Night Gallery episode review — 3.10 — The Ring with the Red Velvet Ropes

Original air date: January 7, 1973
Director: Jeannot Szwarc
Writer: Robert Malcolm Young

Rating: 4/10

The titular ring here of course is a boxing ring, and our lead character is boxer James Figg (Gary Lockwood of 2001: A Space Odyssey). Sure, he doesn’t look at all like a boxer, but whatever.

Figg speaks with his defeated opponent after the fight but later finds that it wasn’t possible, as he was on the phone at that same time. After getting out of the shower, Figg finds that everything around him has changed. Instead of a trainer, he has a butler. Instead of a locker room, he finds himself in a fancy house.

He soon finds that it’s the house of Roderick Blanco (Chuck Connors), who insists he’s the true champion, though he doesn’t compete professionally. Roderick challenges him to a private match, winner take all.

So they box, and the execution of it is pretty awkward. There’s no score, and it just looks really lame. Eventually, Figg wins, killing Roderick in the fight. It’s revealed that Roderick was the real champion, first winning in 1861. And apparently now it’s Figg’s job to defend this title in this kind of interdimensional world or whatever.

It’s an unsatisfying episode. I do like Chuck Connors, but the story never has that revelation that you’re looking for, and it’s strangely shot.