Good morning, afternoon, evening, everybody. My name is John. I'm Aaron and I'm Nicky and welcome to Rocky Talkie where we're going to talk a lot about Rocky Horror. How's, how, how are the two of you doing today? How are you, Aaron? Oh, I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I've had a busy week with a lot of work and a lot of staying home. Uh I got a couple new books in the mail so some extra rocky stuff to look at for me this week. So that's been a lot of fun. What's going on with you? Honestly, I have done pretty much nothing with my past two weeks, but I have drink an unholy amount of Arizona. I see. So I feel like that's something really exciting for me lately. Hey, somebody asked me what I did. Hey, John, what did you do? Yo, absolutely nothing. Coolest part of my week was uh yesterday I was streaming Toy Story Two Buzz Light Year to the Rescue on Twitch. And I ended up getting a max viewer account of like 74 people. It was wild shit. That's awesome. I know. Right. I'm like famous now. Well, hopefully you'll still keep doing this with us here. Even though your newfound celebrity is taken off. You're, you're being silly, Aaron. The only reason I'm a celebrity now is because of rocky talkie. All right, y'all who's ready to talk about some Rocky news? Yeah, let's start with some global news. Cool. So, the 30th anniversary of the V H S release was this week, that's, uh, 30 years ago that it first came out the US V H S. It was originally released uh November 8th, 1990. And uh this is the week where we celebrate the 30th anniversary. It was really big at the time when it came out, it retailed for the low low cost of $89.95 cents. You're telling me these people paid $90 for a fucking V H S. All right in fairness V H S s were like a really, really hot commodity like so hot back in the day that you had to fucking rent them. Like people couldn't even buy these things. Yeah, I mean most videos like they came out with such a high price point because like video stores were the ones that were buying them a few years later. They do like a release for like 20 or 30 bucks and like Rocky did the same thing. There was a second version later that was lower than everybody could afford. But the first ones they went to rental stores, it was definitely a big deal. It was the first V H S release of Rocky Horror for the US audience. Could you imagine shadow casting Rocky before you had a copy of the movie you could watch at home. Like all of these people just had the soundtrack on vinyl or cassette. And if I'm being honest, I don't even know what a cassette is, so I would be fucked. Oh God Aaron, why are we doing this podcast with a literal child? I don't know, man. Well, they even went crazy on the original packaging for the V H S. Like parts of the tape were colored red. They had like this really special black and red label, the outer slip case that the V H S would go into it had like this embossed pair of lips and had this red logo with like really reflective highlights. Like did you know that they make those things into lamps on at? Oh good, destroying all of those collectibles that you could purchase on ebay for $10. So I, I don't think anybody is missing out. Right. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, what a lot of people don't remember today is that this was like such a major event for the community. You know, it was the first time that Rocky was coming out on video and people could see it local rental stores, they all like tapped the casts in their area to come and promote the release New York City Sapiro writes that he and the Eighth Street Playhouse toured video stores up and down Manhattan fully clad in their fish nets and heels just running around. Surprisingly, he says that the Times Square locations were the least receptive. Although given what was going on in Times Square in the late eighties, early nineties, that seems pretty fair. Yeah, absolutely fair. There was actually a lot of controversy and a lot of people were being really gatekeeping at the time, like the V H s release wouldn't really convey, you know, who the Real Rocky horror experience, like you have to be in a theater throwing rice at these poor people in order to get the full experience kind of stuff. But in a TV guide article that was written in 1990 Lou Adler said that he had resisted putting Rocky on V H S because it might quote unquote, hurt the film. But he finally agreed after Bob Ellis, who was the CBS Fox president at the time was the one who pushed for the video release. And Adler said that he just kind of eventually agreed. He said the film has more aware non viewers than any other film. They either don't want to stay up until midnight or they're not quite sure what they're getting into. And this was an attempt to open it up to them, honestly, I think is, is pretty cool. I mean, they did it in perks of being a wallflower So why not do it back in the nineties, wait perks of being a wallflower takes place in the nineties. So, speaking of non viewers, um speaking of non viewers, did you guys hear about this? Aidan Zane was nominated for a 2020. Wow, we award. Why do we have to talk about this? I don't know who that is. Ok. Well, I'm sorry, John, but let's jump into it. The world of wonder why we awards. They they're a celebration of the best in artistry activism, entertained. Uh they reward contributors in everything from fashion and beauty to music and art, like all the way to politics and social media. They have categories for outstanding correspondent with nominees like Rachel Maddow and Trevor Noah and categories for outstanding clap back with nominees like Claudia Conway. So it certainly is covering the bases and uh for Aaron's sake as well as for all of you who have no fucking idea who Aidan Zane is. Uh let me drop some knowledge on you. So, Aidan Zane was a contestant on Rupaul's drag race season 12. She placed 10th which is uh not very good but delightfully middle of the pack. She recently came out with a new single called Boo in All Caps. Very important. And this past week she was nominated for a wowy award for outstanding new artist. Hold on like I I know the drag community is super relevant, right? We're all really cool with that. But like, how is this rocky related? No, that's fair. So earlier this year during her time on drag race, Aidan Zane impersonated Patricia Quinn during a show segment called Snatch Game where the contestants do celebrity impersonations. The performance heavily leaned into the idea that Pat's memory was shot due to years of substance abuse. It was super uncomfortable as somebody who watched that episode happen in real time. It was one of the biggest train wrecks that has ever happened during a Snatch game performance. I love drag race. So when I watched that it was cringy, I didn't like Aidan to begin with. But after that, I was like, no, that ain't it. But during the game, Aidan seemed like she didn't know how to improv a lot of the answers and that's kind of what Snatch's game is all about. It's about being able to improvise your celebrity impression. So a lot of the questions that she was given, she just didn't know how to answer. So she just kind of fell back on the, I don't even know where I am right now. Aidan did not impress the judges with her Pat Quinn impression whatsoever. And she ended up being voted off after the challenge for portraying Pat Quinn as forgetful and for also failing to do a British accent which like, come on, Pat Quinn is British. Wait, seriously. Yeah, I shit you not did not even give Pat Quinn a British accent. That seems like the baseline requirement. Right? Ok. Ok. The judges were certainly not the only people that weren't impressed because Patricia Quinn literally lost her mind. After seeing herself portrayed this way, she took to social media where she complained loudly about both Aidan and the show and went on to release the following in a press statement, I can't wait to hear this. I love this. She said, well, damn it, Janet. I have been an actress since I came over on the boat from Northern Ireland to London, nearly 60 years ago without a penny because I wanted to act. I have never been interested in drugs. And with regards to my memory, I was recently applauded on stage for my sharp recollections of filming the Rocky horror picture show. I am disgusted beyond belief at how I was portrayed on drag race. I was flattered that a young person wanted to portray me on a popular TV show. But unfortunately, this is where the flattery ends. I did not respect being described as an old cookie woman or being depicted as a washed up actress who has taken too many drugs. I'm actually filming a new movie later this year and look forward to that and there will be no drugs on set. Well, not for me. Anyway, I wish Aidan had given me the common courtesy of a heads up and maybe I could have given him a few lines to say on the show. I want to thank my Rocky horror fans who have been amazing and shown me overwhelming support. I couldn't ask for a better fan base. I do not know Aidan but I do not wish him the upset or distress that I have felt in these past few days. Microphone dropped. That was a mouthful. Yeah, I, I mean, honestly, I don't blame her for being as angry as she was. If anyone who has not seen it, just, just youtube, it, it's, it's something so this weird feud between Aidan Zane and Pat Quinn which nobody had on their 2020 bingo card went on for like a few weeks before it kind of fizzled out. It probably helped that Aidan was cut as a contestant like immediately after this happened, but this was back in April up until recently. Aidan hasn't really been promoting any other projects since getting cut and to be fair, nobody has done much since April because of the everything outside. But it looks like she's been working on her music career and is doing pretty well for herself. I mean, yeah, I'm glad she was able to get past that weird internet drama with Pat and now she's being nominated for a Wow. Wow, that's awesome. I'm sorry. The awards winners will be announced on December 4th 2020 with their first live stream Wowie awards ceremony, featuring extra special live performances from some of our favorite drag queens. If you want more info, go to world of wonder dot net for dates about the event. Yeah. So next up, we're gonna be talking a little bit about the, the UK tour. Their dates were announced, they're moving full steam ahead. This week. They've had scheduled already 24 different locations with dates so far beginning in mid March and running through early October. Now, if this tour actually happens, there's got to be more dates that are gonna be scheduled because let's be real friends who the fuck ends a rocky horror show tour right before Halloween. Yeah, I would expect to see some more coming from that. That's a missed opportunity. Oh, for sure. So they're confident about the tour, but they're not confident about the end of it. I don't know. Richard o'brien made a statement it was posted to the UK fan club group. Uh It was kind of cute. Here's what it said we could all do with a huge liberal dose of what's good for us at present. And to that end, we look forward to seeing you in 2021 for the best party time ever. That's a big if though, right March is only four months away and we have no idea what the odds are of being ready for the best party time ever is. I'm skeptical, skeptical, I'm John. So the UK is actually still in the middle of what is supposed to be like a second month long lockdown. The government has already stated that restrictions could last way beyond December 2nd if their infection numbers don't approve. So we'll be keeping our fingers crossed for the UK. Hopefully everyone does their part and obeying the restrictions that are in place and the world is safe enough in March for this tour to happen and hopefully continue past mid October. Yeah. So while the UK tour is hoping to move forward in 2021 it's still very much 2020 right now. Uh That means a lot of people are stuck at home on Facebook and I think that most of my friends and family have tagged me in that cool V R picture. The one of the ballroom, that one that was posted to the shadow cast group a couple of weeks ago, you can click on it and go around the time where you guys saw that, right? Oh, you mean the one that got posted to everyone's timeline 1000 times this week? Yeah, we've seen it. Did you all know that there are seven Franks and a smurf in that picture? Did you know the castle is now a hotel? Honestly, that's what this picture kind of feels like with how much it's getting posted everywhere. It's gonna be the new castle. I mean, it, it, yeah, it's kind of all over the place. I thought it was really neat and like super well done. There's tons of little Easter eggs and stuff when you click around. I I enjoyed going through it. Yeah, I spent like a solid eight or nine minutes one day looking around on it. It's, it's kind of how I found the smurf. Yeah. So, yeah, we, we did a little bit of research on this. The picture was made by a French comic book artist named J L Mast. I apologize for the name. It's probably wrong. He works for Marvel. He started back in 2012 and he does a lot of the daredevil and Punisher stuff. Yeah, he's also worked on a lot of his own independent projects that are like mad interesting. He created a comic book back in 2011 about Dominique Strauss Kahn and Dominique Strauss Kahn is a French politician who was taken to court for assaulting a maid during a trip to New York. It was like really big news at the time, but like admittedly kind of a weird thing to write a comic book about jail has been working on a lot of digital art recently. He said that he saw the explosion of V R tech that's been going around and thought that it was really promising for digital comics. And you know, I I can agree. I think it really is. He's been working on a lot of the 3 60 stuff like the Time Warp Room. And uh he said that he wants to keep making them because it brings awareness to the new and unique art style that he's hoping to grow out. Yeah. I mean, if you check out his website mass 3 60 dot com, you can see that he has a lot of these comics and they're all really freaking cool. He has a very diverse selection too. He's got Toy Story and Pokemon ones, but he also has one from the movie Gravity. Do you guys remember that? It was like a space movie from like a million years ago with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Yeah, I saw it in theaters. He turned it into this crazy web comic. There's so much there. If you thought the Rocky Horror one had a lot going on. Wait until you look at the gravity one dope. I'm checking this out as soon as we're done recording. So me personally, I always really like seeing the different ways that people would like to incorporate Rocky into their own personal art formats, like within the community and outside of it. Like this guy who just loves to draw comics and decided to just work Rocky into it. That's super dope. It's one of the best parts about being in all the Rocky horror groups on Facebook and stuff. It's getting to see all the other things that people like to do that they somehow find ways of incorporating their love of the movie into. Yeah. Did you see the other day? There was a, a post where we were talking about all of our favorite, like books for Rocky. I knew you were gonna bring that up. Uh genu, I genuinely did not know that there were anywhere near that many books about fucking Rocky horror in existence. Dude, there are so many and a lot of them are like, really weird, right? You have all the ones that, like, everybody kind of knows about the Mick rock book, right? That's the one that everybody uses for costuming and for photos or like Creature of the Night went into the South Hero books that are like the whole history of the beginning of the Rocky horror phenomenon. There's even like the comic books that came out the song book, all sorts of stuff. But there are so many that like it would take a whole podcast just to go through them. I told you earlier, I, I had just got a couple of new ones in, I wanted to share some of these with you guys. Confessions of a Transylvanian. I've had this one for a while written by Kevin. The, he's writing a memoir about the drama that happened in his Rocky cast in the early days. This is the mid eighties into the nineties. It, it was a fun read because I got a good Rocky drama fix without having any Rocky drama. Uh There's also an audio book version of this that he reads. So like if you're into listening to your content, go check that one out. The craziest book that I've seen recently though is this book called, it's just to jump to the left, the unauthorized guide to occult symbolism in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is written by a guy named Isaac. We, I'll just give you a second to, to mull over that title. Yeah, we didn't need a lot more than a second to mull over all this info that you're giving me right now. Well, let me tell you about this book. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a bunch of conspiracy theories about how the movie is linked to the occult. A bunch of like left hand path magic and like all kinds of crap about Nazis and aliens. I kid you not. There's an entire chapter that's called Seriously is Frank the Devil. Wait, does it start with? Seriously? It literally does the the chapter is that seriously is Frank the Devil? There's vapor numerology, Chaos Magic. I mean, if you wanna like get super stoned one night and start looking at the movie in a whole other way, I wouldn't read this book. But this book is absolutely crazy. Like for 10 bucks, it's worth a chuckle. And this last one I got, I got a spotlight. This last one it's called The Tragedy of Rocky. The Very picture of Horror by Nicholas Dole. OK. So get this, this is Rocky horror adapted into a Shakespearean tragedy and it uses Shakespearean language, right? So imagine a movie that's been adapted to a novel that's also been translated into Shakespearean English. But by a guy who's from 2019 and may not actually be that good at it. Like, I don't know why this thing exists, but somebody made it and I paid them $10 for it. No fucking way. Oh, my God. You bought it? Oh, yeah. No, no, I bought it. Can we please do a dramatic reading of it? Do you think I would have brought it up otherwise? All right. All right. I've, I've, I've got, I've got a script for it here. I'll send it over to you. This is an excerpt. That is right after time warp. Right? So this is Brad and Janet standing there right after time warp. I'm I'm gonna go do Brad Nicky. You can, you can do Janet and I, I guess John that makes you frank, right? Uh All right, Brad, nay, we must fly. I wish it so wither away. We know not these wild breaks. Ask the porter May he would know of other lodgings. We may take this bake hath taken on the firm of a right soft Janet. We must not interfere. This be no church. No. Holy mass. Will thou disrupt no God displeasure if you but whisper in the porter's ear. They must be of lands foreign to us, mark their garments, the cut of their clothes do run much counter to our own. No, we cannot guess as to their ways. But Hark. The musician strike up again. He thinks I know the pace of this dance. Oh, mockery fi upon you. Cold and wet. I stand here still and I would fain be feathered, dry. My teeth. Do clack. My bones are chill. My feed brow. Pretends a vi and greatly all a feared I am. I'm here. Be Noah feared. Yeah, I bid the welcome soggy ones to my castle. Dry as bones. My aide de camp. You've met Ien. Do you pardon? His flippant tongue? His jibes and fear when best you've rung the sweet meat man whom Children sung. He'd been expecting of the inn. Art thou be. Look out strong. Judge a book's text. Not what's sung. Writ upon its cover alone. Daylight does not my form flatter perhaps. But such things do not matter when night Doth fall and moon grow fatter. I am a lover of great renown, resplendent. I am in women's garb from my shoulders. Beam, hang soaking scarf skirts, billow over my hips and bum from transsexual Transylvania. I come, I bid the join me in my cell and there. Behold. What do dwell upon a slab of marble? Hone. You shiver from antica, ah, you shake from precipitation. Dry clothing will abate causation. Still. You're quake to think what you'll be shown. Yeah. Certainly the weirdest rocky performance I've ever done. No. Honestly. So one time, one of my students at an old college that I used to work at, put on a really shitty version of a midsummer night's dream and I was their director and I completely butchered it. I think we need to do that. But with this, oh man, this is uh this is special. I'm hi Living, I'm John. I'm gonna go and buy this honestly. But uh by the way, completely separately though, I saw this in like one of the Rocky subreddit the other day because Reddit is love red at his life. You know what Frank is saying when he says the line, maybe the rain isn't really to blame. So I'll remove the cause but not the symptom. Uh I mean, Janet, they were in the rain, right? So that's so, so the line means uh you're shivering and wet so I'll take you out of the rain but you're still gonna be shivering and wet. So, oh my God. I mean that's, that's kind of hot. I mean shit like that's, that is some real big dick energy there. And um speaking of big dick energy, we're going to read some fan mail. We did receive one piece of correspondence this week. That was more along the lines of a gushing fan letter than actual news. We were psyched about it. So we decided to add a little something extra to the end of our community news segment that we're going to be calling Rocky Talkies back. If in the future, we receive something like this absolute gem of a fan letter. We'll be reading it during this segment responding to it and basking in the glow of our internet fame that apparently drives people to send us this shit. Please tell me I can read this. Yes. Oh Fuck. All right. So this is a submission that we got from someone calling themselves and I quote boo boo kitty of your mother's panty line the third. So we don't know if this is like an alias or if it's like their Christian name. Like, oh my God, I love that. I love the idea that there's like a 93 year old grandfather somewhere like in a retirement community. He's hi. I am boo boo kitty of your mother's Panty line the first God. OK. So, so this message reads, hi RT P I just heard on the podcast that you might be open for anything that we might want to promote. So, I was just wondering, would you feature my dick? Like my huge ramp thrill seeking swinging a miss to me, Pina. It's really been on the brain for a while and I don't just mean the nutsack. Huh? But I'm really just looking to feature my huge schlong if you wouldn't mind. Thank you and have a blessed day. Sins. Wow. Like first off, great job, boo boo kitty of your mother's pantyline. Third or sins. I don't know which one to call you, but this is some funny, this is some funny shit. Yeah. Uh We absolutely want to give a shout out to boo boo winging a MLO. We're glad it's working out for you, buddy. Great job. Just keep practicing that swing and maybe one day you'll stop missing, you'll make it to second base. Yeah. Oh my God, Nicky out here with the burn. I like, wow. I mean, I, I really liked the Jay and Silent Bob references. My wife calls me boo boo kitty fucking bed. So this letter gave me some very confusing, warm fuzzies also a very confusing hard on right and unzips pants. But in all, in all serious dude, we love this letter totally made all of our days. We're really entertained to have the opportunity to let everyone know how great that dick is. So thanks for writing in, honestly, keep them coming and to any of you who have a panacea as ramp as boo boos that would love a similar shout out or if you just have like actual community news or, you know, cool stuff that you'd like to feature in this segment or, you know, things that are like actually relevant, like send us a message on our website rocky talk you podcast dot com and we'll tell everyone about it on the show no matter how personal and intimate that it may be damn straight. So before we end our uh community news segment, we received some sad news this week, our friend Hadrian Gas, New York City alum. Uh He currently performs with the Excited Mental State cast. They're up in Toronto. He wrote and let us know that one of his fellow cast members, Sylvia Urbanski recently passed away. She performed as both Frank and Janet. And while none of us have ever had the privilege of seeing her on stage, we're told that she was a bubbly person, an incredibly passionate performer and she loved putting her own spin on the character. She portrayed. It's always tragic to lose a fellow community member. And every now and then we'll see in one of the community groups that someone has passed on and it's always touching to watch everyone come together and be so supportive to those who are grieving. We here at Rocky Talkie, we extend our sincerest condolences to everyone. A part of excited mental state. We're very sorry for your loss. On the brighter side. It's time for Nicky ask the question. So this is the part of the show where Nicky's gonna ask a question, John and I are gonna do our best to answer it and hopefully we'll all learn something. Nicky, what do you got for us this week? All right. Y'all ready for this. Let's do it. So there are so many different cuts of this movie. I've seen ones with and without superheroes. A black and white version. There's a whole cut song that I've never heard of. Why are there so many different versions? Good question, Nicky. Very good question. So you're welcome. Unlike the one that you asked last week, this one is good. So the, so the black and white opening is a special feature on the DVD and the Blu Ray Barry Bostwick just did the song that you said that you never heard of once in a while on the D N C show. And it was actually originally in the stage show, Janet has some verses with Rocky. They did it in the remake and then Superheroes is a song that happens at the very end of the movie. Uh, after Brad and Janet come out of the castle and it, you know, flies off as castles typically do. And superheroes is the song that Brad and Janet are singing and they're crawling around looking like they just got out of cats. 2019, Doctor Scott is on the ground and it goes all the way up until crims final verse. Yeah. I mean, for a long time, the only version that most people had available to him didn't have superheroes like once in a while was never part of an official release of the movie. It's always only ever been a special feature on the V H S and laser disc releases and now on the DVD and Blu Ray that everybody owns. Wait, wait, can I please get a second question? What the hell is a laser disc? You sweet summer child. All right. So a laser disc for Nicky as well as all the four year olds that are listening to this. Um, oh my God. Wait, so a laser disc is a big giant 12 inch disk. Nice. Uh, nice. Right. Tell me more. Right. Much like a boo boo kitty. She master nine thousands. So when it was released, it was, uh, it was a type of CD that had a much higher audio and video quality than other discs at the time. Laser discs had menus and special features whereas other discs you would just put in and the movie would play or like the song would, you know, anything like that? Uh They used them in schools, they pushed them around on those little stupid carts, you know, I think I had those like one year in elementary school. That sounds about right. Yeah. So the laser disc was different than the other versions. How many versions of Rocky actually are there? Oh, boy. Um, a lot. Yeah. No, just a lot. Like you got, remember that Rocky evolved over the course of its release. Like there's been versions without superheroes, there's at least three different versions of the soundtrack. I mean, that's a whole separate conversation. The original, right? The 1975 UK theatrical release has superheroes in it. But the end credits, right? They don't have any cast pictures there. It's got science fiction double feature and then the instrumental of Time Warp but no Castt pictures. The US version, right? When they released it we talked about this last week on the midnight movie circuit. That one has superheroes cut off. It doesn't have Brad and Janet's verse and it skips straight from the castle launching to the crims verse. So like the primary reason when they decided to put the movie on the midnight circuit that they cut superheroes, it was too much of a downer. They thought that a US cult movie audience just wouldn't like it being there. Ok. Real talk though. If we're gonna talk about superheroes being a downer. I, I got to ask Nikki, what is your opinion on superheroes being in the movie? Listen as somebody who plays Janet and also just like, consumes the movie on a regular basis. I really enjoy superheroes. I think it's a great scene for crowd interaction because you can, like, crawl through the fucking aisles and be all up in people's shit and like, who doesn't want to see a homeboy and a cute chick just like, rolling around in lingerie for like a minute. I think it's fun. Yeah, I'm gonna 100% agree with you there. I love superheroes being a part of the movie every single time I've ever done a performance of Rocky and Superheroes isn't in it. And I'm playing either Brad or Janet. I get like, kind of sad because it has one of my favorite bits that I do for those of you who don't know what I look like. Like, I'm bald. So I wear wigs for nearly every single character. And whenever I play Brad or Janet at the very end of superheroes, like at the drop of, you know, their last line in the song, I usually slowly like pull off my wig and it usually gets like the greatest cheer that I will ever get during a rocky show. But also, like going back to the reason why they took out superheroes because it was too much of a downer. I honestly didn't even know that there was an emotion that I was supposed to feel when watching this fucking movie to begin with, aside from complete confusion. So, so I don't really care if it's a downer or not, it's a bop and I get to show off that I'm bald. So I think it needs to stay in. This is all a lot to take in. All I know for certain is that the movie I see now usually has superheroes and then the whole ending with the picture credits while science fiction doubles feature and time warp play. So yeah, I mean, it would be a while before Fox realized that the fans wanted superheroes at the end of the movie, the picture credits were there from the start. They added those for the 75 midnight movie circuit release. That version, the one without superheroes with the picture credits, that was still the original mono soundtrack. That's the one that played in theaters all the way up until the nineties as you got into the nineties, there was this huge question when the movie was gonna come out on V H S, right? We talked about it earlier. We just hit the 30th anniversary a little bit before that though. In 1987 there was a UK home video release and that one matched the 75 UK theatrical release. So that one had superheroes on it. But those early V H S s right, those were a super high end market. And it wasn't until the nineties that enough people actually owned V H S players and there were video stores everywhere that Fox really considered putting out Rocky on V H S. Oh yeah, like how the V H S sold for 90 bucks in the segment earlier. So it wasn't until 19 9 that we actually saw the first V H S release. Did any of you actually like see that V H s in public? Because the first time I saw the movie was like in 2015 when Savannah, my partner dragged me to go see the N Y C cast. V H S s were eradicated like six years before I was born. Guys. I see. Ok. Yes. My first copy of Rocky was on V H S. My dad had a copy of it but it was never opened. So it always sat on our shelf still like mint in bubble wrap with the big red lips on the side. And I always thought that it was like this scary horror movie and I was, I was too young to watch it because it was a scary horror movie. I found out that that was not the case when I finally watched it when I was in. Actually, I think the first time I ever like, saw it, saw it was on VH1 in like the early that was like 2000 when they did that, the V H S like black box, big red lips on it. It it's an intimidating cover. They wanted to do that right. They wanted to make it really special for the 1990 video release. It had brand new stereo audio but fun story there. The deadline for the audio for superheroes came and went before they could release. So they cut it, they cut superheroes from the home video release. So the original audio was in mono and they updated it. That's kind of cool. Like the whole mix is different. Cosmos Factory. The website has a ton of documentation like specifically about what changed between each audio version. We'll throw a link for that in the show notes. Um But Fox finally finished that version later, like they actually finished the stereo audio and well, most of the releases afterwards included it, the laser disk especially had it on there. But I saw that even the later V H S releases didn't have superheroes. Yeah, so this is what's bullshit when the video was re-released at that lower price like we had talked about, they didn't include superheroes because it, and this is their explanation. Fox's explanation. It wouldn't have been fair to those who had paid the $90 for the original release. That's a stupid excuse. Honestly, I mean, you can bet that they won't do that today. That would be a micro transaction. Nobody pays for micro transactions except, well, you know, like fans, fans would buy twice, 34 times over. Hell, I can't tell you how many times I've put in for a micro transaction for something. When Pokemon go was a thing. I'm pretty sure I cashed up to like 1 52 100 bucks on stuff from Pokemon go. That's 150 to 200 bucks that I'm never going to get back. Yeah, I mean, I think I need two hands to count the number of copies of Rocky that I own. Like another copy would not have been a problem for me. Right. So, yeah, I mean, Fox was still not on the same page as all of the fans. Like we wanted superheroes and we were slowly getting it throughout the early to mid nineties. We were doing everything we could, we be in the community time warp, the UK fan club. They ran conventions in 92 94 99. Well, they had connections at Fox and they got new prints of the film done for each of these conventions. When Fox asked them what they wanted with it, they said, well, we want it to include superheroes and all of those prints made it into circulation in the UK. I mean, this is the way that, like every print that you've probably seen now is it's got superheroes in it. Ok. So the fans are starting to get superheroes out there in theaters. Fox screwed something up and we lost superheroes in the version we could watch at home. What about once in a while? Where is it this whole time? Oh, once in a while is lost, it's sitting in an archive somewhere. Uh Once in a while it's on the DVD of Blu Ray. So like we know they found it and it's also in the original stage play, like we just saw Barry Sing it at the D N C show like they eventually had to have found it. Yeah. So this is actually a really cool story once in a while was a rumor for a long time. It was lost footage that we'd heard about but didn't think that we would ever get to see. There were rumors floating around online in 1995 that Fox was hunting for a copy for the 20th anniversary. So they found it, or at least they found some of it and they reconstructed it with shots from earlier in the film. So in 1995 the 20th anniversary convention in New York City happened and that was the first time that they revealed the reconstructed version of once in a while. Pretty much exactly in the same form that you've seen it on the special features on the DVD or the Blu Ray. Yeah, like that or, you know, cut into virtual shows, which is like the new thing. I always love that. Honestly, every single virtual show is like we gotta do once in a while. Yeah. So there's a really cool message that's archived in the Rocky Horror News group. That was an online chat community from 1996. Uh Bill Brennan Rocky horror legend. He says in his post quote, I can recall the screening of once in a while at the 20th anniversary. I was standing next to Mad Man Mike. He's the longtime member and leader of the New York City cast. Bill goes on. He like myself and a number of others there at the Roxy were kind of teary eyed. So I guess the memories associated with it make it fun for me. I mean, that's really cool. Right? Like there was this bit of film that everybody had kind of rumored that it was there and like everyone was so emotional sitting there watching it. I mean, I myself have teared up standing next to Madman Mike before, but that's mostly because I didn't smoke menthol and he did so. Ok. Oh, so it was partial footage and they spiced it together, right? So all those flashbacks at the beginning of the song, they make sense now. So like all that footage is gone, kind of some of it's still there. So John, you've seen once in a while, there's pauses right at the end of most of the verses in the movie script, the gaps were supposed to be filled by a monologue that was done by Janet. And most of that monologue was what was between her saying all of the, if only bits when she steps out of the elevator and discovers Brad and Frank together. So when o'brien wrote the screenplay, he chopped all of that up and he turned it into once in a while. Wait. So that's why Janet's whole thing is such an edited mess. If only we hadn't made this journey switch, if only the car hadn't broken down switch, if only I had a better script to work with, I'm sorry, you're not wrong. That's exactly what it was. All of that was chopped up and then reconstructed back together. And that's why that's an absolute mess. It's so funny when you're like, oh wow, the editor didn't do a horrible job. He actually turned a pile of nothing into something. So they found once in a while, right? And just in time for the 20th anniversary. So this time, Fox was like, oh, well, we're gonna do a big release with the 20th anniversary. We have no problem charging people again, that'll be fair. And in December of 95 they released the 20th anniversary laser disc box set. If you were upset before, listen to this retail price, 100 and $24.98. What the fuck? Uh Yes, $125 for a special edition of this movie to be fair. Let's transport back, you know, to the 20th anniversary December 95. You know, it was the first time that everyone got to see all the special features that the laser discs allowed. It was like the highest quality version of the Rocky horror picture show that you could get without importing it. Like they had a new letterbox transfer. They had the stereo track, they had an audience participation track, they had deleted scenes once in a while and superheroes as supplements on the laser disc. They had outtakes, they had a documentary, they had a, a shit you not a 24 carat gold CD of the soundtrack. And then they also bundled it with the Sapiro book, Creatures of the Night Two lost in New York. So, I mean, that's a pile of stuff. So, all right, 100 and 25 bucks. Ok. So the collectors can have superheroes in once in a while, but it's not out there for everyone and a lot of the theaters are still showing Rocky without superheroes. Yeah, that's right. So in 96 right, Fox is finally getting with it. They start replacing some of the prints that are out there. The ones that are being shown in theaters with new prints, they include the stereo audio because they finished it right. It was released on the laser disk and finally, finally they start putting superheroes on these prints. But that makes some fans really excited because great, we got superheroes but there's other fans who are going wait. But why did you screw with the soundtrack? We liked the original mono soundtrack. So that is gonna continue to be a problem for another several years. In 98. They released another special edition V H S. This has the stereo audio and it includes both once in a while in superheroes, but there's still supplements, there are extra features on it. They're not baked into the movie. Now, this has to be just about the time the DVD S started becoming a thing. Yeah, in October of 2000, it's the 25th anniversary and that's when Fox releases the two disc DVD mostly in the US. Always Halloween releases for Rocky. Yeah, I mean, Fox is consistent about that. The DVD carried over all the features from the 20th anniversary laser disc. It had an anamorphic transfer, a newly mixed 5.1 surround sound track. So now we're up to three, we had the mono, we had the stereo. Now we're at 5.1 surround. And finally, for the first time they bundled the original mono soundtrack on the DVD. You know, I, I actually do remember this because it has the option to have superheroes in the film. So you could like, either pick like the UK or the US version and then like, depending on what you chose, you either got the version of the movie that did or didn't have superheroes in it. And they released a V H s at the same time where superheroes is finally back in the film. It's not a special feature also on the V H s and that V H s had a stereo mix down of the new 5.1 track. So yet another version of the sound, whether you consider it new or not, right? It's a stereo mix down. So by 2000, we pretty much have what's available today. Superheroes in the movie and once in a while is a special feature. Yeah, the only other thing would be the Blu Ray release in 2010 which was released for the my math uh 35th anniversary. Yeah. So that's really nice because they did a new transfer for the Blu Ray A four K two K scan from the original camera negatives. So they also had a brand new mix, right? A 7.1 surround track. And again, they've included the mono track on the Blu Ray because fans really like the original mono track, the version that they did for the Blu Ray, that's pretty much what you see projected in theaters. Now, when they show a digital version it's slightly modified from the version that you're gonna see on the Blu Ray. Yeah, Aaron. Um, I have no idea what any of that means. All I know is, is that's the version where Brad's bedroom scene isn't blue. Yeah, there's, there's, you know, there's still a few problems. Maybe they'll fix it for the 50th we'll see. Ok, hold on, hold on. What about the alternate black and white opening? That wasn't a part of any of those releases? No, that's just because it wasn't like, it was just a special feature. It was kind of intended to be like an homage to like the Wizard of Oz. You know, the Wizard of Oz is like black and white and stuff before she gets to, you know, Oz. A land of Yeah to Oz, you know the titular location, but originally it was in the shooting script. So the black and white was conceived to end when Frank appeared. You know, this is gonna be an excerpt from the script, don't know when the date was, but this we got this courtesy of uh rocky music dot org. So you have the beginning of the movie, the film will now commence in black and white on Academy format. It will extend to wide screen 1.1 dash 85 at sequence 41 while still remaining in black and white at sequence 54 the film changes to color and it goes on to say at sequence 54 the figure turns and throws open lift cage door as camera zooms into the death mask. Above them, the film changes from black and white to color. However, the only color in evidence is the red lipstick on the mouth of their host. So the whole film was obviously shot on film in color anyway, and it's just on the D V C Blu Ray. The 1st 20 or so minutes of Rocky can optionally be black and white and it switches to color when Brad Janet Riff and Magenta enter the ballroom during time warp, which is actually not where it was supposed to switch in the original script anyway. Yeah, I think they uh shot that one down because it, it just didn't play. Right. I mean, I've watched it and it's fine. It's interesting to see, but it really doesn't add a whole lot. Plus, could you imagine trying to do costumes for wedding scene? Not knowing what color they are. I mean, I'm color blind anyway. So it wouldn't have made a big difference to me. But my heart breaks for all of you and your screen accurate portrayals. If they actually ended up keeping that. I've actually even seen a version where people have shown the black and white intro and they've done black and white costumes. That's actually really craft. Yeah, it's super, super neat. Savannah at one point. We did a holiday themed show for N Y C. It's got to be like two or three years ago and she played Brad for it and she played the main character from, it's a wonderful life. So every single costume that she brought in was some form of mo chrome and it throws you back. Yeah, it was super fun. I take all the credit for it because it was my idea. Well, I would say that you both certainly answered my question. So, thank you guys. Ya, Nicky, thank you for providing us content, keeping you on your toes. If you have a show or community question too, all you have to do is go to our website rocky talky podcast dot com and fill out the form in the contact us section. I'll ask it on the show and we can all learn about it together and that's gonna do it for this week's episode. So before we go, we want to thank everyone who took the time to leave us a really nice comment or review this past week, a special shout out to the person who showed up in my Twitch channel who legitimately was like, I heard your podcast and I had to follow you on Twitch that made my entire freaking night launching a new project. Like this is really, really, really exciting and it's also kind of nerve wracking and it was just really cool to have so much love and support from our friends, our community and even the people who don't even know who we are, but just kind of found it somewhere on the internet. Like we love all of you and we really appreciate all of you too. We're on Facebook and Instagram. 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