As a child of the 80’s Knightrider was a staple of my Saturday afternoon entertainment and to this day remains a show I hold dear to my heart. So as you can imagine the abortive attempt at a reboot leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and is , without a doubt, a topic worthly of this series.
As always I am not delving to far into the relm of fan fiction and sticking to the basics of the premise.
1. Keep the car.
As much as it pains me to admit it keeping a 20 year old car as the star of the show is a bad idea, for one thing having Ford custom make the cars for the series saves budgetery costs and for another why the hell would The Foundation not upgrade the vechile over time. In any case the important part of the car is Kitt himself.
2. Upgrade the Original KITT.
For starters keep William Daniels as the voice – he is as much a star of the show as the Hoff was. Secondly make the computer an upgrade of the original 2000 model, Knight industries 3000 is a dumb name but a variation on the original name that would ensure the abrivation of KITT would still make sense would be a much better idea. Additonally the dynamic of KITT breaking in a new partner would be a fun one, especially when mixed loyalites might come into play with point 3.
3. Promote Micheal Knight.
Rather than the Hoff makeing a one off appearance I would have promoted him to the “Devon” role from the original show. Have him as the CEO of Knight Industries who are working with the government on a relaunch of the crime fighting program he used to front. Of course as a nod to the old series his car could be the old Pontiac from the 80’s show and it could still have a few gadgets of its own, that way you could always bring him out from behind the desk for a couple of eppisodes when needed.
4. A Better lead:
The charater was terrible, he really was and to be honest making him the Hoff’s son was a bit lame. I really can’t think of anyway to make the charater work so he would need a total revamp. One idea might be to have him be a tech guy who stumbles into the role, that way KITT could end up as a sort of mentor/teacher who helps him become a hero. Even that half an idea is better than making him a carbon copy of Micheal Knight