What Glen Larson thought of TKR and KR08

[Knight Racer]

Ever wondered what the original creator of knight rider felt about the remakes? I sure have. I thought his opinion on the matter would have been lost to us forever but I'm glad it came up in an interview before he passed.


https://youtu.be/zEiRHwEH1eY

[Assasinge]

That was a very clear explanation of what a disaster TKR and KR 08 were, words taken right out of my mouth. I'm sure almost everyone here can agree with the late Mr. Larson's words...

[KFCreator]

I don't agree with his words. First off, and this is purely just a minor correction to him, it was 5 people and 5 vehicles, not 6, in Team Knight Rider. Secondly, it wasn't a "disaster." If memory serves (and I've googled it and come up with nothing to see what the actual ratings were during the entire series' run), the show started off very strong in ratings and then steadily declined, just as Knight Rider 2008 did. In terms of quality for each of them, I re-watched all of KR 2008 a few months ago and I cringed just as much at every bad line of dialogue, awkward situation, and attempt at humor as when it aired. I still liked certain moments, characters, and episodes very much, but it just lacked consistency. It's one of those series that took too long to try to find it's footing and was just too immature in a lot of it's tastes. Immediately after that, I re-watched all of TKR for probably the first time since they aired, and actually, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I hardly cringed at all, although there were a few times. But the dialogue was better than the 2008 series overall, the action was almost entirely practical effects vs. CGI (i.e. more realism), there were very few overtly sexual scenes, and the humor was sometimes dry but not childish. TKR also was cheesy in a way that the original series was and KR 2008 lacked. But then again, TKR aired in 1997-1998, at the same time we had shows like Lois & Clark, Buffy, Xena, and Hercules,all of which embraced cheesiness to varying levels and it worked.

I personally think both TKR and Knight Rider 2008 could have become much better than they were had they been given a chance at a second season. Many shows learn from their first season mistakes and become great. I cringe so many times watching season 1 of Star Trek: TNG (and even season 2 had some real duds), but by season 3 it had solidified in a way that made people take notice. I think the same could have happened for TKR and KR 2008.

I think Mr. Larson was just annoyed that both shows didn't follow his recipe of the original series. But you're talking about trying to recreate lightning in a bottle and the original series was, in a lot of ways, a product of its time. The world itself had changed drastically between the end of the original series and TKR, and changed more drastically yet again between then and the 2008 series. You can't copy/paste the original KR formula into a late nineties or late 2000's time period and expect it to work the same. It had to be modified and the brains behind both revivals knew that and they also tried to appeal to the tastes of our culture at those times too. I think most of what made the original series work so well could be duplicated for a new audience today with the right creative talent and understanding of the material, but Mr. Larson seemed to almost suggest in that interview that only he knew what was best for the franchise, and that irritates me.

[Assasinge]

Man, wasn't he like 70 or 80 something at the time of the video? Go figure man.

[snafu]

TKR and KR08 were far from perfect. I just like that they featured AIs in vehicles. There are parts that annoy me about each series that I felt were added for pure stupidity: the dry-humping in the last aired episode of KR08, the grade-school banter TKR and the way they made Attack Beast sound like he was always misfiring. (if that's supposed to be the TritonV8, it barely makes any noise at all unless you floor it or run straight pipes)

[jup]

In my area, Team Knight Rider only aired during the mid-day airings on an off name channel that would become FOX. And I imagine the show had similar bad slots in other places around the Earth.

And the effects had to be real stunts. For, I remember the 'Action Pack' people whom were making these shows trying for a Centaur on their Hercules show on a TV budget for CG of it's day. It was bad. Really bad. Looked like the CG was just barely able to make it even happen.

[KFCreator]

As far as I could tell, the extent of the CGI in TKR was the graphics of the vehicles on screen rotating around whenever they spoke, the missiles/lasers/EMP pulses the vehicles periodically fired, and parts of the building collapsing in the final episode (which also featured questionable blue screening and interior explosions). Aside from that, every other outdoor explosion, crash, etc was pretty much all practical effects. And man, did they go all out for some those.

I will say that while the CGI for the 2008 series was pretty good overall, it was unnecessary in a lot of scenes. For instance, why did they have the CGI the outdoor scenery whenever there was an interior shot of characters whenever they sat inside KITT? Especially when driving? Wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to just mount cameras to the sides of the vehicle like they did for the original series? It would have looked 100% realistic that way too. Sometimes, I just don't get VFX decisions on TV shows.

[Assasinge]

Wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to just mount cameras to the sides of the vehicle like they did for the original series? It would have looked 100% realistic that way too. Sometimes, I just don't get VFX decisions on TV shows.

Shhhh...then they would actually have to walk outside and move their bodies and everything man!

[james olden]

I don't agree with his words. First off, and this is purely just a minor correction to him, it was 5 people and 5 vehicles, not 6, in Team Knight Rider. Secondly, it wasn't a "disaster." If memory serves (and I've googled it and come up with nothing to see what the actual ratings were during the entire series' run), the show started off very strong in ratings and then steadily declined, just as Knight Rider 2008 did. In terms of quality for each of them, I re-watched all of KR 2008 a few months ago and I cringed just as much at every bad line of dialogue, awkward situation, and attempt at humor as when it aired. I still liked certain moments, characters, and episodes very much, but it just lacked consistency. It's one of those series that took too long to try to find it's footing and was just too immature in a lot of it's tastes. Immediately after that, I re-watched all of TKR for probably the first time since they aired, and actually, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I hardly cringed at all, although there were a few times. But the dialogue was better than the 2008 series overall, the action was almost entirely practical effects vs. CGI (i.e. more realism), there were very few overtly sexual scenes, and the humor was sometimes dry but not childish. TKR also was cheesy in a way that the original series was and KR 2008 lacked. But then again, TKR aired in 1997-1998, at the same time we had shows like Lois & Clark, Buffy, Xena, and Hercules,all of which embraced cheesiness to varying levels and it worked.

I personally think both TKR and Knight Rider 2008 could have become much better than they were had they been given a chance at a second season. Many shows learn from their first season mistakes and become great. I cringe so many times watching season 1 of Star Trek: TNG (and even season 2 had some real duds), but by season 3 it had solidified in a way that made people take notice. I think the same could have happened for TKR and KR 2008.

I think Mr. Larson was just annoyed that both shows didn't follow his recipe of the original series. But you're talking about trying to recreate lightning in a bottle and the original series was, in a lot of ways, a product of its time. The world itself had changed drastically between the end of the original series and TKR, and changed more drastically yet again between then and the 2008 series. You can't copy/paste the original KR formula into a late nineties or late 2000's time period and expect it to work the same. It had to be modified and the brains behind both revivals knew that and they also tried to appeal to the tastes of our culture at those times too. I think most of what made the original series work so well could be duplicated for a new audience today with the right creative talent and understanding of the material, but Mr. Larson seemed to almost suggest in that interview that only he knew what was best for the franchise, and that irritates me.

knignt rider 2008 screwed up alot of things which could've been cleared up if it could've got a second season like filling in the gaps from 1986-2008 but the main issue they should've never screwed up from the beginning was.....
not involving the Hoff (he could've been the Devon miles character) he was only in pilot movie that was a cameo appearance.

[kitt34]

They both are horrible, lack the charm of the original period, everything after the original KR was junk, KR 2000 was ok, but still not the best.

[tharpdevenport]

In my KR universe, "Team Knight Rider", "Knight Rider 2000", and "Knight Rider" 2008 never happened.

[Assasinge]

In my KR universe, "Team Knight Rider", "Knight Rider 2000", and "Knight Rider" 2008 never happened.

Agreed.

[tharpdevenport]

And I've only seen the work print copy of the pilot of "Code of Vengeance" that was linked to here years ago (it's gone now from Youtube). It changed the character almost completely from "Mouth of the Snake", so if the rest of the episodes are like that pilot, I want to erase that spin off, too.

[Mechanicjay]

I just watched a bunch of those 3 minute clips from Glen. A. Larson. Those were fun, thanks!

In a sense though he's right, the theme of the show is basically "The Lone Ranger in a Car" -- deviating from that formula is clearly fraught, as is evidenced by the subsequent series.

[KFCreator]

Everybody has their preferences of what they want to officially acknowledge as canon and what buff they don't. We see it all the time with fans of other franchises like Star Trek (with a lot of die-hard fans absolutely hating the Abrams-verse), and Star Wars (first with the classic fans hating on the prequel films, then legions more hating on it after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, even though all of the films since The Force Awakens have actually been really really good).

For myself though, I have learned that just because the quality of something committed to screen may leave much to be desired, it doesn't automatically invalidate it as part of a franchise's canon. I'll take the bad with the good, and that means accepting that Knight Rider 2000, Team Knight Rider, and Knight Rider 2008 all are part of the canon. But even though there's a lot that I hated about some of these, I'm trying to fix some of it with the Knight Rider Generations novel I'm working on, and at the same time I'm realizing that it can all fit together into a cohesive timeline with only a few obvious glaring issues that will need some creative licensing to explain away.

But again, to each their own, I suppose.

[kitt34]

In my KR universe, "Team Knight Rider", "Knight Rider 2000", and "Knight Rider" 2008 never happened.

and Knight Rider 2010 should have never happened either.

[KFCreator]

Knight Rider 2010 is the only thing that I consider not part of the canon and that's because it's only related to Knight Rider in name only. In no other way does it have any ties whatsoever to anything in any of the other series.

[jup]

Believe it or not, Knight Rider 2010 WAS the continued adventures of Michael Knight and his faithful super car, KITT.

We can only guess as to how...seeing how lawyers stopped that whole story line dead in it's tracks and somehow let the words 'Knight' and 'Rider' be the only things they got away with. -AND- Those lawsuits stalled out the Action Pack so badly, KR2010 became the series farewell episode. (Until season two started up with a whole revised approach to making more traditional shows.) And from that, came Team Knight Rider. (Which I have ALWAYS considered to be a fan fiction with a big budget.)

I was so excited for Knight Rider 2000 when it had promise of premiering. That excitement was so lost when I actually saw how the premier was turning out.

As for the Star Wars prequels...I went into them with an open mind. And left every one a bit soured. Part one was clearly Jar-Jar's fault. I'm finding it harder to remember exactly why I wasn't satisfied with the second and third parts. I do remember thinking that part two had what was probably the lamest love plot in all of film history. But, was it also the film that had an insanely political heavy front end. Then acted like a shot of adrenaline in the second half with non-stop action? Or was that in part three. Because, I do tend to remember the politics becoming dreadfully dull and numbing, only to start hating at the action when it was piled on in heaps for far too long.

I was trying to use this footage as reference for reminding myself of why I didn't care for the prequels too much. ( https://youtu.be/VV5tR8Gayk4 ) But, I'm also starting to smirk at the notion that Lucas Arts and/or Disney also seem to care so little about the prequels, that they literally haven't struck down this edited version of the two movies in almost three years since it's posting on 'May the Fourth Be With You' in 2015.

[krrdr2010]

I Like TKR and KR:2008.

[krrdr2010]

I said Like-I LOVE TKR AND KR:2008.