how many cars destroyed in smokey and the bandit
-how many cars destroyed in smokey and the bandit
Sally Field and Burt Reynolds began a relationship after meeting on set. On the DVD, there is a brief interview with both Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham, who directed this film. How many cars destroyed Blues Brothers 2000? 46,000 in 1976, 68,000 in 1977, 93,000 in 1978, 117,000 in 1979. This movie came out during my early formative years pre grade school. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Sheriff Justices son, Junior. 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. Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. East bound and down, loaded up and truckin 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. S&TB was filmed primarily off Route 400 in Georgia. The other range car was a Chevette for people that wanted to learn on a manual transmission. In particular, the scene where Sheriff Justice unknowingly encounters the Bandit in the "choke and puke" (a roadside diner) was not in the original story but was rather Gleason's idea. Ive always wanted some sort of de-commission/ex unmarked cop car, something from the 70s preferably. [original research?] All pictures from the movie were acquired from www.imcdb.org, Fred Lives!!! That girl from the McCoys video probably looks like Paula Deen now. Always loved this movie growing up. Nothing annoys him more than car electronics, and he just hates it when performance cars lack a third pedal. 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. These questions all need to be answered. Burt Reynolds once claimed in an interview that there were actually 12 Trans Ams featured in Smokey and the Banditand he wrecked every one. Needham had great difficulty getting any studios or producers to take his project seriously, being better known in the film industry as a stuntman. Coors is still brewed just outside Denver, Colorado. It had amazing throttle response, with a hit that either scared people, or made them giggle. It took four evenings to see almost all of the movie in bits and pieces. Burt Reynolds plays truck driver Bo Bandit Darville. The trip to Texarkana is uneventful; soon after leaving for the return trip to Georgia, The Bandit encounters Frog, played by Sally Field. Check out the entire video below. Comments thebandit77transam 2009-04-14 14:04. andre1969 wrote Pontiac supplied 5 brand-new cars for "Smokey and the Bandit". document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Due to his financial difficulties in 2014, Reynolds put his vast collection of artwork and memorabilia up for auction, including the Trans Am. Thank you for signing up to CinemaBlend. 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. 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. The movie had an even bigger impact on the Trans Am. My drivers ed driving range car was an ex-patrol colonnade Pontiac LeMans Enforcer. Some weren't that lucky and were discontinued altogether. I really enjoyed this discussion. Hal Needham did pass away as someone earlier said. Its amazing, you should watch it. 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). Nah, they survived by coming up with bras with very thin cups. The MASSIVE year over year sales gains came from somewhere. ARRGH! For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble. [29] Alfred Hitchcock claimed that the film was one of his favorites. [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). [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. Great fun! When it was over, I cried and cried and cried because I didnt want it to end. (Still). And Coors itself limited its distribution to west of the Mississippi. Apparently the engine sounds were lifted from another movie, I think two lane blacktop? That's because the Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit didn't sound like a Trans Am. 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. A guy we knew drove his half-ton pickup from western WA to his reserve 2-week stint in his home state in California. . and the Dixie Dance Kings, and Burts car was a 57 [56?] As a kid that T/A, the General Lee, and KITT were largely responsible for defining my taste in cars and that carries through to today. It was something regarding distribution limits. Hes fodder enough for his own article at some point. Chevy almost did the same with its counterpart, the Camaro. Burt Reynolds recently revealed the ridiculous number of Pontiac Trans Ams they went through filming 1977s Smokey and the Bandit. Behind Sheriff Justices Pontiac, there is a nice looking 1965 or 1966 Ford Mustang fastback and a Toyota pickup. WildI watched this for the first time in years after watching the latest Archer.the whole thing is an homage to S&B. The original Blues Brothers movie from 1980 is a classic, and fans were excited when a sequel was announced in 1998. . When Im driving the Bandit Trans Am while playing one of my many Forza Motorsport games I always put that song on. Oh, and a hooker girlfriend that looked like Annie Potts. Likely this isnt any rare engine venting package, but I could be wrong. 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. I think thats another line theyve edited out for the television version. 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. The Kenworth even achieves a trifecta of sorts, as it gave the first dent to Sheriff Justices LeMans. [11] The movie was primarily filmed in Georgia, in the cities of McDonough, Jonesboro, and Lithonia. 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. [12] The area around Helen, Georgia, was used for some locations. 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. Out of four Trans Ams used for the filming of Smokey And The Bandit, three were completely totaled in the process. 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). Will Walker: Independence Return For Season 2 Amid CW Shakeups? 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. That's because Pontiac almost canceled the Firebird in the early 1970s. For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble. Haul my wife and four shelter adoptee mutts in it. 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. Other sources in East Texas (from whence Sheriff Justice hails) are familiar with the popular regional delicacy known as the Diablo Sandwich. It seems Plymouth was in a distant second for product placement. 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 1977 Firebird Trans Am once owned by Burt Reynolds was sold at auction Saturday for $495,000 at a sale held by Barrett-Jackson. After the movie came out, Firebird sales increased even more, but the Trans Am was now the most popular one. 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. And back then what I wanted most of all was a highly customized Vette with exposed headlights. The film's editors, Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. A black Trans Am is parked in my garage because of this movie. UNIVERSAL CUT THE BUDGET JUST AS PRODUCTION WAS ABOUT TO BEGIN. I know, Ive owned a 75 for 23 years. Get ready to tear up the highway with the Bandit (Burt Reynolds), a fun-loving, fast-talking trucker who takes on his craziest haul yet - delivering 400 case. 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. 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 its place was the nonsensical scum bum. The voice over actor? 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. 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 had quite a few orders for Coors beer, and when he stopped in Weed, CA, on the way home, he went into the Safeway and asked for twenty-four cases of Coors. 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 . 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". I ended up buying a 1969 Cadillac ambulance a year later! 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. 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. Actually, there were 2 future Dukes stars in the movie: Ben Jones (Cooter) was in an early scene helping Big Enos find Bandit. So many classic quotes in this movie. Supposedly there was a stick car for the burnouts and an automatic car for other shots. Along the way they tussle with tough as nails Texas Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), pick up a runaway bride nicknamed Frog (Sally Field), and have all kinds of awesome times on the highway. While made to take advantage of the ongoing 1970s CB radio fad, the film added to the craze. The muscle car market reached a peak in the late 1960s, as the car was becoming larger, more powerful, and more aggressive by looks. Let us dissect this flick to better examine it. 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. The movie is responsible for something, by 1979 Pontiac was selling 100,000 plus Trans Ams, not the whole Firebird line, JUST Trans Ams, Pontiac sold more T/As in 1979 than any of the cheaper Firebirds combined, Smokey and the Bandit had to have a hand in that. A 1975 Pontiac Grand Ville, seen toward the end of the movie. Just like the exaggeration sales went up 700%. A segment of the CMT program Reel Eats used a sloppy joe-style recipe consisting of seasoned ground beef, corn, and sour cream. 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. The third-generation Firebird was introduced in 1982, a full two years later than planned. 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. I dont know if I ever saw one in real life at the time, although I was pretty young then. Gleasons Justice is the stereotypical Southern sheriff, as seen in this clip. 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. Needing a fast set of wheels to distract law enforcement, Reynolds character purchases this 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am. Reed would eventually play the Bandit in Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, in which Reynolds only appeared in a cameo near the end. Im still trying to get clarification on what a diablo sandwich is though. We also learn that every launched satellite will eventually fall back to Earth, such as this 1972 Plymouth Satellite (CC here). I own all three films on a dvd called the Smokey and The Bandit Pursuit Pack. Somehow this store had a regular supply. So why did they go with sound effects instead of the Trans Am's actually exhaust noise? . One guy did a while ago a fan-made trailer of Smokey & the Bandit 4. As a publicity stunt, the Trans Ams used in the movie had different decals on the hood scoop. Got Greyhound cutout decals on the rear side windows. 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. In Smokey and the Bandit, there were eight 1977 Trans-Am cars and approximately the same number of police cars (but some said ten). Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most iconic movies of the 1970s. Sales of the coupe exploded after the film hit the silver screen and set unprecedented records for both Pontiac and the Firebird nameplate. January 24, 2019 100 comments. I remember borrowing my brothers red 1976 T/A to take a girl to the theater to see Smokey and the Bandit. At the time, Reynolds was the top box office star in the world. That is why there are not any left. Chevy brought back the Z28, and cant say S&B was reason. I remember reading somewhere that one of the cars was equipped with a 455 for some of the higher speed scenes. I only got one of them LOL. I have only seen pieces of the second and none of the third; I plan to keep it that way. Jason, Using the words nuance, subtlety, complexity and intellect to describe this movie, is, as they say, trs amusant! Free shipping for many products! As Frog leaves, we are introduced to Sheriff Buford T. Justice, played by Jackie Gleason. Its W.W. Ive since read on the internet that it wasnt illegal so much as a practical thing with it being shipped in refrigerated trucks. The area around Helen, Georgia, was used for some locations. 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. It made no sense to me as it was fifty miles north and fifty miles south. I enjoyed the hell out of my 1976 Dart Pursuit. Another one is, Theres no way youre from my loins.. The film features the custom clothing and costuming of Niver Western Wear of Fort Worth, Texas. I will confess that by the time this movie was out, I was a Mopar guy. 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. The 79-year-old 70s and 80s heartthrob made a rare public appearance over the weekend at Wizard World Chicago. 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. Except that shes not sagging. 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. 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. (it did taste a lot better than Bud as I recall). Filmmakers destroyed 230 cars in the filming of 'Furious 7.' Smokey And The Bandit: A Car-chase Classic. Of course, nobody else cared if it was in the trunk of the car when heading back home. 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!!! Plus , I loved those late 1960s through mid 1970s Plymouths even though Im a Bowtie Guy by default . 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. [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. Frog not included. The remaining Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am is currently owned by Florida car collector John Staluppi. If you watched the second clip above, this truck should look familiar. 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. In 1976-78, while a high school student in Norwalk, CT, me and a few buddies would routinely drive up to Vista, NY, which was just over the state line. 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. http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/john-fedack-my-days-as-a-dekalb-county-police-officer/. 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. AWESOME! Arguably the most iconic Pontiac Firebird in history. Whaddya expect outta a guy what drives a conversion van? He enlists the help of fellow truck driver Cletus The Snowman Snow, played by country music singer Jerry Reed. Sales jumped even higher in 1979 when Pontiac moved 117,108 Trans Ams. During this time, the Firebird also surpassed sales figures of the Chevrolet Camaro. 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. Id like to hear from Mr. Needham why so many of those police cars had what look like shaker hood scoops. As I am finishing this article while Big Truck Week is winding down, here is a Kenworth with a 1973 Dodge Polara patrol car. [5] Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on legal pads. But while the cars shown in the movie look like 1977-model-year Trans Ams, they were actually 1976 models. Needham served as the driver for the stunt (in place of Reynolds), while Lada St. Edmund was in the same car (in place of Field). She is a runaway bride, sitting on the side of the road in her 1973 Chevrolet Impala coupe. A dastardly scoundrel? It was destroyed in Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in Part 3. I grew up in Illinois, within eyeshot of the banks of the MIssissippi River, and ten miles from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. It was the second-highest-grossing movie of 1977 after Star Wars. Nice job, I know its cheesy as heck but I love this movie and still tend to watch it when I see its on TV. It was his idea to have Junior alongside him throughout the film. Although 1977 models also featured 6.6-liter engines, they were rated at only 200 horses. American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others, Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment, CC Outtake: The CC House, and With a New Recent Exotic Addition, CC TV Outtake: This Used Car Commercial Didn't Make It On The Air, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cODPt3T0cHE. 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. Lets take a look at some more cars found in the movie. Of course, it wasnt hard to wake them up. The whereabouts of the remaining Smokey and the Bandit car, the one that was used to promote the movie, remained a mystery for years. S&B is one of my all-time favorite movies and Im not apologizing. Wouldnt the accent give you away? 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. Ask him to choose between a BMW M4 and an Audi RS5, and hell gladly trade both for a beat-up Cuda. Now, having only three Trans Ams to wreck for a movie is minimalist, to say the least. I still couldnt resist lighting up the Pontiacs tires while executing my T-turns. Stroker Ace is after S&B, 1983, and features the then new for 83 aero Fox Body Thunderbird. A 1977 special-edition model once owned by the late actor Burt Reynolds recently wound up on the car auction website Bring a Trailer. Remember that Smokey and the Bandit was the 2nd biggest movie of the year, right after Star Wars. In a rare public appearance, Burt Reynolds revealed how many cars they wrecked making Smokey and And all of us easterners suddenly discovered it was nothing more than another Budweiser/Miller/etc. Jackie Gleason ad libbed a lot of his lines too. It airs on cable tv all the time. 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. 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. Id be surprised. Jackie Gleasons Buford T. Justice character is a supposedly an amalgamation of a few characters, including the real Buford T. Justicethere is obviously the Dodge safety sheriff from the 1970s ads, Burt Reynolds father was chief of police of Jupiter Florida, and a friend of his fathers, a Florida Highway Patrol officer was actually the REAL Buford T. Justice. Dodge pitchman Sheriff Joe Higgins. Mr. Reynolds made a bunch of low budget films before this , all had wild chase scenes with cop cars crashing & going into swamps . I am still drawn to the shape of these cars, and others that have that long and low look about them. 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. 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. If it wasnt for Smokey & the Bandit, the Dukes of Hazzard TV series would not exist. In the U.K., the heavily dubbed version was shown for several years, particularly by the BBC. [28] However, this is inaccurate; within seconds of Bandit picking her up, Frog tells him "there is a wedding in search of a bride" and goes on to explain her ill-advised romance with Junior, as the Bandit holds up the CB mic for the Snowman to hear. 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. This same restaurant was used for a scene in the 1983 Stephen King Movie Christine, which was ultimately cut in the final film (it can be viewed as a deleted scene on the DVD release of the film). This movie trailer gives you an taste of this provocative film, but fails to effectively capture all the subtleties and nuances it contains. [14] The Trans Ams were actually 1976-model cars with 1977 front ends (from 1970 to 1976, both the Firebird/Trans Am and Chevrolet Camaro have two round headlights and in 1977, the Firebird/Trans Am was changed to four rectangular headlights, and the Camaro remained unchanged). 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.