Burt Reynolds & Jackie Gleason's Smokey And The Bandit Scene Was All Improv
The 1977 comedy "Smokey and the Bandit" remains popular more than four decades after its release, with an 85% audience approval score at Rotten Tomatoes. The film is loaded with star power, featuring Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, Sally Field, Pat McCormick, and Jerry Reed. Reynolds and Gleason appear in only one scene together, and it comes after Gleason's Sheriff Buford T. Justice has already pursued Reynold's bootlegging Bandit for nearly half the film.
While Bandit sits at a diner counter collecting a couple of to-go cheeseburgers and sipping an iced tea, Sheriff Justice barges in and orders something called a "diablo sandwich," sloppily eating it while standing at the counter and telling Bandit about the dangerous criminal he is chasing. All the while, the Sheriff is completely oblivious to the fact that that very same scofflaw is sitting right beside him, graciously wiping sauce from his necktie and even paying for his meal.
Reynolds told the auto enthusiast magazine Hemmings Motor News that the hilarious scene came about quickly and was entirely unscripted. "We were sitting at lunch one day and realized that we didn't have any scenes where we were actually together," Reynolds said. "We found the diner and improvised the whole thing, our only scene together in the whole film. Gleason was called 'The Great One' because that's what he truly was. When we shot the scene, nobody knew what he was going to do; Hal [director Hal Needham] just said to keep the camera on him. And to this day, nobody knows what a 'Diablo Sandwich' is!"
Other stars included a famous musician and Burt Reynolds' own pet dog
The Bandit is joined on his bootlegging run by his friend Cledus, known also by his CB radio handle Snowman. Snowman is played by three-time Grammy winner and Country Music Hall of Fame enshrinee Jerry Reed, and he brings along his basset hound, Fred. Burt Reynolds said director Hal Needham initially tried a lengthy audition process with trained animals before deciding to use Reynolds' own personal pet for the film, who had just one very unimpressive trick in his repertoire.
"The search for Fred was a publicity stunt and none of the dogs worked out–we used mine and always knew it was a fallback," Reynolds said. "Hal loved the dog, and since he had been the inspiration to begin with, we finally figured why not just use him? He wasn't the smartest dog on the block; he only had one trick. God love him, he'd be walking along and I'd call him; he'd look back at me but still keep walking, and he'd walk into the wall. He gave me a lot of love and a lot of laughs."
Reynolds also had fond words for Reed, who died from complications from emphysema in 2008. Reynolds said he first met the country music star at a club in Nashville in 1971, that Reed was a talented musician and a good friend, and that his kind and gentle nature matched that of his character in the "Smokey and the Bandit" films. "What you saw onscreen was exactly like he was off-screen," Reynolds said of Reed. "I miss him a lot."