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. 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. He claimed that the Bandit is never made aware of Frog's leaving Junior at the altar, which is why the Bandit continually asks why a Texas sheriff is chasing him. Im probably in the minority as usual, but I prefer the Black and Gold 50th Anne. I will confess, however, that it was a fun movie to watch and I have caught it on TV a time or two in recent years with my kids. Amazing how a combination of desire and unobtainability can make an ordinary product special. About two seconds after this picture was taken, these motorcycles were doing their best imitation of a stack of pancakes. The roller coaster in the movie was the Greyhound. Two cars were reportedly badly damaged in early stunts in the film, while a third car was completely destroyed during the famous bridge jump scene. Ask him to choose between a BMW M4 and an Audi RS5, and hell gladly trade both for a beat-up Cuda. (Still). The Bandit takes the bet on the risky and unprecedented task, and recruits his partner Cledus "Snowman" Snow to drive the truck, while Bandit drives a black Pontiac Trans Am bought in advance from the Burdettes as a "blocker" to divert attention away from the truck and its illegal cargo. Burt Reynolds once claimed in an interview that there were actually 12 Trans Ams featured in Smokey and the Banditand he wrecked every one. What were the police cars in Smokey and the Bandit? In a rare public appearance, Burt Reynolds revealed how many cars they wrecked making Smokey and Nah, they survived by coming up with bras with very thin cups. In return, Reynolds portrayed Boss Hogg (originally portrayed by Sorrell Booke) in the film adaptation The Dukes of Hazzard (2005). Some of the original sound effects (such as Cledus's dog Fred barking) and music (such as the final chase to the Southern Classic) were removed and not replaced. From living there for my first two decades, I noticed the accent didnt get going good until around Sikeston (not Saxton as it would seem) and it progressed as you went deeper into the Bootheel. "Buford T. Justice" was the name of a real Florida Highway Patrolman known to Reynolds' father, who was once Police Chief of Riviera Beach, Florida. If you watched any of these clips, you heard a goodly number of phrases that still cannot be used on television in the United States. I drive a conversion van. Musicians such as Beegie Adair and George Tidwell[20] played on the soundtrack. 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. Many people believed beforehand that the film was not right for . Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. Thanks for this, Jason. It took four evenings to see almost all of the movie in bits and pieces. and used hard. The movies are rated PG with a run time of 282 minutes and released to video by Universal Studios. Buford, with Junior along, ignores his jurisdiction and doggedly chases Bandit all the way to Georgia to retrieve Carrie while various mishaps cause his cruiser to disintegrate on the way. Needham originally planned the film as a low-budget B movie with a production cost of $1 million,[4] with Reed as the Bandit. I have worked a long time to eradicate the one I had but it still crops up periodically from exposure, like you experienced. They destroyed all those cars in the films he said. This movie came out during my early formative years pre grade school. Even when the 2nd gen was already coasting on fumes, and defanged, and after the reasonably shitty Smokey and the Bandit sequel, Pontiac managed to pump out 107,000 Trans Ams in 1980 and 70,000 for the 2nd gen Trans Ams swan song in 1981. [34] In 2015 a Florida-based automobile customization company built 77 Trans Ams modeled after the car that Reynolds drove in the film. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1980 ERTL SMOKEY & THE BANDIT PONTIAC FIREBIRD DIECAST CAR police car set at the best online prices at eBay! He's a proud member of the TopSpeed team since early 2014. Let us dissect this flick to better examine it. His expletive is obscured when a passing big rig sounds its horn. Im east bound, just watch ol Bandit run.. 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. (it did taste a lot better than Bud as I recall). Reed would eventually play the Bandit in Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, in which Reynolds only appeared in a cameo near the end. Banzai! 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. [22] It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where it performed badly. Not everything was Pontiac, as evidenced by this 1973 Plymouth Satellite coupe (CC here). The most noted change made for network broadcast was the replacing of Buford's often-spoken phrase "sumbitch" (a contraction of "son of a bitch"; usually in reference to the Bandit) with the phrase "scum bum". However, in more recent years, the original version has been shown (on ITV, a commercial channel), usually with the stronger language edited out, often quite awkwardly. In the movie . Im pretty sure that the car that barks second when he takes off with Frog had to be a stick. The remaining Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am is currently owned by Florida car collector John Staluppi. . While watching the movie (yes, I did have to diligently research this article), one shot seemed to indicate this may be a dummy scoop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cODPt3T0cHE, We got a cage strong enough to hold you how many cars were destroyed in smokey and the bandit 2 how many cars were destroyed in smokey and the bandit 2 (No Ratings Yet) . 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 Coors itself limited its distribution to west of the Mississippi. No more needs to be said. He enlists the help of fellow truck driver Cletus The Snowman Snow, played by country music singer Jerry Reed. The original film had correct sounds that were usually recorded live as the action took place. I am still drawn to the shape of these cars, and others that have that long and low look about them. A segment of the CMT program Reel Eats used a sloppy joe-style recipe consisting of seasoned ground beef, corn, and sour cream. Producers of Smokey and the Bandit wrecked 26 cars while filming the movie in 1977. [38], In 2014, petroleum company Mobil 1 produced television commercials, featuring then-NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, closely based on the film. As the 1969 classic 'The Italian Job' turns 50 years old, TG.com caught up with David Salamone, the man who piloted the red Mini in . A guy we knew drove his half-ton pickup from western WA to his reserve 2-week stint in his home state in California. Ive always loved this movie. Burt Reynolds recently revealed the ridiculous number of Pontiac Trans Ams they went through filming 1977s Smokey and the Bandit. Several other groups, such as the U.S. rock band Tonic and U.K.-based country cover band We Be Ploughin' have also covered it. 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. January 24, 2019 100 comments. I was in West Plains the other day and there is yet another variation of it there. With Reynolds' salary at $1 million, Needham was left with only $3.3 million to make the film. 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. The Bandit Run quickly became a fixture, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the movie with a special 2017 screening of the film attended by Reynolds and a recreation of the jump undertaken by the Bandit and Frog across a river. The 79-year-old 70s and 80s heartthrob made a rare public appearance over the weekend at Wizard World Chicago. Thats all well and good, and it worked smooth as silk for a good while. thebandit77transam 2009-04-14 14:04. andre1969 wrote Pontiac supplied 5 brand-new cars for "Smokey and the Bandit". Only one survived, and it's priceless. As a kid that T/A, the General Lee, and KITT were largely responsible for defining my taste in cars and that carries through to today. 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". The $%&#* Germans got nuthin to do with it!, Such a great movie I grew up in the 80s, so it was comforting to watch this, Blues Brothers, or Animal House once a week on TBS/TNT. Somebody locally is selling a Regis Plymouth Fury ex Florida Police with gasping 318 V8, he will for the right money toss in a 440 with it. Further, as Pontiac has deliciously obvious product placement, anyone who delights in 70s era Pontiac iron will experience visual ecstasy. The DVD set meets NTSC standards. All I know is, at the time, if you lived in the east, Coors was some really special beer not unlike microbrews are now. Reynolds was the top box office draw from 1975 to 1982, then his movies really started to go downhill. The truck at the shell station is actually a 75 or 76 Toyota Hilux. One of those things that will make my kids think Im crazy some day. At the time, Reynolds was the top box office star in the world. The area around Helen, Georgia, was used for some locations. But would the black and gold T/As be as desirable today without the movie? And back then what I wanted most of all was a highly customized Vette with exposed headlights. Below is probably another DeKalb County cop car. 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. Luckily, both cars survived, and the Trans Am became famous only five years later. So why did they go with sound effects instead of the Trans Am's actually exhaust noise? And he succeeded as far as the Pontiac Trans Am is concerned. The movie, in fact, caused sales of the . The checker, not batting an eye, Do you want that chilled?. Field enjoyed making the film, but remembers that virtually the entire project was improvised. 1979 was equally successful for the brand, joining 1978 to create Pontiac's best sales years ever. 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. Wanting to promote the aesthetically modified 1977 model, but lacking cars owing to delays in production start-up, GM modified four 1976 Trans Ams with '77 spec bodywork and decals for the film. 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. Needham saw an advertisement for the soon-to-be-released 1977 Pontiac Trans Am and knew right away that would be the Bandit's car, or, as Needham referred to it, a character in the movie. 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. Television censorship and alternative versions, second highest-grossing domestic film of 1977, AFI's 100 Years100 Heroes and Villains, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Smokey and the Bandit at 35: A Case for the Genius of Hal Needham", "Greyhound Lakewood Park (Atlanta, Georgia, USA)", "Burt Reynolds' old Pontiac Trans Am replica sold for $317,500", "An Interview With Jim Wangers: Pontiac and the 1970's", "How the Bandit, Coors and a bunch of Makers changed the course of booze history", "Various Smokey And The Bandit (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)", "Smokey and the Bandit, Box Office Information", "Burt Reynolds at the 2015 Macon Film Festival", "Seven Quirky Lowbrow Favorite Films of Highbrow Directors", "Remembering Hal Needham and the Birth of Redneck Cinema", "Smokey and the Bandit Film from RadioTimes", "Burt Reynolds' Bandit Trans Am sells for $450,000", "See a "New" Vintage Bandit Trans Am Approved by Burt Reynolds Himself", "Diablo Sandwich Recipe from CMT's Reel Eats", "Diablo Sandwich / "Diablo & Doc" From Smokey & the Bandit, Identified! We just watched this with the kids the other week, along with Cannonball Run. Needing a fast set of wheels to distract law enforcement, Reynolds character purchases this 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am. How many smokey and the bandit movies are there? Just like the exaggeration sales went up 700%. The dubbed version is awful. Needham and assistant director David Hamburger spent 30 hours revising the shooting schedule.[4]. The roundup sequence in the desert shows many new Pontiac Le Mans sedans decorated as police cars being destroyed. When Smokey & The Banditfirst aired on television in the early 1980s, the Gleason phrase sum bitcha regional butchering of son of a bitchhad to be dubbed out. I always think scumbum because when I watched it as a kid in the early 90s, it was usually on TBS. Burt Reynolds' 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Sold for $240,000. Henry Corden, the voice of cartoon character Fred Flintstone. That is why there are not any left. 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.