When I think of shows I liked as a kid, it’s hard not to include Knight Rider in any sort of list. Sure, it was a fairly cheesy show, but a lot of 80s shows were like that. I was pretty excited when I heard NBC was bringing back KITT. The only concern I had was the driver. David Hasselhoff has moved on to other things, so who would be brought in?
Justin Bruening was chosen to play Michael Knight’s son, Mike Traceur. In the pilot movie which aired quite a while ago, he wasn’t particularly impressive. Traceur was a typical, young womanizer and generally unappealing character.
Deanna Russo as Sarah Graiman and Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur
The plot of this TV-movie was rather simple: bad guys wanted the technology developed by a scientist responsible for KITT and some satellites. The guys come after the scientist and then go after his daughter since she knows about his work.
I consider the Knight Rider a fairly typical TV movie, typically a movie you’d never want to spend money for tickets to see it in a theatre. The CGI wasn’t as bad as I’ve seen in most TV movies, but it wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring either.
With any handsome leading man (Justin Bruening), there must also be an attractive leading lady. New Jersey-born Deanna Russo filled those shoes here, playing the role of the scientist’s daughter. Neither Bruening nor Russo will likely ever win an Emmy for an acting performance, but again, it’s a TV movie… my expectations aren’t high.
K.I.T.T.
As for the real leading man, Val Kilmer portrayed KITT after Will Arnett was pulled due to a conflict between General Motors and Ford. Arnett did some work with GM and Ford didn’t want him voicing their Ford Mustang, more or less. KITT has had some pretty nice improvements over the old TransAm I recall in the old series. Being able to drive itself is required, of course, but some of the abilities (able to get near real-time satellite imagery) are a little silly.
As a Pilot, I thought this was a decent way to start out the series. It isn’t great, but I’ve seen far worse pilots and TV movies. Neither the writing nor the acting will likely impress anyone.
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