'Bandit,' an unlikely hit of a trucker outfoxing a bumbling sheriff, endures as cult favorite

Updated May 24, 2021 to as part of Overdrive's 2021 60th-anniversary series of lookback coverage of trucking history, and that of the magazine itself. 

Four years ago this week, the classic movie "Smokey and the Bandit" was celebrating the 40th anniversary of its debut. Overdrive paid homage to the movie, also noting the magazine's visibly supportive role.

Read more in A surprise hit in 1977, "Bandit" has sustained a cult following, as evidenced in recent years by related stories in Overdrive and elsewhere. Among the highlights:

* One of the many 40th anniversary events was a recreation of the film's famous Mulberry Bridge jump. 

* Memorabilia from the "Bandit" filming fetched big bucks at a 2014 Las Vegas auction, including a very handsome price for the 1977 T-Top Pontiac TransAm driven by Burt Reynolds, the Bandit.

* Reynolds was remembered by Overdrive at his death in 2018.

* The CMT network in 2016 produced a two-hour documentary, "The Bandit," about the making of the movie, focusing on Reynolds and his friend and stunt-double Hal Needham: