I don't watch much tv at all, but i happened to catch the Drew
Carey show tonite (the second one) and i was wondering if anyone else saw
what i saw or if i was hallucinating. The basic gist of the episode was
Drew feeling old and having a second childhood, so he gets his friends
together for a road trip, etc. Last ten minutes of the show they go to the
Rocky Horror Picture Show - dressed as the characters. For those of you
who have never been to Rocky, delete now and move on with your lives. I
went over two hundred times in high school, dressed up, acted the scenes
out, the whole bit, but have only been twice in the past ten years (once
with Adam in LA last year, and then with Rohit in Boston last weekend,
which makes this episode even weirder to me).
So anyway, they get to the theatre and see that Rocky Horror isn't
on the marquee. What is instead? Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (also an
excellent film). So there is this line of drag queens, freaks, weirdos,
etc lined up to see Priscilla on one side, and this group of about forty
others on the other dressed as the characters in Rocky, and they're all
yelling back and forth at each other about which movie is
more...well...MORE.
So then one of Drew's buddies from work, who was dressed as
Riff-Raff from Rocky, leans around one of the Priscilla folk and begins
singing - and this is the part where i checked to see if my roommate spiked
my drink - the Time Warp, with the real song from the film dubbed in. Then
the entire Rocky crowd joins in (just like in the movie) and they sing the
first verse. Then the Priscilla crowd starts in with I've Been to
Paradise, a staple from Priscilla. This goes back and forth between the
two and becomes a huge montage of song and dance combining two of the most
classic drag movies ever made.
It was so incredible, i called Adam in CA to make sure he was
watching, but he wasn't home. So they do this huge number (Drew, dressed
in his underwear as Brad Majors) and then the cops show up (on tv, not at
my apt) and everyone runs off and they grab Drew as he sings the last part
of the Time Warp and they throw him in the paddy wagon and as they're
driving away and the screen is fading to black, you hear, just loud enough
to catch it, a gong ringing, and then Magenta's voice - "Master, dinner is
prepared!!!!"
So that's it. It was memorable to say the least. It reminded me
of the climax in Grease. I was floored. I can't help thinking that maybe
3% of the viewers even knew what the hell was going on, what Rocky and
Priscilla are and what they symbolize, and maybe 3 % of those who had seen
both films know what kind of statement the show was making, about the old
and the new (Rocky is almost thirty years old, Priscilla is maybe four),
the generational differences between what Drew grew up with and what the
Priscilla crowd were embracing. Both films are similar stories - the
breaking out of your shell and finding yourself, personal roadtrip type
story. Circularly, this was the theme of the Drew show up to that point -
the second childhood story. Rocky and Priscilla are telling the same
story, in different settings, as are generations who don't understand one
another. Was that the point of the show? Could it have been that deep?
It must have - it was too weird to be random. I have much more to say on
this but i won't. You're welcome.
Thanks for indulging me in my gush, if you're still here.
<crickets> Hello? Anyone still with me? Helllloooooooooo.... </crickets>
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duck
*************
"I suppose that when ants get stepped on, they have no idea what hit them.
But I'll bet that hasn't stopped them from coming up with fancy names for
it, like 'spontaneous compression' or 'vertical planar syndrome.'"
- LeMel Hebert-Williams