TVSquad

Imagine for a second that Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons was hired to run a television show. Now imagine that the television show was a remake of an old favorite. Sounds like it would make for a pretty impatient press tour panelist, right? Well, that's what we got with Gary Scott Thompson, the new show-runner for Knight Rider.

Thompson answered most of the questions on the panel, and his message to everyone was: remember that two-hour KR movie that aired last year? Forget all about it. The characters may be the same but the story is completely different. What went on before probably won't matter for much. Even KITT is a little different.

Battlestar Galactica has spoiled us all.

I say that because, since the excellent "re-imagining" of the craptastic '70s scifi series hit the air, we expect the remakes of our favorite shows to be darker, more layered, and more complicated than the originals. But sometimes, going darker doesn't always work: take a look at the failure pile that passed for the Bionic Woman remake as the best example of that. So, when a "25 years later" return of Knight Rider was announced, I half wondered if they were going to go the BSG route and make it all serious. But I equally wondered if they would go the other way and make it a modern camp classic, sort of the way the original, Hoff-injected series was.

Turns out, the answer was "none of the above." Mostly the movie / backdoor pilot that aired last night was dull, with a few fleeting moments of camp thrown in. But it never made me clamor for the show to return as a series.

Today I went to NBC studios for the unveiling of the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) for the upcoming two-hour television movie Knight Rider set to air on February 17 at 9 p.m. ET. This modern-day sequel to the iconic 1980's show stars Justin Bruening (Cold Case), Deanna Russo (The Young and the Restless), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Veronica Mars), and Bruce Davison (Breach). Will Arnett (Arrested Development) will play the voice of KITT. And don't worry, the Hoff will make a guest appearance as Michael Knight.