The new Knight Rider KITT car made its public debut Wednesday. And as leaked on the blogosphere last month, it’s a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR.“Quite honestly, we thought this was the coolest looking car,” said Dave Bartis, an executive producer on NBC’s upcoming Knight Rider TV movie, set to air in February.
Just as it took two Olsen twins to play Michelle Tanner, it will take three black, cobra-branded Shelby Mustangs to play KITT. All three were rolled out for a photo op at the NBC lot in Burbank, California, where owing to the ongoing writers’ strike, plenty of parking was available.
“It’s very smooth. For 600 horsepower,” said former soap star Justin Bruening, who landed the human lead in the new Knight Rider, and spent the morning talking up his four-wheeled costar.
The Pontiac Trans Am, which played faithful KITT to David Hasselhoff’s singular Michael Knight in the original 1982-86 series, was unavailable for comment. As in, completely, totally unavailable.
“They don’t make Trans Ams anymore,” Bartis said. “So, the Trans Am’s gone.”
In its stead, Bartis said producers looked to cast a car that was (a) American-made, definitely; (b) two-door, preferably; and (c) muscular, yes.
“Obviously, we thought Mustang was the right fit,” said Ford executive Al Uzielli. “And that’s what we started pitching almost immediately.”
The show debuts on NBC on Feb 17.