Sunday night on NBC is like 80's night with American Gladiators followed by Knight Rider.

I'm just waiting until they run out of ideas in Season 2 and have to bring back Michael Knight's evil goateed twin, Garth Knight.

I hear Gary Coleman isn't too busy if they want to bring back Diff'rent Strokes for a lead-in.

Of course, they'll have to wait for Todd Bridges to get work release and Dana....well....

I hear she's really well-preserved....

The only redeeming qualities of that show were the car and the hunky star. Jeesh what a disappointment. The clincher was when K.I.T.T started quoting scripture! WHAT??!! This in the same show where the star is first shown in bed...with TWO women! At least he looks great with his shirt off and we know we can count on seeing a lot of that. And Val Kilmer's voice for the car is just boring. Why not use an electronic voice, it would be expected and they'd save a load of cash that way.

Maybe it's been too long since I watched a show on "live" TV (sans DVR/Tivo/etc.), but the actual show time ratio to commercials was absolutely ridiculous. Plus the multi-part Ford commercial?! Gimme a break! More Hoff or I'm out (and no Devin?!)

NEW COMMENTER EXTREMELY VERBOSE RANT ALERT!

Hello Jalopnik! I have been a faithful reader of the Jalopnik ever since you had the awesome Dodge Nitro competition, in which I submitted an excellent (yet losing) entrance of a Dodge Nitro atop a hill of dead bunny rabbits. I usually just enjoy the posts and the comments...but now I feel it is time for me to enter the fray, should I be deemed worthy.

I have been waiting for a new "Knight Rider" since...well...since the day after the old one went off the air. I watched "Viper" and, while I loved the "MASK"-like nature of the vehicle in that show, it just never had the cheesy charm of "Knight Rider".

The new "Knight Rider" had me excited, but I knew that it was going to suck...but hopefully it would suck like the old one sucked. It was what I like to call "shitastic".

Anyway, I was and was not disappointed. I see a lot of bitching about the new show that I think is unwarranted. First of all...if you thought the new KR was going to be say, as good as "The Black Donnelly's", you were out of your tree from the start. But...it's just not as self-aware...with the exception of the interaction between KITT and the new Micheal.

So, I'll break it down.

The Good...

The Car.
Micheal Traceur is a (23yo?) ex-Army Ranger. (ha ha!)
The special effects.
The driving.
Val Kilmer. (Bite me, he's perfect)
Bruce Davison.
The commercials.
The heavy-handed "writing" (Black*river*? The ex-Army Ranger saying the "fighting isn't worth it"?)
Some of the show's soundtrack is decent.

The Bad...

The acting...is...horrendous. Davison is great...and I like the kid playing Mike.
The writing is, with a couple of exceptions...really really bad.
The show takes itself too seriously.

The Ugly...

All of the girls...are...terrible. They look ok...but...I mean, seriously. They're bad. This is not a show that needs lesbian FBI agents. This is a show that needs ever episode beginning and ending with Traceur in bed with two girls. Charle's daughter, who's name I didn't even bother to remember, is just awful. I've seen her version of acting in about 25 high school one act plays. Half close your eyes, deliver lines flat. Thank you, good night.

So...final verdict. I will give the episodes a chance. But there had better be ass-kicking and driving and womanizing and other such awesomeness. Or I'll quit it and I will only watch Turkish KR. Don't test me!

ago. @avconsumer: Edward Mulhare (Devin Miles) passed away about 10 years ago.

This movie was way better than Knight Rider 2000 and it definitely has possibilities with a few corrections. I would like to learn a little bit more of the history that took place between now and the ending of the old series.

@avconsumer: You comment on the 'show to commercial' ratio, but you're wrong. Maybe your perception of the ammount of comercials is skewed by using tivo all the time. But I saved up a 1/2 hour buffer before starting the show and it worked out exactly right, finishing up at 11. Which is the same as a regular 'hour long' show. 44 minutes of show and 16 minutes of comercials (+/- a minute depending on the credits and into.)

Wait a minute, the voiceover is missing on this intro! "Knight Rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man... who does not exist."

@xjs: This is the season one intro. The season two intro is different:

+ Watch video

@XJS: You're missing the voiceover because this is the intro from the first season (did you notice that the KITT voicebox was solid red rather than an equalizer?). The voiceover wasn't done until the second season, IIRC.

Oh, and if memory serves, the voiceover was done by the guy that played Wilton Knight. But then again... that could be my mind playing tricks on me.

Damn... I forgot how hot April was (still is [www.imdb.com] ). But Bonnie was better.

Wow, they really messed up one of my favorite shows. Bad CGI, worse acting than the original, a horrible re-make of the intro, crappy chase scenes (since when can an Edge chase a KR?), even the much-anticipated cameo of the Hoff was lame Please, go back to the drawing board and fix this, please...

This original intro somehow seems to make it all better...

I have the first season on DVD and there is the Wilton Knight voice over as well. It may not have been at the beginning of all the episodes though. At the end of each episode though you get the scene of Michael Knight driving KITT through the desert and another Wilton Knight voice over.