Entertainment
The Best Show On Streaming Has Been Canceled, End Of An Era
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
The advent of streaming completely changed how we watch television, allowing fans to watch whatever they wanted with the press of a button. This is perfect for avid entertainment lovers always looking for their next fix, but as an aging Millennial, I can’t help but think the prominence of streaming took something special away from the overall experience. Television used to be a communal ritual where we all watched the same things at the same time, excitedly sharing our thoughts on the latest shows with fellow fans; now, everyone is siloed in their own entertaining bubbles, enjoying their favorite programming in the stifling comfort of complete isolation.
However, one streaming show set out to change all that: The Last Drive-In on Shudder featured iconic horror guru Joe Bob Briggs hosting scary movies, offering commentary segments throughout where commercials might have gone way back when. While the Last Drive-In segments are available to stream on demand after a couple of days, they would premiere on Friday nights in a live broadcast that superfans would watch at the same time, all while chattering with each other and with Joe Bob (and his perky co-host, Darcy the Mail Girl) on social media. This made this the best show on streaming, but it’s the end of an era now that Shudder has canceled the show.
The Man, The Myth
Since he is something of a cult figure, you may need a primer on Joe Bob Briggs, especially if you’re a younger horror fiend. Joe Bob (real name, John Bloom) started out as a reporter for The Dallas Herald, and he specialized in a niche no one else cared about: shlocky exploitation films and gruesome horror movies you could only find at the local drive-in theater. To cover these movies, Bloom developed the persona of Joe Bob Briggs, a quippy, quirky redneck whose rants offered great insight into genre films while serving as a parody of the prim and proper reviews from film critics like Siskel and Ebert.
In 1985, Briggs made an unexpected jump from the printed page to the stage with a very successful one-man show, An Evening With Joe Bob Briggs. This raised his profile and proved he could entertain large crowds, and this led to an unexpected opportunity: he guest-hosted Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel, which led to him getting his own show, the appropriately named Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater. There, he hosted shlocky movies (typically horror films), complete with a tongue-in-cheek tally of things like how many dead bodies and naked breasts appeared in the film.
When Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater ended, he took his unique brand of entertainment, hosting MonsterVision on TNT. There, he once again hosted a variety of films, but he offered more commentary than ever: rather than appearing only at the beginning of the film, Joe Bob would also pop up on commercial breaks, offering further insights into each movie. When MonsterVision ended, though, Joe Bob largely dropped out of public life, popping up two decades later in a farewell performance that ended up reigniting his career.
A New Era
In 2018, Joe Bob Briggs hosted a 24-hour marathon of movies for Shudder, all of which were initially broadcast as part of the horror streamer’s live feed. This was meant to be a final performance for Joe Bob, giving this old cowboy one last time on the saddle before he rode off into the sunset. However, the marathon proved to be insanely popular, with Shudder’s servers crashing due to the high number of fans all rushing to watch this genre legend dish dirt on spooky movies.
In response, Shudder ordered more specials from him before greenlighting The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs, a regular series. For the next seven years, Joe Bob hosted one of the most popular series on the streaming platform, and his most ardent fans tuned in to each live broadcast, using social media to connect the entire fandom (affectionately nicknamed “The Mutant Family”). Due to the show’s success, it really looked like Joe Bob would be doing this forever, but just a few days ago, he dropped some devastating news on his fans.
An Emotional Rollercoaster of Announcements
Joe Bob Briggs typically hypes up his upcoming shows on Shudder, offering cryptic hints and funny commentary on platforms like Facebook and X. Ahead of the season finale of The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs, he made a somber-sounding announcement about how important it was for all of the fandom to tune in for this episode. This led to rampant speculation from fans: some thought Joe Bob needed more live views to get his show renewed, and others thought he would be announcing his retirement because, at 73, he’s one of the oldest entertainers in the business and may be dealing with unknown health issues.
When the episode aired, Joe Bob and co-host Darcy the Mail Girl offered fans some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Joe Bob is quite healthy (or, in his words, “spry as f*ck”), but the bad news is that Shudder is canceling The Last Drive-In. The hosts have apparently known this was coming for a while, but they are currently forbidden from saying exactly what went down and why Shudder (which just updated its app in an attempt to gain more subscribers) suddenly decided to kill the only show that countless fans (myself included) subscribe to this streamer to watch.
An Unknown Future
The silver lining in all of this is that Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl plan to take their show somewhere else, but they have not yet confirmed where this will be. We likely know where they will not go, and that is Tubi. On X, Joe Bob retweeted a post from Damian Maffei that didn’t explicitly name Tubi but accused “that free streaming app with all the ads” of being a streamer that has been known “to edit movies. Cut things down, and zoom in on scenes.”
Many have pointed out that Tubi doesn’t do this and just streams whatever print of the film they can get, but the implication of the retweet is that Joe Bob doesn’t like the free streaming service and is unlikely to take The Last Drive-In over there. Unfortunately, this brings us no closer to knowing where Joe Bob and Darcy will land and when they’ll start hosting movies again. Until they confirm anything, all fans can do is speculate while mourning the loss of the best show on streaming.
The Drive-In Will Never Die
The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs was unlike anything else in the streaming world: it featured eclectic horror classics, insightful commentary, and gonzo humor, all while letting fans share the magic together through live broadcasts. It brought the entire Mutant Family together, allowing us to bond over everything from Joe Bob’s signature rants to the shlockiness of our favorite films. Fortunately, the man himself has confirmed he will be returning and keep gracing us with his unique brand of comedic criticism powered by decades of arcane horror film knowledge.
That announcement fulfills the prophecy of something Joe Bob has been reminding us of at the end of every episode since the new show began. A promise, a mantra, and a fervent hope, all rolled into five little words that the Mutants are clinging to now more than ever: “the drive-in will never die.”