Rob Wright is this week’s contributor to NBC’s Knight Writers Blog, and he talks about Don’t Stop the Knight! It was the first of a two-parter that will have huge ramifications in the new Knight Rider universe, and to reflect that they tasked Mike and K.I.T.T. with a series of Herculean labours. Wright thinks that they delivered, and talks about the various elements that made this particular show work.
“We had the good luck of casting master evil do-er Rick Hoffman in the role of the show’s main villain, ‘Chris Stevens,'” he says. “Rick is a great actor, who not only nailed the character, but was able to improvise within the framework of his scenes to make Stevens more than a bad guy…he’s a bad guy you’ll love to hate.
“For the central ‘insurmountable obstacle’ we tasked Mike with rescuing African Ambassador ‘Olara Kumali’ played by Vanessa Williams. As you’ll see, Vanessa spends most of the episode in a pretty tight space, but she was still able to bring depth and humanity to her character -– plus some mighty fight. Thank you, Vanessa!”
With regard to Mike’s ‘Herculean labours’, Wright says: “In this show we have four of them -– each once crazier the last. First is a prison break, which we shot at a real prison… Next comes the theft of the x-ray machine, where Mike gets tasered in the butt… After this comes the exchange with the three Russian agents, affectionately known to the crew as ‘The Hotskies’… Finally, there’s the face-off between Stevens and Mike at the abandoned sugar mill.”
Follow the link to read more about those tasks — Wright shares a lot of behind-the-scenes trivia (including how the Attack K.I.T.T. was damaged during filming!) But, if you haven’t seen the episode yet, beware! There are spoilers…