Thursday’s extended, wide-ranging interview with legendary broadcaster Brent Musburger took a bit of a detour regarding one of my all-time favorite films: Rocky II.
Musburger appears in the movie, playing himself in the scene during which Apollo Creed tries to goad Rocky Balboa out of retirement for a rematch. Here’s part of what Musburger had to say about his time on the set of the film that Sylvester Stallone directed.
“[Stallone] ran down the plot and the whole idea was to have a sportscast but in it was to try and bring Rocky back from his retirement and fight Apollo Creed again,” Musburger said during Thursday’s #PFTPM podcast. “So I said, ‘That’s great. Do you have the script?’ He said, ‘We don’t have a script. Just want you to do a sportscast of how you believe it would sound.
“I said, ‘Let me give it a shot.’ I’m thinking they’ll give me 15 to 20 minutes of takes here and we can get something that’s up there. I start out and I do it, and I thought there’s gonna be a take two. And he says, ‘Cut, that’s great. We really appreciate that.’ And I said, ‘That’s all you need?’ And that was it. It was a one-take, off the top of my head.”
To this day, Musburger still gets periodic royalty checks for his contribution to the film.
“What was the last one? Thirty dollars and 35 cents for international sales of Rocky II,” Musburger said.
For plenty more from one of the best to ever do it, check out the Thursday edition of #PFTPM. Listening to it costs exactly 30 dollars and 35 cents less than 30 dollars and 35 cents.
