New Knight Rider

Everyone who knows me knows that I am truly a child of the 80's. Despite being born in the early half of the 70s, I love 80's stuff, 80s music, 80s movies, and yes, maybe even 80s fashion. One of my favorite TV shows of the 80s was Knight Rider.



As a kid, and as an adult I have loved cars, so when I heard about Knight Rider as a child, I thought, "thats my kind of show." Prior to watching the first incarnation of Knight Rider, the Pontiac Trans Am was one of my favorite cars. Add, computers, and a computer that talks, and I was in pre testosterone heaven. I even had the talking KITT toy car that I used to play with all the time.



When I heard that NBC was bringing back Knight Rider in 2008, I had mixed reactions. In the past, there have been attempted restarts but they were not good. When i saw the teaser trailer for this one, I was pretty excited. KITT is now a Mustang, and not just any Mustang, a Shelby Cobra GT 500 KR edition. Gee, I wonder what the KR stands for???? As you can see from the photo it is a very nice looking car. In the hood scoops, is a double red strobe light instead of the single strobe on the Trans Am. I just found another pic to show that.

James Daniels is no longer the voice of KITT. He is replaced by the very arrogant Val Kilmer, so given the character that KITT is, I think that is a good match. The driver of the car is the estranged son of Michael Knight who made a cameo appearance at the end. Man does the Hoff look old!!!!

The 2 hour back door pilot was enjoyable, at least for this fan of 25 years. I hope that this is picked up for the fall television season. I don't think Knight Rider can ever get old, and it is great to see a KITT in the 21st Century. The Mustang was a nice touch, but I did feel like I was watching a 2 hour long Ford commercial. The Mustang is the only Ford I would buy, but every single car in the show was a Ford Motor Company product, including and owned companies, (Volvo, etc). Every single commercial break had at least one Ford commercial.

All in all, I did enjoy it. It did have some campy moments, some hints at the past, but all in all it was a good couple of hours. I still have it on the Tivo, so I will probably watch it again soon.

Random Thoughts

While I don't have anything specific to blog about tonight, I thought I would just throw some random thoughts out there.

Presidential Politics
I just want to gloat for a few mintues that Hillary Clinton is no longer the front runner for the Democratic nominee. I think she is polarizing, corrupt, and on the fence on many issues depending on what the polling numbers go. The last thing this country needs is Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton. Why should the same two families have the Executive Branch of Government for potentially 28 years. That is not change like Senator Clinton is promoting. Oh Well, go Barack! Work hard in Texas and Ohio!

Steroids in Baseball
My oh my! Thanks to a 90 minute school delay yesterday, and having my morning totally screwed up by that, I was able to watch a good portion of the debacle on Capital Hill yesterday. I must say that I have lost all respect for Roger Clemens. I once made a special trip to Toronto from Buffalo to see him pitch for the Yankees in 2001. I wanted to say, "I saw the Rocket pitch", and I got giddy along with most Yankee fans in May of last year when he stood in George Steinbrenner's box at Yankee stadium and said, "they came and got me out of Texas, I'll be talking to ya'll real soon." All that is gone now. He not only appeared to lie through his teeth, but even threw his beautiful wife under the bus. I mean come on, do you mean to tell me that this guy McNamee was in the Clemens bedroom injecting illegal drugs into Debbie Clemens butt and Roger not knowing about it?? It is becoming more and more bizarre and it appears that the book may be closed on this...for now. This brings me to my next thought...

Spring Training
Today at noon was the time for pitchers and catchers to report to the Yankee Complexes on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. This is an exciting time. The boys of summer are getting ready for the 2008 season. For the Yankees and their fans this is an interesting time as half of the starting rotation is under the age of 25...Chien Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Joba Chamberlin are all youngsters. Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina are the veterans on staff and should assist these guys well. This is unusual for the Yankees to focus on a youth movement, but these kids have some great potential. Joba is especially impressive as is Hughes. In addition to the kids, A-Rod is back, as is Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera. I am excited to consider myself a fan of this group. I will be listening to sports talk and reading the offical releases as the spring unfolds and they prepare to come north for the last year of baseball in the current Yankee Stadium.

Birthday Wishes
Today is my baby girl's 8th birthday. I can't believe that Sammi is now 8 years old and that she has been a part of our lives for so long. She is truly a unique kid and we all love her very much. However, when our kids age it means that we age, and i am always reminded of that as I use this very computer with its silver keyboard. Since it is silver, it is very easy to see the hairs that fall off of my head as I continue the balding process. Oh well, I guess I can thank Mom and her genes for that!

Happy Birthday Sammi!
Go Yankees!
Go Barack Obama!

Section 39 Here I Come!

Today has been a good day. I spent the afternoon at Mohegan Sun watching the annual Mike and the Mad Dog Show celebrating the Jon Ellis Dinner. I got to once again see some Yankee Greats in person. These included..

Mel Stottlemyre

Don Zimmer

Jon Ellis

Moose Skowron

Robinson Cano

Goose Gossage

Don Mattingly

There were other greats there that included Detroit Tigers Manager Jim Leland. I also got to meet Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo and have my picture taken with him. He seems like a really great guy and was very friendly and courteous.

One of the neatest things was upon returning to the Wolf's Den following a quick bite to eat, I looked at who was walking in front of me and it was none other than Goose Gossage. He is a pretty big guy! Unfortunately, my ball and pen were left at the table I was walking to, so I didn't get his autograph! Ah timing is everything, but it was neat to be so close to the newest Hall of Famer. A similar situation happend earlier as I virtually bumped into Mel Stottlemyre.

I met an officer friend there and we had a good time together. It was a fun and great day. However the icing on the cake was returning home to check my email and to see that the Yankees wanted me to contact them regarding my season ticket plan. I immediately called the Yankees Ticket Office and talked to a representative. I am so excited as I was able to score seats in Section 39, row HH. If anyone is remotely familar with the Yankees, this is the home section for the Bleacher Creatures. I am excited to join this band of faithful, crazy Yankee fans, and look forward to April 30th when I can attend my first game. Perhaps by the Red Sox game on July 3rd, I will truly be able to wear a Bleacher Creature T-shirt.

Section 39, here I come!