Comic-Con NBC: 'Knight Rider' panel - Video

By April MacIntyre Jul 28, 2008, 3:10 GMT

05/12/2008 - Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo - The 2008 NBC Universal Experience Upfronts - Arrivals - Rockefeller Center - New York City, NY, USA © Anthony G. Moore / PR Photos

Last Thursday's big rig fire at Camp Pendelton which closed the 5 down and caused one of the longest southbound delays ever made a two hour trip into a five hour crawl on Thursday for me, as it did for the majority of NBC's "Knight Rider" cast and producers.

Only two members - showrunner and Executive Producer Gary Scott Thompson and new cast member Paul Campbell were present at start time.

A long-form trailer from the show featuring Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo) going on field missions, Mike Tracer introducing himself as Michael Knight, and Mike and Sarah in the bed and ending up in the seats of KITT.

Also previewed were three new characters played by Paul, actress Smith Cho, and Yancey Arias.  Gary said, "As you can see it's a little bit different than the two hour."

Gary called Deanna Russo and Justin Bruening on the phone and were queued in by speaker phone.  They later showed up after being stuck on the 5 freeway for 6+ hours.

Paul describes his character, Billy Morgan the head tech engineer for KITT, as "kind of a social pariah...and has crushes on pretty much everything in a skirt"

The  "KITT Cave" operations center features high-tech fun. Val Kilmer's voiced KITT, is a learning teen, and "his" artificial intelligence may prove to be a problem in future storylines.

Watch the panel: