The time Rocky was a small-time scrabble player

An exhausted Rocky Balboa stares at the his letters – ‘b,’ ‘i,’ and ‘n.’

If he had a ‘d’ it would take him on to the triple word square and he would become the most unlikely world scrabble champion in history.

But he does not. He plays ‘bin’ across a double word score. It’s not enough. After four hours of intense scrabble, Apollo Creed retains the scrabble world championship.

Rocky reels away from the board screaming his wife’s name. Apollo holds up the shattered but heroic contender and the credits role.

Director John Avildson cuts and congratulates Sylvester Stallone on a terrific performance.

However, the young writer/actor is troubled.

“I just wasn’t sure the scrabble thing was working,” said Sly in a 1982 Wogan interview.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was proud of the script. A young hood with a good heart who could play scrabble with the best of them, it was…fine.”

“We had a triumphant montage of Rocky reading the dictionary on the steps of the art museum and pressing scrabble letters into a side of beef.”

Something wasn’t sitting right with the young star though.

“The more we filmed, the more it seemed like scrabble was the wrong milieu for the seemy side of Philadelphia. I was convinced we needed to repurpose to script and make a boxing picture.”

The studio was aghast at the thought. Who would want to see a film about an underdog fighter? It would never play. Scrabble was a big deal. Everyone played scrabble. No one boxed. Who could relate to that?

They’d also a number of Rocky scrabble sequels lined up. Rocky would become scrabble world champion, see his friend Apollo brutally killed in a dangerous scrabble match and ultimately win the cold war with a thrilling use of the word ‘fundament.’

However, Sly stuck to his guns and ultimately they abandoned all the footage so far shot and Rocky went from a small-time scrabble player to a small-time boxer.

The Rocky films went on to be one of the most successful series of movies in history but there are still some who still feel that the boxing stories were inferior.

“That moment, when Rocky plays ‘bin, ‘” recalled a studio insider.

“I got chills. I still get chills thinking about it. They should have stuck with it. Maybe one day they’ll give it another shot because people deserve to see that.”

Sylvester Stallone is currently directing the eighth film in the series.

It is unlikely to feature any scrabble.