Tonight was our 17th and final episode of the season, but it was actually shot as our 13th episode. Matt Pyken has already touched upon some of the reasons why episodes get shuffled around in his blog entry from Dec. 31st. Why did this episode in particular get moved? It's simple. After looking at cuts of all the remaining episodes to air, this one most felt like the beginning of something new. And, ideally, that's what you want in a season finale -- a launching point for the following season.

So which episode was actually the last one shot? That would be "Exit Light, Enter Knight" written and directed by Gary Scott Thompson. It's the one with the bank heist that Mike gets wrapped up in. Here's some pictures I took on set the very last day of filming...

And this is from the day after we wrapped for the season. That city you're looking at is Santa Clarita, CA, home base for Knight Rider and our crew. And that rainbow could not have been bigger and brighter. We're still looking for the pot of gold, though...

If I told you I set out to write a “typical” KR episode, a lot of you would immediately think this guy isn’t much interested in innovation. But fans of the original KR might see it a bit differently. As a group -- the writers, the studio, the network -- all agreed that the original KR formula – one man and one car taking on a bad guy, saving a pretty girl, and making things right was a pretty sweet template for a series. When the “re-boot” was contemplated, I immediately decided, with deliberate intent, to tell small stories. By small I mean that Mike and KITT don’t need to save the world every week. By small I mean the stories don’t always have to come to the SSC through some quasi-governmental source. By small I mean we see some kick-ass action, unravel a mystery, have a few laughs along the way, and by the end of the episode Mike and KITT make a couple of lives a little better, and straighten out their own karma a little in the process. Conceptually, it’s a lot like the original series, so you would think that after defeating KARR, the deaths of Dr. Graiman and Alex Torres, and Carrie’s near-miss and retirement, this new template would be a no-brainer.

Not so.

This story met a ton of internal resistance, but to GST’s credit, it made it to air as the penultimate episode of Season 1. It also has its own version of the original KR’s comic relief -- in the form of a pair of would-be car thieves who attempt to steal KITT with decidedly mixed results. And of course, Billy and Zoe mix it up a little bit back at the much more mellow KITT Cave.

If there is a second season, these are the kinds of stories I’d like to tell.

Thanks to a cast whose professionalism was only surpassed by their kindness and friendship, and thanks to a tireless crew who made a movie every week – and did it with pride.

Matt Pyken

Anytime I sit down to write anything, that initial idea is always the hardest part. Especially in the middle of a season of television, when you’ve just wrapped shooting on your last episode, so you’re already kind of beat up and exhausted and you get into the office the next morning and sit down at your desk and there’s this eerie calm as you set up your laptop and stare at that blank screen and think, “Oh man, I am so screwed…”

But then, you have a coffee and bang your head against the wall for a while and talk to your fellow writers and somehow you get an idea: What if a plane went missing? Okay, that’s something. And what if Kitt, for the first time since we started the show, takes the initiative and gets Mike up at four in the morning to investigate instead of the other way around? That could be fun. And what if when Mike and Kitt arrive at the spot where the transponder failed, the plane had crashed! Cool. But then what? Okay, maybe the plane crash isn’t a real plane crash, maybe it’s been faked! But why would anyone fake a plane crash…?

And onwards and onwards until hopefully you’ve got a story that doesn’t suck.

So, “Fly By Knight.” A missing 8 year old witness. A distraught mother. Both brilliantly played by Bobby Coleman and Bellamy Young, respectively. A ruthless and intelligent bad guy, wonderfully brought to life by Benjamín Benítez. And another interesting antagonist for our hero to battle, the ever diligent extremely agitating Agent Renning, played with fantastic bitchy authority by the lovely and talented Maria Menounos. I had Jay Chandrasekhar (of Super Troopers, among other great comedies) directing, who not only did a great job, but was just fun to hang with. And I was surprised to learn (much to the dismay of Master Key, our visual effects team) this episode had as many VFX shots in it as anything since the first episode we shot, and may I say they all came out looking great.

Oh, and there was the 69 Mach II Mustang, which will speak for itself when you see it.

What else can I tell you? I think, looking back at those first moments of panic, this episode turned out kinda great. It’s certainly my favorite Kitt stuff so far, as this learning intelligence starts to come into its (his?) own, make some decisions, rebel a little bit against the powers that be, do some growing up. Hopefully there will be much more of that in his (there, I said it) future.

As always, thanks for watching,
D

To me, this next episode of KNIGHT RIDER – “FIGHT NIGHT” – is an homage to the original KNIGHT RIDER OF THE ‘80s. Michael Knight comes to town to help a friend in need. In so doing, he gets into a heap of trouble with local tough guys, a femme fatale… even a Sheriff who just might be hiding a sinister secret. Will Mike save the girl? Who knows! First he and Kitt must work together, fighting and driving, to stop the bad guys before time runs out.

It’s into this classic narrative framework, that the KR cast and crew added its more-modern sensibility… and then dropped in a ton of ADRENALINE-PUMPING FIGHT ACTION! It takes 8 days to shoot an episode of Knight Rider – well, we spent three of them shooting all the fights in the cage sequences… plus another night for the bar brawl. On top of this, we were able to cast football great Tiki Barber and American Gladiator’s Michael “Titan” O’Hearn in key roles, allowing them to get into the cage to battle fearsome opponents… as well as each other. After watching the episode, keep in mind that due to their unique builds both these guys did all their own fighting and stunt-work. I’m pleased to say both of them kicked ass…

…As did our own Justin Bruening, who recently reminded me that he went to bed sore every night on this episode. Why? Because even with all our visual effect capability… even with the use of Justin’s amazing, MMA blackbelt stunt-double Antal Kalik… even with the vast array of options that camera trickery offers, there are still moments where your actor has take a punch. In a show centering on cage fighting, those moments add up!

Accordingly, I do wanna give props to our stunt coordinator, Danny Wynands, and our fight coordinator Dino Haines. As you can tell, we worked our actors pretty hard on this show (as we do on every show) but we always did it with a safe and well-choreographed fight plan. It’s ‘cause of guys like Danny and Dino – and the rest of our team of stuntmen and women – that the director and producers can go and make good action sequences great. I also want to give props to Meghan Markle, our guest star who plays “Annie”. She’s an actress who learned the extent of her fighting duties only after she got the part. Luckily, she’s a natural athlete who was able to step up to the plate and deliver. I wanna mention Dawn Olivieri and Salvator Xuereb – our “Constance” and “Ty” – as well. Both did great jobs acting… and took their beatings like pros.

But lest this blog leave you thinking that “FIGHT KNIGHT” was a mite bit too old school in its brutality, let me say that this is the episode that got the KR crew the furthest from LA. We shot most of the mountain sequences in and around Newcomb’s Ranch Bar (yes, it’s a real place) on Highway 14, up in the Angeles Crest Forest. For two days, we enjoyed cool forest breezes, while the rest of Hollywood was in a heat wave.

Then it was back to the studio and back to work on our next episode, “FLY BY KNIGHT”. And wait ‘til you see that.

Some pics and trivia from "Exit Light, Enter Knight," written and directed by Gary Scott Thompson.

It's hard to put the main character of any show into serious "will he/she make it?" jeopardy, let alone a character named Michael Knight on a show called Knight Rider, but after the last three weeks, hopefully this is at least one time where Mike's life might actually feel truly threatened. Could even Michael Knight be the next character to go? This episode wasn't originally supposed to air in this slot, but by getting moved up, I actually think it helped add some tension that might not have been there had this episode aired later in the season.

For the danger to be credible in the episode, the threat of violence had to feel real. The bank robbers had to feel like a real threat. So we show more people getting shot (by the bad guys) than we typically do. Every shot fired, especially a shot in the direction of another human being, is carefully monitored by numerous crew members. Safety is essential, as even working with blanks can be dangerous. (even the air that is shot of out of a gun firing a blank can critically injure a person at close range).

Over 4000 bullet shells were expended during the filming of the opening bank siege. And because metal isn't biodegradable, we made sure each and every last one got picked up when filming was done...

Golden State Bank is fictitious. But this specific episode was shot mostly in downtown Los Angeles. Though there are a lot of hints indicating that Michael Knight might be in LA, too, anything too obviously LA was cut out of the picture. Using some visual trickery in the final cut, the skyline was even made a little more generic in the wide shots (where some very recognizable LA landmarks would usually be visible).

What does two tons of sawdust have to do with former NFL great Tiki Barber? Both will be in next week's episode.

Also in next week's episode... see Justin do more of his own stunts. Justin does have a double for stunts the insurance company requires he not do, but Justin really does want to do as much as he's allowed to. Here's some images of Justin launching himself in the air -- no wires, no cushion to land on -- to attack a foe. The fighting might be fake, but the bruises are definitely real.

ps - am I the only one who can't hear the song "Exit Light, Enter Knight" and not immediately think of Rock Band?

Hope you all enjoyed tonight's episode!

It was written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman. You may also know their work from Friday Night Lights. They're two very busy, ultra-talented guys who somehow found the time to work on both shows at roughly the same time -- which is why I'm filling in for them tonight, as they're off working on yet another project.

Tonight's episode hopefully answered a few questions for you: what Mike had "forgotten" in Iraq and why, what has Torres been secretly up to, and even what happened to one of the trademarks of the original series (FLAG). For those of you who are new to the Knight Rider universe, The Foundation for Law and Government is the organization that operated the original KITT in the 80s series.

Our effects guys worked around the clock these last few months on the showdown between KITT and KARR. I'm writing this right now at 7:30pm on the west coast, and I can't wait to watch it all in high definition when it airs a half hour from now over here. Our effects are done by a company called Master Key Films that formed to do this show. They started as just two people last spring, and they've grown into a small army today. In the video section of this site, you can see highlights of their work from season 1, and you can go to MKVFX.com to see even more.

Just as cool as KARR's visuals, though, is his voice. That's the great Peter Cullen, none other than the original voice for KARR back in 1982, in an episode called "Trust Doesn't Rust."

I know Alex Torres might not seem like the nicest guy, but that can't be further from the truth for the actor who plays him. Here's Yancey Arias with writers Rachel Mellon, Monica Macer, and Teresa Huang.

Ever wonder how we shoot the "satellite images?" We do most of them the old fashioned way -- with a VERY high crane.

Here's a photo from a future episode. Many people have asked how Kitt drives on his own. The original series had a variety of tricks they used. We added one more trick. If you look in this photo, you'll see a driver wearing all black. In the final shot, we'll use computers to simply erase him, a luxury they didn't have back then. This works for distance shots, but for close-ups of the seat, well... we still have to use some of the old tricks.

Tonight KITT faced off with KARR. In two weeks, Mike faces off with his own goliath (seen above). But before that, next week's episode was both written and directed by Gary Scott Thompson. You're not going to want to miss that...