What, again?

No, still.

Can you stand it? It's been nearly 30 years since Sylvester Stallone's mumbling amateur boxer -- and his dog, his girl, his rival, his brother-in-law and his trainer -- became an indelible part of the American fabric in Rocky.

The movie, written under candlelight in a dumpy apartment and inspired by the real-life story of Bayonne boxer Chuck Wepner, starred Stallone, who also penned the screenplay. Improbably, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1976, year of the nation's Bicentennial. In an unprecedented move, Stallone joined director John Avildsen at the podium in accepting the Oscar, to huge applause.

All these years later, Rocky still packs enough of a punch to warrant "Fists Fly in July," a 24-hour TV marathon of all five Rocky films, beginning Sunday on AMC with the one and only Rocky at 6 a.m. in the morning.

Why would anybody get up at the crack of dawn on the Fourth of July to watch an old movie -- make that five old movies?

"There was a certain amount of genius in what he (Stallone) did; it's that blue-collar thing everybody can relate to: hard work, the underdog, the whole nine yards -- the American dream," said Franke Previte, Middletown.

Previte should know: He's the working-class musician who won an Oscar for co-writing the hit tune "(I've Had) the Time of My Life" for that other ultimate blue-collar melodrama, Dirty Dancing, in which Patrick Swayze's wrong-side-of-the-tracks cutie wooed but didn't win Jennifer Grey's middle-class gal.

In his salad days, Previte, formerly of Milltown and New Brunswick, was leader of the band Franke and the Knockouts, but nobody put on gloves; they sang rather than fought. However, through a producer who worked with them both, Previte became a friend of Stallone's brother, singer and actor Frank Stallone, formerly of Trenton, and Previte also wrote two songs for Sly's movie Avenging Angelo (2002).

Rocky's path to fitness -- boxing and jogging -- became a bona fide craze after the American public took a look at what working out did for Stallone. Over at the Jersey Shore Fitness Shop in Bradley Beach, interest is still intense enough for the gym to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The gym opened 24 years ago, four years after Rocky first quipped and sparred with Apollo Creed.

"During the summer we do extremely well. We have a variety of things -- cardio, weights, etc. -- and the boxing classes are very well attended," said Anne Niedenstein, whose son, John Neidenstein and his partner, Greg Cooper are co-owners.

Even a contentious lawsuit filed by Sly hasn't diminished the Rocky legend. At issue, Stallone says in his suit against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., is that MGM has "stymied his efforts to make a sequel and Broadway musical based on the Rocky film franchise. The lawsuit filed in mid-May in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeks unspecified damages against the studio and the production company. It also seeks an order allowing Stallone to proceed with a Rocky VI film," according to the Web site Chingaderas.

That Web site also says "Stallone accused both defendants of pulling out of the musical and movie after learning he intended to co-produce and star in a boxing reality TV show called 'The Contender.' The series is scheduled to air in January, featuring amateur boxers as they advance from training camp through challenges in the ring. The winner will receive $1 million and a chance to become a professional prize fighter."

Well, who would have thought?

Before Sly Stallone became a working-class hero worth millions, he toiled under a little bit of light in a Manhattan apartment writing the screenplay that became his ticket to ride. Bruce Foster, Oceanport, a singer-songwriter Grammy nominee for "Look Out for Number One" from the 1983 John Travolta film Staying Alive, and former bandmate and buddy of Frank Stallone, recalled those heady times.

"Frank and I were good friends at the time that his brother, whom he called Sylvester, and I didn't even know existed, was living down the hall from Frank in an apartment building at 34th Street and Third Avenue, above a restaurant.

"One night, Frank says, 'Let's go down the hallway and see my brother.' We knocked on the door and all of a sudden we hear this dog trying to eat its way through the door! The door opens, the dog's snout sticks out and you hear this deep voice say 'Butkus!' and the dog stops, immediately! It was Sly.

"Sly, looking just like Rocky, in his undershirt and very, very muscular, was inside with his girlfriend (Sasha Stallone, now his ex-wife). It was dark. The girlfriend . . . was holding a flashlight so Sly could see what he was doing. He was writing Rocky."

Foster also remembers the first time he saw Rocky in a theater. What he witnessed explains why all these years later, AMC thinks the Rocky movies are worth a July Fourth weekend marathon.

"People were jumping out of their seats, swinging in midair at that movie. I've never seen such as visceral reaction to a movie in my life. I knew I was witnessing a phenomenon."

In Foster's words, the audience suddenly felt that if you had a dream, maybe it could come true.

"I couldn't wait for the next one," Foster said.