While working on a new 80's themed project I found out that the failed reboot of the original Knight Rider was now available on Netflix! I had nearly forgotten about until I saw the pics of the red KITT 4000 car that was a copy of the Banshee prototype car.
I, of course, just watched it.
And it is everything you'd expect from a 1991 TV show trying to depict of the far-off future year of... 2000!
Having not seen it in years, a few things caught my attention. The use of cryo-freezing criminals and a city that has remade itself as a gun-free society, including the police, is something that would be shown again, albeit to more success, just a few years later in the movie
Demolition Man. Even had the plot line of the major villain being thawed out prematurely in order to serve a nefarious purpose. And the only person who can save the day? Somebody from the past. OK, there is a big difference as to why Michael Knight is shown as no longer being involved with the Knight Foundation versus Sylvester Stallone's character no longer being a cop but it still stood out. And of course both end up working with a female police officer as their partner to save the day. The are, of course, two entirely different stories being told, it just makes me wonder if perhaps a writer for
Demolition Man was subconsciously influenced a bit for some elements.
Speaking of Knight Rider, the original series is also now available on Netflix. After watching KR 2000 and the Night of the Juggernaut episodes I'm almost,
almost, tempted to track down the other ill-fated KR reboots.
