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2025 Halloween Special Part 3 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) 50th Anniversary Movie Review · The K.B. Radio Network

0:07
Happy Halloween everyone and welcome to Movie
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Goodness here on the KB Radio Network.
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This is where we examine life through cinema and for our part 3 of the 2025 Halloween special,
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I decided to do something a little different,
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a little crazy,
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a little kooky.
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And we're going to dive into the work of the Rocky
0:35
Horror Picture Show,
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a film that is celebrating its
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50th anniversary this year.
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50 years of a cult classic,
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which is probably the first cult classic of all time.
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I don't know of any other film before this that became a cult classic like it is.
1:00
still to this day i have a confession to make and i know this is going to be blasphemous for a lot of you listening out there i have never sat down and
1:16
watched the heart the rocky horror picture show from beginning to end not one time in my life until this past weekend i know
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I know a lot of people are standing around their phones,
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their TVs,
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their computers,
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and are just chins are dropped to the floor.
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Can't believe that how can you be this movie lover and never have experienced the classic of the Rocky Horror Picture Show?
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A good question.
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Fair question,
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I might add.
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But the reason is.
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this wasn't my demographic i've never had any uh uh inkling in my soul spirit mind heart body to watch this movie i don't know why i've seen bits and pieces of it throughout my life and
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being as though i'm almost 50 which it makes me shiver when i say that but i've never actually sat down under my own volition and
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Watch the opening credits to the end credits in one city.
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Like I said,
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it's all clips,
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of course.
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How could you not?
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You know,
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Tim
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Curry is in this movie.
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Susan Sarandon is in this movie.
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I've seen clips of them,
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and I'm a big fan of them.
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Even
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Barry Boswick,
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I'm a big fan of it.
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It's just that this movie didn't appeal to me.
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And it wasn't the movie in its...
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Uh,
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uh...
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I guess story or nothing like that at one point in my life I did not watch musicals
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I hated musicals for a majority of my life it wasn't until I got into my
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20s mid-20s when I actually sat down and watched a musical and the first one that I actually sat down and watched was Moulin Rouge and it it just touched me in a in a weird way and you know pause
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but it did it's something about that movie that just clicked in and i just started loving musicals and i started watching musicals and appreciate appreciating musicals for what they are and so you
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know growing up i never gravitated to this movie plus i'm like man you can't have a horror movie and have it be a musical at the same time and the two just didn't go together
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to me it just logically didn't make sense now is the rocky horror picture show a true horror film not really but at its core it's a throwback b
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level horror movie from like the
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50s you know that's that's what it's paying homage to is that level of film and if you appreciate those movies you appreciate the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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What we're going to talk about today,
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along with a review of the film,
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like I said,
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I watched it.
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I finally watched it.
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It took 50 years,
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but I finally sat down and watched it.
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And so we're going to do a review,
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but that's on the back half.
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But in the first half,
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I want to talk about this cult following that this film has.
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You know,
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the impact that this film has on...
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so many people's lives in the
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LGBT community and so on and so forth in cultural influence that this film has and
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it's an important film for a lot of people and with all that being said i know there is a vast majority of people who don't agree with the themes of this movie i'm not naive but
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i'm not one of them people so i'm i'm all for you know whatever the themes are as long as it's a good movie i'm I'm here for it.
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Well,
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This movie is based off of a play,
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first and foremost.
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It's based on a 1973 Broadway musical with the music and the lyrics in a book by
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Richard O'Brien.
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And it's a hilarious tribute to B-movies and science fiction and horror films from the
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30s, 40s,
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and 50s.
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And the musical tells the story...
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of a newly engaged couple that's caught in a storm and they uh come into the home of this mad transvestite scientist named dr dr franken uh uh uh farter
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um say that three times fast and he unveils his new creation rocky which is this kind of ripoff of frankenstein monster and it
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it's not Frankenstein's monster it's this well put together man
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I mean just glistening with his bulging abs and muscles and what not yeah he's a full grown physically perfect muscle man and this
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is what he puts together and we'll go over the story more
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when we go over the review but that's what this play was uh all about so the good folks at uh 20th century fox at the time now it's 20th century suit studios owned by disney but they decided to turn it into a full-length feature film in 1975 and that's
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where we got the version of this story that has gone on
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to capture the hearts and minds of millions and millions of people over 50 years let me tell you a story um growing up a friend of mine he he
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this is how i got introduced to the rocky horror picture show i never watched it like i said never never wanted to watch it and
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he was into going to the midnight screenings of the film you know dressing up and all this other stuff and i didn't know anything about it i didn't know that this was a thing you know because when i was growing up that when i was a teenager midnight showings wasn't a thing you know we never never
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heard about it and he was talking about it he had told me what what he does on
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Friday or Saturday night.
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I can't remember which.
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One,
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it was,
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but he went to it,
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and it was religiously,
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he went to it.
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It wasn't like a one-time,
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every-now-and-then thing.
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He went to it all the time.
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And so,
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he was telling me about it,
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and I was like,
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really?
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He was like,
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yeah,
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we dress up,
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and we sing the songs,
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we yell at the screen,
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and you have people who are cosplaying,
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and they're on the stage,
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and...
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performing out scenes while the scene is playing on the big screen and behind them and all this and i'm like why you know you know because i'm i'm such a purist when it comes to uh theater going
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to the movie theater to see i won't complete quiet i want to be just immersed in what's playing on the screen that would that would drive me crazy that would drive me insane
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because i want to watch what's on the screen i don't want to see a play if i wanted to see a play i'll go see a play you know and especially with the rest of the audience so at this time i'm like this is dumb why would you do that why would you pay money to
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go do this you know i didn't understand it and once again i didn't know what the movie was about and you know as i got older and really started...
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Finding out what the movie really was and what it was about it.
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I've start to wonder like wait
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wait you like going to this yeah so i asked him one day what what do you dress who do what character do you dress up as it he's like oh one time i went as uh riffraff i'm like okay i can see that and
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then he's like yeah and then another time i went a couple of times as uh uh dr frankenfrock i'm like what wait wait what you do
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It just blew my mind.
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Now,
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I never was a homophobe like that,
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you know,
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where
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I was disgusted by all that stuff.
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Still not.
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And so that doesn't bother me.
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So that wasn't the reason why I was kind of caught off guard by it.
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But it was just him.
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You know,
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I didn't expect him to be dressed up as a transvestite.
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But hey.
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It would have been interesting to see,
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but he did invite me a couple of times.
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I just couldn't bring myself to go.
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Plus,
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I'm a homebody.
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I don't like to stay out that late.
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You know,
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I went to go see a midnight showing of Spider-Man 3 the night it premiered.
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That's before they premiered on
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Thursday evening,
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as they do now.
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Back in the day,
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and not too long ago,
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I was at Spider-Man 3.
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How long was that,
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Bo?
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20
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20 something years ago
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It was a midnight showing and
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The first showing
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I think that Thursday and so I went to go see it and it was it was one the movie was not what I wanted it to be I'll just leave it at that and
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Secondly when I left out the theater it was Storming plus it was about three almost three o'clock in the morning,
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and I had to be at work the next Friday
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at six and so it's it was brutal but i was desperate to go see spider-man 3 because venom was in it and all this here but that's another story for another day it was miserable i could i couldn't stand being out there late i
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know i know i'm a square i'm i'm all type of i'm lame and whatever uh the kids say these days but i don't care i don't care but that I couldn't do it.
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I couldn't go.
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sit at a midnight screen of uh the rocky horror picture show especially after seeing i can't because i know all the parts now and i can i can just imagine in my head how ruckus the theater would be in
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certain scenes that it would drive me insane especially the musical numbers the dance numbers and stuff like that yeah you can miss me with that but anyways this became a
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phenomenon and it was right off the bat um going back to 1976 a year after the film was released it developed a cult following and it all started in new york nonetheless which developed
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this kind of uh ritual to put it to put it kindly um it basically all started at a at a screening of the film when
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when patrons in the theater just begin yelling at the at the screen you know just just started interacting with the with the movie as if it was uh choose your own adventure or something you know they would uh the scene where janet
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it has the newspaper overhead protecting herself from the you had people uh or a person yell out that you know
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buy an umbrella or stuff like that and you know they're just dumb stuff you know they did this to entertain themselves because the movie was so out there it was so unserious this is the most unserious movie you
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would ever watch you know and it gets so lame cheesy and boring it's like you have to entertain yourself and with you entertaining yourself
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makes the movie more uh appealing um spoilers you know i kind of dipped into some of my review the movie but that's that's what it is you know it was just making each other laugh and it was a communal experience and that that part i love because i love that's the best part about going to the movies like going
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to see a comedy
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and sitting in the theater with other people who find stuff funny like you will find it funny you know you don't have to be embarrassed and hold in your laugh you know because you find something funny and uh nobody in the theater is chuckling and
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it feels good when other people are laughing and you're laughing too it feels good when there's a feel-good moment like in the avengers and
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you clap and cheer and everybody else is clapping and cheering too is is something about that communal experience of being in the theater with with fellow moviegoers is is fun but it
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basically started with this now i know before prior to this they probably were uh uh communal experiences you know in certain films but this is this is where it really turned into something
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of a phenomenon you know you had uh moviegoers began to self-proclaim counterpoint dialogue you know like like uh uh director's commentary if you will while watching the movie it just spread it started becoming a thing then you had performance groups become a staple at
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these screenings due to the part of this New York City crowd.
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uh uh fan casting the movie and so this performance group would come to the screenings uh cosplaying as different characters in the movie and performing while the movie is going on and
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from there it took off from there it became a phenomenon because other cities began to catch on so much show that it.
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On Halloween of 1976,
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people attended in costumes talking back to the screen.
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And by the mid-1978,
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Rocky Horror was playing in over 50 locations on Fridays and Saturdays at midnight.
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And so newsletters were published,
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yes,
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newsletters,
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to all the youngsters there.
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They were published.
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by local performance groups and fans gathering for Rocky Horror Conventions.
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By the end of 1979,
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there were twice weekly showings at over 230 theaters for the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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The National Fan Club was established in 1977 and later merged with the International Fan Club.
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the fan publication
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The Transylvanian printed a number of issues and semi-regular poster magazines was published as well as an official magazine.
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Performance groups in the Los Angeles area originated at the Fox Theater in 1977.
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Now the impact of the
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LGBT community.
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Members of that community comprised a large part of the Rocky Horror cult following.
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They identified with the embrace of sexual liberation,
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and they attended show after show,
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slowly forming a community.
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Judith
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Parnano compared Brad's and Janet's invitation into Frankenfocker's world to the self-discovery of queer identity.
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and to the transitional invitation of virgins in the shadow screenings.
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show remains a cultural phenomenon in both here in the United States and in the United Kingdom as well.
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Cult film participants are often people on the fringe of society who found connection and community at these special screenings of this film.
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Although the film attracts fans that are from different backgrounds all around the world.
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And that's one of the things that truly impressed me about this movie.
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Even before I saw it,
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you know,
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just talking to a friend of mine,
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that friend that I've told you before,
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who was going to these screenings.
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You know,
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to my knowledge,
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he wasn't gay.
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Yeah,
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I don't think he's gay.
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I don't think he's part of the
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LGBT.
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But I could be wrong and if he is hey,
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that's fine,
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too,
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but I'm just saying
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He did make that statement when we were talking I do remember all this
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How so many different backgrounds of people?
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Come to these screenings because I'm like at one point because he kept asking me and I was like,
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bro
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you do know i'm black right i i can't i can't go to this i don't know any black people that go to these and he was like man you'd be surprised how many black people are there and in costume and i was like what you know once
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again it did pique my curiosity i just never pulled the trigger but it it was it's amazing that it it was able to touch so many people and that's one of the things that he
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pitched to me about the film you know he was like man it speaks to a lot of people and like i said i'll go over that when we review it in a couple of seconds here but it's it's a it's an amazing an
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amazing feat for a film you know let me put it like this filmmakers all around the world since the beginning of this industry
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have wanted to make an impact like this movie has made you know where it reaches so many people and so many generations uh so many different walks of life and backgrounds uh and it's rare it is rare i don't care what your favorite movie is it
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is not gonna have the impact like this movie will and this isn't the greatest movie of all time Yeah.
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by no stretch of the imagination so uh it's cool it's cool that this film was able to do that part of the reason that uh this film has stayed above board
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50 years later still culturally relevant is the influences that this film has has touched you know uh the Rocky Horror Picture Show has been featured in a number of other films.
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feature films and television shows over the years.
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You had episodes of The Simpsons that had references to this movie.
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The Venture Brothers,
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Cold Cates,
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The Boondocks.
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Yes,
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go back and watch the episode.
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I think it was that episode where they were making fun of
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Tyler Perry.
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Go back and watch that.
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Glee.
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That 70's show.
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The Mickey Mouse.
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clubhouse believe it or not um they they spotlight the rocky horror picture show as do films such as vice squad in
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1982 halloween 2 in 19 uh not 19 but 2009 um the perks of being a raw flower in 2012 all these movies including the
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1980 film fame featured the audience uh
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reciting their callback lines to the screen while dancing to the time warp you know so this is the dance from the stage show and the film which has become a novel dance at parties um
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rob zombie yes that rob zombie he recite he he cites rocky horror as a major influence for his film house of a thousand corpses.
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from 20 uh
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2003 yes that he said it if it's a lie he's he told it i but yeah that is crazy to me uh just recently sabrina carpenter had a music video video for one of her uh singles tears um
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in the video she portrays the character of janet weiss who
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is played by Susan Sarandon in the film and the character of
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Dr. Frankenfather was played by Coleman
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Domingo yes Coleman Domingo played the drag the uh transvestite in that in that uh music video believe it or not but yeah man this this has been a mainstay in
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film in pop culture in...
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cultural whatever everything for 50 years and judging by the i don't know the constant outpouring of love for this film and still having
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midnight showings to this day it looks like it's going to be around for another
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50 years so uh kudos to this movie that is uh it has the guinness bull uh
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Guinness
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World Record for the longest theatrical run in movie history.
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50 years!
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It's been at the theaters for 50 years ever since it was released in 1975.
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Well,
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I didn't see it in a theater and I definitely didn't see it in 1975 due to the fact that I wasn't born.
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But I did watch it this past weekend for the very first time.
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show directed by Jim...
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Sherman and his stars,
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Tim Curry,
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in his feature film debut,
25:33
believe it or not,
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Susan Sarandon and Barry Boswick.
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This film tells the story of a young couple whose car break down in the rain near a castle where they search for help.
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The castle is occupied by strangers in elaborate costumes holding a party.
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then they meet the head of the house dr frankenfrocker and
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apparent mad scientist in alien transvestite from the panic planet transsexual in the galaxy of transylvania who creates a living muscle man named rocky
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this movie is the most wacky far out there film i've ever watched in my life i felt i felt cheated i should have uh blazed up a
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or smoke the blunt something pop the pill something i should have got loaded and watch this movie i feel i would have got a better going uh movie viewing experience watching this movie but the
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reality is this the reality is it wouldn't help this movie is so bad it's just the worst one of the worst films of all time and that's why i
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think is more beloved you know because it number one is not trying to be a good movie it's it's accomplishing exactly what it set out to be it's unapologetic it
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is it is what it is you know exactly what type of movie this is they don't try to cut no corners they really go all in on the cheesy,
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the corny,
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the lame.
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the controversial all that they don't hold anything back and for that i absolutely love this movie i love the rocky horror picture show uh as far as it being a pure
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classic of a movie no it's not a pure classic movie is not isn't it is cheesy it is it is downright cheesy but it is
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the right kind of cheese you know what i'm saying it's not um trying to be serious it's not you know in in the moments where it is it is the scene in the end and i mean the movie's 50 years old kill me i mean it's
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you know i'm gonna spoil it uh i waited 50 years to watch it and i'm gonna spoil it but at the end when uh tim curry's uh character dies i i was i was hurt i was really
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kind of touched by that you know hi y'all man you know i felt so bad for him because i understood his character believe it or not i actually felt sympathy for his character with that song he sung before he was killed off i
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was i was all in and i guess i was super impressed by the fact that i i didn't i didn't expect this
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I didn't expect such a good story,
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you know,
29:00
the story's there.
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Now,
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the execution was the execution.
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Let me be 100%
29:07
fair about this movie.
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I'm not giving it a bad grade because I think this is a great play,
29:16
you know,
29:16
a great play to watch live.
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And
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I understood the cult following up.
29:24
following of this movie because midway through it i was questioning i'm like why is this such a has such a rabid fan base you know i'm like okay they sing and dance but i can name
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50 other movies that you have singing and dancing in and and you can have just as much fun why this what about this but it just had it
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I can't explain it.
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I can't describe it.
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But it has it.
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And
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I truly enjoyed it.
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One of the main reasons for that is Tim Carey.
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Tim Carey,
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we all know him now.
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You know,
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he was Pennywise in the miniseries of it.
30:17
He was a darkness in legend.
30:21
Oh,
30:21
my God.
30:25
That's one of the best portrayals of the devil you ever want to see.
30:30
Legend with Tom Cruise directed by Wrigley Scott awesome to this day that depiction haunts me
30:41
Tim Carrey has been in so many great films and he's given so many great performances he was one of the most underrated you know and he's not he hasn't passed he hasn't left us yet knock on wood but he he
30:58
did suffer a stroke a few years back and kind of put him on the sidelines but yeah man i just want to give his flowers bro they did he he gave a powerful powerful performance as this mad scientist this transvestite who's an alien which was another element to this movie i didn't know you
31:22
know that that was one of the many joys of watching this over the weekend i i
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As much as I avoided it for all of these years,
31:31
I also avoided spoilers.
31:34
I avoided what this movie was really about.
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So
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I went into it blind,
31:40
which is rare for a movie so old and so popular.
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I wasn't spoiled,
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you know?
31:47
I wasn't spoiled.
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That's a shock.
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But I did not know the alien subplot here.
31:53
And I got it.
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You know,
31:55
I followed...
31:56
all of the themes of this movie and it's touching it is very touching uh i hope i hope that this movie stays culturally relevant historically relevant throughout
32:11
time you know because it it speaks it really does speak but as far as the quality of a film not granted it was
32:21
1975 but come on it wasn't
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it wasn't the greatest of set design it wasn't it wasn't great acting here susan sarandon who my god man susan sarandon has been fine for 50 years because she's still fine today but
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she was fine back in
32:45
1975 and still beautiful and can act her behind off this is the academy award winner but you couldn't tell
32:54
You couldn't tell in this movie.
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Barry Boswick as well,
32:59
you know.
33:00
But this was all purposely done.
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The style of acting,
33:04
the cadence of all of these actors.
33:07
It was made as if it was a
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1930s or 40s
33:11
B-film. You know,
33:12
like an
33:14
Ed Wood film.
33:16
You know,
33:18
it's that level of film.
33:20
But I did enjoy it.
33:22
I had a good time with it.
33:23
I loved the music,
33:25
oddly enough,
33:27
even though it's not my genre.
33:29
I was rocking with it.
33:30
I was having a really good time with this movie.
33:33
And this is a film that I can see myself watching,
33:38
you know,
33:39
at least annually once a year.
33:41
You know what I'm saying?
33:41
It's one of those mainstays.
33:44
And I truly do understand the cult following that this film has.
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And I understand.
33:51
Pardon me before I pass away.
33:53
hopefully no time soon i will go to one of these midnight screenings i'm gonna take my boy up on his offer even though i don't know uh it's been over 30 years but uh i don't know if he still goes or even cares
34:08
to go but i may go i may go just to experience it once in my life oh but the experience that i got this past weekend here in the house the rocky horror picture show gets a letter grade
34:22
of a b plus for being a b movie it is it is the b's of b's uh but yeah man the rocky horror picture show uh fun time fun time uh i can only imagine the
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media if if if there was twitter in 1975 oh my god would they have blown up about this movie
34:51
if they were to cancel culture and all that oh my god it would have been bananas around that time i can only imagine how it was when this movie was released i'm sure it was entertaining to
35:09
see
35:10
the least uh but i would love to know did you grow up watching the rocky har picture show did you uh watch it in the theater did you see it at home did you ever go to one of those midnight screenings or do you still go to one of those midnight screenings i would love to know email
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the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com you can also search for this show on all social media platforms just search for the kbradio
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network also don't forget about youtube subscribe to the kb radio network channel and like this video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iheart radio wherever you are currently listening to
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movie goodness here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me as we celebrate the 50
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50th anniversary of the Rocky
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Horror Picture Show.
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We did the time warp again,
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baby.
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Want you all to know that I love you.
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Continue to love everyone.
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And until we speak again,
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you all be blessed.