We Re-watched Rocky (1976) and It Was... Weird | Ft. The Silver Linings Playlist Podcast

Sports Month closes out with the quintessential non-sports sports movie: Rocky (1976).

Brian and John are joined by Dustin and Nate from The Silver Linings Playlist Podcast  to break down Stallone's underdog script (allegedly written in three days), the real Chuck Wepner vs. Muhammad Ali fight that inspired it, Carl Weathers' criminally underrated Apollo Creed, and a running theory that Rocky himself reads as autistic-coded — "his special interest is punching." Plus: how this movie beat Taxi Driver, Network, and All the President's Men for Best Picture, whether the Rocky/Adrian romance holds up in 2026, and a Letterboxd reviews segment that gets weird fast.

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Dustin & Nate host Silver Linings Playlist — new episodes weekly, plus a Patreon with bonus commentary tracks (their Austin Powers mini-series drops this September).

CHAPTERS:

Introduction [00:00]

Rocky closes out sports month [01:39]

A small-time boxer gets his impossible shot [05:46]

The chaotic story behind Rocky [07:25]

The myth of the three-and-a-half-day script [09:04]

From soft-core scandal to the Italian Stallion [12:47]

How Rocky escaped television and found a studio [14:09]