There is an old saying that everything old will be made new. It goes hand in hand wit the Biblical quote stating that there is nothing new under the sun. Although these sayings originated in the distant past they might have well have been coined to descript the entertainment industry of today. One of the most recently mined sources of script ideas is the seventies television series. All the shows that we baby boomers enjoyed in our early adult years are becoming movies or even ‘new’ TV series. I’m almost expecting ‘Leave it to Beaver’ to become a hip-hop dance musical any minute now. One of the cult classic shows of the early to mid eighties was ‘Knight Rider’. It had everything a guy could want; the rugged hero drove around in a super high tech, talking car while solving crime and making out with one beautiful woman after another. This series combined the two of the three things that occupy a young man’s mind, women and cars. If only the writers were able to work in some sports they could have hit the male trifecta. This series has another place in the guy’s hall of fame. It made David Hasselhoff a star which directly leads to the ultimate male fantasy series on television, ‘Baywatch’. In keeping with ‘original’ ideas in Hollywood being twenty five years old there is a new and improved ‘Knight Rider’ on the horizon. The studios do realize that bringing a show back after a generation is risky so they tested the waters with a pilot movie. It must have been a success since the new series has been announced for the fall of 2008. It was with some trepidation that I watched this flick. As a fan of the original series I didn’t want to see a pale shadow trying to take its place. I have to admit the flick was more than enjoyable. It brought back a lot of the same corny action that we loved back in the eighties. Sure it is camp and at times silly but then again so was the original and that was a large part of what made it popular. Now, in preparation for the series’ official debut the movie is available on DVD.

The writer, Dave Andron has an episode of the shorted lived Jeff Goldblum series ‘Raines’. Credit was naturally given to Glen A. Larson for the creation of the basic characters and situations. The script is weak. It would barely hold as a single 44 minute episode and is stretched out to the 81 minute running time of this pilot movie. In some ways this can be forgiven. This is a reboot of a popular show where many people in the audience know the fundamental premise. There is a loner who gets to drive around in a high tech car fighting the bad guys. What Andron had to do was reintroducing the basic plot and add some modicum of a rational for the changes. There is a story arc of the creator of the super car, K.I.T.T. and a means to get the required beautiful young woman in the mix. A lot of the story is just driving around with the driver and car verbally sparing. If you remember the original series at all this was pretty much every episode so you can’t fault Andron too much for staying true to the lack of strong stories that was a hallmark of the 1982 series. People who deride Andron for his script should check out the old stories. His screenplay here is weak but it is acceptable for the specific TV genre.

You might not recognize the name Steve Shill but he is one of the most sought out directors and producers in television. He wears both hats here and the series is fortunate to have him connected with this project. The list of series that he has worked on reads like a ‘best of television’ registry. He has had a hand in ‘Dexter’, ‘Kill Point’, ‘The Tudors’, ‘West Wing’ and all of the ‘Law & Order Franchise to name just a small number of the hits in his resume. This also demonstrates this man has the ability to go deep with a series if the content calls for it. Here, he takes a lighter approach knowing the movie was a pilot for a series intended to be a lot of fun. It appears that Shill took the viewpoint of the fan in crafting his directorial style. He keeps the story moving along at a fast clip. As with any film or series intended for regular television he has the additional constraint of having to pace the action in such a way that commercial breaks can be incorporated. This may seem easy but it has to be one of the biggest differences between directing for film and TV. Shill provides the necessary exposition at the right moments spreading it out over the course of the movie to keep it from overloading the viewer. As with any origins comic book this pilot has to go further with the techno babble than hopefully will be present in the series to follow. Shill does handle the human interactions better than was done in the original series. The most important thing is Shill keeps the action going and the story moving.

The movie starts one night near the home of recluse scientist Charles Graiman.( Bruce Davison). His home is invaded by a group of men looking for Prometheus, a top secret project for the Department of Defense. Graiman has a heart attack and the raid is foiled. Cut to Mike Traceur (Justin Bruening), a ex army ranger who has a reputation for being a loner. He is awakened from his slumbers by his friend Dylan Fass (Wayne Kasserman) who happens to have a great talent for anything automotive. It seems that Traceur has a gambling debt for $90,000 and the bookie is getting anxious. He tries to get out of there but his car breaks down. Meanwhile, FBI agent Carrie Rivai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) learns of the death of Graiman and starts to investigate. This leads us to Geriman’s daughter Sarah (Deanna Russo) who is a PhD candidate at Stanford working on nanotechnology. She has been estranged from her father but gets pulled into the investigation anyway. She gets a mysterious phone call warning her of danger. Just then the thugs try to grab her but K.I.T.T. (voiced by Val Kilmer) swoops in to save her; he also made the call so I guess he comes equipped with a super version of OnStar. Okay, she Sarah was childhood friends with Mike; he is talked into drive K.I.T.T. and chase the bad guys. This car is much more advanced than the old model. Thanks to nanotechnology it can disguise itself as another vehicle, repair itself and runs on gasoline; so much for a green friendly super car.

This pilot movie is successful in bringing back the look and feel of the original series. There are some technical problems to work out such as the time where the bad guys can hack into K.I.T.T. It appears that they spent millions of it but forgot to put in a wireless router with a firewall. Overall this is a reasonable guilty pleasure that will draw in new fans to the franchise and not insult the old school fans.