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.

… Read the full story »