Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/30/snowman-and-fred-from-smokey-and-the-bandit.html
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Nope. You’re wrong. 
It’s Jackie Gleason that’s the best thing about Smokey And The Bandit.
Fred’s good, but nothing outshines Gleason’s performance.
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Basset hounds make everything better.
Just looking at that GIF makes me laugh. It really was an outstanding performance even by his own high standards. Gleason was one of those comedic actors (Matthau was another) who could take any part given to him and – no matter how improbable the role seemed for his persona – absolutely kill with it.
Until I was older, I didn’t really understand the plot point about the Coors beer but just kind of accepted it as a MacGuffin. Knowing the story behind the “bootleg beer” only enhances the movie.
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Agree! He’s hysterical in this.
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The state lines thing I took without question. Smokey and the Bandit was a slice of pure Americana for us here in the UK, and what fascinated me more was the use of CB radios.
CB was illegal here in the UK until about 1981, and that slowed its growth significantly. And our rolling landscape meant they had less utility anyway. So CB radios were exotic and farfetched - definitely adding to the allure of the film.
Crazy alcohol laws? We’d all seen gangster films set in the prohibition era, or read stories about it. We had no doubt that the USA could screw up something as simple as booze laws. But everyone on the highway having a CB radio? Well now, that’s both strange and cool! 
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Juengling Porter is not available in Massachusetts, I keep fantasizing about making a Smokey-and-the-Bandit-style run to PA to fill up my car with it.
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Hee hee, five years ago a MN bar got in trouble for selling draft Spotted Cow he bought in Wisconsin and brought back across the border. A manager at the bar said it was a mistake to bring the beer to the bar, but they did it with the best of intentions. Spotted Cow is still only available in Wisconsin because the owners have no desire to deal with each individual state’s different liquor laws.
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I am shocked how many opinions I have about this.
Jerry Reed is awesome, but I would stick with him playing guitar in his socks, like so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QAEmCuBnck
“He don’t like Greeks?” Not okay.
And then there is Buford H. Pusser, a.k.a. Buford T. Justice. Gleason was brilliant. Pusser is still revered in TN.
I am old and from the South.
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One of my fave Matthau moments is in Earthquake, where he steadily gets drunker and grumpier as the entire world collapses around him.
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