how many cars destroyed in smokey and the bandit

The films are indeed classic and very funny to this day. 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 three movie cars were destroyed during various stunts, so the promo car is the only surviving Trans Am connected to this film. (it did taste a lot better than Bud as I recall). The 1977 features rectangular quad headlamps instead of only two round lights, a unique slanted and V-shaped nose, and a center-mounted hood scoop. With Reynolds agreement to do the movie, and his insistence upon casting Gleason as Sheriff Justice, the movie became a larger venture. Producer Hal Needham intended Smokey and the Bandit to be one of the best product placement films of all time. Here in Canada they didnt censor it, so we always got the sumbitch version. It outsold its Chevrolet Camaro counterpart for the first time. I was a junior high school age kid when this film came out. This phrase achieved a level of popularity with children and the 2007 Hot Wheels release of the 1970s Firebird Trans Am has "scum bum" emblazoned on its tail. Just do a search for Crown Victorias on your local CL. [11] The movie was primarily filmed in Georgia, in the cities of McDonough, Jonesboro, and Lithonia. I agree, despite people saying you sound cute, it seems like they think Ellie Mae Clapett or Jethro Bodean. And back then what I wanted most of all was a highly customized Vette with exposed headlights. A CC for a 1973 Grand Ville convertible can be found here. 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. . 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. 1-Smokey and the Bandit-The classic, the original, and the best one by FAR. 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. Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. 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. Ive always loved this movie. I also own a 1:18 scale version of the Bandit Trans Am. Let me get the popcorn for this one. Her groom? 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. http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/john-fedack-my-days-as-a-dekalb-county-police-officer/. Gas was a buck a gallon at the time so fuel economy wasnt a major issue. 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. Three actors from the main cast of The Dukes of Hazzard appear in small uncredited roles in Smokey and the Bandit: Ben Jones, John Schneider, and Sonny Shroyer (who played a police officer in both). [15] All four of the cars were badly damaged during production,[16] one of which was all but destroyed during the jump over the dismantled Mulberry bridge. Luckily, both cars survived, and the Trans Am became famous only five years later. As such, it took a lot of sweet talking by former stuntman Needham for Pontiac to cough up three Trans Ams and three LeManses. I have since moved on from them, mainly because in stock form, they were not particularly great cars (though good enough for the times). When Smokey & The Bandit first aired on television in the early 1980s, the Gleason phrase "sum bitch"-a regional butchering of "son of a bitch"-had to be dubbed out. January 24, 2019 100 comments. The MASSIVE year over year sales gains came from somewhere. All I know is, at the time, if you lived in the east, Coors was some really special beer not unlike microbrews are now. Sales jumped even higher in 1979 when Pontiac moved 117,108 Trans Ams. Supposedly there was a stick car for the burnouts and an automatic car for other shots. [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. Thats all well and good, and it worked smooth as silk for a good while. I guess the Trans Am proved to have more staying power than the hot 71 Ford in the earlier movie. I have at least 4 really good car buddies that will from time to time love popping this movie in to watch. Here's everything you should know about one of the most iconic movie cars ever. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_301466-Ford-LTD-II-1977.html. [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). 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. The theme music "East Bound and Down" was sung and co-written by Reed (credited under his birth name, Jerry Hubbard) and Dick Feller. A dastardly scoundrel? 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. No more needs to be said. 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 . WildI watched this for the first time in years after watching the latest Archer.the whole thing is an homage to S&B. 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 Trans Am was a high-performance package for the Firebird, Pontiac's take on the Chevrolet Camaro. It had amazing throttle response, with a hit that either scared people, or made them giggle. [38], In 2014, petroleum company Mobil 1 produced television commercials, featuring then-NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, closely based on the film. Always loved this movie growing up. I really enjoyed this discussion. 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. 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. A 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix with a Buick Electra behind it. Because sales were so high, Pontiac decided to delay the third-generation model. Revisit this scene featuring "East Bound and. Whaddya expect outta a guy what drives a conversion van? 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. 1975 PLYMOUTH FURY HIGHWAY PATROL "SMOKEY & THE BANDIT" 1/18 BY . On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 78% rating based on 32 reviews. Many people believed beforehand that the film was not right for . Lets take a look at some more cars found in the movie. And all of us easterners suddenly discovered it was nothing more than another Budweiser/Miller/etc. 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. Well, they simply considered that the Trans Am didn't sound intimidating enough. February 27, 2023 . Despite growing up next to Cape, most of relatives are from the Mid-South. Theres really nothing like an old cop car. In the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit, a high-speed chase ensues between the police and the Bandit (Burt Reynolds). Mines never gone away, especially now that I spend every thee month in Memphis. Even today when I stumble across this cinematic masterpiece being rerun on cable tv, Ill watch the entire thing. Hal Needham did pass away as someone earlier said. Well, the Corvettes success is clearly due to Corvette Summer, @Jim I remember that movie! Its amazing, you should watch it. Most of the dialogue was improvised on set. 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. 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. . 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 . Good silly fun. One of our favorite movies. 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. In addition to the four Trans Ams, Needham also received two Pontiac LeMans models to serve as patrol cars in the movie. I was 10 when this movie came out and I loved it then and I still do. Mr. Reynolds made a bunch of low budget films before this , all had wild chase scenes with cop cars crashing & going into swamps . Great article! 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. The scene where Sheriff Justice's car has the door knocked off by a passing . 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. Below is probably another DeKalb County cop car. Back in 1984, I went to look at a late 1970s Plymouth cop car as well. Because of the popularity of the film and the sales success of the Trans Am, the president of Pontiac Alex Mair promised to supply Reynolds with a Trans Am each year. Filmmakers destroyed 230 cars in the filming of 'Furious 7.' Smokey And The Bandit: A Car-chase Classic. The scoops were added by the department because the engines ran so hot. As if GM owes them something. 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. Needing a fast set of wheels to distract law enforcement, Reynolds character purchases this 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am. 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. 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. Comments 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. Gleason was a genius, but this was not one of his better outings I prefer the Hustler and Gigot. And lets not forget the Trans Am rental car Steve McQueen drove in his very last movie, The Hunter from 1980. 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. The LeMans police car did nothing for me because there was a colonnade LeMans sedan in the garage at home. Now, having only three Trans Ams to wreck for a movie is minimalist, to say the least. 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. When I was a kid I thought they were the same person. Burt Reynolds' 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Sold for $240,000. There has never been anything quite like late 1970s fashion in clothing. In my area, nearly every one listed is an ex cop car. For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble. Im gonna barbecue your ass in molasses., Re: The picture with 4 ladies and the wagon and van. I certainly hope the guy hired to drive that 74 Ford Torino wagon was paid well for his work. I know, Ive owned a 75 for 23 years. [9] Though the film Moonrunners (1975) is the precursor to the television series The Dukes of Hazzard (19791985), from the same creator and with many identical settings and concepts, the popularity of Smokey and the Bandit and similar films helped get the Dukes series on the air. The roundup sequence in the desert shows many new Pontiac Le Mans sedans decorated as police cars being destroyed. J.J. & The Dixie Dance Kings was a milder one that had (I think) a 56 Buick Century . 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. The little packy there had Coors and even though it was horribly expensive, we thought it was the elixer of the Gods. In the movie . 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. The dubbed version isnt as bad as the Remastered Blu-ray. 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. The roller coaster in the movie was the Greyhound. 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. 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. 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. Reynolds is referenced by name in several early episodes of the series. 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. 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. I remember borrowing my brothers red 1976 T/A to take a girl to the theater to see Smokey and the Bandit. That is an excellent question. Smokey and the Bandit was the second highest-grossing domestic film of 1977 in the United States. Needham and assistant director David Hamburger spent 30 hours revising the shooting schedule.[4]. As I did Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. During their run, they are pursued by Texas county sheriff Buford T. Justice (Gleason). and the Dixie Dance Kings, and Burts car was a 57 [56?] You want to questions bra sales, check out the youtube video of Hang on Sloopy by the Mccoys, the color version.wowza! Other sources in East Texas (from whence Sheriff Justice hails) are familiar with the popular regional delicacy known as the Diablo Sandwich. 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. How many smokey and the bandit movies are there? Burt Reynolds once claimed in an interview that there were actually 12 Trans Ams featured in Smokey and the Banditand he wrecked every one. Burt Reynolds plays truck driver Bo Bandit Darville. Of the many cars saved from the fire was the only surviving Knight Rider KITT Super Pursuit Mode car created by Jay Orberg. 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 . I have worked a long time to eradicate the one I had but it still crops up periodically from exposure, like you experienced. . He enlists the help of fellow truck driver Cletus The Snowman Snow, played by country music singer Jerry Reed. But would the black and gold T/As be as desirable today without the movie? I have only seen pieces of the second and none of the third; I plan to keep it that way. 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. NY 10036. This small modification was made to remind viewers of Trans Am models from 1969, which had in excess of 300 horsepower. 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. Dodge pitchman Sheriff Joe Higgins. I've heard . [30] Upon meeting Reynolds, Billy Bob Thornton told him that the South considers the film to be less cinema and more documentary. Frog not included. And theres this nugget from the director of the coming new Shazam movie; I first watched Smokey on quiet swing shifts from the drivers seat of a 1977 Pontiac Le Mans patrol car, parked by thr back fence of the drive-in theater at the far end of town. 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. 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. S&TB was filmed primarily off Route 400 in Georgia. As a former Club Wagon pilot, I happen to like his Econoline. Cinemablend is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. While watching the movie (yes, I did have to diligently research this article), one shot seemed to indicate this may be a dummy scoop. The trip to Texarkana is uneventful; soon after leaving for the return trip to Georgia, The Bandit encounters Frog, played by Sally Field. Smokey and the Bandit II is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham, and starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, . I dont know if I ever saw one in real life at the time, although I was pretty young then. 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. 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. 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 film features the custom clothing and costuming of Niver Western Wear of Fort Worth, Texas. Behind Sheriff Justices Pontiac, there is a nice looking 1965 or 1966 Ford Mustang fastback and a Toyota pickup. This movie trailer gives you an taste of this provocative film, but fails to effectively capture all the subtleties and nuances it contains. I grew up in Illinois, within eyeshot of the banks of the MIssissippi River, and ten miles from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Put one on and the lady looks like shes not wearing a bra. 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. [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. I have always loved this movie, watched it dozens and dozens of times on TV, video, DVD, laserdisc, almost any form of media. Did I mention how much I enjoy reading all the back stories and niggly details I can only get here ? Free shipping for many products! Sure Smokey helped, but was not the sole reason T/A and F body sales went up. 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.

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