I need to move my Glee icons to dreamwidth.

[heidi]

I was thinking about last night's Rocky Horror Glee, and saw someone wonder about the teens who saw the episode without having seen Rocky Horror beforehand (and is it only me who remembers the film originally being Rated X at least it's release on VHS in the early 90s?). Yes, everyone has been exposed to The Time Warp, but what will the teens think of the bits of the storyline? Won't they be spoiled for the film itself?

I can't be the only kid born in the 70s whose first exposure to RHPS wasn't from actually going to a midnight film, which I did in July of 1987 in Harvard Yard when I was doing a summer thug at Tufts. No, the first time I saw clips from it, and people getting up to "do" the show was in Fame when Doris and Ralph go to the show and Doris ends up taking off her shirt and joins in - did they go to the one in The Village in NY? I finally went to that sometime during the summer of 1989. I was probably 12 or 13 when. I saw Fame, but in retrospect I was probably too young - there was a lot I didn't 'get'. But when the tv show started, i was such a die-hard fan. I never missed a week! I think I still have e episode where they did Othello on videotape somewhere.

I don't think I've seen RHPS in a movie theater since maybe 1992 but it was a staple of Halloween parties through the 90s. My daugter sang The Time Warp at her pre-kindergarten graduation, and I've shown her Columbia tap dancing via YouTube.

While I'm waiting with excitement for Darren Criss to show up - in two weeks! Yay! - and looking forward to Puck's return, and loved the somgs as usual - possibly more than normal as there wasn't a Major Rachel Number - I suffered Will-squick. Again. And I'm just not into Sam. But I have preordered the Christmas Episode and for all the issues Glee has, at least it's not as bad as a certain piece on the Marie Claire website.

Comments

[megaloo13.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen Glee yet due to Cablevision nonsense but I'm a twenty-four year old who's only ever seen a few scenes of RHPS, never the whole movie. I'm excited for this Saturday though, as I'll be attending a midnight showing with some friends. Can't wait! :)

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I can't wait to hear what you think of it!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I think the internet and fandom in general is way too preoccupied with the concept of spoiling. The beauty, to me, of a story like Rocky Horror, is that it HAS no real story, and the only truly important plot point (the reveal at the end) isn't included in the plot of the episode.

But really: a good work of art, unless it is a mystery or suspense piece, should be able to stand on its own even if you know the plot in its entirety. Otherwise, are we going to devolve into a society that doesn't comment on Romeo and Juliet or The Odyssey for fear of spoiling someone?

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

There isn't even anything from RHPS that shows up on that amazing Spoilers t=shirt, which probably means that yeah, there isn't anything particularly spoilery about any aspect of it. It's just fun, especially in a good crowd.

It's like reading MarkReadsHarryPotter - he went into it knowing that Snape killed Dumbledore, and watchng his reaction to that scene actually happening, knowing that he has no idea about Snape's backstory, is really fascinating.

Did you see the discussion of putting the solution to the mystery of Mousetrap on Wikipedia that was in the NY Times a few weeks ago?

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't! That is actually hilarious and really interesting all at once. But that's really the one place where I do question spoilers: if the fun of a story is meant to be the puzzling it out-- and like all good Christie stories, Mousetrap is one where you actually can solve it from the clues in the story (which VERY few mystery authors manage, but I still maintain that it's not a good mystery unless you can do that)--I think that you don't want to spoil it. But exactly-- with the MarkReads thing, it shows that the stories are just good stories. The same is true for Star Wars Episode IV (It must have been astonishing to be in the theater and find out that Darth Vader was Luke's father before anyone knew it, but it doesn't ruin the story), or Citizen Kane (where the sled is almost inconsequential and essentially a MacGuffin in a non-mystery movie), and, well, most good stories. But if the story is meant to be more of a puzzle-it-out game, then I think it can be spoiled and spoiling ruining it doesn't make it a worse story.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

(It must have been astonishing to be in the theater and find out that Darth Vader was Luke's father before anyone knew it, but it doesn't ruin the story)

I saw Empire about two weeks after it came out, but I already knew Darth was Luke's dad - not because of spoilers in the newspaper or on tv (I was nine but I did read the papers sometimes) but because I had the Photonovel and the novelization of the movie, and it was in both of those books. It may've been on trading cards, too?

But when I saw RotJ the day it came out (twice, once with a friend and once with my family) I was completely unspoiled that Luke and Leia were twins and I freaked a little bit about that.

[aome.livejournal.com]

They had kindergarteners doing the pelvic thrust?? O_o

I first did the Time Warp in college, when upperclass Physics students raided Physics 101 and put on a skit (including the Time Warp) as part of their annual Halloween tradition. I didn't see the actual RHPS until several years later, I think - and on VHS, at that. I've never been to a big-screen showing with all the stuff you're supposed to shout and throw. My life is so deprived. ;)

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

They turned it into "and then we jump and jump". The rest of the song is relatively innocent, and it was actually really cute.

Not many theaters do the midnight showing anymore - and actually, I've fallen asleep at it at least once (it was a very, very long week) - but yeah, it's an experience. Of the five cities I lived in between 18 and 28, though, Washington is the only one where I didn't see RHPS even once. Wonder where it is/was there...

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

In DC? I'm going this weekend; I'll let you know!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I should check whether it'll be on the 18th of December....

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Excellent! We must go to the three broomsticks for a Butterbeer!

And of course we are all going up - got to get in before (a) the blackout dates hit and (b) the northerners swarm down.

[ileliberte.livejournal.com]

I suffer from Will-squick a lot... I wish there weren't so many breaks, I'm so impatient for the next two episodes! I thought Sam was dorky and kind of cute in the last episode, not so much in this one :/

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I am only spoiled re Darren Criss's character, and only from Mike Ausiello's column and Darren's own tweets, but I am just so joyjyjoy about him coming onboard that I will forgive a lot of Will-squick.

Someone on twitter pondered whether any or all of Sam's lines were originally written for Puck. And I admit, I wonder, too.

[sugarjet03.livejournal.com]

I knew the music, but just watched RHPS for the first time a few weeks ago, after I found out this episode.

The Will-squick has really gotten out of control. The Sue thing last season was bad enough, but between the Toxic dance and this week, he's just making me mad at his immaturity. I really want to like him, but he needs to not make the same mistakes over and over again.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

For me, because Sue's always been a specific type of unrealistic character, and because Jane is just so brilliant, I haven't expected "practicality" from her, and while she's really tough on the students, they've all made a choice to participate in Cheerios, whereas Will's decision to in Toxxic and as Rocky was forced onto the students and their options were to quit New Directions, or put up with it. I would love a scene where they are all WTF Mr Schue!? because he really deserves it, and it seems like it's just getting passed over.

[sugarjet03.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

OK, that is seriously the best typo I have seen in years... you were doing a summer THUG. :P

My first exposure to the film was hearing the soundtrack, but shortly after that I went to a midnight showing at the 8th Street Playhouse in Manhattan. That was in 1985.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Meh, and I can't even justify that the Boston accent makes "thing" sound like "thug". But I can blame the autocorrect on my iPad!

[likebunnies.livejournal.com]

I was dragged to it my senior year of high school... some movie theater in Sarasota was still playing it at like 1 a.m. It was over Christmas break and I had to be to work at 5 a.m. and I slept to it. No one threw toast but I do remember a bunch of people getting up to dance. They woke me on their way to the front to do the Time Warp.

My kid has never seen it but he knows stuff like the Time Warp from the internet. But he didn't know about Rocky or that it was about a transvestite and all that. I'm not sure what he thought it was about.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Hurrah, I'm not the only person who slept through it! Although I don't think I fell asleep before Toucha-Toucha-Touch Me!, but sometime after that. Harry's not into watching Glee, but he does know the Time Warp - maybe we'll watch some of the eps next summer, when he's a little older.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

From the ages of about 15 to 22, I saw RHPS fairly regularly. From 17 - 19, "regular" meant at least monthly, though that number declined a bit during the school year. (Rochester had a regular showing, but it wasn't great, and transportation issues made it tough.)

RHPS was a very important part of my adolescence in just the way Will describes.

I <3'd the Glee episode till about just after "Toucha Touch Me," then it all went downhill for me.

While I'm cranky that they didn't actually have a man play Frank, I think it's pretty dang subversive that they had a fat character of color in PVC, making it pretty clear the character she was playing was pansexual. I <3 Mercedes so much.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Well, Time Warp was cute - just sort of not part of the plot. And I understand people being irked that a woman played Frank, but last episode Kurt did play a woman playing a man in Le Jazz Hot, fwiw, and in a way, subversion can be a different thing today than it was 35+ years ago. I found it very interesting that Mercedes was gorgeous and hot as Frank on the same day that anorexic went all ranty in Marie Claire. Anyone who could watch Amber - especially this week - and find it offensive or icky has major perception issues and a whole host of biases that she needs to examine with some support.

[freya]

I first heard the soundtrack at age four, saw the film at age eight and the stage show at age fifteen. I cannot comprehend not having it in my life.

The Rocky Horror Show is a phenomenon rather than a story. I'm not hugely sure you can spoil a phenomenon, just turn people on to it.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Who did you see as Frank? Was Anthony Head doing it then? I need to find those clips on youtube....

And yeah, it's something that has to be experienced - it's the mama and papa of all singalong shows and musicals that came after, from Mama Mia to Sound of Music and Grease!

[freya]

This was aaaages after that. My first time was the 30th Anniversary tour. Jonathan Wilkes was Frank N Furter. He wasn't terribly good at it, but hey, it was a fantastic experience.

[twelveeyes.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure I made all my friends watch the movie version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show when we were about 15 or 16 - at a time when sleepovers were still cool, lol. I also went to see the stage show when it was on last year.

I saw the leaked clip of the Time Warp on the internets last week and I was somewhat disappointed ... but hey, if it gets more people interested in RHPS, then all good!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Time Warp was so outside the plot, it reminded me of the encores at things like Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat or Mama Mia. In the context, it felt like a good wrap up - there was no other way to end the ep without more Will-fail.

[twelveeyes.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I see. I will wait to watch it - doesn't come out 'til next Wednesday here.

[slashkilter.livejournal.com]

I was aware of the film and had heard a couple of songs of it but didn't see the whole thing until we did it as part of a "Night of Horrors" with the school choir in the late nineties. The headmaster was a bit taken aback by our Frank, who, bless him, wasn't afraid to go out there in the complete suspenders & corset outfit.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is totally fantastic!

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

I didn't see last night's Glee due to work. I'll get to it tonight sometime. But, I'm excited to see it.

Funny, I don't think I've ever seen the original film from beginning to end, just bits and pieces here and there.

But, my first experience with RH was when in 1982 (or was it 1983?, yes, I'm old...) I went to see Donna Summer in Concert in the theater district in Boston, and I believe it was October 30, and and while we were waiting in line to get in, what comes strutting down the street but a six foot plus man dressed in a corset, and stockings, and a wig. We didn't know what ot make of him. I had no clue what RHPS was about. Oh my innocent eyes....I learned later who he was dressed up to be.

Flash to 6 years later when I met my mild mannered, quiet and somewhat shy engineer-geek of a husband who told me he was a HUGE RH fan, went to ton's of shows (never dressed up tho...). Talk about my head spinning, lol.

Anyhow, recently my kids discovered the original movie on vhs (my husbands copy) and they didn't know what to make of it. I think the older two like it (they're 20 and 17), but the 13 yr old jsut thinks's it's weird, lol.

ANyway, the music is awesome, and I can't wait to watch the Glee epi soon!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to hearing what you think of it!

Re: spoilers

[melodylemming.livejournal.com]

Not in reference to Rocky Horror so much, but I think being spoiled is a pretty modern concept. I've been reading a lot of book reviews from the early twentieth century, and it seems to have been pretty common practice to reveal twist endings even in a one paragraph review. And old movie trailers from the fifties and sixties often tell the whole story of a movie.

[scoreboard.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the Glee ep yet - I am so in arrears on my TV that they've cancelled one of my series out from under me (vaya con Dios, Caprica) - and the World Serious is going to take up some time for a while.

But the last time I saw RH was at Ferguson Student Center, on the campus of the University of Alabama, the night before the Bama-UT game in 1992. We drove down because my girlfriend's sorority big had transferred to Bama, saw the show at midnight, then the next day I drove back up to watch the game on TV with my dad and then BACK to T-town for the afterparty.

(click switch -"FIRST year Auburn engineering!" - click switch - "SECOND year Auburn engineering!...")