Knight Rider fans have to be viewing the show’s return as a regular series on NBC this fall with some ambivalence. After all, while the two-hour TV film that acted as the new series’ pilot attracted a huge audience, there aren’t many people who watched it that actually like it. It’s now Gary Scott Thompson’s job to make the audience forget that and be comfortable coming back to watch Knight Rider every week.

“I’m frantically making those changes right now,” Thompson told Inside Line, when asked if there were going to be any significant differences between February’s TV movie and the series. “We’re determined to not have another Bionic Woman,” he said, referencing the series revival NBC undertook last year that collapsed in the ratings under the weight of its own pretensions. And he sees the series as something unique from the movie. “There’s the original series. There’s the two-hour movie. And now there’s the new series,” he explains.

Still, expect a lot of familiar faces to migrate from the movie to the series. Justin Bruening will return as KITT’s primary conversational partner, Deanna Russo and Sydney Tamiia Poitier will be back to provide feminine support and Bruce Davison will be on board to lend gravitas as the genius — sorry, super-genius — behind the KITT’s construction. And KITT’s voice will continue to be provided by Val Kilmer.

Thompson was coy about David Hasselhoff coming back as Michael Knight, who it was established in the film, is the father of Justin Bruening’s character. There can’t, however, be any possible downside to adding some serious ‘Hoff street cred to any production.

Also returning will be a bunch of Mustangs portraying the Shelby GT500KR that serves as the base for KITT itself. “KITT is still the Shelby,” says Thompson. “But the ‘attack mode’ is completely different. We’re going to see a lot of cool stuff. A thousand times cooler than the morphing we’ve seen before. As my kid said, ‘Big deal, our car can talk.’ “Yeah, but can it do this? Or that?’ It’s the ‘do that’ that will be different.” For the individual who paid $300,000 during the March Barrett-Jackson auction in Florida for two of the Mustangs used in the film’s production (including the attack mode KITT), that the series will feature a different attack version of the car may not be good news.

“There will also be a new base — a top secret lab, a KITT cave — that will be super-awesome,” Thompson says, though he leaves open the possibility that both the original series rolling-lab semi and the airplane from the film will return in some form as well.

For many of the original show’s fans however, that KITT could talk was wholly inconsequential. What really sold the show for them was the series of ludicrous leaps and hard-core stunts performed by that old Pontiac every week. Is “turbo boost” coming back? And will KITT fly again? “There will be some version of turbo boost. But jumping destroys cars and Ford isn’t giving us that many cars.

“You’re going to see some stunts. We’re doing an hour movie every week. We want the ‘wow’ factor.”

Here’s Inside Line’s bit of unsolicited advice to Thompson: Do whatever you have to do get KITT up in the air every week. Cut the catering budget, scour Craigslist for cheap Mustangs, beg Ford super hard for more cars, because what Knight Rider needs more than anything else is some truly ludicrous stunts. If you’re not wrecking a Mustang every week, there’s something wrong.

What this means to you: If you’re an actor, production starts in June and you might be cast! For the rest of us, we’ll all give Knight Rider yet another chance when it debuts in its latest form this September.

Source: InsideLine