Half-Assed Internet Research
Rocky-driven origin; Cruel Summer's chart resurgence; Macchio's yellow car; the saved drunk scene; the cut pie and water-fountain scenes; the fishing-wire fly; Pat Johnson's background; Zabka's training; Coca-Cola product placement; Shue's bathing-suit quote
In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 01:26:52Read transcript
- The hosts say Robert Mark Kamen was approached by Columbia to rip off Rocky after it signed Avildsen, building on an optioned news story about a single mother's child earning a black belt against neighborhood bullies.
- Writers do not just go off with those instructions—it is more complicated than that. — Ryen Russillo
- Cruel Summer, a 1983 song, is said to have hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 after the movie; Macchio reportedly still has the yellow 1948 Ford Super Deluxe Club convertible, valued around $20,000 online.
- How Miyagi owns so many cars is joked to suggest bootlegging.
- The producers reportedly wanted to cut the drunk scene for length, and Avildsen fought to keep it.
- In the oral history Chad McQueen is quoted saying he never really talked to Ralph and would have said something nasty if he had.
- Two scenes said to have been shot and cut deepened the Daniel-Johnny feud: the blueberry-pie cafeteria fight and a water-fountain confrontation in which Daniel asks Johnny whether he might be wrong about his sensei; that is preferred to extra remodeling footage.
- The hosts say the fly-catching used a crew member dangling a fake fly on fishing wire, and that Macchio thought the title corny and lost the fight to change it.
- Pat Johnson, the referee and choreographer, is said to have trained since 1963, learned a Korean form of karate while in Korea with the Army and trained with Chuck Norris; Zabka is quoted saying they trained five days a week, four hours a day for the month before shooting.
- Zabka reportedly had no martial arts background but was an accomplished wrestler, which makes his Vision Quest casting odd.
- Zabka's footwork is compared to Barry Sanders, including a scissor kick in rehearsal that reaches head height.
- The hosts say Columbia's Coca-Cola ownership meant product placement—orange juice at breakfast and a Sprite—that is said to annoy Macchio; Daniel's No. 89 jersey is described as a Chargers replica.
- Shue is quoted from the oral history on feeling uncomfortable in the bathing suit, training for the beach scene and then slowly gaining weight across the shoot; Vidal is said to have doubled for Morita in the cool moves.