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Entries in this franchise with their own Trivia pages:
Trivia applying to the first film:
  • Actor-Shared Background: Played with; although Paulie is never in the ring in the movies, Burt Young did have an amateur and professional boxing background before becoming an actor. He learned boxing during his time in the Marines and continued to fight in civilian life. He even fought briefly as a professional with Cus D'Amato (who later trained Mike Tyson) as his trainer and manager.
  • Approval of God: Muhammad Ali, the basis for Apollo Creed, loved the film; he even regretted not giving himself the moniker "The Master of Disaster".
  • Creative Differences: Sources reported that Sylvester Stallone and John G. Avildsen nearly came to blows over the film's ending. Stallone wanted Creed to be the clear winner of the fight as a way of showing there are other victories for Rocky, but Avildsen cut the conclusion in such a way that preview audiences were not sure who had actually been declared the champ. They did agree, however, on the resolution to the Rocky-Adrian story. On viewing the rough cut, it was clear there was something missing. Adrian had more or less faded from the movie as the focus switched to the big fight with Apollo Creed. So a re-shoot was scheduled, and this time she comes into the arena to watch the last rounds of the match. When it's over, they call out to each other over the noise of the crowd, and Rocky walks away from the ringside frenzy to find her and take her hand. This was the upbeat ending Stallone wanted for his hero.
  • The Danza: Through the first six movies, Tony Burton played trainer Tony "Duke" Evers.
  • Defictionalization: Rocky himself is treated as one of the icons of Philadelphia sports, to the point of building statues of him (the same statue from the movies). This may have something to do with real-life Philadelphia sports being the collective Butt-Monkey of professional athletics, at least up till the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, and the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018 (against, to make it even more of a Rocky-style underdog story, the heavily-favored New England Patriots). Also, Stallone has all but been adopted as a native son of Philly.note 
  • Deleted Role: Michael Dorn had a bit part as Apollo's bodyguard. In the film proper you can maybe see him in the background as part of his entourage, but with no indication of his role.
  • Deleted Scene: Two things that were cut were a scene where Rocky visits his gym with Apollo Creed as a photo op and Rocky beats up Dipper, the fighter who took his locker earlier in the story and a scene the night of the big fight in the locker room between Rocky and Adrian. The locker room scene was at least filmed because production stills from it exist. Neither actual videos or clips of these scenes exist though.
  • Descended Creator: Arguably one of the most well-known examples. Sylvester Stallone quite notably had himself and only himself in mind for the role of Rocky Balboa. He would not allow the project to be made unless United Artists agreed that he would play the role, famously saying that he would bury the script in his backyard and let the worms play Rocky before he gave away the starring role.
  • Doing It for the Art: John G. Avildsen was so excited about the film, he reduced his usual salary to about $50,000 and a percentage of the profits.
  • Dueling Dubs: The whole saga up to Rocky V was redubbed in Latin American Spanish for its Blu-Ray edition in the year 2000, but there's more than one case of this within the franchise:
    • The first movie has four dubs; the first one from the original release, a second made in Puerto Rico, a third made for its DVD re-release, and then the Blu-Ray edition dub.
    • Just like the first movie, Rocky III was redubbed for the DVD edition with the cast of the fifth movie's original dub, leaving it with three dubs.
    • The fourth movie also has three dubs, with the first and third being made in Mexico, and the second one in Los Angeles.
  • Enforced Method Acting: One of the reasons for Talia Shire's shy and reserved performance is due to the fact that she was suffering from the flu at the time of filming.
  • Formats: The first five Rocky films were released on several formats:
    • VHS releases of the first five Rocky films, from MGM/UA Home Video.
    • Betamax releases of the first five Rocky films, from CBS/Fox Video.
    • Laserdisc releases of the first five Rocky films, from MGM/UA Home Video. The laserdisc format had the highest quality available at the time, but this came at a tradeoff: you had to flip the disc around once the first half of the movie was over, unless you had a laserdisc player that could autoplay the other half of the disc.
    • CED releases of the first three Rocky films.
    • Video 8 releases of the first five Rocky films, from MGM/UA Home Video.
    • VHD releases of the first four Rocky films, from Warner Home Video. Only released in Japan.
    • Video CD releases of the first five Rocky films, from MGM Home Entertainment. Exclusive to Asia.
    • DVD releases of the first five Rocky films, from MGM Home Entertainment.
    • UMD Video releases of the first five Rocky films, for the PSP. Only released in Europe.
    • Blu-Ray releases of the first five Rocky films, from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
  • Inspiration for the Work: Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for Rocky in three and a half days, shortly after watching the championship match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner that took place at Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio on March 24, 1975. Wepner was TKO'd in the 15th round of the match by Ali, with few expecting him to last as long as he did. Despite the fact that the match motivated Stallone to begin work on Rocky, he has subsequently denied that Wepner provided any inspiration for the script.
  • No Budget: The budget was so low that Carl Weathers and Burgess Meredith had to share a dressing room.
  • On-Set Injury: Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers really hit each other. Stallone got cracked ribs, while Weathers got a broken nose — the opposite of their injuries in the movie.
  • One-Take Wonder: With the film running behind schedule, Sylvester Stallone was allowed only one shot at Rocky's most vulnerable moment, confessing his insecurities to Adrian. Thankfully, that was all he needed, and the character's pivotal moment was kept.
  • Real-Life Relative: Stallone's father Frank Sr. has a cameo playing the man who rings the opening bell of the Creed vs. Balboa fight and his younger brother, Frank Stallone Jr., also has a cameo playing the lead singer of the street band.
  • Real Song Theme Tune: After the film was released, Citytv in Toronto, Canada began using "Gonna Fly Now" as the theme for their ground-breaking local newscast CityPulse; rearrangements and themes based on the original were used by the station well into the 2000s.
  • Reality Subtext: Comparing the Rocky films and Sylvester Stallone's career is pretty fascinating with how the former progressively reflected the other. What started as an acclaimed character drama / character actor became a highly marketable action franchise where the stakes get progressively more absurd before recognizing how insane it was getting and return to more character driven roots and eventually passing the torch to the next generation.
  • Serendipity Writes the Plot: The ice rink scene was originally written to feature 300 extras, but the production couldn't afford so many people. When Sylvester Stallone turned up to shoot the scene, to his horror, there was only one extra. So, Stallone hastily threw together the scene as it exists in the completed film. Ironically, this scene has become one of the most popular in the entire Rocky saga.
  • Star-Making Role: For Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers.
  • Throw It In!:
    • Rocky complaining about his trunks being the wrong color on his poster was an actual prop mistake (Stallone had decided to switch his costume at some point during production). The filmmakers referenced this directly to cover for the mistake and highlight how little anyone cared about him. Similarly, Rocky complaining about his robe being too big was written into the script to cover a genuine prop error.)
    • The scenes where Rocky runs through Philadelphia weren't staged or rehearsed, creating a genuine live background. A literal example happens when a fruit vendor throws him an orange, which Rocky picks up gracefully and then thanks the man for the unexpected gesture.
      • Another specific instance was the famous stairs scene. Stallone and some of the crew were simply driving by, saw the stairs and thought they looked cool.
    • The monologue which Rocky delivers after turning down Mickey's offer to manage him was completely improvised on-set by Sylvester Stallone. He has since explained that he was heavily influenced by the fact that the bathroom of the tiny apartment in which they were shooting really did stink.
    • During the scene where Gazzo is talking to Rocky about not breaking the dock worker's thumbs, Gazzo pulls out an inhaler mid-sentence and uses it. That wasn't written into the script; Joe Spinell actually had an asthma attack and really had to use his inhaler right on-camera on the spur of the moment. Director John G. Avildsen liked the authenticity it brought to the scene, so he decided to leave it in the film.
  • Underage Casting: Throughout the various films, Apollo is consistently mentioned to be older and more experienced than Rocky. Carl Weathers is actually a year and a half younger than Sylvester Stallone.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • At one point, they were gonna have Rocky as a trainer for the G.I. Joe team; they got as far as making an action figure sculpt and printing a profile in a Marvel comic; however, Stallone instead decided to license his image to Hasbro's rival Coleco for Rambo: The Force of Freedom, so they had to print a retraction about Rocky in the comic and canceled the figure; however his intended "rival" in the forces of Cobra, "Big Boa" was still released.
    • Stallone's first draft was much darker. Mickey was a bitter old racist and it ended with Rocky deciding that he doesn't want to be part of professional boxing and deliberately throws the fight.
    • Stallone wanted Harvey Keitel for Paulie.
    • Paulie was originally going to be Adrian's Jewish mother, but was later changed to being her Italian brother.
    • Apollo was originally Jamaican.
    • The original script featured a pretzel vendor named Andy who was a boxer back in his day, who Rocky frequently talked to outside Mickey's gym.
    • Rocky's employer, Gazzo was originally also intended to be Rocky's older brother, but John G. Avildsen rejected the idea, as he thought it was too similar to On the Waterfront.
    • John Boorman turned down the opportunity to direct.
    • Warren Beatty, James Caan, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Ryan O'Neal (who really was a trained Golden Gloves boxer in his teens before taking up acting), Al Pacino, Robert Redford and Burt Reynolds were all considered for Rocky.
    • Susan Sarandon auditioned for Adrian, but she was deemed too attractive for the part. Cher was also considered, while Sylvia Kristel auditioned.
  • Written by Cast Member: Sylvester Stallone wrote the first six movies.
  • Written-In Infirmity: Rocky's old injury to his finger which enables him to pretend he had broken it, is a real injury Sylvester Stallone suffered whilst playing college football.
  • You Sound Familiar: In Latin American Spanish, due to the many different dubs detailed above, some actors ended up recast in different roles:
    • Blas García voiced Apollo Creed in the original dub of Rocky II and would end up voicing the title character himself from Rocky Balboa onwards.
    • Arturo Mercado played a minor role as Mike (the gym employee who tells Rocky his locker is Dippers' now) in the first movie, then he voiced Rocky in the original dub of Rocky II, and ended up voicing Paulie in the Blu-Ray dub of all the movies up to Rocky V.
    • Salvador Delgado voiced Rocky in the original dub of Rocky V and the DVD dubs of the first and third movie before voicing Apollo in the Blu-Ray redubs.
    • Araceli de León voiced Diana Lewis in the original dub of Rocky and would later voice Adrian in Rocky V and the DVD dubs of the first and third movies.
    • César Arias, who voiced Paulie in Rocky V and the DVD dubs of the first and third movies, voiced Larry Merchant in Rocky Balboa.
    • José Luis Orozco voiced Tony Duke in Rocky V and the referee in the DVD edition of the first movie.
    • Arturo Casanova voiced Rocky in the fourth movie and then George Washington Duke in the fifth.
    • Esteban Siller voiced Paulie in the original dub of the first movie, and then Mickey in the second one.
    • Miguel Angel Sanromán voiced the rabbi at Mickey's funeral in Rocky III, before voicing Mickey himself in the DVD dub of the same movie.

Trivia applying to the comic:

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