Smokey and the Bandit and the VTR and Childhood Musing

[NeedSpace]

So I am watching Fast N Loud and they are restoring a 1977 Pontiac Firebird, Black with the Gold screaming chicken. Very cool. My inner 9 year old is gitty.



I loved Smokey and the Bandit and while I am mostly a German CarGuy, growing up in the states when I did, this brought back many memories...For those youngin's on the site, back in the old days, if you wanted to re-watch a movie, you had to wait until it was on TV, usually about a year or more later (unless your father is like mine and you had to watch it the first time on TV a year after everyone else saw it. Which usually resulted in your FINALLY being able to talk about the movie all your friends where were you a year ago!). So I was chompin at the bit to see the cool movie that everyone was talking about...

The movie finally came on TV (having checked the newspaper on a regular basis (remember those days?). Happily, my father liked new gadgets so in 1973 we had a VTR (early VCR), and in 1978 when Smokey and the Bandit was on TV, I recorded it.

This is a VTR (Video Tape Recorder...actually, technically it is a VCR video cassette recorder, but the video guy who fixed it always corrected me, I suppose because of the 3/4 inch tape? Who knows. He probably became a helpdesk employee in the 1980s so he could continue his unnecessary attitude and condescension).


Cool article about the umatic here for the uber-geeky. Vintage Umatic VCR. The Sony VP1100, Sony VP1000, Sony VO1600, Sony VO3800. A museum of first video recorders.

There was no way I was going to miss that one opportunity as then, if you missed it, well, you are waiting a few years before it comes out again (usually channel 9 on the "million dollar movie show")


BTW, side story, when I was in 1st grade my dad got Disney's Robin Hood. When I was asked in school what I did this weekend, it sort of went like this:
Teacher: What did you do this weekend?
Me: I watched Robin Hood on TV
T: Robin Hood? On TV? What channel was it on?
M: Channel 3 (in the old days if you wanted to broadcast on the TV a VCR/VTR signal, you had to use an unused channel. In the NY area, you had broadcasts on 2,4,5,7,9,11 and 13 (and according to Billy Joel "all your life is channel 13, Sesame Street, What does it mean?". Tvs didn't have a channel 1 (at least, none I ever saw, so we used 3).
T: Channel 3 isn't a real channel.
M: Well, it is a video tape and I watched the movie on that channel.
T: Oh, I see, you had a cassette tape and you listened to the movie.
M: No, I saw the movie on my TV.
...I am sure my teacher thought I needed some "special" help but that wasn't done back then. I guess I was a know-it-all back then too...

Oh, I still have Robin Hood memorized watching it seemingly endlessly for the next 4 years. Funny how the mind works after 40 years.



Anyway, back to the Bandit. Smokey and the Bandit was a show I watched MANY MANY times. So much so that I counted the number of cars used and found several inconsistencies in the movie. I saw that bridge jump scene over and over and over.

Oh, BTW, if you want to see a bunch of older movie cars, this is a good site I found while writing this:
smokey and the bandit | Star Car Central - Batmobile and Movie Car News

Looking forward to seeing how Fast N Loud do it up. I suspect, they'll do a good job...as long as they don't paint it green or add that ugly metal flake stuff.

Anyway, thanks for the walk down memory lane.

[fastfredracing]

Some of my best memories as a boy were my father taking me to the theater to see the movie hooper, ( my first pair of boobies on screen) , and the smokey and the bandit movies.

[Oh Haha]

My best friend received a Bandit T/A for graduation in 1981. Obviously, it wasn't new but we had tons of fun in that car. He sort of looked like Burt at the time so he had no trouble getting the attention of the ladies. Me? I was just a scrawny 14 year old.

He is the same guy that introduced me to the 911.

I believe the GasMonkey guys are going to leave it mostly stock appearing.


BTW-my favorite scene in Smokey is just after he picks up the bride and she asks "Does this thing move?" As they accelerate away it seems as though when second gear comes in, the car leaves 2 nice patches of rear rubber. It's probably editing but it's pretty darn cool.

[futuresoptions]

I don't even want to consider the chicks that thing would pull these days...

[VaSteve]

I've been watching that build too. Show is contrived but fun to watch. They said the car was slow. I don't understand the gearing thing but probably choked with a bunch of emissions stuff as well.

I saw a fully restored version in traffic a while back. Man, its a nice e looking car. Even now. There really isn't a stand out American equivalent these days.

Re: VCRs. These days you can find anything on YouTube. I recall some kids in my neighborhood had HBO when it was a stand alone channel. They'd plan to wake up at 6 am to watch some movie since that's when it was playing. LOL.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I LOVE that movie, and the old T/A. They've been going up in value, so get them while you can. The stock 455 is pretty choked by emissions crap, but that can be remedied......

[T77911S]

the president of pontiac promised burt R a trans am but died. the new president would not honor it even though burt and the movie put the sales thru the roof.
he probably got a $10mil bonus but cant give away one car?

[Joe Bob]

They were cool looking, but geez they were choked with add on emission crap. I think net HP at the wheels was 180ish.

The bigger the chicken on the hood the bigger the pig.....

[9dreizig]

didn't you have to be named Abduhl to own one of those in the 70's ?

[ckelly78z]

I had a white 78 trans am back 30 years ago when I graduated high school and loved it then and now. (sold it to buy my first foreign car, a 77 Datsun 280Z). I've probably seen Smokey and the Bandit 300 times, and still laugh at Sheriff Bufford T. Justice handing out insults. "Jr, when I get home, i'm gonna smack your Momma in the mouth" !

As far as VCRs, I took my very first paycheck back in 1982 and bought one that was absolutely impossible to program to record, but did play Clint Eastwood's The good, The bad, and The ugly as a break in. I thought the sound wasn't working because the G,B,U, didn't have a speaking part for the first 30-40 minutes.

[mark waller]

Loved watching the episode, it brought back great memories. My Dad was the transportation captain for Universal Studios and worked on the movie. He told me some great stories about the car scene as it went over the river!

[johnsjmc]

I like the Smokey TA,s but was driving a Datsun 240Z at the time.
It seems when American cars are popular I drive Japanese. Then when Japanese cars are I drive German ., or American. Seems I,ve always been a little out of step.
The 455 was choked like others of the vintage BUT had gobs of torque nonetheless.
They are appreciating especially good originals.
Funny though at the time in about 77 the only person I knew who actually owned one was a chubby, mousey ,single maybe 30 yr old HS teacher. Her students knew she was cool though. She bought a new one every two yrs through the entire decade ,all were black with the bird and scoop.

[ckelly78z]

I think by 1977, the 455 was mothballed in favor of the 6.6 liter (400 cubic inch) chevy motor, or the 401c.i. oldsmobile motor.

[johnsjmc]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

I think by 1977, the 455 was mothballed in favor of the 6.6 liter (400 cubic inch) chevy motor, or the 401c.i. oldsmobile motor.

They never used a chevy motor in a 1st or 2nd generation firebird. The 455 was a Pontiac design and so was the 400 ,The 401 was an Olds.which was used as the 6.6. The last year 1980 or 81 had a 301 with or without a turbo. I don,t know who,s design but not a Chevy.

During transAm racing in the early 70,s Pontiac filed Homologation papers and swore a 302 Chevy (from the z28s) was installed in Canadian Firebirds so they could race with the better developed engine with a Firebird wrapper.
No Firebirds were ever built for Canada with a Chev engine but they weren,t challenged on it.
There were Canadian Pontiacs built with chev engines, A Chevelle was built here with chev guts and a Pontiac grill and sold as a Beaumont. A Cdn full size Pontiac was an Impala with a Pontiac label, and Chev engines . But never a Firebird.

[72doug2,2S]

There was a long period of my childhood in Florida that was totally consumed with these two cars. I was able to make my matchbox collection a success thanks to K-mart, a banana seat bicycle, and a lawn mowing job I had from my Jewish neighbor.

[VINMAN]

A few of my childhood dream vehicles.







and of course..

[Nostril Cheese]

Somewhere, my mom has a picture of my brother and I sitting in KITT at Universal Studios when we were kids.

A neighbor of ours liked the show so much, he bought a white Trans Am then got plates that said WTRYDR.





Another neighbor had one of these in mint condition, decals and all. Came to America from Iran, worked for Pratt and Whitney. This was his baby. His symbol of the American dream. Pretty sweet car.

[NeedSpace]

I typically drive my old 911 to my kids soccer practices. One morning, a guy drive drove up in a beat up 1983 Camaro and parked next to my 911. It was a mess but he couldn't have been prouder... We chatted for a while. I was very cool. I think that is a good call to pick up an old 80s camaro, you can get them for next to nothing and people in my age range will be looking for them once their kids exit college.

[NeedSpace]

BJ AND THE BEAR!!!!!

How about this tv car...

[MMARSH]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

A few of my childhood dream vehicles.







and of course..

Funny story Vin,

When they did the remake of the Starsky and Hutch movie several years ago, they filmed several scenes where I was working at the time. On one particular day in Playa Del Rey, I guess the S&H Gran Torino fan club knew about the shoot and showed up in droves. Besides the studio transporter which had several cars on it, there must have been another 50 parked on the street all around the area.

I also used to drove by The real Station used in the opening of Emergency.