TCA Update: "Knight Rider" loses a bisexual woman — but gains a gay car?

My question yesterday to the creators of Sanctuary concerning LGBT diversity on science fiction shows prompted another reporter to ask the creators of NBC's new show Knight Rider a gay question of his own.

First let me say, thank God, as I'm getting a little tired of being known just as "the gay one" in these here parts. All week I've sat next to a Canadian journalist who has heard all my gay questions. When he realized I wasn't the one asking this particular one, he leaned over to me and said, "How did you learn to throw your voice like that?"

Those Canadians — such cut-ups!

Anywho, the "gay" question came up when Knight Rider's executive producer Gary Scott Thompson indicated that the show's bisexual female character might not be as bisexual in the series as she was in the TV movie. Which is understandable because bisexuality really is more of a preference than an actual orientation. After all, it sorta comes and goes like a person's preference for dark or milk chocolate or thrillers and romantic comedies.

Here is how the exchange went. (It should be noted that Thompson was not involved with the movie earlier this year.)

Question: During the movie last year ... there was a storyline with Sydney's character. It seemed kind of gratuitous just to throw in a lesbian relationship. Is that going to continue in the series?
Gary Scott Thompson: We haven't explored her sexuality at this point.

Q: Well, it was pretty clear, I thought, in the pilot.
GST: Well, the series is a series. A two-hour is a two-hour. We are departing from that.

Naturally movies do that all the time changing fundamental facts about a character like their sexual orientation, race or gender. Remember how when they turned the Indiana Jones movies into The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles they made Indiana into a girl? Or how when they turned Shaft into a TV series back in the 70s, they made Shaft white? BTW, I don't mean to imply that Knight Rider is actually a good comparison to those movies. From the clips they showed us from the new series, it looked more like a forty-two minute ad for Ford cars (which is supplying all the cars, natch) and targeted at twelve-year old boys who loved the Transformer movie (this Kitt can turn into all sorts of cars. Well, as long as they are Ford cars).

After the panel Malinda Lo, my counterpart at AfterEllen.com, went to follow up with Mr. Thompson one-on-one and as she trudged off, I teased her how happy I was Knight Rider doesn't have a gay character I had to cover.

Um, not so fast. Malinda returned with this little bit of news — KITT the car might be gay.

No, you didn't imagine that. Here is what Thompson told Malinda: