William Shatner returns from the dead as the Priceline Negotiator

By Tiffany Hsu

Aug. 15, 2012 8:38 AM PT

The Priceline Negotiator is back! William Shatner is reprising his role as the campy, popular pitchman in a commercial for the travel discounts website.

His absence was short-lived -- it was only January when the Negotiator sacrificed himself to save a group of tourists, plunging off a bridge in a bus and meeting his purported demise in a fiery explosion.

At the time, 80-year-old Shatner told reporters he was in “grief mode.” But then, 94% of customers told Priceline.com in a survey that they wanted the actor back.

In the latest television ad, set to start rotation this week, a Priceline.com agent finds Shatner’s Negotiator on a remote beach and urges him to return to the fold.

“You’ve been busy for a dead man,” the agent says, dramatic music tolling in the background.

Shatner, clad in a suit with the pants legs rolled up, surfboard under his arm, looks pensively at the sea.

“Surfing is my life now,” he says.

He then delivers the Priceline.com pitch, touting the company’s money-saving tactics for hotels, flights and car rentals.

Will he be back for more?

“We’ll see where the waves take me,” the Negotiator says, before hurtling into the ocean with a “Sayonara, brah!”

Priceline.com may need Shatner to save more than just customers’ money. The company’s stock was pummeled by investors last week after disappointing analysts with its third-quarter forecast.

The company said it was operating under the “assumption that economic conditions in Europe will further deteriorate.” Much of the company’s business comes from the beleaguered continent, where “concerns related to sovereign debt and the viability of the Euro have negatively impacted historical operating results and are likely to impact future results.”

ALSO: