Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Horror Host 2014 Retrospective: Joe Bob Briggs








Horror Host 2014: Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob Briggs
Real name: John Bloom
Years active: 1990-2000, The Movie Channel, TNT

This time out we take a look at the hosts who haunted the hallways of basic cable and syndication. The first one we look at Joe Bob Briggs, who went from the Movie Channel to TNT and dominated the field of horror through the 1990’s. 



On the strength of his one man show, Joe Bob Dead in Concert, Bloom was invited by the Movie Channel to bring his drive-in loving redneck to the channel and their program Drive-In Theater. He was such a hit that he was made the host of the now retitled Joe Bob’s Drive-In. The show was a smash hit, running from 1990 to 1995, ending only when TMC decided to reformat.
Normally this would spell the end for most, but Joe Bob was quickly picked up Turner Network Television and made the host of the newly revised Monstervision on TNT in 1995. The show Monstervision had actually been around since 1993 without a host, although magicians Penn & Teller would occasionally sit in between commercials. 
Joe Bob would oversee films ranging from the classic to bizarre, offering his commentary and statistics for the film. Number of bodies, motor vehicle chases, amount of nudity shown, etc. The show ran continuously until 2000 when TNT (and most of the Turner owned properties) was absorbed in the AOL-Time-Warner merger.
 Joe Bob was one of the first hosts I watched regularly and Monstervision was where I saw the original Friday the 13th films, the works of George Romero, and plenty of masked weirdoes stalking barely clad teens. The films I saw there inspired me to haunt the local video stores to see if I could find the same movies without the edits. After a brief stint on the Daily Show, Joe Bob is still around. His website hosts his reviews and he is still fighting the good fight for drive-in exploitation 



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