Joe Bob Briggs is weighing options for a new TV series and starting a production company
Last week, legendary drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs had to break some bad news to his fans: the Shudder streaming service had cancelled his show The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs, and last Friday’s episode was the series finale. But there’s a silver lining here, as not only has Shudder commissioned Joe Bob to shoot four specials that will air through the rest of the year – but as of January 1st, he’s a free agent who’ll be able to take his movie-hosting talents anywhere, and he’s already weighing the options for another TV show! He let Variety know that he’s also planning to launch a genre-movie production company.
Joe Bob Briggs
Joe Bob Briggs made his debut as a drive-in movie critic in the early ’80s and soon earned a job hosting movies on The Movie Channel, where Joe Bob’s Drive-in Theater ran from 1986 to 1996. That was followed by the TNT series MonsterVision, which he hosted from 1996 to 2000.
That was followed by an eighteen-year stretch of darkness, but then he made his triumphant return with The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. The Shudder era began with a 13-film marathon on July 13, 2018 – an event that Joe Bob thought might be his last rodeo. But so many people tuned in for that marathon, it crashed Shudder’s servers and convinced them to give him an on-going series, mixed with holiday specials.
On The Last Drive-In, the world’s foremost drive-in movie critic hosts eclectic horror movies, talking about their merits, histories and significance to genre cinema. The show is produced by Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell and directed by Austin Jennings. Joe Bob is joined on every episode by Diana Prince as Darcy the Mail Girl.
The Next Step
Speaking with Variety, Joe Bob said that Shudder never told him exactly why they were cancelling The Last Drive-in, but when the show started, Josh Sapan, who he had worked for in the Drive-in Theater and MonsterVision days, was running the streamer’s parent company, AMC. Sapan has since retired – and with him gone, it seems AMC’s priorities or their vision for Shudder have changed.
“As soon as people knew about (the cancellation), the phones lit up, the e-mail inbox filled up. I couldn’t keep up with all the texts because everyone was saying, ‘I’m shocked. You have to take the show somewhere else.’ Nobody was saying, ‘Well, the show finally played out, didn’t it? It ran its course.’ You know, nobody was doing that narrative on this one.” Offers for a new show are rolling in, but Joe Bob is eager to get feedback from fans to find out if they want him to continue his hosting duties or do something a bit different. (My suggestion: keep doing it like you’ve been doing it!)
He added, “We had actually thought that we had the show placed with another company. But when the word got out about the cancellation, other people called. So we may do it in a different way, of somehow preserving The Last Drive-in without using the name Last Drive-in.“
Production Company
What else is on the table? Producing movies!
Joe Bob told Variety, “I had been developing a horror production company for a while. My old friend Bob Bernie at Picturehouse said he wants to do it. Now, we’re signing the final papers for it. We have a production slate. We have projects to make, and I’ll be able to spend time on that.“
I’m glad to hear that’s moving forward, because I remember that Joe Bob was talking about starting a production company a long time ago, way before The Last Drive-in came along.
Specials
While we wait to find out what exactly is coming next, Joe Bob will be wrapping up his Shudder obligations.
The first of the four post-series specials will be Joe Bob’s Wicked Witchy Wingding, will is coming our way April 24th at 9pm ET. The double feature of occult flicks continues Briggs’ eternal campaign to establish Walpurgisnacht as an American horror holiday.
That one will be followed by a summer special featuring a title Joe Bob has been trying to get on the air for 30 years. (Fans have already been able to deduce that it’s I Spit on Your Grave, with special guest Camille Keaton.) Then we’ll get a Halloween special and one last Christmas special. By holding auctions during the Christmas specials, The Last Drive-in has been able to raise $1 million for charity over the years.
Are you a fan of Joe Bob Briggs, and are you looking forward to seeing what the post-Shudder era is going to be like? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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