Smokey and the Bandit: “It was the worst script I ever read in my life. But (writer/director) Hal Needham was my roommate, and he let us improvise. Sally (Field) was fabulous. There was all kinds of resistance to casting her, that she wasn’t sexy, because she’d been Gidget and The Flying Nun. But talent is sexy. You see her sitting on screen next to Paul Newman, and you’re just flabbergasted at her talent. If you can play a flying nun, you can act.”

http://www.pbpulse.com/movies/2009/12/06/the-longest-career-burt-on-some-of-his-movies-and-tv-shows/

Yeah, but he cried all the way to the bank!!!! :crazy:

I agree, I think that film put his career over the top so to speak.

I agree, I think that film put his career over the top so to speak.
We have a station here in the Cleveland market that seems to play LOTS of Burt Reynolds and/or Hal Needham movies. All the Smokey movies have been shown, all the Cannibal Runs, Hooper, etc. This channel always seems to air the cheesy action movies of the 70s - they've also aired White Lightining with Bo Hopkins, and tons more I can't recall at the moment. But you get the idea.

We have a station here in the Cleveland market that seems to play LOTS of Burt Reynolds and/or Hal Needham movies. All the Smokey movies have been shown, all the Cannibal Runs, Hooper, etc. This channel always seems to air the cheesy action movies of the 70s - they've also aired White Lightining with Bo Hopkins, and tons more I can't recall at the moment. But you get the idea.


What I find funny is that he states that Smokey was the WORST script he ever read. The worst? He has made a lot of movies and a lot of stinkeroos.

What I find funny is that he states that Smokey was the WORST script he ever read. The worst? He has made a lot of movies and a lot of stinkeroos.
Burt Reynolds has been in a lot of bad movies but Smokey and the Bandit wasn't one of them.

What I find funny is that he states that Smokey was the WORST script he ever read. The worst? He has made a lot of movies and a lot of stinkeroos.
I guess he never read the scripts to At Long Last Love, The Dukes of Hazzard remake, The Longest Yard remake, etc. :crazy:

I guess he never read the scripts to At Long Last Love, The Dukes of Hazzard remake, The Longest Yard remake, etc. :crazy:


striptease anyone?! ;)

to be fair, he was probably drunk when he read those scripts.

Worst script doesn't always mean worst movie. The script probably sucked, but he says they improvised a lot, so they probably didn't even use the script a lot except for the story.

"Smokey and the Bandit" was a better Burt Reynolds film than "Cannonball Run", "Striptease", and "At Long Last Love". Sure those three films may now be cult classics, but "Smokey and the Bandit"?!

No wonder some now call him...Turd Furgeson.

I cant believe he would say that.. The 1st one kicks ass!!!

I thought the worst script Burt Reynolds ever read was Boogie Nights. :rotflmao:

Ed.