KITTSite Covers Knight Rider @ Comic-Con '08: David Bartis!
Concluding our round of interviews from the Comic-Con International in San Diego, we now bring you our interview with David Bartis, Executive Producer of both the Knight Rider TV-Movie from February and the upcoming ongoing series premiering on September 24th.

A television veteran who has been working in the industry for many years, Bartis' previous credits include a job as an Executive Producer for The O.C.. With Doug Liman, Bartis produced the pilot and series Heist for NBC. Bartis also spent many years involved in TV show development and had a hand in developing such hits as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In the late 1990's, Bartis supervised the development and production of all primetime comedy and drama series for the studio arm of NBC - a period that brought forth popular series such as Will & Grace and Providence.

In his interview, Bartis talks about changes from the TV-Movie, KARR, and why your family will love Knight Rider: The Series.

BE WARNED OF [VERY MINOR] SPOILERS BELOW.

"It's going to be bigger," Bartis says of the changes made to Knight Rider between the TV-Movie and the regular series. "We've added cast, we've added new venues. The TV-movie kind of put everything in place and re-established the characters and the franchise, but what it didn't do was tell an average episode's story. It didn't do a 'mission of the week' kind of story. So, the series is going to start right in with a mission, and there's going to be a new kind of mission that we have. So, you'll get the full dose of what the missions are going to be right away, but we've got more characters, we've got more character arcs and drama behind the scenes that you're going to see as well," he reveals.

Another change for the series will be an expanded presence of Deanna Russo's Sarah Graiman character, who will take a more active, "butt-kicking" role. "We wanted to activate her, and one of the things that we learned from the two-hour is that you can't just put a character in a car for ten minutes. The audience is too sophisticated for that. In the original, you could tell half the show sitting in the car, but Sarah sitting at the car or sitting at home in front of a computer screen is not that interesting, so you want to activate her, so we did," he explains.

Addressing the rumors of KARR making an appearance sometime on the new Knight Rider, Bartis sounds optimistic that it could happen at some time. "We're all aware that the opportunity for KARR exists, but honestly we haven't really gotten that far. We've got thirteen episodes; we really want to come out strong and get the audience back in, but I would love to see KARR. I think it would be really cool, and I think we'll have time to do it," he says.

Bartis believes there are many reasons fans will enjoy Knight Rider: The Series. "It's a way to see every week. It is feature quality action, and it's fun, aspirational escapist storytelling. To me, I can't come home from a hard day at work and sit down and watch something as intense as the Sopranos; I need to prepare myself for that. But this is fun. It's something you can watch with your whole family. My kids happen to think this is the coolest thing I've ever done. They've never said that about anything I've ever done before. So, I could watch the show with my nine-year-old. My wife liked it, and my parents actually liked it - this is truly an 8 o'clock broadcast show," he says.

Knight Rider premieres September 24 on NBC.

Read our full coverage from Comic Con '08: Justin Bruening (Mike Traceur) - Gary Scott Thompson (Executive Producer) - Deanna Russo (Sarah Graiman) - Bruce Davison (Charles Graiman) - David Bartis (Executive Producer)

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