Steel

Lee Marvin- what can I say? One of the best action actors of the '60s and '70s. And Joe Mantell- one of the best sidekicks ever ("Angie," "Marty's" also-unmarried sidekick in 1955's "Marty," with Ernest Borgnine as Marty; "Walsh" in 1974's "Chinatown," with Jack Nicholson as Gittes- it's Mantell who delivers the famous final line of that movie: "Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown"), here playing Marvin's sidekick. Two palookas, tough guys at the end of their rope, fighting against the odds. Even though the episode takes place in what was then the middle-distant future, 1974, when an ostensibly more humane society than in 1963 has banned prizefighting between humans, we see that the down-and-out are still struggling just to survive.

Great story, great actors, great episode.