Jan 7, 2009

Knight Rider Gets Midseason Retooling

Now don't get me wrong: I'm a hardcore fan of any decent sci-fi show that tries hard enough to survive in today's harsh ratings environment, said ratings system having racked up more victims than a kid playing Doom 3 or World of Warcraft.

As much of the last season's sci-fi based shows mostly fell under the dreaded axe of cancellation, primetime sci-fi in the 2008-2009 season has become dangerous, uneven ground.

Take Knight Rider, one of the few shows to get a full season order from NBC. Despite having gotten a great start to their series (thanks to decent action sequences, spellbiding visuals, and an arse-kicking revamped KITT for the 21st Century (with a voice by Val Kilmer to boot), NBC has decided to eliminate several cast members, in order to trim the fat, from what I must agree in some respects is a very cast-heavy series.

Unlike Lost, which boasts an impressive cast of over 16 fully developed characters, Knight Rider has the main guy, Michael Knight (really Mike Traceur, but having to die to officially stay off the books, he adopts his father's -- yup, the Hoff -- identity, that of Michael Knight.

However, whereas His Royal Hoffness traveled the roads of America, "a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless" (you guys remember the opening credits of the original '82 show), this Michael Knight is but one cog in a much larger wheel, which operates on a much larger scale than that of the back of a semi trailer.

Based in an underground lair staffed by unseen dozens, perhaps hundreds, the foundation has the car's original designer, Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison), his genius daughter Sarah (Deanna Russo), savvy techs Billy and Zoe (Paul Campbell and Smith Cho), as well as government agents Torres and Rivai (Yancy Arias and Sydney Tamiia Poitier -- yeah she's that Poitier's kid). Oh, and there's KITT of course, duh.

Being the main core group of characters of the show, the producers must have felt that there was way too much of a supporting group for the tale of one champion and his way cool gadget car. As such, NBC has decided to get rid of the car's creator, and the feds working in the background.

That being said, those poor folks had little more to do in the shows than Uhura did in most old Trek episodes , and so either for simplicity's sake or just to shave a few thousands on wht must be an already considerable budget, the NBC brass opted to revert to the old formula, and have the hero and his possible love interest (Mike and Sarah were once lovers, and now play the silly game of lookyloo), along with the youthful techies, assisting people all over the country.

Since most of the plotlines so far involved highly classified devices, or dangerous high level government rogues, the new storylines will likely reflect much of the original series, with lower villains bent on thievery, fraud, terror, or what not. It remains to be seen whether they'll operate out of the back of a semi (though the movie pilot back in February '08 did have Kitt exiting a large cargo plane in reverse, old style), but the writers and producers will need to inject the show with much more exciting storylines, and more dynamic writing.

My suggestion? Bring in some comic book writers, and have them take stabs at the characters. Hey, it worked for the most recent season on Lost!