Joe Bob Briggs, Horror Host Extraordinaire

Joe Bob Briggs (John I. Bloom)

Hosted Monstervision, on Saturdays TNT, Cable - 12:30 am EST.

 

 Joe Bob Briggs on the set of Monstervision.
Picture by Mark Hill.  I've added Joe Bob to this list of Nashville Horror Hosts for one simple reason . . .
John Bloom is a graduate of Vanderbilt University!

That's right, John Bloom, BA'74, College of Arts and Science. He actually won a sports writing scholarship, the Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholarship at Vanderbilt, and served as managing editor of the Hustler, Vanderbilt's campus magazine. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1974.
With a southern accent, quick wit , and unique sense of humor, Joe Bob hosted drive in movies every Saturday night on TNT's Monstervision. He regularly gave out what are probably the best facts on movies offered by any horror host, focusing on behind the scenes stories and production facts unknown to most viewers.

His most popular feature, besides Rusty the Mail Girl, was probably his ratings section, where he listed the drive-in totals of every movie, from the cheapest grade B flick to the highest grossing films - if Joe Bob showed 'em, Joe Bob rated 'em, using a scale that's all Joe Bob -

Example (here's Joe Bob's Drive In Totals for "Return of the Living Dead," one of my favorite zombie flicks):
"Let's do those drive-in totals. We have:
Nineteen dead bodies (plus fragments).
Ten breasts (shame on you, TNT censors).
Two zombie breasts.
One-hundred twenty-five zombies.
Mummy dogs.
One-half zombie dog.
Ten gallons blood.
Brain-eating.
Gratuitous embalming.
Nekkid punk-rocker fondue.
Gratuitous midget zombie.
Torso S&M.
One motor vehicle chase (totaled by zombies).
Heads roll.
Brains roll.
Arms roll.
Hands roll."

As you can see, always lots of fun.

John Bloom has also had a very active career outside of Monstervision. He was an award winning investigative journalist, (even infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan at one point), a film critic for the Dallas Times Herald, and a movie host on The Movie Channel (where he won two ACE awards, the highest award TMC gives) before starting Monstervision. He is also an author of such books as
Iron Joe Bob,
Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In,
Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive-In,
A Guide to Western Civilization, or My Story, and The Cosmic Wisdom of Joe Bob Briggs.

In addition he also wrote a true crime book called Evidence of Love, co-authored by Jim Atkinson, that became the ABC movie of the week Killing in a Small Town. John Bloom has also appeared in several movies.
Click here to see a list of his films on the Internet Movie Database. Born January 27, 1953,
Dallas, Texas, USA   Joe Bob Briggs and Monstervision copyright John Bloom and TNT, respectively, all rights reserved.