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
The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film) of the individual theaters that it opened in. The film's gross was impeded by the financial success of the Burt Reynolds film "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977). Locke characterized the film as neither a huge hit nor a box office bomb, and was pleased with the amount of money it generated. The staff of "Variety" called "The Hills Have Eyes" "a satisfying piece of pulp," adding "Gratifying aspects [of the film] are Craven's businesslike plotting and pacy cutting, and a script which takes more trouble over the stock characters than it needs. There are plenty of laughs, in the dialog