Free shipping for many products! Comments Reynolds actively pushed for her casting after Universal initially resisted, claiming Field was not attractive enough. I dont know if I ever saw one in real life at the time, although I was pretty young then. On the DVD, there is a brief interview with both Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham, who directed this film. Thank you for signing up to CinemaBlend. Some weren't that lucky and were discontinued altogether. 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. [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. It was destroyed in Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in Part 3. A 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix with a Buick Electra behind it. Sales of the coupe exploded after the film hit the silver screen and set unprecedented records for both Pontiac and the Firebird nameplate. 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. That is why there are not any left. Below is probably another DeKalb County cop car. 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!!! I developed a pretty good bootheel accent during my time in New Madrid. 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. 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. Needham had great difficulty getting any studios or producers to take his project seriously, being better known in the film industry as a stuntman. 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. In its place was the nonsensical scum bum. The voice over actor? Due to his financial difficulties in 2014, Reynolds put his vast collection of artwork and memorabilia up for auction, including the Trans Am. 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. Nuts about any form of classic motorsport and muscle cars, Ciprian's currently working on a time machine that would take him back to the 1960s for a long vacation alongside Dan Gurney and Jim Hall. 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. Even today when I stumble across this cinematic masterpiece being rerun on cable tv, Ill watch the entire thing. Chevy brought back the Z28, and cant say S&B was reason. . 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. The remaining Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am is currently owned by Florida car collector John Staluppi. 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. His personaround, dumpy, and clipping wordsreminds one of another fictional southern sheriff. Despite growing up next to Cape, most of relatives are from the Mid-South. 1-Smokey and the Bandit-The classic, the original, and the best one by FAR. Check out the entire video below. 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. 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. . On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 78% rating based on 32 reviews. Earlier DVD releases and the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray of the film have the original soundtrack intact. Its W.W. Nah, they survived by coming up with bras with very thin cups. Smokey and the Bandit Pursuit Pack 1 2 3 DVD Burt Reynolds Cult Car Thats all well and good, and it worked smooth as silk for a good while. Depends upon what he converted it from. . The cop cars with the hood scoops were ex-DeKalb County (Georgia) cruisers. 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. However, the U.S. government introduced new emission controls in 1972, and automakers had to step back. How many cars destroyed Blues Brothers 2000? 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. [34] In 2015 a Florida-based automobile customization company built 77 Trans Ams modeled after the car that Reynolds drove in the film. 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. how many cars were destroyed in smokey and the bandit 2. Just do a search for Crown Victorias on your local CL. Another one is, Theres no way youre from my loins.. You might think that seeing their cars routinely destroyed on movie screens across the country would give the manufacturer pause, but that is not the case at all. 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. The theme music "East Bound and Down" was sung and co-written by Reed (credited under his birth name, Jerry Hubbard) and Dick Feller. The three movie cars were destroyed during various stunts, so the promo car is the only surviving Trans Am connected to this film. The truck at the shell station is actually a 75 or 76 Toyota Hilux. You will receive a verification email shortly. 1979 was equally successful for the brand, joining 1978 to create Pontiac's best sales years ever. 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. Florida Trans Am Shop Burns - Motorious I have since moved on from them, mainly because in stock form, they were not particularly great cars (though good enough for the times). February 27, 2023 . 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. Except that shes not sagging. And theres beer in Texarkana.. Im probably in the minority as usual, but I prefer the Black and Gold 50th Anne. 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. So many classic quotes in this movie. I grew up in Illinois, within eyeshot of the banks of the MIssissippi River, and ten miles from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. How many cars did they wreck in Smokey and the Bandit? http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_301466-Ford-LTD-II-1977.html. As deals were made for the actors and producers, the studio wanted to renegotiate my deal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cODPt3T0cHE, We got a cage strong enough to hold you AWESOME! Great write up. Pontiac should have made a radio that played that song automatically simply by pushing a button, or maybe made it the horn sound. These were the cans with the two circular push buttons on top instead of pull tabs. Although 1977 models also featured 6.6-liter engines, they were rated at only 200 horses. This small modification was made to remind viewers of Trans Am models from 1969, which had in excess of 300 horsepower. The movie had an even bigger impact on the Trans Am. I was just tweaking Jason. 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. As a publicity stunt, the Trans Ams used in the movie had different decals on the hood scoop. The worldwide gross is estimated at over $300 million. For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble. I guess the Trans Am proved to have more staying power than the hot 71 Ford in the earlier movie. [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. 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. Free shipping for many products! How much did the Smokey and the Bandit car sell for? Apparently the engine sounds were lifted from another movie, I think two lane blacktop? Burt Reynolds' 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Sold for $240,000. Burt Reynolds as the Bandit can always count on the truckers on the other end of his C.B. The film's theme song, "East Bound and Down", was written virtually overnight by Reed. [22] It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where it performed badly. 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. If it wasnt for Smokey & the Bandit, the Dukes of Hazzard TV series would not exist. 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. Your email address will not be published. In its place was the nonsensical "scum bum." . And he succeeded as far as the Pontiac Trans Am is concerned. Also up for auction was a go-kart replica of the car, which sold for nearly $14,000. The film's editors, Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Though no authoritative source identifies the composition of the sandwich, there are several possibilities. I know that Trans Am that jumped that bridge broke the axle when it landed. The third-generation Firebird was introduced in 1982, a full two years later than planned. Great article! Other sources in East Texas (from whence Sheriff Justice hails) are familiar with the popular regional delicacy known as the Diablo Sandwich. A 1975 Pontiac Grand Ville, seen toward the end of the movie. If they werent burning candles to an image of a cowboy hatted Burt Reynolds at Pontiac headquarters. The trip to Texarkana is uneventful; soon after leaving for the return trip to Georgia, The Bandit encounters Frog, played by Sally Field. Smokey & The Bandit is the greatest movie of the 20th Century! The Ridiculous Number Of Cars Burt Reynolds Burned - CINEMABLEND (Still). Everything You Should Know About The The Trans Am From Smokey And The A black Trans Am is parked in my garage because of this movie. [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 a favorite. 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 unrestored car reportedly showed up on eBay back in 2015, but no one wanted to buy it. But that doesnt make for an interesting movie premise. Ive also looked at a Fox based LTD cop car and an early 1991 whale Caprice 9C1 detective model, burgundy on burgundy cloth. The little packy there had Coors and even though it was horribly expensive, we thought it was the elixer of the Gods. Mines never gone away, especially now that I spend every thee month in Memphis. 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. Gas was a buck a gallon at the time so fuel economy wasnt a major issue. There was a true concern (for some minuscule reason) about it going east of the Mississippi River. 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. Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Furious 7 may ruin a lot of cars, but they were far from the first. [30] Upon meeting Reynolds, Billy Bob Thornton told him that the South considers the film to be less cinema and more documentary. The scene featuring the racetrack was filmed at Lakewood Speedway at the old Lakewood Fairgrounds on Atlanta's south side. Banzai! I prefer Buford T. Justices 1980 Pontiac Bonneville and his 1983 Pontiac Bonneville in Smokey and The Bandit III. 1980 ERTL SMOKEY & THE BANDIT PONTIAC FIREBIRD DIECAST CAR police car 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. The differences between the two are major. That's because the Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit didn't sound like a Trans Am. If you somehow managed to miss Smokey and the Bandit in the years between the films 1977 release and now, you should rectify that situation immediately (to be fair, it was released two days after Star Wars, so its understandable if it slipped through the cracks). In addition to the four Trans Ams, Needham also received two Pontiac LeMans models to serve as patrol cars in the movie. Needing a fast set of wheels to distract law enforcement, Reynolds character purchases this 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am. 5. 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. Burt Reynolds himself drove the car on stage to the song "East Bound and Down" and signed it. Its weird how it works. While it is doubtful Pontiac sold very many LeMans police packages, if one views this show as realistic, it would seem nearly every county and highway patrol in five states purchased one of Pontiacs heavy duty offerings. 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. Lets take a look at some more cars found in the movie. I never understood why dragging a truckload of beer from Colorado to Georgia was such a big deal. It was his idea to have Junior alongside him throughout 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. A dastardly scoundrel? What Sports Cars Are In Smokey And The Bandit - OsVehicle The movie, in fact, caused sales of the . And Burt may be from GA originally, but he calls Florida home, which is another reason I heard the movie was filmed here. The commercials were produced after Stewart mentioned that the movie was one of his favorites.[39]. Before Gleason was cast in the film, Richard Boone was originally considered for the role of Buford T. They destroyed all those cars in the films he said. Ive since read on the internet that it wasnt illegal so much as a practical thing with it being shipped in refrigerated trucks. 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. [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 was in West Plains the other day and there is yet another variation of it there. 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. [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. Rockford Files also featured Firebird, and was on since 1974, and Fs sold well despite gas crunch I and inflation. Smokey and the Bandit: Behind-the-Scenes Details With - MotorTrend The cars were wrecked on purpose to create the illusion of a high-speed chase. And all of us easterners suddenly discovered it was nothing more than another Budweiser/Miller/etc. Reynolds and Field began dating during the filming.[13]. The Smokey and the Bandit Car - Carsforsale.com 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. Haul my wife and four shelter adoptee mutts in it. I am still drawn to the shape of these cars, and others that have that long and low look about them.