Burt Reynolds once claimed in an interview that there were actually 12 Trans Ams featured in Smokey and the Banditand he wrecked every one. Tragically, every Trans Am used in filming was destroyed. Its lack of additives and preservatives meant that Coors could spoil in one week without refrigeration, explaining the film's 28-hour deadline. Watching TV and Movies you would think that sales dropped to nil. radio to help him out. Jane Russell hawked bras on television for full-figured gals like her, a line that evoked snickers among my high-school classmates. I certainly hope the guy hired to drive that 74 Ford Torino wagon was paid well for his work. Please refresh the page and try again. Not that Id kick either front end style out of the garage for dripping oil, as long as they dont have the 403 in them anyway. All I know is, at the time, if you lived in the east, Coors was some really special beer not unlike microbrews are now. No more needs to be said. $30.00 + $11.45 shipping. These were the cans with the two circular push buttons on top instead of pull tabs. The comedy has been remastered to DVD standards. Today, Smokey and the Bandit remains one of the most popular car action films ever made, and the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am will forever be wed to the movie. In the U.K., the heavily dubbed version was shown for several years, particularly by the BBC. The secrets behind the cars and stunts in 'The Italian Job'. [32], After the debut of the film, the Pontiac Trans Am became wildly popular, with sales almost doubling within two years of the film's release. For this purpose, they overdubbed dialogue deemed offensive, which was common practice. Not everything was Pontiac, as evidenced by this 1973 Plymouth Satellite coupe (CC here). There was still a market for bras in the 1970s. [30] Upon meeting Reynolds, Billy Bob Thornton told him that the South considers the film to be less cinema and more documentary. Lets take a look at some more cars found in the movie. Reynolds is referenced by name in several early episodes of the series. Justice. I know, Ive owned a 75 for 23 years. Let us dissect this flick to better examine it. It follows the adventures of a couple of truck drivers bootlegging Coors, which couldnt legally be sold East of the Mississippi River at the time. Except for Gleason, the original actors mostly redubbed their lines for the television version. However, as our heroes were successful in delivering their truckload of Coors, the writers effectively poised themselves for a sequel. He had quite a few orders for Coors beer, and when he stopped in Weed, CA, on the way home, he went into the Safeway and asked for twenty-four cases of Coors. Although 1977 models also featured 6.6-liter engines, they were rated at only 200 horses. I think thats another line theyve edited out for the television version. It outsold its Chevrolet Camaro counterpart for the first time. Mr. Reynolds made a bunch of low budget films before this , all had wild chase scenes with cop cars crashing & going into swamps . That is why there are not any left. Gleason has a treasure trove of hilarious lines and it was this movie that started my love affair of cars back in the early 1980s. As a former Club Wagon pilot, I happen to like his Econoline. The 1977 model wasn't out yet when filming began, so General Motors provided 1976 cars with front clips from the soon-to-be-released 1977 update. Of course, we could argue that Needham could have used the engine note of a Pontiac GTO from the golden muscle car, but the 1955 Custom recordings were probably readily available, and he just didn't need the hassle. This reminds me of the classic introduction (actually written by Dick Cavett) said by Jack Paar on The Tonight Show: I was 3 years old when the original came out, and do not remember any of these details but, supposedly this was the first movie my parents ever took me to. Hes fodder enough for his own article at some point. This gives rise to various continuity errors with Justice's patrol car, which during some chase sequences is shown with a black rear fender, which then reverts to the car's bronze color again in later scenes. [37], The first run in 2007 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the movie, The Bandit Run was the brainchild of Dave Hall, owner of Restore A Muscle Car. The updated version of the film features sound inaccurate for what would be produced by the Trans Am or the numerous other Pontiac vehicles in the film. thebandit77transam 2009-04-14 14:04. andre1969 wrote Pontiac supplied 5 brand-new cars for "Smokey and the Bandit". In addition to the four Trans Ams, Needham also received two Pontiac LeMans models to serve as patrol cars in the movie. The 403 Olds T/A was a dog, stock, but with some easily obtained parts, could be turned into a very nice low 13 second tire melter. The hood scoop on these cars says "6.6 LITRE", which, in 1977, would have denoted an Oldsmobile 403-equipped car or a non-W-72, 180 hp version of the 400 Pontiac engine. While it's sad that the other two cars were destroyed . [34] In 2015 a Florida-based automobile customization company built 77 Trans Ams modeled after the car that Reynolds drove in the film. And theres beer in Texarkana.. [12] The area around Helen, Georgia, was used for some locations. The story replaced the Coors beer with Mobil 1 products. (first posted 2/28/2014) The fourth highest grossing film in the United States in 1977 was the Academy Award nominatedSmokey & The Bandit. By the end of June, it had played in major Southern markets, including Charlotte, Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, and Oklahoma City, grossing $11.9 million. Check out the entire video below. Ive also looked at a Fox based LTD cop car and an early 1991 whale Caprice 9C1 detective model, burgundy on burgundy cloth. a custom mandrel bent dual exhaust, and the Mondello bottom end plate to stabilize the windowed mains. The movie is responsible for something, by 1979 Pontiac was selling 100,000 plus Trans Ams, not the whole Firebird line, JUST Trans Ams, Pontiac sold more T/As in 1979 than any of the cheaper Firebirds combined, Smokey and the Bandit had to have a hand in that. The second film was a modest box office success, earning $66.1 million against a $17 million budget. Of course, it's difficult to asses whether these small decals did something to change buyer perception about the Trans Am, but it's an interesting part of the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am's history. . East bound and down, loaded up and truckin It was destroyed in Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in Part 3. I was in West Plains the other day and there is yet another variation of it there. Always a favorite. Thats all well and good, and it worked smooth as silk for a good while. Other than Jackie Gleason upstaging every other cast member, the perceived star of the show is this 1977 Pontiac Trans Am. Two units were 1974 models, as evidenced by standard silver Kenworth emblems on the truck grille, and one unit was a 1973 model, as evidenced by the gold-painted Kenworth emblem on the truck's grille, signifying Kenworth's 50 years in business. Here is the LeMans; Gleason literally drives the wheels off: As an aside, heres a curious bit of trivia. It took four evenings to see almost all of the movie in bits and pieces. 1979 was equally successful for the brand, joining 1978 to create Pontiac's best sales years ever. Except that shes not sagging. Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most iconic movies of the 1970s. . Burt Reynolds recently revealed the ridiculous number of Pontiac Trans Ams they went through filming 1977s Smokey and the Bandit. Well, they simply considered that the Trans Am didn't sound intimidating enough. Here in Canada they didnt censor it, so we always got the sumbitch version. The original Blues Brothers movie from 1980 is a classic, and fans were excited when a sequel was announced in 1998. . For instance, the diesel engine start and run-up sequence in the opening sequence of the film were completely dubbed over with a new sound. And back then what I wanted most of all was a highly customized Vette with exposed headlights. The 79-year-old 70s and 80s heartthrob made a rare public appearance over the weekend at Wizard World Chicago. Banzai! Reed would eventually play the Bandit in Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, in which Reynolds only appeared in a cameo near the end. Just like the exaggeration sales went up 700%. At the time, it was illegal to transport Coors east of the Mississippi River and a series of other truckers had been apprehended for trying to accomplish this feat for the Burdettes. The Bandit's car was a second-generation Trans Am and the prize for completing the run was a new truck rather than $80,000. [24] With an original budget of $5.3 million (cut to $4.3 million two days before initial production),[4] the film eventually grossed $126,737,428 in North America,[25] making it the second-highest-grossing movie of 1977 (only Star Wars earned more, with $221.3 million). At one point in the movie, the Bandit wrecks a police car. His automotive adventure started reporting on various motorsport events as a sports writer before moving onto a full-time auto career with various sites, including This Week In Motors and Autoevolution. Now then you mentionned Sheriff JW Pepper, I decided to post some Youtube clips of him. Pontiac should have made a radio that played that song automatically simply by pushing a button, or maybe made it the horn sound. They find local legend Bo "Bandit" Darville at a roadeo at Lakewood Fairgrounds and offer him US$80,000 (equivalent to $357,738 in 2021) to haul 400 cases of Coors from Texarkana (the closest place it could be legally sold at that time) to Atlanta in 28 hours. Film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film a good rating (3 stars out of a possible 4) and characterized it as "about as subtle as The Three Stooges, but a classic compared to the sequels and countless rip-offs which followed". Frog not included. With Reynolds' salary at $1 million, Needham was left with only $3.3 million to make the film. My favorite would have been an ex-WSP 1970 Plymouth they were all Fury IIIs, white on blue with factory air and 440s under the hood; but none ever turned up when I was buying. Cinemablend is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Many people believed beforehand that the film was not right for . [21], Smokey and the Bandit was a sleeper hit. Needham originally planned the film as a low-budget B movie with a production cost of $1 million,[4] with Reed as the Bandit. S&TB was filmed primarily off Route 400 in Georgia. What were the police cars in Smokey and the Bandit? [36] Another proposal, based more closely on images from the film and the shooting location of the scene (at an Old Hickory House restaurant in Georgia), is pulled pork and hot sauce on a hamburger bun. That is why there are not any left. The production team wrecked three for the four cars it received from Pontiac. Actor Henry Corden, who voiced Fred Flintstone after original performer Alan Reed died the same year the film was released, was used to replace a considerable amount of Sheriff Justice's dialogue. As a feature-length car chase, the car was as much of a star as Burt Reynolds, and the film gave birth to the cult of the Trans Am. After passing Buford's badly damaged cruiser on the roadside, Bandit gets on the CB and initially directs him to the Burdettes, but then respectfully gives his real locationright behind Buford, who continues his chase leaving Junior behind, and with more parts falling off his cruiser as he limps off after Bandit. Producer Hal Needham intended Smokey and the Bandit to be one of the best product placement films of all time. The commercials were produced after Stewart mentioned that the movie was one of his favorites.[39]. Free shipping for many products! Back then if Ida wanted an ex Police Car its be a CHP salvage Dodge or Plymouth ~ BIG roomy and _comfy_ , handled well and went like stink . It made no sense to me as it was fifty miles north and fifty miles south. It was a powerful car, and I was glad to be issued it as my range car instead of one of the new but already disintegrating 1985 Oldsmobiles supplied by a local dealer that most people had. The checker, not batting an eye, Do you want that chilled?. Over many viewings I noticed some scenes the car would skate around and take off like an animal while in others there were one-tire-fires and it would struggle to get going. I had a 78 Trigger lookalike for a while in the mid 90s, until a wrist pin went out, ended up selling it to one of my brothers buddys uncles. With the Smokey and the Bandit actor gone, and the impact the actor had on the Trans Am community, having one of the few connections to him destroyed is too much. ", "The Bandit Run Brought to you by Restore A Muscle Car", "Stewart plays off 'Smokey and the Bandit in Mobil 1 ad", "Smokey and the Bandit: 40th Anniversary Edition", "Smokey and the Bandit II, Box Office Information", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smokey_and_the_Bandit&oldid=1142751918, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, Album articles lacking alt text for covers, All articles that may contain original research, Articles that may contain original research from April 2022, Articles needing additional references from September 2018, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "Incidental CB Dialogue" (Voice ["Bandit"] , "Incidental CB Dialogue" (Voice ["Bandit"] Burt Reynolds, Voice ["Smokey"] , "Incidental CB Dialogue" (Voice ["Bandit"] Burt Reynolds, Voice ["Smokey"] Jackie Gleason), George Reynolds as Sheriff George Branford, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 04:45. I will confess that by the time this movie was out, I was a Mopar guy. As a publicity stunt, the Trans Ams used in the movie had different decals on the hood scoop. I remember borrowing my brothers red 1976 T/A to take a girl to the theater to see Smokey and the Bandit. The 1978 Trans Am is an exact duplicate of the "Smokey and the Bandit" movie car, finished in black and gold with a screaming chicken on the hood. He has no less than four movies listed as coming out, and they run the gamut from romantic drama to family comedy to horror mystery to action thriller. A 1977 special-edition model once owned by the late actor Burt Reynolds recently wound up on the car auction website Bring a Trailer. When Smokey and the Bandit first aired on American network television in the early 1980s, censors were faced with the challenge of toning down the raw language of the original film. Dont let his grumpiness fool you though; hes more than excited to provide the latest news and reviews on the most interesting cars in the industry. The Trans Am used for said jump was equipped with a booster rocket, the same type that was used by Evel Knievel during his failed Snake River Canyon jump. However, the scene where they drive through the Shell gas station was filmed in Ojai, California, on the corner of Ojai Avenue and El Paseo Road. The uncut version is the best. When I was a kid I thought they were the same person. These two 1967 Ford Galaxies (CC here), soon to be redecorated by a Kenworth road tractor, do not. The films are indeed classic and very funny to this day. Smokey and the Bandit was all realistic and non fictional, and it still was a big hit that brought a lot of money to Hal Needham and the actors, to pay Pontiac back. He obtained the attention of studios and aimed the film at a more mainstream release after his friend Reynolds read the script and agreed to portray the Bandit, with Reed now portraying the Bandit's friend the Snowman. In 1976-78, while a high school student in Norwalk, CT, me and a few buddies would routinely drive up to Vista, NY, which was just over the state line. AWESOME! Im gonna barbecue your ass in molasses., Re: The picture with 4 ladies and the wagon and van. He is hired by Big Enos Burdette and his son Little Enos to transport a truck load of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas, back to Georgia in 28 hours. A CC for a 1973 Grand Ville convertible can be found here. Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Jerry Reed) drives the truck while his good buddy Bo "Bandit" Darville (Reynolds) serves as the "blocker," a fast car used to divert police attention away from payload. We stopped in that same Safeway later on the way back home from southern Cal, and they had a huge display of cases of Coors out on the floor near the checkstands. News . Hal Needham did pass away as someone earlier said. If you notice there are several different angled skid marks on the road in the scene where the Bandit picks up Frog, you can see that they did a couple of takes of the T/A skidding to a stop and taking off again. It was the second highest-grossing film of the year, trailing only Star Wars: A New Hope, and it made Burt Reynolds into a certifiable superstar. Most reports of his death still didnt have that right! It is now sold in all states as Coors ships it in refrigerated train cars and bottled locally and sold in different parts of the country including the eastern US states. [28] However, this is inaccurate; within seconds of Bandit picking her up, Frog tells him "there is a wedding in search of a bride" and goes on to explain her ill-advised romance with Junior, as the Bandit holds up the CB mic for the Snowman to hear. Amazing how a combination of desire and unobtainability can make an ordinary product special. I am indeed a fan. The trip to Texarkana is uneventful; soon after leaving for the return trip to Georgia, The Bandit encounters Frog, played by Sally Field. I fondly remember lots and lots of terrible B grade movies @ the drive in in the early to mid 1970s all featuring cars racing , smashing and so on . Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. This small modification was made to remind viewers of Trans Am models from 1969, which had in excess of 300 horsepower. A group of Trans Am owners and fans of the movie take part in an annual road trip from Texarkana to Jonesboro, recreating the route taken by the characters in the film. The theatrical release has a few lines deleted, including an edit in which Sheriff Justice tells a state trooper to "fuck off" after the sheriff called his vehicle "a piece of crap". Haul my wife and four shelter adoptee mutts in it. Earlier DVD releases and the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray of the film have the original soundtrack intact. Reed also penned and performed the song for the opening credits, entitled "The Legend", which tells of some of the Bandit's escapades before the events of the film, and the ballad "The Bandit", which is in several versions in the movie and on the soundtrack. Smokey & The Bandit is the greatest movie of the 20th Century! Reynolds and Needham owned the Skoal Bandit team at the time, so getting these other drivers to appear probably would not taken much more than a six pack of beer and a hug from co-star Loni Anderson . Gleason was a genius, but this was not one of his better outings I prefer the Hustler and Gigot. Called Smoke is the Bandit and playing on Stewart's nickname, the commercials featured him as the Bandit opposite commentators Darrell Waltrip as the Snowman and Jeff Hammond as Buford T. Justice. Remember that Smokey and the Bandit was the 2nd biggest movie of the year, right after Star Wars. When it is finally torn off along with the car's roof in the impact with the girder, the missing fender still reappears later on in the film. I thought at the time that it was a newer version of White Lightning (also with Burt Reynolds) and that Smokey would be forgotten just as soon. [35], The "diablo sandwich" ordered by Sheriff Justice in the Arkansas barbecue restaurant scene has entered popular culture as a minor reference to the film. Ive always wanted some sort of de-commission/ex unmarked cop car, something from the 70s preferably. Other sources in East Texas (from whence Sheriff Justice hails) are familiar with the popular regional delicacy known as the Diablo Sandwich. There has never been anything quite like late 1970s fashion in clothing. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. According to director Hal Needham in the DVD documentary, Pontiac gave them three Trans-Ams and two LeMans (Sheriff Justice's patrol car) for the film. Needham and assistant director David Hamburger spent 30 hours revising the shooting schedule.[4]. With that in mind, Ill go with what Ive heard from my Georgia friends, to wit Sheriff Justices diablo sandwich is the Macon version, which is made with fried eggs and red hots. Jackie Gleason ad libbed a lot of his lines too. The scenes set in Texarkana were filmed in Jonesboro and the surrounding area and many of the chase scenes were filmed in the surrounding areas on Highway 54 between Fayetteville and Jonesboro for a majority of the driving scenes, Mundy's Mill Road, Main Street in Jonesboro, Georgia State Route 400, I-85 (Pleasant Hill exit) and in McDonough. In response, Needham told Reed that he liked the song so much that if Reed changed even a word or a note, Needham would "choke him". Along the way they tussle with tough as nails Texas Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), pick up a runaway bride nicknamed Frog (Sally Field), and have all kinds of awesome times on the highway. While the Snowman drives the truck carrying the beer, the Bandit drives a Pontiac Trans Am to distract law enforcement (called blocking) and keep the attention off the Snowman. Since mentioning the Kenworth, it must be noted it was a redecorator of the highest fashion. But that doesnt make for an interesting movie premise. It cornered amazingly well for such a large car, but the posi rear end emitted ominous sounds so I passed on it (I was in college and didnt have any place to do major repairs). The side vents give it away. For a little visual variety of sorts, and possibly an indicator of what car was about to be wrecked, the producers did branch out to use the 1975-era Plymouth Fury as another police car. The muscle car market reached a peak in the late 1960s, as the car was becoming larger, more powerful, and more aggressive by looks. I had no idea that it was going to become a 70s classic. Id been driving for years by the time I was 15, so I just wanted to complete the course with as little static as possible. Because sales were so high, Pontiac decided to delay the third-generation model. As such, it took a lot of sweet talking by former stuntman Needham for Pontiac to cough up three Trans Ams and three LeManses. Filmmakers destroyed 230 cars in the filming of 'Furious 7.' Smokey And The Bandit: A Car-chase Classic. That said, an uncomplimentary accent does exist. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). You might think that seeing their cars routinely destroyed on movie screens across the country would give the manufacturer pause, but that is not the case at all. After the movie came out, Firebird sales increased even more, but the Trans Am was now the most popular one. I am pretty sure it was filmed in Florida, when I-75 was under construction so they could use the highways while empty. The advertisements lampoon the film and feature a Pontiac Trans Am and a cover version of the song East Bound and Down. Nothing annoys him more than car electronics, and he just hates it when performance cars lack a third pedal. We just watched this with the kids the other week, along with Cannonball Run. Sales almost doubled in two years, which is a very big deal given that the Trans Ams 1978 facelift was rather minor save for the front fascia. Five-string banjo player Bobby Thompson is prominent toward the end of "East Bound and Down". Gotta love that guy!