The little packy there had Coors and even though it was horribly expensive, we thought it was the elixer of the Gods. 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. Nah, they survived by coming up with bras with very thin cups. I will confess that by the time this movie was out, I was a Mopar guy. His personaround, dumpy, and clipping wordsreminds one of another fictional southern sheriff. January 24, 2019 100 comments. By the film's ending, the final surviving Trans Am and LeMans were both barely running and the other cars had become parts donors to keep them running. A movie for the people, "Smokey and the Bandit" is more - Hagerty 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. Its lack of additives and preservatives meant that Coors could spoil in one week without refrigeration, explaining the film's 28-hour deadline. The Ridiculous Number Of Cars Burt Reynolds Burned - CINEMABLEND 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". 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. That girl from the McCoys video probably looks like Paula Deen now. 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. This movie just showed how much an urban legend the supposed unobtainability had become. Im pretty sure that the car that barks second when he takes off with Frog had to be a stick. 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. 1979 was equally successful for the brand, joining 1978 to create Pontiac's best sales years ever. Two of the most high-octane films of 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road and Furious 7, each burned through hundreds (Furious 7 alone destroyed a reported 230 cars), but theyre far from the first to do so. Ive always loved this movie. Burt Reynolds is originally a Georgia boy. Put one on and the lady looks like shes not wearing a bra. From what I have read the artist did the poster rendering from some blown up stills that he was shown from the movie, and none of them for some mysterious reason included the Trans Am, the truck, Reynolds, Gleason, Sally Field, crashing police cars, but no T/A. I loved the fact that Jackie Gleasons brown Lemans had a blue vinyl interior and it even had the luxury cushion steering wheel! Henry Corden, the voice of cartoon character Fred Flintstone. The dubbed version isnt as bad as the Remastered Blu-ray. 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. 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! A dastardly scoundrel? Nothing annoys him more than car electronics, and he just hates it when performance cars lack a third pedal. 1975 Plymouth Fury Police Pursuit Arkansas State Police "Smokey and The (Still). I know, Ive owned a 75 for 23 years. Theres really nothing like an old cop car. For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble. Smokey and the Bandit was the second highest-grossing domestic film of 1977 in the United States. The uncut version is the best. [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. Except for Gleason, the original actors mostly redubbed their lines for the television version. 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. In October 2020, a Smokey and the Bandit TV series was revealed to be in development, with a pilot written by David Gordon Green and Brian Sides and also executive produced with his Rough House confederates Jody Hill, Danny McBride and Brandon James, as well as Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins of Fuzzy Door.[44]. Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. Burt Reynolds as the Bandit can always count on the truckers on the other end of his C.B. Since mentioning the Kenworth, it must be noted it was a redecorator of the highest fashion. 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. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_301466-Ford-LTD-II-1977.html. Field enjoyed making the film, but remembers that virtually the entire project was improvised. A Pontiac wagon from earlier in the decade. The movies are rated PG with a run time of 282 minutes and released to video by Universal Studios. I think thats another line theyve edited out for the television version. That song often pops into my head at the start of long drives. Free shipping for many products! And Burt may be from GA originally, but he calls Florida home, which is another reason I heard the movie was filmed here. Needham had great difficulty getting any studios or producers to take his project seriously, being better known in the film industry as a stuntman. [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. Always loved this movie growing up. A strike at General Motors in 1972 limited the production of the Trans Am to less than 1,300 units that year, and Pontiac almost canceled the nameplate. How many cars did they wreck in Smokey and the Bandit? There was a problem. 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. 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. It was something regarding distribution limits. Smokey and the Bandit is a 1977 American road action comedy film starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams and Mike Henry. And the 400 Pontiac or 403 Olds versions could be made to run well. Gleason was given free rein to ad-lib dialogue and make suggestions. Sheriff Justices son, Junior. ", "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 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. I still regret selling mine almost 30 years ago. The movie, in fact, caused sales of the . Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1975 Plymouth Fury Police Pursuit Arkansas State Police "Smokey and The Bandit" at the best online prices at eBay! This is obvious, because there is no fuel tank on the underside of the trailer to power the refrigeration unit, and the unit is never heard running. 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. A blackguard? Jesus, did you just call Carmine a car novice? So lets explore this car (and truck) heavy flick, all while giving those who have not seen it a glimpse into a movie whose complexity and intellect remains unparalleled within the history of cinema. 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). It seems Plymouth was in a distant second for product placement. It opened in other Northern states at the end of July. 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. 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. They destroyed all those cars in the films he said. 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. Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most iconic movies of the 1970s. 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". In 1978, Pontiac delivered 93,351 Trans Ams and 93,944 regular Firebirds for a grand total of 187,295 cars. This small modification was made to remind viewers of Trans Am models from 1969, which had in excess of 300 horsepower. I only got one of them LOL. 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 . IMCDb.org: 1977 Pontiac LeMans in "Smokey and the Bandit, 1977" The three original films introduced two generations of the Pontiac Trans Am and the Dodge Stealth in the television movies. Smokey and the Bandit: Behind-the-Scenes Details With - MotorTrend Hes fodder enough for his own article at some point. 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. and the Dixie Dance Kings, and Burts car was a 57 [56?] A couple of years ago, I was sitting around on a lazy Saturday afternoon and it was on TV. 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. I recall a big smokey burnout right after they left Snowmans house that looked 455-worthy and also after Bandit picked up Fields he left two strips after nailing second (right before the tire thieves crossed the road), which makes me think there was also a 4 speed car used. 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. Out of four Trans Ams used for the filming of Smokey And The Bandit, three were completely totaled in the process. And he succeeded as far as the Pontiac Trans Am is concerned. 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. Whaddya expect outta a guy what drives a conversion van? He gave Needham a preview of the song and, getting no reaction, offered to rewrite it. I recall reading somewhere that the Trans Am that did the bridge jump had a tweaked Chevy 350 in it with a stick, and of course that it was WO after the jump. I have always loved this movie, watched it dozens and dozens of times on TV, video, DVD, laserdisc, almost any form of media. 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. Other sources in East Texas (from whence Sheriff Justice hails) are familiar with the popular regional delicacy known as the Diablo Sandwich. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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! The secrets behind the cars and stunts in 'The Italian Job' - Top Gear "Smokey and the Bandit" stars Burt Reynolds, Sally . With four miles left, Bandit, discouraged by the unexpected mounting attention, is ready to give up, but Snowman, who initially thought they would fail, takes the lead and smashes through the roadblock at the fairgrounds' main entrance. 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. 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. 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. As I am finishing this article while Big Truck Week is winding down, here is a Kenworth with a 1973 Dodge Polara patrol car. After the movie came out, Firebird sales increased even more, but the Trans Am was now the most popular one. Burt Reynolds may be 79, but he shows no signs of slowing down. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. how many cars were destroyed in smokey and the bandit 2 NY 10036. 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. I certainly hope the guy hired to drive that 74 Ford Torino wagon was paid well for his work. That's because Pontiac almost canceled the Firebird in the early 1970s. The pair arrive in Texarkana one hour early and load up the truck, but just as they head back, Carrie, a runaway bride, intercepts Bandit and jumps in his car, unwittingly making him an indirect target of Sheriff Buford T. Justice, a career Texas lawman whose witless son Junior was to have married Carrie. 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. She is a runaway bride, sitting on the side of the road in her 1973 Chevrolet Impala coupe. 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. Great write up. If they werent burning candles to an image of a cowboy hatted Burt Reynolds at Pontiac headquarters. I imagine that they borrowed some of the character from Sheriff JW Pepper from the 1973 and 1974 James Bond movies, Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. That is why there are not any left. The Trans Am was a high-performance package for the Firebird, Pontiac's take on the Chevrolet Camaro. However, the U.S. government introduced new emission controls in 1972, and automakers had to step back. Sally Field and Burt Reynolds began a relationship after meeting on set. 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. But 1978 returned sales of 93,351 examples, a jump of around 25,000 cars. Trio of Burt Reynolds movie cars fetch $330,000 at auction, including 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. 46,000 in 1976, 68,000 in 1977, 93,000 in 1978, 117,000 in 1979. Needham stated that by the end of production, there really wasnt much left of any of the three. The MASSIVE year over year sales gains came from somewhere. Mr. Reynolds made a bunch of low budget films before this , all had wild chase scenes with cop cars crashing & going into swamps . These were the cans with the two circular push buttons on top instead of pull tabs. My drivers ed driving range car was an ex-patrol colonnade Pontiac LeMans Enforcer. I have at least 4 really good car buddies that will from time to time love popping this movie in to watch. How Many Police Cars Were Destroyed In Blues Brothers (it did taste a lot better than Bud as I recall). Some weren't that lucky and were discontinued altogether. The soundtrack album was released in 1977 on vinyl, cassette, and 8-track through MCA Records. Gas was a buck a gallon at the time so fuel economy wasnt a major issue. Please refresh the page and try again. Some people have ripped this film as being thin on plot; others have called it a documentary about life south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Gator , Stroker Ace , lots of them . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cODPt3T0cHE, We got a cage strong enough to hold you I dont know if I ever saw one in real life at the time, although I was pretty young then. [27] In his review in the Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel gave the film two stars and complained that the film failed to tell the audience when the clock started on the beer run, thus reducing suspense. Just after re-entering Georgia, Snowman is rescued by Bandit after being stopped by a Georgia State Patrol motorcycle trooper, and state and local police intensely pursue Bandit with roadblocks and a helicopter to track his movement. The change was somewhat strange as most automakers were using cubic-inch numerals to advertise engines. The cop cars with the hood scoops were ex-DeKalb County (Georgia) cruisers. The cars were 1976 models, the engines fitted to them were 455ci powerplants, the last year these engines were offered for sale before withdrawal. The film's editors, Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. In my area, nearly every one listed is an ex cop car. [5] Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on legal pads. [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. 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. Frederick Amon smuggled it from Colorado to North Carolina and sold it for four times the retail price.[19]. Upon showing it to his friend, Reynolds told Needham that it was the worst script he had ever read, but that he would still make the movie. 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. The films are indeed classic and very funny to this day. Smokey & The Bandit Police Cars. The dubbed version is awful. 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. Now then you mentionned Sheriff JW Pepper, I decided to post some Youtube clips of him. These Furys, as well as some of the LeMans units, have hood scoops. I just dont like car novices that assume the Pontiac T/A was soley a movie tie in car and the it started in 1977.. 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. And theres beer in Texarkana.. Probably the most interesting thing about this movie and Burt Reynolds is that he is not originally a Southern boy at all he was actually born in the Wolverine State Lansing, Michigan to be precise. [17], In 1977, Coors was unavailable for sale east of Oklahoma. Im gonna barbecue your ass in molasses., Re: The picture with 4 ladies and the wagon and van. . Behind Sheriff Justices Pontiac, there is a nice looking 1965 or 1966 Ford Mustang fastback and a Toyota pickup. What were the police cars in Smokey and the Bandit? That is an excellent question. But while the cars shown in the movie look like 1977-model-year Trans Ams, they were actually 1976 models. A 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix with a Buick Electra behind it. It had not been used for some time and was repainted for the film. S&TB was filmed primarily off Route 400 in Georgia. I think even the 2nd gen Camaro enjoyed some of the blast wave from Smokey and the Bandit, 1979 was the best year ever for Camaros as well, with over 280,000 Camaros being sold. The scene where Sheriff Justice's car has the door knocked off by a passing . how many cars were destroyed in smokey and the bandit 2. I'm afraid I was responsible for a good few of those. Thats all well and good, and it worked smooth as silk for a good while. I had no idea that it was going to become a 70s classic. You will receive a verification email shortly. One of those things that will make my kids think Im crazy some day. 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. And lets not forget the Trans Am rental car Steve McQueen drove in his very last movie, The Hunter from 1980. As luck and script writing would have it, Frog has left her groom at the altar. Unfortunately he passed away a few months ago or that would have been a great question to ask. Although 1977 models also featured 6.6-liter engines, they were rated at only 200 horses. 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". 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. S/E T/A with the round headlights. Originally, the film was going to be a B-movie played only in the Southern United States. Ive also looked at a Fox based LTD cop car and an early 1991 whale Caprice 9C1 detective model, burgundy on burgundy cloth. The original film had correct sounds that were usually recorded live as the action took place. 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 remaining Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am is currently owned by Florida car collector John Staluppi. A paper on Cognitive psychology was published in the 1990 issue of Computers in Human Perception. I was to be paid a salary plus own 7% of the profits. So why did they go with sound effects instead of the Trans Am's actually exhaust noise? Due to his financial difficulties in 2014, Reynolds put his vast collection of artwork and memorabilia up for auction, including the Trans Am. 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. Rockford Files also featured Firebird, and was on since 1974, and Fs sold well despite gas crunch I and inflation. Always a favorite. Three Kenworth W900A short-frame semi trucks, driven by Reed, were each equipped with 38-inch sleepers. Gleason probably wanted too much money to provide the dubbing, which is a shame because it ruins the TV version. Before Gleason was cast in the film, Richard Boone was originally considered for the role of Buford T. Many nameplates lost their performance credentials, and some of them, like the Ford Mustang, were redesigned without a V-8 engine. ARRGH! Here in Canada they didnt censor it, so we always got the sumbitch version. While watching the movie (yes, I did have to diligently research this article), one shot seemed to indicate this may be a dummy scoop. [18] A 1974 Time magazine article explains that Coors was so coveted for its lack of stabilizers and preservatives, and Coors Banquet Beer had a brief renaissance. Mr. Reynolds elevated the dreck that he appeared in to a higher level, that is, enjoyable. Despite growing up next to Cape, most of relatives are from the Mid-South. Burt Reynolds once claimed in an interview that there were actually 12 Trans Ams featured in Smokey and the Banditand he wrecked every one. 1975 PLYMOUTH FURY HIGHWAY PATROL "SMOKEY & THE BANDIT" 1/18 BY . . I was a junior high school age kid when this film came out. It had amazing throttle response, with a hit that either scared people, or made them giggle. Somewhere along the line, the company acquired a new president who told Reynolds: Im the new president, and I dont like your movies. In 2006, a DVD re-release was issued of Smokey and the Bandit featuring a digitally remastered audio track with 5.1 Dolby-compatible surround sound. 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. The Burdettes' car is a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado convertible painted in a "Candy Red" color scheme and is seen briefly at the beginning of the movie and in the final scene as the Bandit, the Snowman, Fred the dog, and Frog use it to make their escape. Cinemablend is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Stroker Ace is after S&B, 1983, and features the then new for 83 aero Fox Body Thunderbird. A few other examples of sound effect replacement occur when the Bandit takes off after getting the reluctant Cledus involved in the bet, the Bandit comes to a screeching halt on a roadway moments before picking up Carrie, and when Buford's car top comes off.