Why the ‘Rocky’ Legend Endures 50 Years Later

Rocky: 50th Anniversary

Special Issue

Buy Now

If you were lucky enough to be around at the time, you likely remember exactly where and when you first saw Rocky, and who you saw it with and how you felt afterward. You probably left the theater shadow boxing with your friends and mimicking “Yo, Adrian!” and “You’re gonna eat lightning and crap thunder!” And then went to run up the nearest set of steps and raise your arms high.

Let’s face it, we all wanted to be Rocky.

Even if you first saw Rocky later than that, sometime over the past 50 years, you likely had a similar experience. Rocky just has that effect, and it’s almost universal. Like a Horatio Alger story for modern times, it invites you to get caught up in the tale of a down-and-out guy who thought he would never get his shot at the big time, and then had the courage and tenacity to embrace it when he did. Rocky spoke for and to everyone who ever felt like life was passing them by…and then had the guts to go the distance.

The mid-1970s were of course the source of so many legendary movie franchises. In 1975, the first summer blockbuster, Jaws, was released. In 1977, Star Wars took us to a galaxy far, far away. Those were fantastical stories of heroism and bravery, of people put in extraordinary situations. And sandwiched in the middle of those two releases is this story of an everyman — and unlike the protagonists of those other two hit movies, Rocky doesn’t win.

United Artists / Courtesy: Everett Collection

We celebrated him anyway, and we kept rooting for him all over again in several successful sequels. The first came three years later, in 1979. We watched Rocky take on Apollo Creed yet again, and this time he did win. And what a victory it was! We were engrossed as the Italian Stallion fought his way to the top and, in the end, just had one thing to say: “Yo, Adrian! I did it!” As the sequels continued, Rocky navigated success and the ups and downs that came with it. He attained fame, earned and lost a fortune and, again and again, transformed himself from an underdog to a winner, always going the distance.

And let’s not forget how Adrian’s story resonated with audiences too. We meet her as a mousy pet store employee who smiles good-naturedly as she listens to Rocky’s bad jokes. When she comes out of her shell, she brings Rocky along with her. She’s in new territory, and so is he. Could he have scaled the same heights without her? Maybe, maybe not, but either way, it would have been hollow.

It would be wrong not to mention Mick here as well. They have a different kind of love story, a father-son type of bond that, as with Adrian, shows what Rocky can accomplish when people believe in him. When Mick shouts, “It’s a waste of life!” at Rocky in the first movie, it sums up how he has wasted his time and his talents being an enforcer for a crook when instead he could be a contender. Mick sees what’s inside and, as Rocky’s manager, brings that steely resolve out of him for the whole world to see too.

Related

Sylvester Stallone Recalls Filming 'Rocky' in New Memoir

As you’ll hopefully see over these 98 pages, putting this magazine together has been a labor of love. If you love Rocky as much as we do, we hope these words and pictures will resonate with you and bring you right back to that feeling you had the first time you watched the movie—or the hundredth. And maybe you’ll even discover something about the series that you never knew before in this collection, which features an interview with Sylvester Stallone himself, recaps of every film in the franchise, retrospectives on the enormous cultural impact the series had, and still has, and much more. This magazine also celebrates the release of Stallone’s deeply personal memoir The Steps, and the release of the new movie I Play Rocky, which details what Stallone had to endure to make and star in the film he had poured his heart and soul into.

Here’s to the next 50 years of Rocky going the distance.

TV Guide Magazine’s Rocky 50th Anniversary Special Issue is available for order online now at Rocky.TVBooks.com, and for purchase on newsstands nationwide.