In a rare public appearance, Burt Reynolds revealed how many cars they wrecked making Smokey and The commercials were produced after Stewart mentioned that the movie was one of his favorites.[39]. Frederick Amon smuggled it from Colorado to North Carolina and sold it for four times the retail price.[19]. Required fields are marked *. Wealthy Texan Big Enos Burdette and his son Little Enos have sponsored a racer in Atlanta's Southern Classic and want to celebrate in style when he wins, so they are seeking a trucker willing to bootleg Coors Beer to Atlanta for their refreshment. 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. Weve got a long way to go and a short time to get there A Pontiac wagon from earlier in the decade. Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. 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! East bound and down, loaded up and truckin The scene where Sheriff Justice's car has the door knocked off by a passing semi-truck was shot on Georgia State Route 75, 3 miles (4.8km) north of Helen. Gleason was a genius, but this was not one of his better outings I prefer the Hustler and Gigot. Her groom? 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. 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. 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. The unrestored car reportedly showed up on eBay back in 2015, but no one wanted to buy it. Please refresh the page and try again. How many police cars were wrecked in Smokey and the Bandit? Misconception by casual novice car fans is that the Trams Am didnt sell well until S&B. Even today when I stumble across this cinematic masterpiece being rerun on cable tv, Ill watch the entire thing. Behind Sheriff Justices Pontiac, there is a nice looking 1965 or 1966 Ford Mustang fastback and a Toyota pickup. This small modification was made to remind viewers of Trans Am models from 1969, which had in excess of 300 horsepower. Of course, it wasnt hard to wake them up. I looked at a Bluesmobile worthy 1977 Plymouth Grand Fury, the big ones, it was an ex Florida Highway Patrol car, but it had a pretty good amount of rust and it was pretty beat. Not all the police cars had hood scoops. As such, it took a lot of sweet talking by former stuntman Needham for Pontiac to cough up three Trans Ams and three LeManses. The paint code for each truck was coffee brown with gold trims and the 48-foot (15m) mural trailer used was manufactured by Hobbs Trailers in Texas with a non-operational Thermo King Refrigeration unit. Ironically I never really cared all that much for Coors, I dont think it has much flavor, but it was well received when we got to Kentucky. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Depends upon what he converted it from. Heres how it works. These two 1967 Ford Galaxies (CC here), soon to be redecorated by a Kenworth road tractor, do not. I think you may be confusing the movie Honky-Tonk Freeway with the filming done during I-75 construction near Sarasota. January 24, 2019 100 comments. The T/A is just as quick as my present Challenger is, but the Challenger doesnt have anything close to the throttle response it had, and I miss it. [23] It then opened in just the South of the United States over the Memorial Day weekend and grossed $2,689,851 in 386 theaters. 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. 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. He contacted Pontiac and an agreement was made that four 1977 Trans Ams and two Pontiac LeMans four-door sedans would be provided for the movie. Its amazing, you should watch it. Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Furious 7 may ruin a lot of cars, but they were far from the first. 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. It opened in other Northern states at the end of July. [4] Just two days before production was to begin, Universal sent a "hatchet man" to Atlanta to inform Needham that the budget was being trimmed by $1 million. Many people believed beforehand that the film was not right for . The other range car was a Chevette for people that wanted to learn on a manual transmission. Did I mention how much I enjoy reading all the back stories and niggly details I can only get here ? The film was a sleeper hit, and following a poor initial performance, it went on to gross $126.7 million in North America, versus a budget of only $4.3 million. 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. S&TB was filmed primarily off Route 400 in Georgia. Jason, Using the words nuance, subtlety, complexity and intellect to describe this movie, is, as they say, trs amusant! While I have read undocumented accounts of there being more than three Trans Ams, Needham stated three is all that were used. Reynolds actively pushed for her casting after Universal initially resisted, claiming Field was not attractive enough. He gave Needham a preview of the song and, getting no reaction, offered to rewrite it. Banzai! A guy we knew drove his half-ton pickup from western WA to his reserve 2-week stint in his home state in California. Here are 20 facts about the Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit. The rub? On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 78% rating based on 32 reviews. [34] In 2015 a Florida-based automobile customization company built 77 Trans Ams modeled after the car that Reynolds drove in the film. 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. . 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. A CC for a 1973 Grand Ville convertible can be found here. The Trans Am used in the movie was a 1976 model with the front end of a 1977 car. He enlists the help of fellow truck driver Cletus The Snowman Snow, played by country music singer Jerry Reed. Every idiot with more money than brains wanted a Trans Am. When I was a kid, there was an old record from the 50s around the house that was a collection of radio and tv bloopers. One was a radio ad for a movie that went something like: . 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. Unfortunately he passed away a few months ago or that would have been a great question to ask. 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. However, the U.S. government introduced new emission controls in 1972, and automakers had to step back. Of the many cars saved from the fire was the only surviving Knight Rider KITT Super Pursuit Mode car created by Jay Orberg. Burt Reynolds is originally a Georgia boy. 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 remember reading somewhere that one of the cars was equipped with a 455 for some of the higher speed scenes. The films are indeed classic and very funny to this day. How many smokey and the bandit movies are there? For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble. Burt Reynolds plays truck driver Bo Bandit Darville. 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. Jackie Gleason ad libbed a lot of his lines too. I also own a 1:18 scale version of the Bandit Trans Am. 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. 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. Musicians such as Beegie Adair and George Tidwell[20] played on the soundtrack. In the original script, Carrie was called Kate while Big Enos and Little Enos were called Kyle and Dickey. Set with his . Funny that T/A isnt on the movie poster, considering it was the obvious star of the show. Everything You Should Know About The The Trans Am From Smokey And The Bandit, 10 Most Potentially Unreliable Electric Vehicles According To Consumer Reports, 10 Reasons Why It's Time You Should Buy A Bagger, Here's How Solid-State Batteries Will Change EVs Forever. Except for Gleason, the original actors mostly redubbed their lines for the television version. I distinctly remember my mother buying Coors and being asked if she lived in Missouri or Illinois by the cashier. The cars were originally ordered by a car rental agency in Phoenix, who refused to accept the . Always a favorite. This movie just showed how much an urban legend the supposed unobtainability had become. Chevy almost did the same with its counterpart, the Camaro. The roundup sequence in the desert shows many new Pontiac Le Mans sedans decorated as police cars being destroyed. I only got one of them LOL. 46,000 in 1976, 68,000 in 1977, 93,000 in 1978, 117,000 in 1979. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Coors is still brewed just outside Denver, Colorado. I beg to differ Mr -Nate. So these kind of represented a rebellion attitude to the government mandated diesel econo hatches everyone thought we were going to be forced to drive in the 80sinterestingly 1979 was also the best year for the Corvette too. So why did they go with sound effects instead of the Trans Am's actually exhaust noise? The cop cars with the hood scoops were ex-DeKalb County (Georgia) cruisers. That is an excellent question. Just do a search for Crown Victorias on your local CL. 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. [21], Smokey and the Bandit was a sleeper hit. Some of the more recent DVD releases of it redid all of the engine sounds and it sounds much more mellow than the original(not happy about that). I think more of Smokey and the Bandit II and the awful part 3 were filmed largely in Florida, I dont know if I-75 construction was started by 1976-77, at least the section down to Miami part, when they filmed. I was to be paid a salary plus own 7% of the profits. It consists of any of the various Louisiana-style hot sauces on Texas toast-style bread alongside the fourth most famous product of Pittsburg, Texas (behind Pilgrim's Pride, Cavender's, and Carroll Shelby)Pittsburg Hot Links. I have to admit, thats a pretty fantastic story, and as a major movie star, Im sure Burt Reynolds was able to figure out another way to acquire a means of transportation. However, the scene and the obscured expletive were played for comedy value and written as such, with the passing truck being the gag of the scene more than a way to avoid the censors. Car movies are notorious for being tough on the very vehicles that give them their allure. For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble. Most of the shots that show Reynolds and Field in the car talking were filmed with the T/A being towed along on a lowboy trailer. Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox would bring several cases after playing on the West Coast, by stashing them in the equipment trunks on the team's plane. Filmmakers destroyed 230 cars in the filming of 'Furious 7.' Smokey And The Bandit: A Car-chase Classic. The trip to Texarkana is uneventful; soon after leaving for the return trip to Georgia, The Bandit encounters Frog, played by Sally Field. The LeMans police car did nothing for me because there was a colonnade LeMans sedan in the garage at home. Anyone who enjoys Colonnade sedans will love Smokey & the Bandit. Earlier DVD releases and the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray of the film have the original soundtrack intact. But while the cars shown in the movie look like 1977-model-year Trans Ams, they were actually 1976 models. I remember borrowing my brothers red 1976 T/A to take a girl to the theater to see Smokey and the Bandit. 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. You want to questions bra sales, check out the youtube video of Hang on Sloopy by the Mccoys, the color version.wowza! If I recall correctly, Firebirds in general (along with Camaros) were selling well prior to 1977, but the Trans Am was not the best-selling one. They destroyed all those cars in the films he said. He paid $550,000 for it, likely a record for any Pontiac Firebird. a custom mandrel bent dual exhaust, and the Mondello bottom end plate to stabilize the windowed mains. Always loved this movie growing up. I loved the fact that Jackie Gleasons brown Lemans had a blue vinyl interior and it even had the luxury cushion steering wheel! In the U.K., the heavily dubbed version was shown for several years, particularly by the BBC. 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. About two seconds after this picture was taken, these motorcycles were doing their best imitation of a stack of pancakes. Burt Reynolds recently revealed the ridiculous number of Pontiac Trans Ams they went through filming 1977s Smokey and the Bandit. Pontiac should have made a radio that played that song automatically simply by pushing a button, or maybe made it the horn sound. Also up for auction was a go-kart replica of the car, which sold for nearly $14,000. The directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham, the film follows Bo "Bandit" Darville (Reynolds) and Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Reed), two bootleggers attempting to illegally transport 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta. I have at least 4 really good car buddies that will from time to time love popping this movie in to watch. 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. In Smokey and the Bandit, there were eight 1977 Trans-Am cars and approximately the same number of police cars (but some said ten). Here in Canada they didnt censor it, so we always got the sumbitch version. Sales of the coupe exploded after the film hit the silver screen and set unprecedented records for both Pontiac and the Firebird nameplate. Will Walker: Independence Return For Season 2 Amid CW Shakeups? There was a problem. Coors was legal in Missouri and illegal in Illinois. And then they made the biggest mistake of their lives and went to national distribution. With Reynolds' salary at $1 million, Needham was left with only $3.3 million to make the film. Anyway, on the trip east, we stopped at a grocery in Topeka, Kansas and bought 16-18 cases of Coors, all that we had room for in the car. During a Q&A session on Saturday, filmed by ComicBook.com, a fan asked how many Trans Ams they burned through during production. It was his idea to have Junior alongside him throughout the film. As I am finishing this article while Big Truck Week is winding down, here is a Kenworth with a 1973 Dodge Polara patrol car. His father was also the inspiration for the word "sumbitch" used in the film, a variation of the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" that, according to Reynolds, he uttered quite often. Future President Gerald Ford, after a trip to Colorado, hid it in his luggage to take it back to Washington, D.C. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a steady supply airlifted by the Air Force to Washington. As deals were made for the actors and producers, the studio wanted to renegotiate my deal. Id be surprised. 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. You will receive a verification email shortly. Gas was a buck a gallon at the time so fuel economy wasnt a major issue. 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. I also own a Etrl replica of the Pontiac Bonneville Buford T. Justice drove in Smokey and The Bandit II. Below is probably another DeKalb County cop car. 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. As Fred Flintstone was modeled off Ralph Kramden, the Jackie Gleason character from the 1950s television showThe Honeymooners, the tone and intonation of the dubbing was highly convincing. The Kenworth even achieves a trifecta of sorts, as it gave the first dent to Sheriff Justices LeMans. You can see in some shots in the movie that the Bandit Trans Am has 1976 style gold honeycomb wheels instead of the gold snowflake wheels from the 1977, I think at least one of the cars used in filming was a 1976 converted with a 1977 front clip. 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. They return one minute after their time limit, but instead of taking the payoff, Carrie and Bandit accept a double-or-nothing offer from Little Enos: a challenge to run up to Boston and bring back clam chowder in 18 hours.
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