New Knight Rider will be bitter Iraq War vet?

Count on the new, unabashedly liberal head of NBC, Ben Silverman, to come up with this kind of claptrap; the concept of the newly remade Knight Rider series is that the new KITT is a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR (which I don’t mind) and will be driven by Justin Bruening of CBS’ Cold Case. The kicker is that Bruening’s character will be, and I quote from TVWeek.com, “Mike Tracer (Bruening), a 23-year-old ex-Army Ranger, whom Sarah hasn’t seen since he left home at 18. Having served in Iraq, Mike is now jaded and lost and initially resistant.”

The new KITT might need some truck accessories, given that it will have a normal mode, a high-speed attack mode and a driverless remote mode, perhaps a nod to this past summer’s Transformers movie. Yet the new KITT is the least of the problems here.

Injecting politics into the escapist fun that any new Knight Rider series ought to be will prove to be a poor choice, especially considering that the troop surge is working. And what’s with getting Arrested Development’s Will Arnatt as the voice of KITT? That’s a diseased choice. If NBC really wanted a cool voice for the new KITT – since the original voice, Magnum P.I.’s John Hillerman, is no longer available at age 74, apparently – they could have gone for many better choices.

Like who? Oh, how about Hugh Laurie? Sure, he’s tied to House but Hillerman was tied to Magnum PI when the original Knight Rider debuted. And the “but they’re on different networks” objection doesn’t work, either; Magnum PI had Hillerman on CBS, while Knight Rider was on NBC originally.

If Laurie can’t be signed, how about his old Brit-com partner, Stephen Frye? Or perhaps thrill videogame fans by casting voice actor David Hayter, of Metal Gear Solid fame? I’d even settle for The Office (UK version)/Extras actor Ricky Gervais. Or Christopher Eccleston of Doctor Who and Heroes fame? Or even David Tennant, the current Doctor?

All of these would be worlds better than Arnatt. Looks like Knight Rider will be headed toward the same “blew it big-time” path that last year’s Studio 60 and this year’s Bionic Woman have traveled.