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 star, that the film was aimed at a more mainstream release; Reed would now portray Bandit's friend Snowman (Reed would eventually play the Bandit in "Smokey and the Bandit Part 3"). At that time Reynolds was the top box office star in the world. In the original script Carrie was called Kate while Big Enos and Little Enos were called Kyle and Dickey. Bandit's car was a second generation Ford Mustang and the prize for completing the run was a new truck rather than $80,000. Burt Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on