Inside the New 'Knight Rider' with Justin Bruening And Deanna Russo

Remaking a once popular series for a brand new generation of fans isn't easy. When the announcement came down the pike that NBC had given a green light to a remake of the popular '80s series Knight Rider, a lot of older fans held their breath waiting for the two-hour pilot movie to air that starred newcomers Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo plus Val Kilmer as the voice of the new super-charged Mustang version of KITT. When it was all said and done and the new Knight Rider was born, both old fans and new recruits walked away happy. Now Knight Rider has earned a regular spot in NBC's rotation as an expanded series, which airs this Wednesday night, September 24 at 8pm.

Leading up to the premiere, The Deadbolt's Troy Rogers dusted off his original Knight Rider leather jacket from the '80s and joined a conference call with a few other outlets to get the scoop on the new season of Knight Rider from stars Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, and executive producer Gary Scott Thompson who joined the series after the Montecito casino closed its doors on Las Vegas (which we might see again on Knight Rider).

THE DEADBOLT: Gary, what was the decision behind scheduling the premiere online a week earlier than television?

GARY SCOTT THOMPSON: I’ll be very honest with you, I didn’t know anything about that until someone told me. So yeah, I just found out about that a few days ago. I still don’t have official word from NBC on that, so I have no clue.

THE DEADBOLT: I was just curious because it’s all over the net.

THOMPSON: Yeah, that’s how I found out.

THE DEADBOLT: In the pilot movie, the mercenaries are almost successful in hacking KITT’s system. So are you going to install Norton on him for the series?

THOMPSON: We have Super Norton on him.

THE DEADBOLT: What’s your favorite bell or whistle on KITT?

JUSTIN BRUENING: Favorite bell or whistle on KITT?

THOMPSON: It’s actually the bells and whistles that are on KITT.

BRUENING: As far as bells and whistles, that’s a hard one. Well, each week we have...

THOMPSON: There’s something new.

BRUENING: You know, something new each week. I fall in love with something and I get a new script, and there’s a new something. So I always - you know, there’s new little buttons to push and gadgets.

DEANNA RUSSO: That’s not true. I’ll speak for Justin. KITT is this like (veers) - like this little globe...

BRUENING: Orb...

RUSSO: ... this orb thing that instead of the three lines, you know, lighting up and lighting down, it’s now three dimensional orbs and removable. So Justin likes to take it out in between scenes and just like play with it.

THE DEADBOLT: Deanna, how much do you know about Nanotechnology now?

RUSSO: More than I ever thought I would in my entire life. It’s - what’s funny is I’d never heard of it before the pilot. Apparently it’s a real thing.

THE DEADBOLT: Speaking of Nanotechnology, Gary. How easy is it going to be to fit in new technology as you guys go, because just a couple of weeks ago I was reading they discovered invisibility or something.

THOMPSON: Yes, they did. We’re on top of that. That’s actually in an episode. It’s sort of a cloaking device. It’s fairly easy because we have a super braniac in Deanna’s character who comes up with new technology and is able to program the car.

RUSSO: I say big words.

THOMPSON: Yes, really big words. I try to actually make up the words just to see if she can actually say them.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

Gary Scott Thompson on getting the audience excited about Knight Rider the second time around:

"Well, it’s not just the second time. It’s now in 100 more times because we plan on going a long time with this one. So challenging-wise, it was pretty easy actually. We’ve got great stars here and a great car. We’ve got a few new cast members, great writers. So it actually was fairly easy. There are a lot of stories to tell."

Thompson on whether it’s true the series will be a completely different mythology and storyline than the pilot:

"It’s still true. We went back to the original series to look at what made that work and... We went through the pilot and then we don’t want to disappoint some of the fans of the two-hour so there was - you know, we have four characters coming from that. So we made sure that those four characters clicked into what the new mythology was for the series. Again, it’s 25 years later so we have to update the car, update the people and be in touch with the times. So I think that’s really what we did was just try to bring it up to date."

Justin Bruening on whether the family dynamic with the father is still going to be important:

"I believe it’s always there. Family is very important, you know. We haven’t talked about it much, but I believe there are times that we’re going to have to - you know, I may have to learn from the - my predecessor. And definitely, I know with Sarah’s character her family works there. So family is very important. And actually, the whole team is a family. You know, as the series progresses, as you get to find out what each character means to each of us. I mean, that’s the thing."

"You know, like in the first episode my character, I think, really does realize that - who everyone means to him and they’re going to be - that’s his new family."

Deanna Russo and Justin Bruening on how the soap opera world prepares them for series TV beyond that world:

RUSSO: Well the - I mean, the pace of the show is much more intense than anything else out there, so it’s an entirely different animal than primetime. I mean, we go through like 70 to 90 pages a day for daytime and for primetime, you know, people complain if we’ve got 9 pages.

BRUENING: And yeah, I mean, one thing - it just prepared us, I think, a little more as actors in general and I’m saying that is like finding your camera, learning how to be comfortable in front of a camera because you don’t have time to think about it. So now it’s actually refreshing to have more time to be in a scene and make it deeper, and make it more complex instead of, you know, having to rush through it.