NBC is releasing a 2-hour TV movie reintroducing the 80’s TV show Knight Rider. Michael Knight will NOT be played by David Hasselhoff, but has been replaced by a unknown soap opera actor Justin Bruening. And the black Pontiac Trans Am will be replaced by a Ford Mustang. If the show takes off, NBC promises a TV series.

The original concept sketch.

A computer rendering

The real deal: KITT 2008.

Now that we’ve looked at the pretty pictures, let’s talk about what this means for the “stock value” of the Ford Mustang.

Why Knight Rider Will Break the Mustang

1. It’s not a Pontiac Trans Am. The switch to a Mustang may not mean much to most people, but to car guys, it might seem like a violation the purity of the original show. Putting a Ford Mustang in the place of the Pontiac Trans Am is like two teams trading quarterbacks on the day of the Super Bowl. The universe is in chaos. But when you take a few minutes to think about it, you’ll remember that the original Knight Rider was an average show that only lasted four seasons. You are giving Pontiac too much credit if you argue that the new show is doomed to fail because they cast a Mustang as a crime fighter.

2. Knight Rider didn’t help the Trans Am. I’m sure that the original Knight Rider boosted sales of the Pontiac Trans Am back in the 1980s, but it hasn’t made the car a legend. Really, it’s been 27 years since Knight Rider debuted, giving America plenty of time to get excited about the Trans Am again. I’ve been to dozens of car shows in the past decade and I rarely see a 3rd Generation Trans Am (1982-1992). You can’t blame it on the fact that they aren’t old enough to be collectibles again, because I regularly see rows of 1994-1996 Impala Super Sports. If you’re not into anecdotal evidence, consider the the fate of the original KITT: in 1982 Knight Rider Trans Am sold for a pitiful $20,000, lot #732.1 at Barrett-Jackson in 2002. That’s less than the cost of a 2002 Chevy mini van. Lets pause to think about how uncool that is.

3. The show will flop and drag the Mustang down with it. This would be a valid fear if the release of this new body of the Mustang was timed with the debut of the show. But the Mustang came out four years ago, and it has a solid fan base amongst all demographics (young and old, male and female, Republican and Democrat.) A TV show can’t destroy that. If this show does flop, nobody will blame it on the Mustang.

My conclusion is that people liked KITT as a crime-fighter, but they didn’t like him enough to like to crown the Trans Am. If I could use a sports analogy, they liked KITT as a player, but it wasn’t because of his uniform. It doesn’t matter if Steve Nash plays for the Mavericks, Suns, or Celtics, he’s still the best team mate on earth.

Why Knight Rider Will Make the Mustang

I think there’s more reason to believe that a Mustang as Knight Rider will be a good thing for everyone…

1. Hollywood was good to the Delorean. Anyone from the 1980s can pick a Back to the Future DeLorean out of a parking lot at a car show, even if they don’t know what the name it is. The DeLorean may not be a quintessential “classic” like a ‘57 Chevy, but it’s one of the few cars from the 1980s to be lionized by the American public. Keep in mind that it was a car was a piece of junk and it ruined GM’s golden child John DeLorean.

2. Hollywood was good to the Shelby Mustang GT-500. Consider what consider the 2000 release of the movie Gone in 60 Seconds did for the Shelby Mustang GT500 Eleanor. That car has an absolute rock star in the movie. At the Barrett-Jackson Car Auction in Scottsdale, the “original” Eleanor sold for $675,000. There were probably 20 Eleanors on the set used for different stunts, but the Eleanor that sold at the auction was the most functional, least beat up car. Did I mention that Eleanor wasn’t not even a real Shelby? It’s an ordinary ‘67 Mustang fastback scooped out of a junkyard and dressed up to look like a customized Shelby. Recreating that car has become a cottage industry. These replicas have sold for six figures at Barrett-Jackson every year since then movie came out in 2000.

3. If OJ’s Bronco was good for Ford, Knight Rider will be good for Ford. You would think that Ford would’ve canceled their archaic full-sized Bronco by the time OJ used it as his getaway wagon on national TV. At the time, it was only driven by employees of the Forestry Service and the Department of Transportation. It had zero sex appeal. I read several articles after the murder trial that claimed that sales of the Bronco shot through the roof.

4. TV saves careers. Just for fun, I’ll use an analogy that car guys won’t care about: Jessica Simpson and Nick Lache. People wondered these young lovers were smart when they chose to broadcast their first year of marriage on an MTV reality show called “The Newlyweds” back in 2003. The show wasn’t good for their marriage (divorced in 2006), but the show gave Jessica’s brief singing career a jolt of Hollywood that has aloud her to stick around for the last five years and she’ll probably around for another five. Not bad for someone with no tangible talent. (Don’t ask me to explain why Nick’s career didn’t do the same, I’d have to talk about the complex relationship between famous girls and the non-famous girls who love to hate them, thereby making her more famous.)

http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/hotnews/hppp_0607_2008_pontiac_trans_am_concept/photo_01.html

Conclusion: Ford Wins

Rumor has it that Pontiac will release a rear-wheel drive muscle car sometime in 2010 or 2011, but as of today, nobody knows if it will be branded as a GTO or a Firebird Trans Am. Regardless, it’s not worth it to GM to speed up the concept model if there isn’t a lot of commitment from NBC behind Knight Rider. GM doesn’t have time to mess around with a show that might end as soon as it begins, they’re in the fight of their life with Japanese heavyweight Toyota.

When it came time to turn on the cameras and start filming, NBC needed a star. Ford was ready with lots of hype and a badass Mustang with a tank of gas. Good luck happens to people who are prepared when opportunity arrives.