Movies of the 80s: 'Smokey and the Bandit II' Lost Media: The Celebrity Olympics

It's been said that Burt Reynolds never wanted to make Smokey and the Bandit II. But then, the studio backed a truck full of money up to his home in Jupiter, Florida, allowed him to hire all of his friends, and shoot scenes on his own property near his house, and Reynolds finally relented. This leads us to the subject of this article, the star-studded Smokey and the Bandit II scene that you never got to see. A scene that is now only myth and legend. The Lost Media that is Smokey and the Bandit 2: The Celebrity Olympics.

Here's the premise, now a celebrity of sorts, Bo 'Bandit' Darville is set to take part in the 'Celebrity Olympics.' hundreds have gathered around a field in Jupiter, Florida to watch. This crowd of extras is seated in the hot sun on the promise of seeing a galaxy of stars including Robert Urich, young hot rising star, Jan Michael Vincent, singer and sex symbol Lola Folana and of course, arguably, the biggest star in the movie world, Bandit himself, Burt Reynolds.

From an article published by reporter and critic Greg Tozian in March of 1980. "It's so quiet on the set, you could hear a pin drop at the bowling alley a few miles away when the silence is broken by a loud belch." This was to be the classy introduction of The Bandit. Now down on his luck but still beloved by large crowds of fans, The Bandit has arrived for this celebrity competition completely hammered. Belching, stumbling, and generally making a fool of himself, Bandit nevertheless puts on his roller skates and readies himself for the task of racing a pig.

No, I am not breaking from reality, this actually happens. Burt Reynolds on roller skates, racing a pig. And it's not just Burt, a slew of celebrity pals are also taking part. This includes actors Robert Urich, Jan Michael Vincent, Robert Fuller from the series Emergency, Robert Urich's Vegas co-star, Christopher George, actor and game show host Bert Convy. All of them on roller skates and all of them chasing after a pig.

That this scene ends with many of these television stars and Burt Reynolds himself, falling and flailing in mud and whatever contribution the pig has made by this point, should come as no surprise. Meanwhile, all of the action of this roller skating pig race is being called by famed sportscaster, Howard Cosell and cheered on by actress and singer Lola Falana, best known for her appearances on The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and several cult favorite blaxploitation movies of the 1970s.

Also on the scene is actress Edy Williams whose unique resume includes The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington, Dr. Minx, where she played a doctor by day and a sex worker by night, and, in the future, she co-stars in 1982's Chained Heat. It's no wonder then that reporter Greg Tozier noted Williams as a softcore porn star, in his description of her. Odd note, Williams was in theaters the same week Smokey and the Bandit II was released as she appeared in the Paul Mazursky film, Willie and Phil. I mention this only because Willie and Phil is coming up soon on the Movies of the 80s YouTube channel.

The Celebrity Olympics comes to a close with Robert Urich bear-hugging a clearly very uncomfortable Howard Cosell while covered in mud. All the while, our hero, The Bandit, is face down in the muck, having lost the Celebrity Pig Race, he's truly reached rock bottom. From here, Smokey and the Bandit II was to introduce the new plot about another cross country race to deliver an item to a place while Jackie Gleason bellows and belly flops all over the place as Smokey trying to stop the Bandit from doing whatever.

So, this scene doesn't exist. Or, well, it does or did exist, but it is not in the movie Smokey and the Bandit II. In fact, a search of the internet to try and find this scene involving many big television stars of the era, turns up almost nothing. Reading the article on Newspapers.com, I was baffled. I could find no mention of Howard Cosell or Robert Urich, or Jan Michael Vincent making a cameo in Smokey and the Bandit II. Were it not for this random news article from the set of Smokey and the Bandit II from March of 1980, we'd never have known that this surreal event ever occurred.

The only other mention of this scene, comes in a brief mention on the website of the American Film Institute which documented only that Robert Urich had been spotted on the set but that his part had been cut before the release of the movie. But the scene was far more elaborate, star-studded, and needlessly expensive than that. It was all shot at Burt Reynolds's Florida home and all of his celeb friends were paid handsomely for something that never appeared in the movie.

Shout out to reporter and critic Greg Tozier and Newspapers.com for preserving the existence of what is essentially today, a piece of lost media.

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