Trivia / The Rocky Horror Picture Show

• Acting for Two:
  • Tim Curry, Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn can be seen at the wedding, with "Little Nell" Campbell seen in the church during "Dammit Janet" shortly afterwards. The shooting script confirms that these are Frank and co. in disguise.
  • Likewise the wedding guests are played by the same actors as the Transylvanians. The script refers to these as different sets of characters.
  • In the play, Eddie and Dr. Scott are always played by the same actor.
  • The Usherette is usually played by the same actress as Magenta.
  • The motorcyclists were the same actors that play the Transylvanians at the castle. O'Brien didn't understand why, noting that the motorcyclists could have been anyone. Instead, the actors had to change costumes back and forth.
• Actor-Inspired Element: O'Brien was supposed to sing "Science Fiction/Double Feature" but when Quinn threatened to quit if she couldn't, they settled that O'Brien's voice would be dubbed over Quinn's lips.
• Bad Export for You: Fox thought the ending was too depressing so edited out "Superheroes" and the Dark Reprise of "Science Fiction/Double Feature" when the movie came out in America.
• Banned in China: The film was banned in South Africa several weeks after release by the Board of Censors, but not before it had been seen by some 250,000 viewers and had a strong cult following.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Funko Pop! had an online giveaway where they would give some of their Rocky Horror Funko Pop figurines to people who shared their favorite quote to them. A number of people had this (possible joke) response: "I'm Rocky Horror and this is my picture and this is the show during which I present my picture. Now let's dance and basically do sexy things."
• Box Office Bomb: The film's budget was $1.2 million, and it didn't even make half of that during the original run. Eventually, the film grossed nearly $140 million through constant late night screenings, helping the film be Vindicated by History and becoming the Cult Classic.
• California Doubling: Berkshire, England makes up for the fictional American town of Denton, Ohio.
• The Cast Show Off: "The Time Warp" was extended for the film partially to show off Little Nell's tap dancing skills.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Richard O'Brien has also stated that when writing the stage play, he actually envisioned himself playing Eddie, but the director hired for the play felt he would be a better fit for Riff Raff.
• Completely Different Title: It's called Horror and Madness Orgy in Argentina and Mexico
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • Some people will misspell Columbia's name as Colombia. Even the listing on the Funko website of Columbia's POP figure of Columbia website misspells her name, but the packaging is correct. In addition, the back of the packaging of the Funko Pops calls Frank-N-Furter "Frank N Further".
  • Some people call Eddie "Meat Loaf", although that was his actor's name, not the character's name.^note NOT MEAT LOAF AGAIN! Columbia also has a similar problem: occasionally, people call her "Little Nell" instead of Columbia, which is the nickname of her actress, Nell Campbell.
  • Often, people will confuse Columbia and Magenta for each other. See the What Could Have Been section for an ironic thing about this confusion between the characters.
  • One RetroJunk article claimed that Columbia only showed up at the beginning and then returned at the climax. This may have been because Columbia only has a few speaking lines.
  • The book The Celluloid Closet claims that Frank-N-Furter came back to life at the end of the movie. However, there have been several sequel ideas where that happens. Unfortunately, all those ideas have been in Development Hell, and the first sequel with the resurrection concept turned into Shock Treatment.
  • Some people believe that the Sweet song "Ballroom Blitz" was featured in this movie, and the people who think the song is in the film might be confusing the song for "The Time Warp".
  • A few of the questions in the trivia game, which was written by Sal Piro (president of the Rocky Horror fan club), have incorrect answers.
  • People will sometimes call the stage show "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" instead of "The Rocky Horror Show" and vice versa.
  • A worksheet about blockbuster films claims that the film came out in 1971. The stage show didn't come out until 1973, and the film two years later.
  • Some sources, including the Netflix description, claim that Frank-N-Furter is a vampire.^note He isn't, but he's dressed as one when he descends in the elevator. James Rolfe made the same error, as well.
  • An article about Kelly Osbourne dressing up as Magenta for her birthday claims that Magenta is Frank's sister. Magenta is actually the sister of Riff Raff.
  • The Three Hundred Sixty Six Weird Movies review says that Dr. Scott came to the castle looking for his son when Eddie is actually his nephew.
  • Danny Peary's Cult Movies mentions that Magenta was killed by a Ray Gun blast at the end when it should have said Columbia.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Susan Sarandon refuses to talk about it, but not for the usual reasons. It's because she hates the fact that none of the cast members get royalties from the DVD sales.
  • Tim Curry was very reluctant to talk about the film for years and even told VH1 that he grew "chubby and plain" in order to try escaping the role; when host of the Academy Awards, he looked embarrassed as his role of Frank N. Furter was on the big screen — though that was scripted, and part of the reversal of his I Am Not Spock attitude. These days, he's more open to talk about the film and even sees it as a "rite of passage" for teenagers. He even appears in the 2016 remake as the Criminologist.
  • Peter Hinwood (Rocky) is only slightly embarrassed by being in the film, largely because he was never a professional actor and thinks his performance was cringeworthy. Contrary to popular rumor, he's never thrown anyone out of his shop (he became an antiques dealer) for talking about the film. He only sees the film as a "part of the past" and rarely talks about it.
  • While happy with his performance in both the show and film, Meat Loaf didn't like that he wasn't allowed to play both Eddie and Dr. Scott, as was customary in the stage production (and which Meat Loaf himself had done in the LA and Broadway productions), and felt that Jonathan Adams (the Criminologist from the UK production) was horribly miscast, especially because he didn't have the singing voice for "Eddie's Teddy." ^note According to the book Rocky Horror FAQ, Adams was originally asked to reprise the narrator/criminologist role for the film, but he complained about being bored with the part, so O'Brien offered him Dr. Scott instead. He also didn't like that other movie musicals would try to typecast him, as he preferred to keep his music and acting career separate. His only other singing role in a film was Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, filmed over thirty years later.
• Cut Song:
  • "Once in a While", featured in the stage show. For the film, the song was to have been sung by Brad after his... erm... encounter with Frank. Footage was shot but left out of the film, allegedly for slowing down the overall pace; a "reconstruction" using the footage and other scenes has appeared as an extra feature on every home release since the 1995 LaserDisc edition.
  • To a lesser extent, the American print had the exposition song "Super Heroes" all but cut out except for the final verse (the Criminologist's "And crawling..." speech). The result is an extremely jarring edit. You can optionally restore it in the DVD release. (Occasionally you'll see a version that also omits the Dark Reprise of "Science Fiction Double Feature".)
  • "Super Heroes" was also cut from the YouTube Movies and Disney+ versions, but the ending is otherwise normal.
  • To an even lesser extent, verses were removed from "Over at the Frankenstein Place" (Brad had another verse after the first chorus) and "The Sword of Damocles". These were apparently never even shot.
  • The Comic-Book Adaptation omits "Science Fiction Double Feature" and its Dark Reprise.
  • "The Sword of Damocles" and "Planet Schmanet Janet" were cut from the original soundtrack album for reasons unknown, but have since been restored on later releases.
• Deleted Scene: As mentioned above, one of Brad singing "Once in a While" was filmed but not used. A reconstruction can be found in the special features of most copies of the DVD.
• Descended Creator: Creator Richard O'Brien plays Riff Raff.
• Development Hell: O'Brien has been mulling over making a direct sequel ^note  Shock Treatment doesn't count! to the original stage show for years. However, so far, all that's been seen are a few scrapped scripts and a vague concept that involves Frank coming back to life, though he's apparently written the first act to the sequel.
• DVD Commentary: O'Brien and Quinn did one. There's also an "audience participation" track that effectively functions as a quasi-commentary, recorded during a real audience participation showing and featuring most every callout that was popular at the time of its recording.
• Dyeing for Your Art: In the original stage show, Tim Curry dyed his hair peroxide blonde.
• Enforced Method Acting: Several examples:
  • Curry and O'Brien were the only ones who knew Eddie's corpse would be under the table. All of the actors' reactions as Curry tears the tablecloth away are genuine.
  • For the scene where Dr. Scott is dragged into the laboratory via electromagnet^note GO, SPEED RACER, GO SPEED RACER, GO SPEED RACER, GOOOOO!, the production designers realized they forgot to build a door for him. What did they decide to do instead? Use him to knock down the friggin' wall.^note HEY, KOOL-AID! OH YEAHHHHHH.
  • During the dinner scene, Brad stamps his foot and Janet jumps at the table in shock; Bostwick actually hit Sarandon's hand with his fist during the take. Later on, she accidentally got even with him by stepping on his foot with a high heel during the floor show, which can be seen in the final product.
  • When Frank is attacking Riff Raff with the whip, Tim Curry is actually cracking the whip against the floor in front of Richard O'Brien. However, at one point, Curry got a little too close and accidentally hit O'Brien. A slight grimace can be seen on his face as a result.
• Executive Veto:
  • The film was supposed start in black and white as a nod to The Wizard of Oz but Fox wanted a more conventional look. This version can be chosen on most DVD/Blu-ray releases.
  • The RKO tower during the floor show was meant to be a 20th Century Fox logo but, for some unknown reason, Fox wouldn't let them.
  • The last two songs were cut from the U.S. version because Fox thought they were too depressing.
  • Fox wanted popular musicians cast while Sharman wanted the stage actors. They settled for replacing Brad and Janet with American actors and dropping the budget.
• Fan Community Nickname: Interestingly, only applies to a specific subset of the fandom: those who have never seen it in a theater with a live cast as part of the Audience Participation are referred to as "virgins" while those who've gone regularly are called "sluts".
• Filmed Stage Production: Rocky Horror Show Live was recorded in London and broadcast to cinemas throughout Britain and Europe. It never got a DVD release but can be watched on YouTube.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The exterior of Frank's castle^note Oakley Court IRL. has been used in a few other horror films.
  • Hammer used it in; The Brides of Dracula, The Reptile, The Plague of the Zombies, The Man in Black and The Lady Craved Excitement
  • Witchcraft
  • And Now the Screaming Starts!
  • The Witley Place in Die, Monster, Die!.
  • The Old Dark House remake.
  • Vampyres.
  • Murder by Death.
  • Was the house in the 1978 The Hound of the Baskervilles movie.
  • Was a boarding school in The Medusa Touch.
  • It was a hotel in the British TV show Pie in the Sky.
• Hostility on the Set: O'Brien confessed that, at the time, he didn't like Tim Curry. O'Brien was resentful and envious because Curry was attractive and got all the good lines (which, considering O'Brien is the one who wrote those lines for Curry, is... interesting).
  • Patricia Quinn confessed once that she disliked Meat Loaf upon meeting him at rehearsals, as she found his personality annoying and overbearing. It wasn't until filming that she warmed up to him, after seeing him play Eddie, and the two remained friends up to his passing in 2022.
• I Am Not Spock: Go watch any movie/show with Tim Curry in it. Chances are, "Sweet Transvestite" will start playing in your head.
• No Budget: The film's budget was estimated at about $1.2 million, cheap even for the early 1970s, and it definitely shows.
• Non-Singing Voice
  • The lips singing "Science Fiction/Double Feature" are Patricia Quinn's (who played the usherette who sang it in the stage show), but they're lip-syncing to Richard O'Brian's vocals.
  • A session singer was hired to do Rocky's vocals when it was discovered that Peter Hinwood was completely incapable of singing. Then during post-production, Jim Sharman wanted to change the voice, so Australian singer Trevor White was brought in to re-record the vocals.
• On-Set Injury: The combination of cold sets and skimpy costuming led to Susan Sarandon contracting pneumonia during filming.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The tank that Rocky first emerges from and the dummy that was meant to be him inside it were first used in The Revenge of Frankenstein.
  • Costume designer, Sue Blane borrowed the corset that Curry wore in a production of The Maids for Frank to wear.
• Role Reprise:
  • Curry, O'Brien, Quinn, Campbell and Meat Loaf reprised their roles from the stage play. Fox's Executive Meddling insisted that Brad and Janet be replaced by American actors.
  • The shooting script for Shock Treatment seems to imply that Gray's new character, "Judge Oliver Wright'' is the same person by having the cast list refer to him as "A Local Expert".
  • Ignoring fan theories that Cosmo is Riff Raff in disguise etc., Jeremy Newson is the only actor to play the same character (Ralph Hapschatt) in both Rocky Horror and Shock Treatment.
• Romance on the Set:
  • At the time, O'Brien was married to Kimi Wong, who played one of the Transylvanians.
  • In 2013, O'Brien revealed that Sarandon and Bostwick were dating at the time.
• Self-Adaptation: Both the play and the movie were written by Richard O'Brien and directed by Jim Sharman.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Dr. Everett V. Scott crashes through the wall for his entrance because the set builders forgot to put an extra door in the lab set.
• Stunt Double: According to the commentary;
  • The motorcyclists at the start are stunt doubles with the Transylvanians hanging onto the back wearing their tuxedos under their motorcycle gear.
  • Meat Loaf couldn't ride a motorcycle and needed a double when it was moving.
  • Rocky and Frank during the "King Kong" Climb scene. When the Frank double realized he had to wear feminine lingerie, he started acting extra manly so people wouldn't think he was gay. O'Brien says he'd love to go back in time for half an hour and see this again.
• Throw It In!: How the Audience Participation got started: one viewer during a screening shouted "Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!" during "Over at the Frankenstein Place" when Janet covers herself with a newspaper in the rain, and the rest is history.
  • Columbia flashing her nipple was Campbell's own idea. O'Brien had always assumed it was accidental until Quinn told him in the commentary that Campbell would practice it in their trailer.
• Wag the Director: The creators asked Susan Sarandon to appear nude during "Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me", but she refused. She since got over her aversion to nude scenes.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before Jim Sharman decided to use most of the original West End cast, Mick Jagger auditioned for the part of Frank.
  • Sharman's first pick for Brad Majors was Cliff DeYoung, as he'd starred in his production Trials of Oz. When Barry Bostwick was unable to play Majors in Shock Treatment, DeYoung was tabbed to play Brad by Sharman.
  • Steve Martin auditioned for the part of Brad. Oddly enough, he'd go on to play a character similar to Eddie in another rock 'n roll musical film a decade later.
  • Vincent Price auditioned for the part of The Criminologist.
  • According to Meat Loaf, Elvis Presley was the studio's first choice to play Eddie in the film, and apparently Elvis actually had expressed some interest in doing so, having seen and loved the stage show during its brief run at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood.
  • According to the DVD Commentary, Columbia and Magenta were originally going to be one character instead of two separate characters.
  • Writer and director Jim Sharman asked Richard O'Brien to write a part for Marianne Faithfull, who wanted to be in this movie. O'Brien refused.
  • Ever wonder why the opening song is just a pair of floating lips against a black void? It's because clips from all the movies mentioned in the song were going to be superimposed over. This was dropped when the producers realized that it would've cost a fortune in royalties.
  • In an extended Shout-Out to The Wizard of Oz, the first third of the film was to be in black and white, switching over to color upon Frank's first appearance. His ruby red lips (see what they did there?) were to be the first thing to appear in color. This was cut for budget constraints.
  • Quinn almost backed out when she learned that she wouldn't be singing "Science Fiction/Double Feature", but changed her mind when she saw the sets and costume sketches. She eventually compromised by playing the disembodied lips in the opening, lip-syncing to O'Brien's vocals.
  • Alec Guinness was offered an unspecified part, presumably the Criminologist, but declined.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: While nothing too serious has happened a screening, throwing things at the screen is no longer allowed at many showings due to it being a safety hazard despite throwing rice or the like is a common tradition.
• Word of Gay:
  • The unmade sequel Rocky Horror Shows His Heels would have said that Brad and Dr. Scott turned gay after the events of the first film.
  • Revenge of the Old Queen implies it happened to Brad — he left Janet and became a bottomless go-go dancer in Las Vegas.
  • Tim Curry has stated that Frank is actually pansexual.
• Word of God
  • According to O'Brien, it was actually Riff Raff who did most of the work on Rocky. Riff's line "Everything is in readiness, master. We merely await your... word". is pretty clearly a stab at Dr. Furter.
  • O'Brien also explained that Brad and Janet are listening to Nixon's resignation speech three months after it occurred in real life because Brad taped it so he could listen to it whenever he wanted. He's just that much of a nerd.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • Curry has stated that Frank is pansexual.
  • The website for Seth Kubersky's production of The Rocky Horror Show goes more into Frank and the Transylvanians' backstory, saying they were a race of immortals who'd lost the ability to breed and were trying to relearn how to from humans.
  • The 2008 European live tour had Riff and Magenta reappear toward the end as twelve-foot-tall monstrosities with human upper bodies mounted on long robes concealing God-only-knew what, thus making their (and Frank's) human appearances throughout the rest of the show nothing more than A Form You Are Comfortable With.
  • Darren Lynn Bousman has said on his Formspring account that the Graverobber from his film, Repo! The Genetic Opera, is Riff Raff's son.
  • Quinn has said in the commentary that Magenta and Riff's relationship is completely innocent, and that the Brother–Sister Incest is all in the minds of perverted fans. (O'Brien, on the other hand, was fully aware of the incestuous vibes. In fact, their analogues in the not-sequel Shock Treatment, once again brother and sister, actually are sexually attracted to each other, though this is justified due to them actually being actors PLAYING brother and sister.)
• Working Title: Planned titles for the play were They Came from Denton High and The Rock Hor-Roar Show.
• Written by Cast Member: Was written by Richard O'Brien, who played Riff Raff.

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