I am a long time horror fan and this morning Max and I were chatting on AIM in regards to Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I inquired as to if he ever watched MonsterVision on TNT.
MonsterVision (MV) was a late night horror program which was shown on TNT from 1993 to 2000. It was hosted by Joe Bob Briggs (JBB), a well known icon amongst horror fans. The show would typically show 2 older horror films and before the films started JBB would go through what he called the “Drive in numbers” and would cite things such as 2 severed heads, 3 dead monsters, 4 pairs of boobs, and no plot.
I saw some of the best classic horror movies on MonsterVision. I remember laying on my Grandmas bed watching these films all night while she was out at the bar (don’t ask). Some of my favorite films I saw on here included Night of the Living Dead, Poltergeist, and Phantasm II. As most children my age (around 8 yrs old at the time) were in bed or watching cartoons I was delving into macabre cinema and watching films which would later become old favorites.
I imagine you’re sitting here reading and trying to figure out why I am rambling about some stupid old Monster movie show. I am doing so because shows like this cease to exist because of stupid “suits” at film studios who don’t care that these type of movies are enjoyed by a lot of different people and only care about the films which will line their pockets with more greenbacks.
We have stupid shows like American Idol and Survivor still on TV, but fun shows like MonsterVision get canned, it’s ridiculous. I personally miss the late night Monster Movies, campy humor from JBB and the ability to watch films which are hard to find on any sort of portable media.
I feel like shows such as MV are important as they bring a new audience to some forgotten masterpieces of film, not everyone loves horror movies but their are a lot of people who do and the only icons they recognize are Jason and Freddy — MV brought to light a ton of horror icons such as Vincent Price, Angus Scrimm, George A. Romero, and many others. Guys like the aforementioned were some of the best horror has to offer, that’s one of the things that made MV special.
Their is talk about MV being brought back and that JBB plans to host his own show on HorrorNet, which is a proposed cable/satellite network which I don’t think has taken flight just yet. Any MV fans out there can cross your fingers that they either bring back the ORIGINAL MonsterVision or that JBB is able to host his own show again and once again introduce future cinephiles to the horror of yesterday.
When I was at UCSC I took a class exclusively on “Horror Films,” it was fantastic. Mostly, it focused on the origins of horror but I saw some great stuff in that class. I also was exposed to one of my favorite movies of all time, “Videodrome.”
At one point growing up we became stewards of a large collection of VHS tapes from all genres. As a young kid of 10 or so I watched everything. All the Phatasms, Hellraisers, Amittyvilles, Poltergeist, Leprechauns, and Chuckys; “were beamed straight into my brain through the cathode ray tube and thereby interpreted as raw experience.” (Prof. Obilivion).