10-4, Good Buddy: Mr. Skin Salutes the Late Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed, the Bandit’s Best Hombre, Trucks Northbound and Up to 18-Wheel Paradise

The 1970s drive-in phenomenon known as “hicksploitation” produced cornpone soft-porn classics on the order of Sassy Sue, Midnight Plowboy and Country Cuzzins.

When Hollywood took notice, it placed the genre into guitar-pickin’, fanny-slappin’, wild-drivin’ hands of Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed, who first teamed in the action hit Gator (not to be confused with another Southern-fried butt-stomper, Gator Bait).

Together, these best of buddies built the blockbuster Smokey and the Bandit franchise. Burt’s still rolling on life’s highway but, today, Jerry headed for The Big Exit at age 71.

Mr. Skin doffs his trucker cap to Jerry, and wants you to check out two of his movies featuring good-time down-home gals doing what they do breast.

High-Ballin' pits Jerry alongside Peter Fonda in an 18-wheeler road rampage as they run down greedy highway bosses. Keep your ears on and eyes open for Helen Shaver as an Interstate eyeful who gets boots knockin' and trucks a-rockin' (and also check her out later in one of the all-time sexiest lesbian suck-downs with Patrice Charbonneau in Desert Hearts).

After the first two Smokey and the Bandit blockbusters, Burt Reynolds decided to sit out the third installment and let Jerry do all the driving. Actually, the original idea for Smokey and the Bandit III was to cast Jackie Gleason in both title roles and to call the movie Smokey Is the Bandit!

Amazingly, the film was shot that way, screened for baffled test audiences, and then rescued when Jerry took the lead role opposite Gleason, who propels his fabled Sheriff Buford T. Justice persona way over the top(less).

In a moment of remarkable nudity for a PG-rated release, Playboy Playmate Veronica Gamba shows off her high-beams and back bumper in Bandit III.

Think of these mam-nificent moments as cherries on the entertainment cake that Jerry Reed leaves behind. Happy trails, Snowman.