Smokey and the Bandit episodes of the series. Needham saw an advertisement for the soon-to-be-released 1977 Pontiac Trans Am and knew right away that 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 4-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 had two round headlights, and in 1977, the Firebird/Trans Am was changed to four rectangular headlights, while
Smokey and the Bandit holds up the CB mic for Snowman to hear. The film's editors, Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes it has a 79% rating based on 29 reviews. Alfred Hitchcock stated that the film was one of his favorites. Upon meeting Burt Reynolds, Billy Bob Thornton told him that the picture was not considered a "film" in the south, so much as a documentary. "Smokey and the Bandit" was released in the United Kingdom on August 28, 1977 and was a sizeable success there, garnering positive