Knight Rider is a series that follows the 1982 TV series of the same title and the 2008 television movie. The series stars Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur, the estranged son of Michael Knight. The series also stars Deanna Russo as Sarah Graiman, Traceur's former girlfriend/current love interest. Sarah is daughter of Charles Graiman, played by Bruce Davison, the creator of a new generation of KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand), voiced by Val Kilmer.
In advance of its anticipated weekly run, the new Knight Rider series was introduced with a television movie on February 17, 2008. The new series premiered on NBC on September 24,
2008 and leads the network's Wednesday evening lineup, along with Deal or No Deal and Lipstick Jungle. During the fall season there will be encore showings on Saturday evenings. On October 21, 2008, NBC gave the show a full season order of 22 episodes. All of the episodes that aired on TV, are also available in the Xbox Live Marketplace. The episodes are available in HD format and SD format.
On November 10, 2008 it was announced that NBC was reformatting the show in an effort to more closely resemble the storyline of its predecessor. Yancey Arias, Bruce Davison, and Sydney Tamiia Poitier's characters are being removed from the series starting with a two part episode scheduled to air in January 2009. The show will continue with a more character driven focus on Michael and KITT.
On December 3, 2008, it was announced that NBC was reducing its season order to 17 episodes.
The five remaining scripts will be utilized if the show is renewed for a second season. The season finale is scheduled to air on March 4, 2009.
Knight Industries Three Thousand (K.I.T.T.)
For the series premiere, many new features in KITT were introduced in addition to those seen on the pilot movie. As an homage to the original KITT's Super Pursuit Mode, the new KITT transforms into Attack Mode - a significantly more aggressive version than the Attack Mode depicted in the pilot movie, which consisted primarily of an extended rear spoiler. KITT also transforms into a Ford F-150 FX4 pickup truck for off-road purposes, a Ford E-150 van, Ford Flex, and Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor vehicles for disguise purposes. The series also demonstrated capabilities such as KITT's Turbo Boost, allowing KITT to briefly become airborne, and submergibility, maintaining system integrity and life support for occupants while underwater. Also installed in KITT are a grappling hook, a laser that originates from his scanner bar, defensive flares, offensive missiles, a dart gun, and an EMP Weapon.
The interior of the vehicle has been reworked, with the single display screen on the center console replaced by touch-enabled head-up displays spanning the entire interior surface of the windscreen. The removal of the center console screen has also seen KITT's "presence" indicator, reminiscent of the original series KITT's voice modulator, appearing in a pulsing orb mounted high in the middle of the dashboard with a dot in the middle that shifts over to "look" at whomever he's talking to. Other interior changes include a more conventional steering wheel, replacing the previously seen 3/4 steering wheel, blue lighting in the dashboard over the driver's-side instrumentation and the passenger-side console that becomes red whenever KITT is in Attack Mode, and a standard Mustang rear seat instead of the super-computer laden rear seat of the movie KITT. The interior of 4x4 Mode uses the same customized Mustang dashboard, but the F-150's passenger and driver's seats. KITT also carries a backup mainframe that he can reboot to in the event his primary is damaged.
KITT's technology includes a Surface Screen program, enabling the hood to operate as a touchscreen display, similar to the internal head-up displays, a printer in the passenger-side console, and a 3D Object Generator in the rear passenger compartment, as well as a self-destruct program.
