The internet has given a voice to people who never really had one in their offline life. People who felt like outcasts because they weren’t normal. They cared about movies, books, television, video games, or comics. Interests that only a couple decades ago would have been seen as nerdy and would have led to people being made fun of. Now they had a voice and could find people from around the world who shared those interests.
However, with good always comes bad. When you give a voice to a whole group of people who didn’t have that same voice before, someone will use it for bad. There has been a lot of negativity within these communities. Misogyny, racism, all kinds of crazy, inexcusable stuff. I’m not the right person to get into those serious issues, though. I can condemn them, but I can’t speak to them. There’s something more lightly negative that I want to examine.
The same communities that were bullied before the internet and the rise of technology are the same people that complain about every single detail they don’t like in the media they claim to love. Some of those complaints might overlap with the other major issues. Casting someone who they believe was the wrong gender or race. That sort of stuff. However, it usually comes down to a single, catch-all statement. “They ruined my childhood.”
This statement annoys me beyond any reasonable level. It always comes after a remake or adaptation or sequel to something from the past. Sometimes as soon as the new project is announced. These vocal detractors treat a new piece of media as though it can take away from the quality of something they enjoyed years earlier. They treat it like the creatives behind the new project personally attacked them. It gives insecurity.
A new version of something you love doesn’t change the thing you loved. That thing you loved still exists. You can still go back and enjoy that thing you always enjoyed. A new version doesn’t automatically pop the old one out of existence. Especially with almost everything being so readily available on either physical media or streaming services. There will always be a way to watch that version that got people so invested in the first place.
One of the movies I grew up with was Smokey and the Bandit. It was one of those movies my parents saw when they were teenagers, and it made an impression on them. When VHS and DVD were big, they picked up copies of it. Not the second one, though. The first one was the good one. That’s what I had always been told. The second one, the one with the elephant, was nowhere near as good. It was stupid, in fact. That first one, though? A perfect movie.
Notice how they never brought me up to think that the second movie ruined the first? That’s because it didn’t. The second movie was worse than the first. Much worse. It had too much focus on the comedy and not enough focus on the driving stunts. That didn’t take away from what the first movie accomplished. In fact, it only helped solidify why Smokey and the Bandit worked as well as it did. There was also a third movie that barely had Burt Reynolds in it, which could be seen as even worse. I think it brought the action back enough to make it more enjoyable than the second, however. I know I’m in the minority.
What I really want to talk about, though, is the reboot television movie series that came out in 1994. That’s the Smokey and the Bandit outing that inspired this post. Bandit was a four-movie television reboot of the Smokey and the Bandit franchise that brought Hal Needham back as the director. Had these television movies been made in an age of widespread internet, forums probably would have been filled with people saying that their childhoods of Smokey and the Bandit fandom had been ruined because it was so different. I think it kind of worked. Maybe shouldn’t have been based on Smokey and the Bandit, but it was, and we just have to deal with it.
Now, there were some major differences between Bandit and Smokey and the Bandit. One was the casting. They obviously didn’t get Burt Reynolds back for the television movies. They had to cast someone else in the role. They went younger with Brian Bloom taking the mantle. This was a reboot, not a remake. They went with a fifteen year more modern setting and a younger Bandit. They covered some of the stuff he got up to before the famous beer run, if that beer run even happened to this version of the character.
The first adventure, Bandit Goes Country, saw Bandit return to his hometown while accompanying a couple musicians, Mel (Mel Tillis) and Teach (Charles Nelson Reilly), to a concert. He got involved in a love triangle with his high school sweetheart, Beth (Elizabeth Berkley), and muscle-bound wrestler, Big Sky (Tyler Mane). Bandit also got roped into some music bootlegging with his cousin, Johnny Bruce (Christopher Atkins). Along for the ride was Bandit’s trusty best friend. No, it wasn’t Snowman. The only character that ported over to the reboot was Bandit. This new best friend was Lynn (Brian Krause).
There were reasons I didn’t think Bandit Goes Country was a good reboot of the Smokey and the Bandit franchise. I mentioned the Burt Reynolds of it already. Very few actors could capture his specific brand of humour, charm, and charisma. Brain Bloom wasn’t one of those actors. I could see that from the start of the television movie. Then there was the lack of a proper police villain. Buford T. Justice was nowhere to be seen. There was a police officer in there, but he was a one-off villain-of-the-week kind of officer. Finally, there was the car. For whatever reason, I can never take car chases seriously when the car is from the 1990s. The Dodge Stealth they used in the television movies, replacing the Pontiac Trans Am, looked too much like a Pontiac Sunfire or Chevy Cavalier. It looked so odd in police chases.
Yet there were some good elements to Bandit Goes Country, as well. The characters and actors all seemed to have good chemistry with each other. The small-town shenanigans were fun, particularly when they played jokes on the police officers. There were memorable characters who probably deserved to pop up in more of the episodes, but didn’t because it was an episodic television movie. And it had that southern feel that this franchise was rooted in from the beginning.
All I had to do was shift my perspective a little bit to enjoy Bandit Goes Country. Was it a good Smokey and the Bandit outing? Maybe not. However, it would have been a fun enough little television movie if it had been anything else. If they had simply made it its own thing instead of making it a reboot of Smokey and the Bandit, it would have stood perfectly well on its own two feet. That’s where I came to enjoy this four-film television series, as its own thing.
Next up was Bandit Bandit, the most Smokey and the Bandit feeling television movie of the bunch. Bandit was arrested on the way to deliver a futuristic car to the governor. A fake Bandit (Gerard Christopher) had broken laws to get him in jail and take the car for himself. After Lynn broke Bandit out, he had to get the car back, while escaping the pursuit of Sheriff Enright (John Schneider).
If any episode was going to showcase how this series of movies was based on the Smokey and the Bandit franchise, it was Bandit Bandit. It had everything. Bandit was delivering a car. There was a sheriff chasing him to arrest him. His sidekick was by his side. Sure, Bandit for some reason had a helicopter at his disposal, but it was mostly the kind of story that made Smokey and the Bandit such a classic. It was outrunning a police officer while delivering a car. With a couple new twists, of course.
Sure, the biggest flaws in Bandit being a reboot of Smokey and the Bandit were there. The Dodge Stealth still didn’t look like a formidable car for chases. That’s a me problem. I don’t think 90s cars look all that great in action scenes. And Brian Bloom still didn’t quite have that Burt Reynolds charm that brought everything together in the original. However, the strengths were starting to show. For a television movie, this had the heart of what made Smokey and the Bandit special. It captured that feeling, even if the quality wasn’t there. And Brian Bloom was starting to make his own out of the character, much in the same way that different actors have their own spin on James Bond.
I still stand by the idea that it didn’t ruin the original. If anything, the original was ruining what I thought of the television movies. They were starting to click, though. Everything was falling in place to be a fun little movie series on a television budget. All I had to do was shift my mindset from this being a new Smokey and the Bandit to this being a bunch of television movies inspired by the car movie classic. It wasn’t Smokey and the Bandit. It was Bandit. If I imagined the character being a different character, everything got better.
That was only solidified in Beauty and the Bandit, the third television movie in the series. Bandit had his car stolen by a mysterious woman, Crystal (Kathy Ireland). As he tried to get his car back, Bandit learned more about her. He learned about her ties to a mob boss, Lucky Bergstrom (Tony Curtis). He learned that she was being chased by a bounty hunter, Slade (Joe Cortese). There were also some FBI agents involved. It was a race against time and other people to get his car back and protect the woman who stole it.
Beauty and the Bandit solidified that Bandit could live on in the spirit of Smokey and the Bandit. It had a whole lot of driving. Crystal drove Bandit’s car. Bandit drove Bandit’s car. Bandit drove a buss filled with nudists. Yeah, that was a thing. There was the chase. Lucky sent his goons after Crystal. Slade was after Crystal. Bandit was after Crystal. The FBI was after Crystal. The local police were after everyone. There was the banter between enemies that became a sort of friendship while still being enemies, with Bandit and Slade. Yeah, it was a television movie and wasn’t nearly as good as the theatrical outings, but it at least captured the spirit.
This was the third of the four television movies. If I were one of those overreacting internet people, I could have easily claimed that they had ruined Smokey and the Bandit for me. Except they hadn’t. As I had learned while watching them, it was simply a different take on the material. If you go in with that mindset, you’ll even enjoy these new versions. A new take on a character, a world, a story cannot take away from previous takes on any of them. It’s just another take on the material. It’s not the only take on the material. That’s where the false claim of ruining the original comes into play.
And then there was the fourth television movie, Bandit’s Silver Angel. Bandit was contacted by his uncle, Cyrus (Donald O’Connor), about helping with a traveling carnival. He turned his uncle down, only to inherit the carnival upon Cyrus’s passing. Angel Austin (Traci Lords) was the person in charge of the carnival. Bandit helped her fend of debt collectors and put down a rebellion within the staff.
This was about as far from Smokey and the Bandit as Bandit could get and yet it still worked. Most of the television movie involved running the carnival and tricking people. There were a few car chases sprinkled throughout. There was one with Uncle Cyrus at the beginning, one to get rid of the debt collectors, and one to outrun the police who tried to tax the carnival to death. But they didn’t feel like the traditional chases this franchise featured in the past.
For the most part, Bandit’s Silver Angel felt more like an episode of a television show than the previous two movies. It felt much smaller scale. Sure, there were still appearances from notable actors, but it didn’t have the same scope or special feel that the other television movies had. The setpieces felt smaller scale. There were minimal chases. It was more about outrunning than losing the people behind. The big setpiece was a truck barely crossing a lake on a raft ferry, which was cool, but didn’t feel as full of spectacle as a plane landing on a truck or a truck being chased down by a helicopter.
None of the Bandit television movies were anywhere near as good as Smokey and the Bandit. They were never going to be. The difference between a Hollywood big screen budget and a 1990s television movie budget is huge. I could imagine people now, hearing that their favourite 1980s property was being made into a television movie on USA network, complaining about how this decision was a blight on their childhood favourite. It happened when Ghostbusters was remade in 2016. It happened when the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog came out and people didn’t like the teeth. It happens whenever a Marvel production comes out, and the costumes aren’t one hundred percent accurate to the comics. It wouldn’t have been any different here.
The thing about a new version of a beloved property is that it’s just that. It’s a new version. A new generation of fans can find an entry point that better fits their sensibilities. Maybe it will lead them to seek out the older version. Maybe it won’t. That doesn’t matter. That doesn’t affect the quality of the old version. It doesn’t erase the old version from existence. Well, not in this day and age. It may have in the 20s or 30s when they reused old film stock like maniacs. Today, though? Everything has been ported to hard drives, put on home video, or bounces between streaming services. A television movie reboot of Smokey and the Bandit won’t stop the original trilogy from being available. In fact, it comes in the same DVD package as the theatrical trilogy.
All this is to say that claiming a remake, reboot, sequel, or re-adaptation of a beloved property is ruining the past is a false claim. The new version can’t change the quality of the original. It can’t take your love of the original away. It may, in fact, be a new version of that story you can grow to appreciate and maybe even love.
With the ever-increasing digital landscape, there can be multiple versions of everything that allow different people to enjoy it. If you think something is ruining your childhood, you have that love of something from the past. A newer generation or audience might not have that love, and a new version could be just what they wanted. Why is it up to this vocal minority to decide what people should or shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy?
The internet has brought about a lot of good things. It allowed people from around the world to connect in ways they never had before. If you felt alone in your day-to-day life, there was a chance you would find your tribe on the internet. It became a good place to archive text, video, imagery, and audio so that it was less likely to be lost over time. It took a library and allowed it to fit into the palm of your hand.
The downside of the internet was that some of the tribes that people found were bad tribes. Rampant racism and hate. Bullying. That sort of stuff. The imagery and archived stuff could also be bad. And the voice that was given to that lonely person who was able to connect with others? Sometimes that voice came out in the most self-entitled way imaginable. The internet was good for some things, but terrible for others. We should all try a little harder to get rid of the bad stuff.
What I won’t be getting rid of are these notes:
- The four Bandit television movies were directed by Hal Needham, who directed Rad.
- Brian Bloom, Brian Krause, and Dawn Sears were each in all four Bandit television movies.
- Bandit Goes Country featured Elizabeth Berkley, who you might know from Showgirls or Control Factor.
- The other three-timer in Bandit Goes Country was Christopher Atkins, who appeared in Shakma and The Pirate Movie.
- Marty Terry appeared in both Bandit Goes Country and Elf-Man.
- Robert D. Raiford was in Super Mario Bros. and Bandit Goes Country.
- One of the more recognizable people in Bandit Goes Country was Tyler Mane. He was also in The Scorpion King.
- Finishing off Bandit Goes Country was Charles Nelson Reilly, a recognizable voice you might remember from A Troll in Central Park.
- Now onto Bandit Bandit, which featured the third appearance of Mark Jeffrey Miller after Super Mario Bros. and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
- Two other actors from Super Mario Bros. were in Bandit Bandit. They were Michael Harding and Andrea Powell.
- Buckley Norris was in Bandit Bandit and Mac and Me.
- Bandit Bandit featured Barnaby Carpenter, and actor from Jem and the Holograms.
- James Martin Jr. returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies for Bandit Bandit after first showing up in Jaws: The Revenge.
- Closing out Bandit Bandit was Ami Dolenz, who had already been in She’s Out of Control.
- Another third appearance this week came from Tony Curtis. He previously voiced a character in Roxanne’s Best Christmas Ever and appeared in Sextette before popping up in Beauty and the Bandit.
- The other third appearance in Beauty and the Bandit was Henry Cho, who also appeared in Material Girls and Say It Isn’t So.
- Beauty and the Bandit had three more actors from Super Mario Bros. They were Lucy Alpaugh, Wallace Merck, and Patt Noday.
- One of the stars of Beauty and the Bandit was Kathy Ireland, who appeared in Mom and Dad Save the World.
- Brining Beauty and the Bandit to a close was Mark Joy, who was in Martial Law.
- And now we get to Bandit’s Silver Angel, which featured Marc Macaulay, who popped up in both From Justin to Kelly and Cop and a Half.
- Finally, Traci Lords was in Bandit’s Silver Angel and Ice.
- Have you seen any of the Bandit TV movies? What did you think? What do you think about people feeling entitled to something ruining their childhood? Let me know in the comments, or you can find me on Threads or Bluesky.
- Threads, Bluesky, and the comments are all good places to let me know what movies I should check out for future Sunday “Bad” Movies posts.
- Okay, this post took longer than I thought it would to come out. With that, we’re already in December, which means my next movie will be a Christmas movie. What one? Santa’s Got Style, of course. I got a box set of a bunch of those Hallmark-like Christmas movies and picked one with an interesting name and gave it a watch. I’ll get that post out soon. See you then.
