The dubbed version is awful. That came out in 1981. After the movie came out, Firebird sales increased even more, but the Trans Am was now the most popular one. 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. 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. Not all the police cars had hood scoops. [11] The movie was primarily filmed in Georgia, in the cities of McDonough, Jonesboro, and Lithonia. S&B is one of my all-time favorite movies and Im not apologizing. It cornered amazingly well for such a large car, but the posi rear end emitted ominous sounds so I passed on it (I was in college and didnt have any place to do major repairs). In 1978, Pontiac delivered 93,351 Trans Ams and 93,944 regular Firebirds for a grand total of 187,295 cars. One of our favorite movies. Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most iconic movies of the 1970s. 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. Soon as I get home, first thing Im gonna do is punch yo mamma in da mouth!. The third film which had no involvement from either Hal Needham or Sally Field and contained only a short cameo appearance by Burt Reynolds revolved entirely around Jackie Gleason's character, was panned by critics, and was a box office bomb, earning only $7 million against a $9 million budget.[41][42][43]. I am pretty sure it was filmed in Florida, when I-75 was under construction so they could use the highways while empty. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). But 1978 returned sales of 93,351 examples, a jump of around 25,000 cars. The cop cars with the hood scoops were ex-DeKalb County (Georgia) cruisers. Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. They quickly escape in one of Big Enos's 13 Cadillacs as police flood the racetrack. 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. The movie, in fact, caused sales of the . As I did Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. 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. And all of us easterners suddenly discovered it was nothing more than another Budweiser/Miller/etc. Well, they simply considered that the Trans Am didn't sound intimidating enough. I was in West Plains the other day and there is yet another variation of it there. 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. Got Greyhound cutout decals on the rear side windows. 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. 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. Some weren't that lucky and were discontinued altogether. 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. And Coors itself limited its distribution to west of the Mississippi. The soundtrack album was released in 1977 on vinyl, cassette, and 8-track through MCA Records. It had an AM transmitter and you would tune in the sound on your AM car radio, or on my case, on a transistor radio. 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. 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. Great fun! The film's editors, Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. 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. Have the movie, cheesy as hell, but does have appearances by several NASCAR drivers of the day, including Dale Earnhardt (Senior, not Jr) Kyle Petty, Harry Gant, and one of my favorites of the era, Tim Richmond. In 1991, it was arranged for orchestra by Crafton Beck and recorded by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for their album Down on the Farm. "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. The film features the custom clothing and costuming of Niver Western Wear of Fort Worth, Texas. It was something regarding distribution limits. I really enjoyed this discussion. 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]. The cashier never batted an eye as she sold us the mass quantities of suds. 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). According to an interview with Susie McIver Ewing on The RetroZest Podcast, she was picked to play the role of Hot Pants Hilliard after the dailies footage (shot in the Atlanta area) of the original actress playing the role was inadvertently destroyed on its way from Atlanta to Los Angeles. 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. 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". Will Walker: Independence Return For Season 2 Amid CW Shakeups? You will receive a verification email shortly. The little packy there had Coors and even though it was horribly expensive, we thought it was the elixer of the Gods. S/E T/A with the round headlights. Seven: (Three with Burt Reynolds and Crew, and Four without) Smokey and the Bandit - 1977 Smokey and the Bandit II - 1980 Smokey and the Bandit III . 1975 PLYMOUTH FURY HIGHWAY PATROL "SMOKEY & THE BANDIT" 1/18 BY . I remember that it had a bunch of trim badges on the center of the dashboard. 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". 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. I know that Trans Am that jumped that bridge broke the axle when it landed. Earlier DVD releases and the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray of the film have the original soundtrack intact. And the 400 Pontiac or 403 Olds versions could be made to run well. Olds 88. Burt Reynolds plays truck driver Bo Bandit Darville. Hal Needham did pass away as someone earlier said. Regular film-goers might not pay much attention to the car's engine sound, but gearheads will quickly notice that something is off. 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. Hes fodder enough for his own article at some point. 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. Tragically, every Trans Am used in filming was destroyed. [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. But while the cars shown in the movie look like 1977-model-year Trans Ams, they were actually 1976 models. There was a true concern (for some minuscule reason) about it going east of the Mississippi River. 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. 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 . 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. The movies are rated PG with a run time of 282 minutes and released to video by Universal Studios. Theres really nothing like an old cop car. [8] Niver provided much of the western attire worn in the film, as well as the custom-made sheriff's uniforms (waist size 64") that Gleason wore throughout the film. I also own a Etrl replica of the Pontiac Bonneville Buford T. Justice drove in Smokey and The Bandit II. One of those things that will make my kids think Im crazy some day. Round and dumpy, just like the Colonnade LeMans! It seems Plymouth was in a distant second for product placement. Producers of Smokey and the Bandit wrecked 26 cars while filming the movie in 1977. 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. The Kenworth even achieves a trifecta of sorts, as it gave the first dent to Sheriff Justices LeMans. A 1977 special-edition model once owned by the late actor Burt Reynolds recently wound up on the car auction website Bring a Trailer. This movie came out during my early formative years pre grade school. He paid $550,000 for it, likely a record for any Pontiac Firebird. At the time, using "fuck" would immediately require an R rating and this self-censorship allowed the film to avoid this rating and reach a much larger audience. Smokey and the Bandit II is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham, and starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, . Except that shes not sagging. In the Reynolds portion of the interview, he stated the movie prompted Trans Am sales to jump around 700%. While they did jump, from 46,700 in 1976 to 69,000 for 1977 with another 93,300 for 1978, it wasnt exactly 700%. Thats all well and good, and it worked smooth as silk for a good while. I still think its more entertaining than Star Wars. The third-generation Firebird was introduced in 1982, a full two years later than planned. [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. Haul my wife and four shelter adoptee mutts in it. The dubbed version isnt as bad as the Remastered Blu-ray. Ive since read on the internet that it wasnt illegal so much as a practical thing with it being shipped in refrigerated trucks. a custom mandrel bent dual exhaust, and the Mondello bottom end plate to stabilize the windowed mains. [5] Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on legal pads. 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. Arguably the most iconic Pontiac Firebird in history. All I know is, at the time, if you lived in the east, Coors was some really special beer not unlike microbrews are now. 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. It made no sense to me as it was fifty miles north and fifty miles south. During a Q&A session on Saturday, filmed by ComicBook.com, a fan asked how many Trans Ams they burned through during production. 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. Somehow this store had a regular supply. In the original script, Carrie was called Kate while Big Enos and Little Enos were called Kyle and Dickey. It was destroyed in Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in Part 3. I'm afraid I was responsible for a good few of those. 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. Well, at least that's what you saw in the movie. I dont know whose idea was to replace the wicked Two Lane Blacktop Chevy sourced engine sound effects with an authentic 200 horsepower muffled smogger 400, but that sumbitch is a scumbum!!! As luck and script writing would have it, Frog has left her groom at the altar. HotCars covers all things automotive: the latest auto news and informative reviews on the car, pickup truck and motorcycle industries. He gave Needham a preview of the song and, getting no reaction, offered to rewrite it. When Im driving the Bandit Trans Am while playing one of my many Forza Motorsport games I always put that song on. The gag with the overpass being blown up was actually a bridge built for the movie on the unfinished highway, and AFAIK, the truck driver who jumps the void ended up breaking his back in the stunt. So many classic quotes in this movie. Mrs Jason wont let me sell the sumbitch. [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 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. How many police cars were wrecked in Smokey and the Bandit? Trigger had a big impact on my taste in cars with the Trans Ams of the late 70s being my favorite. Burt Reynolds as the Bandit can always count on the truckers on the other end of his C.B. The whereabouts of the remaining Smokey and the Bandit car, the one that was used to promote the movie, remained a mystery for years. The differences between the two are major. I was a junior high school age kid when this film came out. At one point in the movie, the Bandit wrecks a police car. When Smokey and the Bandit first aired on American network television in the early 1980s, censors were faced with the challenge of toning down the raw language of the original film. Needham stated that by the end of production, there really wasnt much left of any of the three. I think Stroker Ace is after Smokey and the Bandit, though there was Hooper, which was about a stuntman, it also had Sally Field, it was from 1978 or so.
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