Some of the rigging and pipes were for lighting and to block the sun and shadows. The rest was for camera mounting and to keep it firmly attached to the car so it didn't move at all.

Going over lines at the gas station. Burt sits there on the hood and the attendant says, "Trans Am !! What's your pleasure ?":

Movie Writer and Director Hal Needham going over the script. You've probably seen him in many things over the years and didn't know it. He's been a stuntman in 310 movies and over 4,500 TV episodes. He broke 42 bones in his body and also broke his back twice.

A terrific photo of Burt and movie writer/director Hal Needham. This is how the movie came to be: Hal came up with the idea of the movie, wrote it and gave it to Burt. Hal had no idea if Burt was gonna do it. Hal was just trying to get a feel for whether he liked it or not. Burt said "Hal, I got a space in my schedule," and then he said, "You wanna be a director?" Hal said, "Okay!" "If you find somebody to give you the money, I'll star in it and you can direct it." The rest is history.

Some scenes had the Snowman in his rig on a trailer so he could focus on acting:

The movie took just 42 days to shoot and didn't go over schedule or over budget. It cost $4.3 million to make and grossed more than $300 million. Filming started on August 30, 1976.

Notice that there's no 'BAN ONE' license plate for this shot as it's for the car's interior. A few times in the movie you'll see shots of the back of the car without the 'BAN ONE' plate. For example, just before the bridge jump when the car turns around on the dirt road.

Burt checking out if the shot looks good:

A light, candid moment with Sally Field:

The next 3 photos are at Snowman's house where the Trans Am drives off of the trailer at the beginning of the movie:

Here's where Burt gets out of semi and goes into Snowman's house:

Regarding the selection of the Trans Am for the car in the movie, this is what the writer, Hal Needham, said: "It was my idea. I saw a picture of it in a magazine in black with gold stripes and T-tops and I said, "That's the car I want to put the Bandit in." I called the Pontiac people and told them my plan and, of course they'd never heard of me, so they said, "Well, what do you need?" I said "Well, I'd like to have some Trans Ams for Burt and I need three LeManses for the sheriff." After some negotiating, they gave me three Trans Ams and two LeManses. After that movie came out, you couldn't buy a black Trans Am. You had to wait six months. Their sales chart rose like the Empire State Building."

All Trans Ams were stock except for the one that did the bridge jump. That jump took place on a dirt road and the stuntman only had a short distance to get up to speed. They tried running the car stock with an automatic and it wouldn't get it done; it wouldn't go fast enough. So the bridge-jump car was fitted with a 750 hp NASCAR engine and manual transmission.

Sorry, the next 2 are low quality Polaroid photos:

Jackie Gleason - Known affectionately as "The Great One":

Hal Needham wanted Jackie Gleason to be in the movie. Hal sent him a script. Mr. Gleason calls Hal and says "Mr. Director, what makes you think that I would do this movie?" and Hal said, "Well, Mr. Gleason, I'm a big fan of yours and I've seen every Honeymooners episode ever made and many of your other shows and movies. I wrote this script and I'm directing the movie, so nothing is etched in stone. If you play the part, I can see that character being very, very funny." Gleason said, "I'll do it."

Hal Needham said it was "Wonderful" working with Jackie Gleason. Hal said that 75 percent of what Gleason said was his own - he just came up with some of the funniest damn stuff. Most of his dialog came right out of his head. You know things like, "There's no way you could come from my loins," and, "The first thing I'm gonna do when I get home is punch your mama in the mouth." He called his son a "tick turd," really, a "tick turd." He had all kinds of funny stuff.

Taking a break in the trailer In later years, Burt said this about the movie: "No one knows for certain why Smokey & the Bandit was so well received. I do know that some inexplicable magic occurred while we were filming it. I've seen it many times and all I know is that each time I watch it, it makes me smile."

This is where Snowman ran over the motorcycles with his semi truck:

Big and Little Enos Burdette:

These guys were good friends and worked in several movies together. A great movie was Gator.:

You can see that these are stuntmen in the police car:

At the Working Girl's trailer where the Police Captain was almost arrested:

Jerry Reed was a well-established country star when he appeared in the movie. He wrote the beginning soundtrack for the film "East Bound and Down" at the last minute - in a few hours. That song title is a reference to CB lingo, meaning the trucker is headed east and going off the air.

Several cars got "air time" in this movie:

Three Trans Ams were destroyed for the movie - all donated by Pontiac Motors. After filming, all three were crushed to avoid any liablility problems. GM executives were required to be present to witness the crushing. Funny fact: After the GM execs left, a crew member found that one car had an engine that was perfectly good, except for a crushed scoop and air cleaner. He put that engine in his personal car and drove it for years.

Look at the crew staying on their toes in case the car unexpectedly comes their way:

This is Jackie's wife Marilyn with him:

When the car crashed into the dugout, that whole thing was an accident. The stuntman got on the wet grass and the car just wouldn't stop. It stopped before going all the way through the dugout. They decided to keep the footage. They then built a board for the back of the damaged dugout and filmed driving through it and back on the road.

Burt and Writer/Director Hal Needham:

Hanging out next to one of the three 'Ban One' cars:

Sally Field's stunt double Janet Brady

A real romance brewed on set between Sally and Burt Remember that passionate kiss they had on the pedestrian bridge ?:

Back Row: Jophery Brown, Walter Wyatt, Bobby Bass, Tommy Huff Middle Row: Bobby Byrne, Robert Levy, Bill Sherman, Alan Gibbs, Jim Connors Front Row: Unknown person, Janet Brady, Hal Needham

Burt petting Fred, the dog. In Atlanta in 1976, they searched for a dog to use in the movie. He was to be "the dumbest, ugliest, most lethargic male dog in the Southeast." 432 dogs applied and Hal Needham narrowed the contestants down to 10 finalists. Burt Reynolds was the judge tasked with choosing from the final lineup. He ended up selecting 2 year-old Basset Hound named "Happy," owned by John McCullough. One of the perks of using his dog was that John earned a bit part in the movie. He played one of the bikers in the scene where Snowman gets into a bar fight.

The Famous Bridge Jump

Commentary: Isn't it great that they used a real car for the bridge jump !? Today, movie makers would fake it with Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) and it wouldn't be nearly as cool.

Below are bridge jump location
photos from 2012

This is at the side of the bridge where the Trans Am landed. You're looking across the river to where the car took off from. The horizontal wood deck is all gone on both sides.

This is the spot where the Trans Am landed. I'm turned around 180 degrees from the photo above. It's odd that the area is hollowed out bigger than a car. Maybe there was a pit of soft, aerated soil for the car to land on. Or maybe people have taken heaps of the soil home over the years. FYI: There's a large pile of branches piled in the hole at the far end. And the storage facility in the distance was not there in 1976.

This is the other side, where the car took off from.

Same as the photo above but down by the water without all of the brush in the way. It's something to think that the Trans Am travelled all that way in the air.

This is the foundation of where the car jumped from. The horizontal wood deck is all gone. The day of the shoot it was there with a hidden ramp. Also, this is where Jackie Gleason stood and said his lines including "Hey Boy, where's Sheriff Branford ?".

Quiz to see if you're a hardcore fan: What in the actual movie poster below doesn't match with the movie ?

For the answer, click on the Trans Am below:

Here's a great video of preparing for the bridge jump scene. (Viewable at Facebook -- so only if you have a Facebook account) -- Thank you to the Woodworth Family for finding this long lost footage. -- Click on the image below to go to Facebook to see the video:

Smokey and the Bandit II photos

A car getting more "air time"......