Super Heroes Cut
Within days of The Rocky Horror Picture Show opening at the UA Westwood, producer Lou Adler visited a screening to gauge the audience reaction. He discovered that in the dark theater, that the films ending was particularly down-beat, and somewhat depressing. At that point, when few had seen the movie, he had the ending recut to shorten the song "Super Heroes" and have "The Time Warp" play over the closing credits. The result was exactly what Adler wanted, and had people walking out of the film with a positive beat, and for those who began returning for multiple visits, they began singing and dancing at the end of the film instead of somberly walking out to the depressing "Science Fiction, Double Feature (Reprise)" describing the cast's downfall. Although the story circulated that the film had been trimmed, so few had seen the original, there was speculation early on that the entire scene was merely a rumor. In the UK, the film had disappeared in a few short weeks, but the prints remained and were not cut, and later it was determined that there was indeed a U.S. version vs a UK version of the film.
In Summer of 1979, all rumors were laid to rest as the film had a limited, 3-week run with a fully restored version of the film, playing exclusively at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles.
Around that time, The Rocky Horror Picture Show began playing on various cable networks, with a variety of unexplained cuts to the ending. Fledgeling HBO showed a fully restored version of the film, though SelecTV showed a strangely cobbled version with "The Time Warp" playing over the visuals for "Super Heroes." It was also discovered at the time, that a variety of prints were floating around as there were few prints available, and different versions existed on 16mm vs 35 mm prints, though none actually included "Super Heroes" in theaters, though some had "The Time Warp", while others had what was referred to as the "Transylvanian Jam", which was the backing music to "The Time Warp" without the vocals.
At the occasion of the film's 10th anniversary in 1985, "Super Heroes" was cut back into the film, as part of the mono soundtrack. In 1990, it was restored in stereo, accompanied by "Science Fiction, Double Feature (Reprise)". From that point forward, the "Super Heroes Cut" became the more common version of the film, and the up-beat "Time Warp" ending faded into obscurity.
The 35th Anniversary edition of the DVD included most of the alternate endings as part of its bonus material.
