Nothing annoys him more than car electronics, and he just hates it when performance cars lack a third pedal. Revisit this scene featuring "East Bound and. Smokey and the Bandit star Burt Reynolds passed away in 2018 . 12 A Total Of 3 Trans Ams Were Destroyed During Filming. Supposedly there was a stick car for the burnouts and an automatic car for other shots. Duarte or maybe ir was Arcadia , it was white with a red & blue pinstripe , we dropped $400 (an ungodly sum back then) on a re paint and pin striping but could _not_ sell that wretched POC , it took us two years IIRC . ARRGH! I've heard . Needing a fast set of wheels to distract law enforcement, Reynolds character purchases this 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am. He's a proud member of the TopSpeed team since early 2014. A dastardly scoundrel? 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. 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 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit, a high-speed chase ensues between the police and the Bandit (Burt Reynolds). 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. The sound came from a 1955 Chevrolet Custom, the same car that was used in Two-Lane Blacktop and American Graffiti, films launched in 1971 and 1973, respectively. "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. 3-Smokey and the Bandit 3-A crime against humanity, not even LSD can make it watchable since you spend the whole night fighting imaginary flying cobras with Jackie Gleasons head on them. The checker, not batting an eye, Do you want that chilled?. [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. I remember borrowing my brothers red 1976 T/A to take a girl to the theater to see Smokey and the Bandit. There was a problem. Check out the entire video below. 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. And theres beer in Texarkana.. A series of four made-for-TV spin-off films (Bandit Goes Country, Bandit Bandit, Beauty and the Bandit, and Bandit's Silver Angel) were produced in 1994 for Universal Television's Action Pack with actor Brian Bloom playing a younger version of the Bandit. I never understood why dragging a truckload of beer from Colorado to Georgia was such a big deal. A 1975 Pontiac Grand Ville, seen toward the end of the movie. It seems Plymouth was in a distant second for product placement. All pictures from the movie were acquired from www.imcdb.org, Fred Lives!!! 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. I prefer Buford T. Justices 1980 Pontiac Bonneville and his 1983 Pontiac Bonneville in Smokey and The Bandit III. 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. 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. February 27, 2023 . Mines never gone away, especially now that I spend every thee month in Memphis. 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. The change was somewhat strange as most automakers were using cubic-inch numerals to advertise engines. 2-Smokey and the Bandit II-Pretty bad, still has some funny campy crap, the Dom DeLuise Italian Dr. bit is ok, Gleason is still pretty funny, the Turbo T/A is pretty weak, but still cool to see. 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. Arguably the most iconic Pontiac Firebird in history. They destroyed all those cars in the films he said. Smokey & The Bandit Police Cars. The film's theme song, "East Bound and Down", was written virtually overnight by Reed. When Im driving the Bandit Trans Am while playing one of my many Forza Motorsport games I always put that song on. Trigger had a big impact on my taste in cars with the Trans Ams of the late 70s being my favorite. As I did Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. 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. Id like to hear from Mr. Needham why so many of those police cars had what look like shaker hood scoops. I have since moved on from them, mainly because in stock form, they were not particularly great cars (though good enough for the times). A 1977 special-edition model once owned by the late actor Burt Reynolds recently wound up on the car auction website Bring a Trailer. The value of their stock rose a startling 70 percent after the films release, and to show their appreciation to Reynolds, the president said they would give the actor a new car each and every year. These Furys, as well as some of the LeMans units, have hood scoops. On top of Burt Reynold's top-notch acting, Smokey and the Bandit is also famous for the Pontiac Trans Am that the actor drove throughout the film. In a rare public appearance, Burt Reynolds revealed how many cars they wrecked making Smokey and 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. The Trans Am was a high-performance package for the Firebird, Pontiac's take on the Chevrolet Camaro. Of course, nobody else cared if it was in the trunk of the car when heading back home. 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. We just watched this with the kids the other week, along with Cannonball Run. The third-generation Firebird was introduced in 1982, a full two years later than planned. 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. I dont know if Ive ever seen the unedited version though, so I never realized the orignal phrase was sum bitch, I always assumed it was worse. Pontiac gave Needham a total of four cars, three to use in the movie, and one as a promotional vehicle to drive around and advertise Smokey and the Bandit following its release. These two 1967 Ford Galaxies (CC here), soon to be redecorated by a Kenworth road tractor, do not. Its weird how it works. UNIVERSAL CUT THE BUDGET JUST AS PRODUCTION WAS ABOUT TO BEGIN. 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. Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most iconic movies of the 1970s. 1-Smokey and the Bandit-The classic, the original, and the best one by FAR. 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. 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. I am indeed a fan. Lets take a look at some more cars found in the movie. The little packy there had Coors and even though it was horribly expensive, we thought it was the elixer of the Gods. Gotta love that guy! The theme music "East Bound and Down" was sung and co-written by Reed (credited under his birth name, Jerry Hubbard) and Dick Feller. Sally Field and Burt Reynolds began a relationship after meeting on set. Because sales were so high, Pontiac decided to delay the third-generation model. If it wasnt for Smokey & the Bandit, the Dukes of Hazzard TV series would not exist. Many hardcore fans of Burt Reynolds' most iconic movie, 1977's "Smokey and The Bandit," know that none of those cool black Pontiac Trans Ams with gold trim survived the stunts in the film. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. And lets not forget the Trans Am rental car Steve McQueen drove in his very last movie, The Hunter from 1980. 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. He paid $550,000 for it, likely a record for any Pontiac Firebird. There was still a market for bras in the 1970s. 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. All I know is, at the time, if you lived in the east, Coors was some really special beer not unlike microbrews are now. 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. I dunno about the Foley sounds, I have a T/A with a 400 and an open/no catalytic true dual exhaust, and it sounds really close to how the Bandit car sounds at idle during some scenes from the movie. I am still drawn to the shape of these cars, and others that have that long and low look about them. I started cruising through EBay and the next thing I knew I won the auction for a clean 400/4 speed/T-Top 78 Trans Am. Let me get the popcorn for this one. They quickly escape in one of Big Enos's 13 Cadillacs as police flood the racetrack. Below is probably another DeKalb County cop car. (it did taste a lot better than Bud as I recall). 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". Neither Buford nor any other lawmen know of Snowman's illegal manifest, while Bandit is likewise unaware that Buford is chasing him because of Carrie, whose jumpiness inspires Bandit to give her the CB handle "Frog". That song often pops into my head at the start of long drives. That's because Pontiac almost canceled the Firebird in the early 1970s. The Trans Am used in the movie was a 1976 model with the front end of a 1977 car. In its place was the nonsensical scum bum. The voice over actor? Needham and assistant director David Hamburger spent 30 hours revising the shooting schedule.[4]. 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 advertisements lampoon the film and feature a Pontiac Trans Am and a cover version of the song East Bound and Down. Well, at least that's what you saw in the movie. News . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cODPt3T0cHE, We got a cage strong enough to hold you In the original script, Carrie was called Kate while Big Enos and Little Enos were called Kyle and Dickey. I actually remember the construction of that segment of I-75, as it stopped around Tampa prior to that time. When I was a kid I thought they were the same person. Dodge pitchman Sheriff Joe Higgins. While the initial concern was it having a regional appeal, it would ultimately play as well in New York City and Chicago as it did Atlanta, Georgia, or Biloxi, Mississippi. Thanks for this, Jason. 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. [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. Behind Sheriff Justices Pontiac, there is a nice looking 1965 or 1966 Ford Mustang fastback and a Toyota pickup. 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. 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. $30.00 + $11.45 shipping. The film's editors, Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Starring Bob Hope, that comedic star of the screen, and the lovely Jane Russell boy what a pair! I never forgot that one. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Musicians such as Beegie Adair and George Tidwell[20] played on the soundtrack. Round and dumpy, just like the Colonnade LeMans! According to Wikipedia, the second movie was able to get away with destroying an INSANE number of brand-new Pontiac LeMans police cars because Pontiac had them sitting around in the southwest region, having been sent to a rental fleet in Phoenix without a/c. Other sources in East Texas (from whence Sheriff Justice hails) are familiar with the popular regional delicacy known as the Diablo Sandwich. It airs on cable tv all the time. Although he's into just about any type of vehicle, Ciprian is not your typical car enthusiast. How many police cars were wrecked in Smokey and the Bandit? As Frog leaves, we are introduced to Sheriff Buford T. Justice, played by Jackie Gleason. Smokey & The Bandit is the greatest movie of the 20th Century! Her groom? Justice. In addition to the four Trans Ams, Needham also received two Pontiac LeMans models to serve as patrol cars in the movie. They retained the white steering wheels until 72 or so , just the thing to preveny burned fingers in the Desert sun . I loved the fact that Jackie Gleasons brown Lemans had a blue vinyl interior and it even had the luxury cushion steering wheel! I dont know if I ever saw one in real life at the time, although I was pretty young then. HotCars covers all things automotive: the latest auto news and informative reviews on the car, pickup truck and motorcycle industries. I beg to differ Mr -Nate. Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Furious 7 may ruin a lot of cars, but they were far from the first. I know, Ive owned a 75 for 23 years. 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. It was destroyed in Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in Part 3. No, the T/A was selling fine before the movie, and the black/gold package dates to 1976, a full year before the movie was out in summer 77. Jason, Using the words nuance, subtlety, complexity and intellect to describe this movie, is, as they say, trs amusant! In return, Reynolds portrayed Boss Hogg (originally portrayed by Sorrell Booke) in the film adaptation The Dukes of Hazzard (2005). 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 . Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. radio to help him out. "Smokey and the Bandit" stars Burt Reynolds, Sally . 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. Hes fodder enough for his own article at some point. The production team wrecked three for the four cars it received from Pontiac. Burt Reynolds as the Bandit can always count on the truckers on the other end of his C.B. I ended up buying a 1969 Cadillac ambulance a year later! Soon as I get home, first thing Im gonna do is punch yo mamma in da mouth!. The cars were originally ordered by a car rental agency in Phoenix, who refused to accept the . Cinemablend is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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. I think thats another line theyve edited out for the television version. Needham stated that by the end of production, there really wasnt much left of any of the three. 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. 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. The film features the custom clothing and costuming of Niver Western Wear of Fort Worth, Texas. They called out equipment like Radial Tuned Suspension, Calibrated Speedometer, and Power Disc Brakes. Maybe even the dual exhausts and the 400-4 merited badges. 1975 PLYMOUTH FURY HIGHWAY PATROL "SMOKEY & THE BANDIT" 1/18 BY . A couple of years ago, I was sitting around on a lazy Saturday afternoon and it was on TV. My drivers ed driving range car was an ex-patrol colonnade Pontiac LeMans Enforcer. [29] Alfred Hitchcock claimed that the film was one of his favorites. The new Hot Pants scene had to quickly be refilmed as a part of a second unit in the San Fernando Valley and was shot at a drive-in restaurant near Hansen Dam named Baby Beef Burgers, which has since been demolished. Five-string banjo player Bobby Thompson is prominent toward the end of "East Bound and Down". The DVD set meets NTSC standards. 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. Theres really nothing like an old cop car. [11] The movie was primarily filmed in Georgia, in the cities of McDonough, Jonesboro, and Lithonia. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 78% rating based on 32 reviews. The decals were changed to 1977-style units, as evidenced by the engine size callouts on the hood scoop being in liters rather than cubic inches, as had been the case in 1976. In 1978, Pontiac delivered 93,351 Trans Ams and 93,944 regular Firebirds for a grand total of 187,295 cars. Launched on the big screen in 1977, Smokey and the Bandit revolves around two bootleggers as they attempt to illegally transport 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta. New York, [31] Smokey and the Bandit was released in the United Kingdom on August 28 and was a success there, garnering positive reviews. And Coors itself limited its distribution to west of the Mississippi. Please to note I didnt say _I_ didnt like them as I was in my 20s then (early 1970s) so I hustled my self and my Russian girlfriend right on down to the cinema every time Burt Reynolds had a new flick , I personally loved his movies even the chick flicks like The Man Who Loved Women , I just had to hear earfuls from everyone else about how awful he / those movies were.. We even bought one of those Pontiac Police Specials on auction from. Remember that Smokey and the Bandit was the 2nd biggest movie of the year, right after Star Wars. [33] Reynolds was given the 1977 vehicle used during promotion of the film as a gift, though the car itself never actually appeared in the film. I was just tweaking Jason. 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 .