Sandy Wood
Lunchtime Quiz: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
by Sandy Wood - December 16, 2009 - 11:30 AM

pagehead_lunchtimequiz550.jpg

click to take the quiz!

Those who know me now may find this hard to fathom, but I’ve seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show over 100 times, most of them in the mid-1980s while attending midnight showings at a theater behind the mall in Athens, Georgia. A friend and I carried the productions there for nearly a year – from the audience, not a full-fledged stage act - back when it was okay to bring a five-pound bag of rice and some water pistols, and we had a blast doing so. It was a way to release my youthful anger by lashing out verbally at a public cinema (a big taboo) while making others laugh and join in. For me, at least, that’s what it was all about.

Admittedly, it took a few screenings before I was able to really figure out what the movie was about. So here are 13 questions behind the actual film, its actors, its characters, and its spot as the top cult film in history. Enjoy!

Take the Quiz: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Quiz. And when you’re done, please share your favorite RHPS memories in the comments.

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Comments (25)

  1. I thought Superheroes was cut from the US Video versions but has always appeared in the film (at least since 1991, since I’ve always seen it at the end of theatrical showings).

    So when do we get a Shock Treatment quiz? There are times when I actual prefer it to RHPS.

    posted by EMStoveken on 12-16-2009 at 11:51 am

  2. My cousin owned a video store in rural South Texas town at the time the movie came out on VHS. I convinced her to order it for the store. When no one would rent it she gave it to me. I don’t think many people knew much about the movie back home. Luckily I went to a summer camp with city kids and learned about it there. I had the LP before I ever saw the movie and loved it!

    I remember all VHS tapes being a bit expensive back in the 80′s. I also remember it taking forever for a movie to come out on VHS after it was in theatres.

    posted by Stacy on 12-16-2009 at 11:53 am

  3. EMS, “Super Heroes” was not in the film version I saw in theatres back then. I believe they re-introduced it with the 15th Anniversary edition, which would have been around 1990.

    And while I’d love to do a “Shock Treatment” quiz, I doubt there’d be much of an audience for it. I love the soundtrack more than the film, and even garnered one of my nicknames (Cosmo) from O’Brien’s role in that film.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 12-16-2009 at 12:04 pm

  4. That would explain it. I think my first theater trip was right around that time.

    Oh well. Here’s hoping legions of Shock Treatment fans will rise up and beg for a ST quiz.

    posted by EMStoveken on 12-16-2009 at 12:21 pm

  5. I, too, am a fan of Shock Treatment. Although, the story is a bit hard to follow, I totally love the music…whatever happened to Oscar Drill and the Bits, anyway??!

    posted by Marty on 12-16-2009 at 12:51 pm

  6. Did you realize that Question 8 reveals the answer to Question 1 (if your care to go back and change your answer).

    posted by Mavis on 12-16-2009 at 1:24 pm

  7. I only saw RHPS once in the theater but it’s a great memory. My friend and I each told our parents we were sleeping over at the other one’s house, then took the LIRR into Manhatten for a midnight show in the village. I was 17 at the time. We got decked out, got lost and wandered the streets, and eventually found our way to the theater and had an awesome time. We didn’t get home until 5 am and we had Kraft mac & cheese for breakfast.

    posted by Sara on 12-16-2009 at 1:45 pm

  8. Also being from rural south Texas, I had tomove to Austin in ’82 before I saw it. And being below average in the score doesn’t make me feel so bad. After seeing the “average”!

    posted by PT on 12-16-2009 at 1:46 pm

  9. …I was just seven hours old/truly beautiful to behold…

    I was SO stoked to see this quiz, thanks!!

    I think my favorite RHPS memories are watching my DVD with my best friend on weekend nights after work or seeing a live performance my Freshman year of college with a group of sorority sisters. We had such a phenomenal time, but the small town was absolutely shocked to see some of the dance moves (“toucha-toucha-touch me” was pretty graphic)

    @Mavis – I don’t think you can go back in the quiz, I’m pretty sure once you click you move on, but I could be wrong. I’ve never been so inclined…

    posted by OkieMelissa on 12-16-2009 at 2:09 pm

  10. I saw RHPS for the first time when I was in 4th grade. One of my friends had it on VHS (this was around 1992-3) and we had a blast singing and dancing along to it. The double entendres and sexual references were completely lost on a bunch of 9-year-olds, which I think is a good thing.

    For my bachelorette outing, we went to a bar for karaoke…we did “The Time Warp” as a group. :)

    posted by Krie on 12-16-2009 at 2:38 pm

  11. I did fairly poorly on this (54%) but haven’t seen it in like 4 years. My girlfriend and I used to go to the live show in Madison every night they had it, and got the Denton question because I remembered the callback “Denton, home of the Happy Penis!”

    posted by Kevin on 12-16-2009 at 2:38 pm

  12. Sandy I think you’re wrong, I think there are a lot of us crazy Rocky people out there that love Shock Treatment as well :)
    At least in my neck of the woods there seem to be. Everyone in our cast knew about Shock Treatment.

    posted by dramaqueen1275 on 12-16-2009 at 2:58 pm

  13. Harvard Square – Midnight Show – Mid 80′s – 17 weeks in a row!

    posted by Dave on 12-16-2009 at 3:19 pm

  14. I was pretty excited about this quiz, and disappointed in my 9 out of 13.
    I recall my group having a hard time trying to find a European copy so that it would have Super Heroes on it, and of course how disappointed we were if a US copy showed up. Plenty of good memories to go around from my experience with this movie. Nothing can top coming out to a full house when you are playing Frank. Thankfully I was in good enough shape to wear the corset in public; today i might actually fill it out.

    posted by Clay on 12-16-2009 at 4:06 pm

  15. Harvard Square — Midnight Show — late 80′s — ummmm, once. No wonder I only got three right, but hey, at least I didn’t sit in the back row.

    posted by Mark on 12-16-2009 at 4:16 pm

  16. This may not be much of a shock to those who know me, but I’ve also seen this film hundreds of times, mostly in the late 1980s and early and mid 1990s. In fact, on the night of my senior prom, my date and I left the dance early so we could catch a midnight Rocky Horror showing in our formal wear. Needless to say, we were a big hit when the wedding scene came on.

    Of course, that didn’t stop me from coming up short on this quiz. Only 9 out of 13? Are you serious?

    posted by Paul on 12-16-2009 at 8:24 pm

  17. My in-theater views of RHPS totals 132 times. My favorite memory was in 1980 on the two-year anniversary of RHPS (shown every weekend for two years) which was also my 18th birthday (at midnight).

    There was a wedding cake and champagne being served in the lobby and I was really looking forward to the champagne given the fact that I was turning “legal” at midnight! So, at precisely midnight, I requested my birthday champagne and was refused! I showed my drivers license and was told, “Sorry…. It’s Sunday.” Wwwaaaaahhhh!!! But, once inside the theatre, 300 partying souls sang Happy Birthday to me. So it was a great birthday after all!

    So many wonderful memories of attending 132 showings and taking full advantage of the rice, toast, water pistols, newspapers, toilet paper, etc. at each one!

    posted by Cricket on 12-16-2009 at 9:14 pm

  18. THanks for such a great quiz! I cannot even count how many times I’ve seen RHPS. My parents met in college when they both in a Rocky Audiance Participation cast. Dad was Frank, then Eddie (when he got too fat for the fishnets) and my mom was a Janet. From birth to about ten years old I spent every Friday and Saturday at RHPS with my parents. Yet I still missed one question on the quiz! Alas, we did not buy the VHS when it came out, since we’d already had a Japanese bootleg for many years prior.
    Oh, and I’d love to see a Shock Treatment quiz!

    posted by Sandy on 12-16-2009 at 11:30 pm

  19. I also prefer Shock Treatment to Rocky. Possibly because I’ve heard the soundtrack less than a million times. Probably because it stars Jessica Harper, who has one of my favorite voices IN LIFE.

    It’s also interesting to note that ST was released in 1981, and the plot involves the town of Denton allowing a TV station to make shows about the townspeople’s actual lives. Ritz O’Brien: Actor, writer, tunesmith…prophet.

    posted by Joe Maz on 12-17-2009 at 12:11 am

  20. They did Rocky shows at the dollar theatre by Georgia Square Mall? I never knew that!

    posted by Meredith on 12-17-2009 at 1:54 am

  21. I might be wrong but I remember RHPS being on our local FOX station (Chicago) when I was a kid which would’ve been in the late 80′s early 90′s. I’m fortunate to have a theatre in town that still does a live RHPS every Saturday at midnight. The group had stopped for a while because their home base theater was closed but they found another venue. I love throwing toast!

    posted by nihil on 12-17-2009 at 5:02 pm

  22. What do you mean it’s thought to be in the state of Ohio? Doesn’t everyone know that it’s Denton TX? Even though the vegetation, climate, topography etc. are nothing same, it’s Denton TX nonetheless!

    posted by Lorien on 12-18-2009 at 3:30 pm

  23. I was on the live cast for awhile, Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge, MA, 1985. Seen the movie probably a thousand times. Still only got 11 out of 13.

    posted by Lisa on 12-19-2009 at 12:43 pm

  24. i’m on the orlando rhps cast. we recently did four shows of shock treatment in addition to our year-round rocky showings (4 times a month). if you’re in the orlando area sometime, we perform at the movie theater at universal studios. check out http://www.richweirdoes.com :)

    posted by ae on 12-20-2009 at 6:21 am

  25. I don’t think I’ve ever seen RHPS in Athens, but, from ’79 to 01/83 when the venue (sadly) closed, I’d seen RHPS well-over 200 times at the Silver Screen (Peachtree Battle Shopping Center), and STILL managed to see Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (Northlake II) about as many times.

    I remember, once, Jean Beauvoir, the black guy who played bass for The Plasmatics showed up in a white tux (which complimented his white mohawk!). Whenever punk rock bands (Jim Carroll, The Clash, etc), appeared on the ABC late-night SNL wannabe “Friday’s” (and when Meatloaf and Curry co-hosted once), someone would bring a portable TV, and, we’d plug it into an outlet on the outside of an old Foto-Mat® booth and watch in the parking lot until it was time to go into the theatre. When Meatloaf and Tim were on, I think 150 people missed the first twenty minutes of the movie that night.

    Quiz-wise, I missed two. I got confused about the “Super Heroes” question, and, went back and changed from the correct answer. Why didn’t I just look in my “My Music\Soundtracks” folder? And, I never bought the VHS. My best friend duped me a copy.

    I can help with Q’s for a Shock Treatment quiz. In fact, I can think of two good ones right now. A R’n'RHS quiz would be fun, too. Did you know it was originally written with The Yardbirds in mind?

    posted by !elbakrameR® on 12-20-2009 at 6:46 am

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