby Downer.

[TravisKnight01]

No offense to the orignal poster but this guy sounded like he wanted to stir the pot with the whole knight rider community.We had gst say it was not cancled or canned.As said above they finished filming the 17th episode not to long ago.I think were still in a good postion for a second season not a great postion but a good one.Right now the series is hitting its stride.


Travis

[Faithful Car KRO]

No offense to the orignal poster but this guy sounded like he wanted to stir the pot with the whole knight rider community.We had gst say it was not cancled or canned.As said above they finished filming the 17th episode not to long ago.I think were still in a good postion for a second season not a great postion but a good one.Right now the series is hitting its stride.


Travis

You nailed it, no better words could be said!

[Lexicon]

I think they are striking the SSC set because it's no longer needed with the transition to FLAG as it's not common practice to strike large key sets in most studios due to the complexity and expense of set builds these days unless the studio prefers it or the show is moving to another studio. I will say with absolute certainty that there is a good chance the show may be canceled given the conditions existing at this moment in time but I don't think they will issue a public statement confirming the show is canceled until the ratings are completely unsatisfactory for them, another strike occurs, or Ford pulls out of the show all together. Any of those three things will destroy the show.

[Knight Racer]

Well at least the cars haven't been destroyed yet.This was the final sign of the old kr being cancelled.

[Lexicon]

Well at least the cars haven't been destroyed yet.This was the final sign of the old kr being cancelled.

They weren't destroyed though many of the Pontiac donated Trans Am cars were destroyed during production due to the nature of the Turbo Boost stunts. The driving/hero cars were put in storage at Universal and sold off to collectors and car museums at some point. George Barris had a few which were later put up for auction, Hasselhoff had at least one which he sold, and it is rumored that Glen Larson had one but nobody has substantiated that. They found one of the screen-used cars in good condition in storage recently and I think it underwent a minor restoration and got used for some KR related thing.

[Shredder565]

Assuming this guy is the real deal as far as the 'informant' goes, this could be one of two things:

Viral Marketing, where something that is supposedly' secret' gets 'leaked' to the fans and the fans spread
the news. I hate viral marketing .

Some guy who is a janitor, or someone who visited the set for one day, or even a paparatzi. As someone else noted, it's funny how he took the picture from the car as if he just took a second to drive past it. If you had permission to be on the Knight set, wouldn't you want to get out and take pictures from all angles?

[WIBoomer1]

Having gone thru a lay-off from one of the largest companies in the US in the last year, all I have to say on this is the bosses would never publicly say that the deal is off, on or otherwise until the action is taken. Bosses want everyone to work at full capacity until they are no longer needed...

I'm not implying that GST is lying to us. I just think that all we can really do is to try to get more people to watch KR in the next 2 weeks to ensure it's survival for a 2nd season.

[GT500KR]

NBC should step up.........need more KR promo's...........maybe they are some i dont watch NBC that much except for The Office, KR and Leno

[knightriderfan80]

If I remember correctly didn't the Original Series struggle with ratings into the mid-second season? Then it got much better? If this is true then NBC should realize that some shows just take a while to get a jump start and that could be that NBC is waiting for which seems to be happening slowly but surely.

[DavidKnight]

In my opinion there are too many people, who watch the show via internet even in the US. However I'm from Europe and i'm downloading all the episodes every thursday (you know, time zones suck) too, but if i had a better opportunity to support, i would do it. I can imagine that if the number of downloads count, the KR would definitely survive. On the other hand I'm sure that with these ratings KR could not reuturn for a second season, even with the support of Ford. I see a vicious circle around the show by the way. The financical/economical crisis, the threat that one of the "Big Three" will go bankrupt (it could be the Ford actually), and the ratings are all working against Knight Rider.

[Shredder565]

Sadly, TV Executives have been spoiled by reality shows and series like Survivor.

If it doesn't get 10,000,000 eyes watching it right off the bat, and keep up that pace, anything under
that is considered a dismal failure. Hard to believe TV was actually classier back in the 80's and 90's ..
Syndication was still around and things where given a bit more of a chance..

[bige]

The show is going through a reboot process trying to get the show to like how the orginial series, I know that FLAG is coming back so they will probally tear down the SSC set then build the FLAG set, I think there will be more on location shooting, instead of on the set shooting, I could be wrong with that. I also heard that visual effect studio has been moved to where the Visual Effects people work at now., if you take a look at the on the news section of this site. so that is the reason for the Visual effects set was teared down on the other set.

[Vegasmike]

Well at least the cars haven't been destroyed yet.This was the final sign of the old kr being cancelled.

They weren't destroyed though many of the Pontiac donated Trans Am cars were destroyed during production due to the nature of the Turbo Boost stunts. The driving/hero cars were put in storage at Universal and sold off to collectors and car museums at some point. George Barris had a few which were later put up for auction, Hasselhoff had at least one which he sold, and it is rumored that Glen Larson had one but nobody has substantiated that. They found one of the screen-used cars in good condition in storage recently and I think it underwent a minor restoration and got used for some KR related thing.

I thought an original (KI2T) car was found and was restored by Marks Custom Kits in Florida?

[Mr.Marcus]

The set being torn down means nothing. Every show has their set torn down once they go on hiatus. People mistakingly believe that the set just stays up collecting dust in b/w seasons. Just like any other industry they maintain efficiency by cutting costs and streamlining processes. They utilize that space for other projects, storage, what have you. When the show comes back from hiatus they rebuild everything.

However, I do agree that the reboot is a last ditch effort and if the numbers aren't there it will be canceled. I think its effectively canceled at this point ie. all marketing, promotion, preliminary contracts, etc. have been trimmed down or completely cut. That's the 500 lb. Gorilla in the room that no one wants to admit. Official cancellation won't happen for some time but a network makes that public once their ducks are in a row, when their new fall lineup is put together and ready to be announced. Even then a network won't always come out and say a show is canceled but its assumed b/c the show is no longer on the fall lineup. I think that's the projected path for KR. All is going to be quiet until the Fall 09 lineup comes out and KR is gone.

[KittKattBar]

Is FLAG really going to come back? That could make for a hell of a storyline. FLAG comes back and gives the FBI the thick leather boot. I just don't like the idea of Michael and KITT being the government's you-know-whats.

[z00story]

I cannot speculate on the future of KR, because I simply do not know. However, I can tell you this, from my experience on TV shows both past and present, and as someone who worked on a show during the writer's strike last year.

Right now, both post production and visual effects are still alive and kicking at the studios, working hard to finish this season of KR.

On every hour long drama, production always finishes first, then they pack things up and lock down the sets. That's always, always, always the way it is. Now, if a show knows, for 100% sure (which is rare) they are returning, then they lock down the set. They leave everything in there and literally lock it up for 3 months.

It's rare that they do this though, even if a show is guaranteed to return. They usually use this as an opportunity to change sets, re-design things, prep for the next season.

So there will always be a process of emptying out stages, cleaning things up, and then a hiatus for the production.

But rest assured, many of us are still up there working hard.

[ElectricPhantom]

I cannot speculate on the future of KR, because I simply do not know. However, I can tell you this, from my experience on TV shows both past and present, and as someone who worked on a show during the writer's strike last year.

Right now, both post production and visual effects are still alive and kicking at the studios, working hard to finish this season of KR.

On every hour long drama, production always finishes first, then they pack things up and lock down the sets. That's always, always, always the way it is. Now, if a show knows, for 100% sure (which is rare) they are returning, then they lock down the set. They leave everything in there and literally lock it up for 3 months.

It's rare that they do this though, even if a show is guaranteed to return. They usually use this as an opportunity to change sets, re-design things, prep for the next season.

So there will always be a process of emptying out stages, cleaning things up, and then a hiatus for the production.

But rest assured, many of us are still up there working hard.

Thank you for clearing that up for us, to coin a phrase, straight from one of the horses' mouth (so to speak). I believe that helps to ease some of the concerns many of us have on the future of the show.