Final Round

David 'Benson' finds his way to Wilmington, Delaware, and into the friendship of Henry "Rocky" Welsh (Martin Kove), an aspiring boxer, who saves him from some hoodlums.

David later discovers that Henry, unknowingly, has been trafficking heroin for the boxing promoter. The promoter, in order to stay out of prison, arranges a deadly fight for Henry, whose high blood pressure will kill him. A chemical to induce a heart attack is put in his system via his hydration bottle. Meanwhile, David is knocked out and put in a cage elevated over the ring.

Martin Kove is excellent as the gentle yet simple minded would-be boxer who is basically used by a promoter, getting to sell the "white stuff" and when Kove doesn't want to do the distributing of it the promoter tells him he's ready to take on the champ. The poor guy is so trusting. And will die for it. But the Hulk makes a grand appearance in a tense finale.

I don't really know why so many people rated this episode poorly. Maybe I'm giving it an extra star for sentimentality but I do think it sets up the series. It shows David trying to cure himself. It shows David's compassion and also his need to get involved to help someone when it could hurt him. All in all I actually think it's a good start to the series whereas the final episode does leave something to be desired but that's for another day

First episode of the series after the two successful pilot films once again stars Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner, Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, and Jack Colvin as dogged newspaper reporter Jack McGee. Plot is about David befriending a struggling young boxer named Henry "Rocky" Welsh(played by Martin Kove) who helped him in a mugging attempt. "Rocky" suffers from high blood pressure and is being used by his unscrupulous manager to ferry drugs, and of course David(or rather the Hulk) must do all he can to help, along with Henry's girlfriend. Story is thin but entertaining and did successfully launch this beloved TV series to a five-year run.

The first real episode clocking in at 50 minutes. The main difference is in fact the Hulk itself. He's less greener than in the two movies made for episode 1 and 2 and his hair is different.

This time David is still wandering throughout the US. When arriving in the next city he is immediately robbed but rescued by a boxer named 'Rocky'. He take care of David and they become friends but without money David need work and is taken to the gym by Rocky to start working as his corner-man. But Rocky always has to bring special deliveries to people and David suspects it's some illegal stuff. But David's robbers are still waiting to give Rocky a lesson, David is out their to become the Hulk and saves Rocky but one package is severally damaged, looks like drugs.

From there on Rocky is in trouble and David has to transform to save him finally. Made in the era when the film Rocky (1976) was very popular so they tried to use a story a bit the same as Rocky. Al Ruscio is here to see as a bad guy, a big name back then.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

In the cast section they got the names all wrong. The fighter who fights Rocky is not John Witherspoon, Tony Brubaker and Rocky's cornerman is John Witherspoon.