Development Hal Needham originally planned the film as a low-budget
B movie with a production cost of $1 million, Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on legal pads. 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. Most of the dialogue was improvised on set. It became one of Reed's biggest hits and his signature song. The film features the custom clothing and costuming of Niver Western Wear of
Fort Worth, Texas. Niver provided much of the western attire worn in the film, as well as the custom-made sheriff's uniforms Gleason wore throughout the film. While made to take advantage of the ongoing 1970s
CB radio fad, the film added to the craze. Though the film
Moonrunners (1975) is the precursor to the television series
The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985), 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. 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). In return, Reynolds portrayed
Boss Hogg (originally portrayed by
Sorrell Booke) in the film adaptation
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005). Reynolds is referenced by name in several early episodes of the series.
Casting Before Gleason was cast in the film,
Richard Boone was originally considered for the role of Buford T. Justice.
Filming Principal photography of the film began on August 30, 1976. The movie was primarily filmed in Georgia, in the cities of
McDonough,
Jonesboro and
Lithonia. 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. However, the scene where they drive through the
Shell gas station was filmed in
Ojai, California, on the corner of Ojai Avenue and El Paseo Road. Much of the surrounding scene comes from that immediate vicinity. The scene featuring the racetrack was filmed at
Lakewood Speedway at the old
Lakewood Fairgrounds on Atlanta's south side. The
roller coaster in the movie was the Greyhound. It had not been used for some time and was repainted for the film. It was destroyed in
Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in
Part 3. The area around
Helen, Georgia, was used for some locations. The scene where Sheriff Justice's car has the door knocked off by a passing semi-truck was shot on
Georgia State Route 75, north of Helen. The tow truck driver was a local garage owner, Berlin Wike. Reynolds and Field began dating during the filming. 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 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. 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).
Vehicles Hal Needham saw an advertisement for the soon-to-be-released 1977
Pontiac Trans Am and knew right away that it would be the Bandit's car, or, as Needham referred to it, a character in the movie. 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 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). 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. 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. The cars were 1976 models, the engines fitted to them were 455ci power plants, the last year these engines were offered for sale before withdrawal. All four of the cars were badly damaged during production, one of which was all but destroyed during the jump over the dismantled Mulberry bridge. 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. 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). 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. This gives rise to various continuity errors with Justice's police cruiser, 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. The car also sustains visible damage in various collisions which then disappears in later scenes. 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. Three
Kenworth W900 A short-frame semi trucks, driven by Reed, were each equipped with 38-inch sleepers. 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. The paint code for each truck was coffee brown with gold trims and the mural trailer used was manufactured by Hobbs Trailers in Texas with a non-operational Thermo King Refrigeration unit. 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.
Legal status of Coors beer In 1977,
Coors was unavailable for sale east of
Texas. Its lack of additives and preservatives meant that Coors could spoil in one week without refrigeration, explaining the film's 28-hour deadline. 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. 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.
Carl Yastrzemski of the
Boston Red Sox would bring home several cases, after playing on the West Coast, by stashing them in the equipment trunks on the team's plane. Frederick Amon smuggled it once a week from Colorado to
North Carolina and sold it for four times the retail price. Coors, now owned jointly by the
Coors and
Molson families and based in
Montréal,
Quebec, is still brewed just outside
Denver, Colorado. It is now sold in all states, as Molson ships it in refrigerated train cars and bottled locally and sold in different parts of the country, including the eastern United States. ==Soundtrack==