The History of the Original Ending of Little Shop of Horrors

UPDATE (3/11/23): A 1991 television broadcast in which "Don't Feed the Plants" was aired in Australia has surfaced. It is the first known public release of the footage. Little Shop Archive has uploaded it here (   • Eat Carpet: Visual Effects of Little ...  ), and I wrote about it here (https://zacksmusicalmusings.wordpress....

In which I discuss the various twists and turns the dark ending of Little Shop of Horrors faced before finally being released to the public.

I am SO grateful and thankful for the many resources I had for this video, including (but certainly not limited to) The Little Shop Archive, MonsterLegacy.net, the Little Shop Wiki, and the anonymous person who uploaded the color workprint in 2013.

Also, HUGE thank you to all of my new subscribers! Around when I uploaded my last video, I saw an influx in new viewers indirectly because of Sideways uploading his essay on Into the Woods. I hope you stick around and enjoy!

Lastly, thank you to my longtime subscribers for your patience. School has been chaotic and I just made a major move, so it’s a bit of a shock that I even got this out, so THANK YOU for sticking around! 💕🎞

00:00 Intro
2:06 Pre-Production
5:55 Production
10:08 The Test Screenings
13:19 Reshoots/Release
16:34 The 1998 DVD Release
21:48 The 2012 Restoration
25:58 What is the “Definitive” Cut?
32:55 Conclusion

FURTHER READING/VIEWING:
Special: The Plant Conquered the World (Monster Legacy)
https://monsterlegacy.net/2014/04/23/...

Little Shop of Horrors - Deleted Scenes
   • Little Shop of Horrors - Deleted Scen...  

SOURCES:

Gartler, J. (2012, May 15). 'Little shop OF Horrors: A Q&A with Frank Oz. EW.com. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://ew.com/article/2012/05/15/fra....

Willman, C. (1998, March 6). Little shop OF Horrors: Rare Footage recalled. EW.com. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://ew.com/article/1998/03/06/lit....

NYFF Q&A: Little Shop of Horrors. (2012). Film at Lincoln Center. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from    • NYFF Q&A: Little Shop of Horrors  .

Shewey, D. (1985, July 21). On the go with david geffen. The New York Times. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/21/ma....

Zalben, A. (2012, October 9). Interview: Film restoring with Kurt Galvao, From 'Little shop of HORRORS' TO 'Blade Runner'. MTV News. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from http://www.mtv.com/news/2626741/inter....

Botto, L. (2017, July 27). How Howard Ashman and Alan Menken created the Iconic Little shop of Horrors. Playbill. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.playbill.com/article/how-....

Gartler, J. (2012, November 20). Bringing horror back to 'little Shop'. Animation World Network. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/bringing....

Alter, E. (2016, October 31). Mvps of horror: The 'little shop of horrors' puppet master who brought the blood-thirsty plant to life. Yahoo! News. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.yahoo.com/news/mvps-of-ho....

Attanasio, P. (1986, December 19). "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986). The Washington Post. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv....

Willman, C. (2004, December 3). The story behind ''little shop'''s extended dvd. EW.com. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://ew.com/article/2004/12/03/sto....

Jones, A. (1987, January). Little Shop of Horrors. Cinefantastique, 17(1).

Weintraub, S. (2017, October 26). Frank oz on Little shop of HORRORS original ending and the Dark Crystal. Collider. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://collider.com/frank-oz-intervi....