DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters here that I didn't make up myself. I don't own Lizzie McGuire, but she's not actually born yet at the time of this story, anyway.

"Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Sam McGuire, Howie Gordon, and Eddie Sanchez were at Larry Tudgeman's house watching the premiere of a new late-night variety and comedy show. They had been there all day, and earlier on they had seen the Boston Red Sox win the first game of the 1975 World Series with a six-run rally in the seventh inning. Howie, who was a big fan of the Sox's arch-rivals, the New York Yankees, was disappointed at the outcome of this game. As he put it, "The Yanks have really sucked for the last ten years, so my only opportunity for pleasure is to see the Red Sox lose." Sam, on the other hand, was rooting for the Sox because they were the underdogs, fighting a long-time curse; however, he was disappointed that his own favorite team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, had lost in the playoffs. Eddie wanted to know which team had more Mexican players on it in order to decide who to root for, but didn't get a definitive answer, so he stayed neutral. Larry didn't care for sports, so he had no preference in the game, but he still watched it with the others to keep company.

"I'm sorry, but I'll only be able to see the first few minutes of this show," said Sam. "My mom insists I be home by midnight."

"Curfews suck," said Eddie. "I'm glad that I don't have any, now that I'm in college."

"And you've got to rub it in?", said Sam.

"Well, staying out past midnight lets you get to all sorts of interesting things," said Eddie. "Like, I've heard that there's a theater in L.A. that's started midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I'd kind of like to go there and experience it for myself."

"Really, that movie's still playing?", said Sam. "I thought it was a flop… it closed at the Wilco theater after just one week. I wanted to see it, but my parents wouldn't let me because it's rated R."

"I don't know what parents think they're protecting us from by not letting us see R-rated movies," said Howie. "Do they really think we'll be psychologically scarred for life from what we see in a movie? I think refusing to let us see those movies causes more harm to our psyches than letting us see them."

"OK, Doctor," said Sam. "If I ever have kids, I'll let them see whatever movies they want. But right now I'm still stuck under my parents' rules, so I can't see that movie until I'm… I don't know… 16, or 18, or 21, or 40… I have no idea when I'm 'mature' enough according to them. Anyway, even if they did finally let me see R-rated films, they'd still never let me go to a midnight showing… especially all the way in L.A. It would be after 3 AM before I finally got home from it! What ever gave them the idea to show the movie at such an ungodly hour?"

"It's kind of a cult phenomenon," said Eddie. "People in the audience throw things at the screen and yell back at the actors… it's wild."

"Well, I want to go, no matter what my parents say… is everyone else in, too?", said Sam.

"I wouldn't mind seeing it; it sounds like an interesting sci-fi parody," said Larry.

"The antics of the audiences in those showings are an interesting psychological study that I'd like to see for myself," said Howie.

"So we're all together on this," said Sam. "But how can we manage to do it, when none of our parents will let us – well, other than Eddie's, because he's in college and can do anything he wants?"

"I've done stuff before," said Larry. "The key is to give your parents a good story of where you are. Like, Sam can tell his parents he's sleeping over at my house, while I tell my parents I'm sleeping at Sam's house. And Howie can claim to be sleeping over at either one of our houses. Nobody would suspect a thing! What could go wrong?"

"You obviously don't watch many TV sitcoms," said Sam. "Whenever anybody there says 'What could go wrong?', that's the cue for something to go badly wrong."

"Oh, don't worry," said Larry. "We're all so disgustingly 'good' kids that none of our parents ever expect us to do anything sneaky, so they won't even call one another to check on us. This plan will work great! Eddie's got a car, so he can do the driving."

"All right," said Eddie. "So, we're on for next Saturday night?"

"It's a deal!", said the three others at once.