In php:
$names = ['jim', 'lucy'];
$smarty->assign('names', $names);
In javascript,
var arr = {$names|json_encode};
Notice:
If you changed your smarty default_modifiers to array('escape:"html"')
, use
var arr = {$names|json_encode nofilter};
to make everything work.
Good luck.
solved How to pass array from php to javascript using smarty 3? [closed]