And the Hulie "winner" is....Knight Rider!
Oh...shed a single tear for this reboot attempt. NBC tried to give "Knight Rider" a second life but ended up dooming it to an ignoble death according to our panel.
The cheese-tastic original 80's series starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight. The new version starred Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur, Knight's estranged son. Bruening, a former soap actor, was charismatic enough and which is important since...well, let's be honest, they aren't replicating Shakespeare. Despite having a simple blueprint to start from, I knew there might be some bumpy roads ahead based on the fact they killed off Mike's mom for no real reason in the movie pilot. But the real problems arose from the overly elaborate updates.
Instead of Knight Industries, Mike's adventures were handed out by the government; Bonnie's job as tech guru/mechanic was distributed to a large team of scientists including Mike's old flame and her genius father; and K.I.T.T., well, he was appropriately crazy advanced even if his morphing abilities were a glorified Ford commercial. They tried to right the ship by removing the government element and returning to the "infiltrate X to save Y from Z" format of the original, but it was too little to late. Did they start out taking themselves too seriously? Was it a mistake to try to legitmize pure buttered popcorn TV entertainment? Yes and yes. At least the Turbo Boost looked sweet.
Somehow "Knight Rider" beat out "The Munsters Today", "One Tree Hill", "Heroes", "Team Knight Rider", and "Testees". Clearly some of our panel members a) don't really remember "The Munsters Today" or "Team Knight Rider" or b) don't hate "One Tree Hill" on general principle like I do.
After 20,000 votes, the audience's least favorite is...Heroes!
Never have I seen a show so beloved fall so fast from grace. When "Heroes" first premiered, it was like you could hear everyone's minds get blown at the same time. After all that awesome, Season 2 didn't quite live up to most people's expectations. Where were the team-ups? Where were all the villains? Why was the pace so slow? Why is fill-in-the-blank acting like such a douche? And why is this Maya chick so freaking annoying? By the time the writers and producers had the opportunity to try and fix their admitted mistakes, the Writer's Strike cut any acts of penance short.
Then came Season 3. Oh Season 3. For me, while the pace was faster and they delivered some solid moments, there was still the little problem of the characters. Claire had become nearly intolerable, Peter was all over the place, Hiro was acting completely unlike himself, every moment that Speedster chick was on camera I actively wanted her to die, and Suresh...don't get me started on Suresh. But there's hope. Bryan "Pushing Daisies" Fuller has returned to the series and, like everyone else involved, is looking to tighten up the storytelling and deliver a season on par with the first. It's quite possible "Heroes" might become a favorite again.
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