LOS ANGELES - Way back in 1982, when David Hasselhoff slipped on a leather jacket and a smug look to play Michael Knight in the action series "Knight Rider," cars didn't talk as much as they do these days. You needed a map and not a voice to find your way.

Flash forward 26 years. Cars with GPS chat all the time.

That was a concern as NBC dusted off the franchise. "Knight Rider" rolls again this week with Justin Bruening taking over behind the wheel. The series launches tonight on NBC.

So if it isn't a big deal the car can talk, what will make KITT so special?

Executive producer Gary Scott Thompson explained during an interview in July at the Beverly Hilton Hotel the solution was to take away a little of the focus from the man and machine.

"It's going to get pretty boring in today's age to watch a guy in a car talk for 43 minutes," said Thompson. "For a production reason, and also for the world as it is, we needed to have a base of operation where we could have people who worked there who would send this car out as opposed to just a mobile team. We needed a real base, and we affectionately call it the 'KITT Cave.'

"It has satellite surveillance that can track anybody and anything around the world."

Even with all of the high-tech gear, a hunk of the show will still be about a man and his auto. Bruening knows his four-wheeled co-star (to be voiced by Val Kilmer) will get a lot of attention. That doesn't mean the actor feels like he is playing second fiddle.

"The car is the star of the show. It's 'Knight Rider.' But it's a whole ensemble cast. We all deal with the car. But the car is the central foundation of the show, and that is what we use to accomplish our missions," Bruening said.

For the record, Bruening's own mode of transportation is a Mustang Bullet. It is a remake of the car Steve McQueen drove in one of the great driving movies, "Bullitt."

KITT also is a Ford. Actually, the car can turn itself into any one of a variety of Ford models. That kind of onscreen appearance could be seen as crossing the line between entertainment and advertising for the car company.

"I think there's a big line between them. But unfortunately, it's a show about a car," Thompson said. "So you have to have a car. And the idea behind a guy going undercover, you put him in a car that's cool but also one that could be sitting in a parking lot, and no one would recognize it there.

"And that's the idea behind it. Look, even Ford said it was way too much in the two-hour (movie). We are trying to avoid doing that. But we have a Ford car, and we are going to use the Ford product for that car, and that's just because we think the car is cool."