The Rocky Horror Picture Show/Trivia


 * Banned in China: The movie 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 had an online giveaway where they would give some of their Rocky Horror Funko Pop figurines to people who shared their favorite quote from the movie 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: Budget: $1,200,000. Box office at initial run: $139,876,417. However, this film has been Vindicated by History, being the Cult Classic and definitely making its money back and much more with home video and midnight screenings.
 * California Doubling: Denton is implied to be in America, but this movie was filmed in Berkshire, England.
 * Celebrity Voice Actor: Christopher Lee plays the Criminologist in The Rocky Interactive Horror Show Game.
 * Creator Backlash:
 * Susan Sarandon refuses to talk about the movie, 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 VH-1 that he grew "chubby and plain" in order to try and escape the role. These days, he's more open to talk about the film and even sees it as a "Rite of passage" for teenagers. He was even happy to play the Criminologist in the 2016 Fox TV production, despite still recovering from a stroke at the time.
 * Peter Hinwood (Rocky) is only slightly embarrassed by being in the film. Contrary to popular rumor, he's never thrown anyone out of his shop for talking about the film. He only sees the film as a "part of the past" and rarely talks about it.
 * Cut Song:
 * "Once in a While", featured in the stageshow. For the film, the song was to have been sung by Brad after his... erm... encounter with Frank. Footage was shot for it but left out of the film; a "reconstruction" using the footage and other bits from the movie has appeared as an extra feature on every home release of the film since the 1995 LaserDisc edition.
 * To a lesser extent, the American print of the film had the exposition song "Super Heroes" all but cut out except for the final verse (the Criminologist's "And crawling..." speech). You can optionally restore it in the DVD release (occasionally, you'll see a version that also cuts out the Dark Reprise of "Science Fiction Double Feature" as well).
 * To an even lesser extent, verses were removed from "Over at the Frankenstein Place" 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 soundtrack album for some reason.
 * 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.
 * Development Hell: Richard O'Brien has been mulling over making a direct sequel 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.
 * Isn't Shock Treatment this?
 * Shhh.... we don't talk about that...
 * It's not a sequel. It's an equal.
 * DVD Commentary: Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn did one.
 * Dyeing for Your Art: In the original stage show, Tim Curry dyed his hair peroxide blonde.
 * Enforced Method Acting: Several examples:
 * Tim Curry was the only one who knew Eddie's corpse would be under the table. All of the reactions from the actors as he tears the tablecloth away are genuine.
 * For the scene where Dr. Scott is dragged into the laboratory via electromagnet, 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.
 * During the dinner scene, Brad stamps his foot, and Janet jumps at the table in shock; Barry Bostwick actually hit Susan 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 movie.
 * Fake Nationality: Patricia Quinn gave Magenta a German accent because she thought the characters were actually from Transylvania.
 * Fan Community Nickname: Interestingly, only applies to a specific subset of the fandom: those who have never seen this movie in a theater with a live cast as part of the Audience Participation are referred to as "virgins" while those who've seen it regularly are called "sluts".
 * Fan Nickname:
 * Cols for Columbia.
 * Crim for the Criminologist.
 * Mags or sometimes also 'Mag' (pronounced Majj) for Magenta.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Ernst Stavro Blofeld is The Criminologist.
 * In one of the stage play versions, Giles (Anthony Head) played Frank N. Furter. The still shots and the track of Anthony singing Sweet Transvestite are widely viewable online. And made this troper really want to work it into a Giles flashback fic, since it would totally disturb the Scoobies.
 * Eddie is Meat Loaf!
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: In the 2010 Blu-Ray dub released in Japan...
 * Masashi Ebara is Doctor Frank N. Furter.
 * Kazuhiko Inoue is Brad/Asshole.
 * Gara Takashima is Janet/Slut.
 * Masaru Ikeda is Riff Raff.
 * Rihoko Yoshida is Magenta.
 * Kumiko Takizawa is Columbia.
 * Kei Yoshimizu is Doctor von Scott.
 * Toshiya Ueda is the criminologist.
 * 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 $1,000,000, 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.
 * Trevor White dubbed Peter Hinwood when it was discovered that Hinwood was completely incapable of singing.
 * Retroactive Recognition: In a way, this is Retroactive Recognition: The Movie, given how many of the cast went on to bigger and better things in the following years:  Meat Loaf, Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry, even Nell Campbell...
 * Betty Munroe (Mrs. Ralph Hapshatt! ) was played by an actress named Hilary Labow -- who is better known today as Hilary Farr, co-host of the HGTV series Love It or List It.
 * Romance on the Set:
 * At the time, Richard O'Brien was married to Kimi Wong who played one of the Transylvanians.
 * In 2013, O'Brien revealed that Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick were dating at the time.
 * Technology Marches On: The only thing that sets the remake in modern day is the fact that Dr. Scott's wheelchair is motorized.
 * Throw It In!: How the Audience Participation got started: one viewer during a screening shouted "Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!" during "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" when Janet covers herself with a newspaper in the rain, and it just grew from there.
 * Columbia flashing her nipple was Nell Campbell's own idea. O'Brien had always assumed it was accidental until Patricia Quinn told him in the commentary that Campbell would practice it in their trailer.
 * Dr. Scott bursting through the wall of Frank's lab was written in because they forgot to put in a door when building the set.
 * Trope Namer: For Rocky Roll Call.
 * 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.
 * 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 version, and apparently, Elvis actually had expressed some interest in doing so.
 * According to the DVD commentary, Columbia and Magenta were originally going to be one character instead of two separate characters.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Patricia Quinn almost backed out of the film 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 Richard O'Brian'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 ever happened at a screening, throwing things at the screen -- despite being a tradition after all these years -- is no longer allowed at many showings due to it being a safety hazard. Similarly, many theaters discourage or ban lighters (used during "There's a Light at the Frankenstein Place") because of the fire hazard.
 * The Wiki Rule: The Rocky Horror Community
 * Word of God:
 * According to Richard 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: Tim Curry has stated that Frank is actually "pansexual".
 * 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.