This episode shows everyone's acting chops. Lois Nettleton, a friend of Stirling Sylliphant's from his Naked City series, puts on a tour de force of acting. It's season one, but everyone comes out punching. "I pay my own way, Johnny." She's a waitress at the 'Red Pony' (similar to a similarly named "club" in Atlanta.) Buzz and Todd already show their relationship here and Buzz won't let go of Johnny Copa. "The jury's out on you, like its out on all of us, every day!" "You're gonna go in the ring and win that fight, then you're going to retire." "I ain't read a book since sixth grade," explains the type of sportsman who boxing provides a way to the top. Buzz pledges that he and Todd will not leave Youngstown, Ohio till they find out what happens to Johnny.
5 Reviews
As fine an episode of any ever
vstallion768 June 2018
Life on the Edge
dougdoepke5 December 2014
Buzz and Todd's walking shot down a crowded Youngstown street is a fine slice of Americana, circa 1960. Surprisingly, none of the crowd appears camera conscious. Characterizations here are paramount. McGavin's superb as Copa, the punchy fighter on his last tank town legs. Buzz remembers him affectionately from when he gave the young kid a real boxing lesson. Now Buzz watches sadly as Copa stumbles his way through words and the ring. The 60-minutes is also a Maharis showcase, along with a sharp-tongued Ed Asner as McGavin's trainer. Milner as Todd mostly looks on. Frankly, I could have done without Copa's implausibly long-suffering girl, even though Nettleton's just right for the part. (Note that the screenplay implies how the two keep separate rooms! But then this is the day of TV's Standards and Practices watchdogs.) Anyhow, the entry again shows the unusual strength of an offbeat series.
6/2/61: "The Opponent"
schappe123 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Suddenly the boys are in Youngstown, Ohio. Darren McGavin, one of my favorite actors, plays a guy who was a neighborhood legend as a fighter when Buz was growing up. Now he's a broken-down pug who is just an "opponent" for hometown heroes. He tours around, not taking dives, (and they make sure to tell us), but getting beat up by untested young fighters looking for a reputation. Buz is in denial for most of the episode, then decides that McGavin should do all he can to win a fight so he can go out on top. With Buz's encouragement, he does win. But this excites him so, he gets an inflated view of his current capabilities and decides to continue fighting.
They don't go the "Requiem for a Heavyweight" route here. McGavin has been through the wars but isn't punch-drunk or grotesque. Requiem has two different endings. The original Playhouse 90 broadcast has a hopeful ending with the old fighter getting a job as a counselor at a youth camp. The subsequent movie has him becoming a parody himself as a professional wrestler. Here they could have kept with the sad ending of McGavin deciding to continue his hopeless career but they decide to tack on a happy one where he suddenly changes his mind and goes off to the farm his girlfriend, (Lois Nettleton) came from. I think it would have been better if he's continued chasing the dream that isn't there anymore.
Ed Asner, (who had a bit in "the Man on the Monkey Board") has a nice turn as the cynical trainer.
They don't go the "Requiem for a Heavyweight" route here. McGavin has been through the wars but isn't punch-drunk or grotesque. Requiem has two different endings. The original Playhouse 90 broadcast has a hopeful ending with the old fighter getting a job as a counselor at a youth camp. The subsequent movie has him becoming a parody himself as a professional wrestler. Here they could have kept with the sad ending of McGavin deciding to continue his hopeless career but they decide to tack on a happy one where he suddenly changes his mind and goes off to the farm his girlfriend, (Lois Nettleton) came from. I think it would have been better if he's continued chasing the dream that isn't there anymore.
Ed Asner, (who had a bit in "the Man on the Monkey Board") has a nice turn as the cynical trainer.
Stale, corny and phony
lor_22 January 2024
Silliphant tries to pump life into an extremely corny boxing storyline with "The Opponent". Darren McGavin takes the title role, as a washed-up prize fighter readying a bout in Youngstown, Ohio, where old pal and fan George Maharis is ready for total disillusionment when he tracks him down and discovers he's now a has-been.
Maharis is spotlighted this week, giving McGavin a pep talk and delivering an animated performance I enjoyed watching. But all this proves is that the cliches of the "fight movie" were already stale in 1961, let alone 15 years later when Stallone managed to resurrect the genre.
As McGavin's girlfriend, Lois Nettleton breathes life into the show, but can't save a losing contest. To fit this tripe into the universe of "Route 66", Silliphant through Maharis tries to present the wanderlust "On the Road" aspect of George and Martin's trekking as a positive choice compared to feeling trapped and helpless in a rut like pathetic McGavin is. The self-pitying fighter is a dead letter, dramatically speaking. SIlliphant's tagline here, enunciated by a defeatist McGavin, is "Somebody's gotta be the opponent", is dullsville. So too, the tacked-on, phoney-baloney happy ending.
Maharis is spotlighted this week, giving McGavin a pep talk and delivering an animated performance I enjoyed watching. But all this proves is that the cliches of the "fight movie" were already stale in 1961, let alone 15 years later when Stallone managed to resurrect the genre.
As McGavin's girlfriend, Lois Nettleton breathes life into the show, but can't save a losing contest. To fit this tripe into the universe of "Route 66", Silliphant through Maharis tries to present the wanderlust "On the Road" aspect of George and Martin's trekking as a positive choice compared to feeling trapped and helpless in a rut like pathetic McGavin is. The self-pitying fighter is a dead letter, dramatically speaking. SIlliphant's tagline here, enunciated by a defeatist McGavin, is "Somebody's gotta be the opponent", is dullsville. So too, the tacked-on, phoney-baloney happy ending.
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