The Rocky Horror episode of Glee was good at first, but something was lost on me since I never saw Rocky Horror. I remember going to see Star Wars films while growing up and The Rocky Horror Picture Show would be playing in the same theater at midnight. It freaked the good little Catholic schoolboy in me out. Between the title and pictures I had seen, I thought it was a really scary slasher-type film, so scary that they could only show it at midnight.

Since there was a lot of fuss about Glee doing Rocky Horror and the episode didn’t mesh with my impression of what Rocky Horror was all about, I decided it’s time to hide behind the sofa and watch it from a safe distance. Even in adulthood, the impression that the film (and the musical that was its root I was now aware of) were dark and evil beyond that of the vampire movies and shows that fill my Tivo. Sometimes there is just no shaking that Catholic upbringing. While I credit Catholic school with the best education I ever received, it lacks in many other areas. But that is another story.

So on Halloween night I watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was probably the campiest, craziest, weirdest, freak show I have ever seen and it was just brilliant. BRILLIANT. And even more brilliant thinking that something like that was produced in the 1970s and made it into theaters at all. And to this day, 35 years later it is still playing. Amazing.

I totally credit Glee for turning me on to this pop and queer culture gem that I’ve kept at a safe distance for too long. I re-watched the Glee Rocky Horror episode and it made a completely different impression on me. I get it now and will rank it up there with some of Glee’s best episodes. I wouldn’t have bothered with it if it weren’t for something Shue said — that Rocky Horror is about people being different, outcasts trying to fit in and find someplace where they can just be. The second time I watched the episode I had a “wow – if only I could roll the clock back” moment when he said that so that I could’ve sneaked into The Rocky Horror Picture show when I was a teenager.