by Bo Durban
January 27, 2022

"Great One"

The original diner scene was scheduled to be filmed on 9/30/76. The indoor scene was rescheduled for 9/23/76 after Jackie Gleason re-wrote it. But they did come back on 9/30/76 to film the exit scene.

Thanks to this article, we now know Gleason's personal CB handle and that he ate 3 Diablo sandwiches during the 9/23 filming.

So the next question is...what was supposed to be filmed on 9/23/76 and what changed? 9/23 was supposed to be filming day for the "Drive In" scene...aka "Hot Pants Hilliard". They filmed a couple of interior shots with Bandit and Carrie near Conyers, Georgia in Sept, '76. But the rest of what you see in that sequence of the movie was filmed in California in Dec, '76. They used the former "insert" car T/A for filming in California. You can recognize it as the Trans Am missing its front grilles and front wheel flares.