NBC’s “Knight Rider” aired tonight. After watching the satisfactory quality 2 hour television movie, my biggest impression is that it was essentially a commercial for Ford automotive. And as we reported last week, GM’s voice Will Arnett was replaced by Val Kilmer further indicating that the car manufacturers are duking it out because of the heavy Ford promotion in the show. Overall the show didn’t grab me. But I’m probably not the target audience. I was ages 7 through 11 when the original series was on, and I’m presuming that NBC’s target for the show is kids.

This “Knight Rider” is pretty much a sequel to the 1982-86 series – the TV movie, is a “backdoor pilot” which producers hope will go from 2 hour movie to a regular series. Former “All My Children” soap star Justin Bruening is ‘Mike Tracer’ – the heir to the David Hasselhoff throne. Deanna Russo is pretty cute as his ex-girlfriend and most likely future love interest and Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Sidney Poitier’s second daughter) is an FBI agent who at the movie’s finale assigns Tracer to the car.

The car is very much the star of the show. It’s a Mustang Shelby GT500KR which bears the emblem of the new and improved KITT (a Knight Industries 3000, as opposed to the old 2000.)

I’m not sure if this new KITT is the coolest TV car ever, I think the old one (Trans Am) was quite cool and then there’s always The Batmobile (”Batman“) and The General Lee (”The Dukes of Hazzard“.)