A Tribute to TNT’s MonsterVision

man bet there was elm street fu man it would be cool if there was an episode where Joe bob meets the crypt keeper

I miss Monstervision. It was the best, yes, better than Svengoolie. Wait...

in the month of godzillathon did they run the same series of movies over and over. because i have two home vhs tapes of godzillathon. Can you still watch old reruns of monster vision anywhere?

Joe Bob is actually bringing back MonsterVision, not under the same name of course but making a show of the same format and setting. Hes planning on debuting it on the HorrorNet Channel once the channel begins airing.

I remember Svengoolie from the 80's in Philadelphia and later in the 90's Comcast Cable showed "Trailer Park" on the Sci-Fi Channel. I used to watch Trailer Park every night it came on. Around 1996 or 97, it disappeared and never returned. It showed all the monster movie trailers from all the years past. It was a great way to find cheap old movies and commentary about them with clips. Does anyone else remember this series and what happened to it?

Monster Vision was sweet, James. But what about USA UP All Night. I know you've got to remember that one. It was on the USA Network on Friday and Saturday nights with Rhonda Shear and Gilbert Gottfried hosting on those respective nights. I saw so many classic B horror movies on there that I still love today like Slugs, Killer Klowns From Outer Space and They Live.

Of course a little nod to Elvira: Mistress of the Dark doesn't hurt either.

HEY JAMES MONSTERVISION DID COME BACK IN A WAY,I THINK IT WAS TMC,EVER THURSDAY NIGHT (FROM 7 TO 2 IN CA)THEY PLAYED ALSORTS OF CRAPPY MONSTER MOVIES! BUT IT ISN'T ON 2NIGHT(6/30/11)

..actually it was Spring, 1993 lol Getting my dates all screwed up!

...I remember my first introduction to Monstervision. It was 1989 and I woke up in the middle of the night. Couldn't sleep. I turned on the tv and the first station that was on happened to be TNT and the Monstervision bumper came up. Then Battle In Outer Space came on. I was hooked instantly. Thanks for posting! Great times.

Man Monstervision was one of my favorite programs on TNT when I was a kid! Loved it! Godzilla, Rodan, The Mysterians, Battle In Outer Space, The H-Man, the list goes on! Loved the 90s..

I definitely remember watching Monstervision when i was a child with my best friend every weekend. It's one of the things that got me into monster movies and now into my current burgeoning career as an artist. (well, Monstervision and the great old cartoons and comics of the 80's and early 90's) This was definitely a welcome walk down memory lane. Thanks for posting!

I remember Joe Bob, but Svengoolie was and is better.

those were the good ol days. its too bad there gone.

I make this promise.

If I ever get high up in the television industry I'll be sure to bring back MonsterVision, heck I'll try and get you on as a guest host James

One of my Favorite videos on Cinemassacre. I loved Monstervision. God I miss the 90's.

@nomad175: Berwyn!!! lol Rich Koz is the best. Chicago Best!

@Tito

That is the best idea anyone has ever come up with.....ever...

monster vision was the best, i remember when it was just called "100% Weird". when i was a teenager and they put Joe Bob as host i have to say i lost interest in the show.

This leaves one option: James must bring back monster vision and host it.

aww man, 1st i was born too late to play NES, now i was born too lt to watch monstervision? i wish i was born in the 80's =(

Basically I missed all this, so my Joe Bob has been Rich Koz as Svengoolie. If you don't know what I'm talking about, talk to anyone from the Chicago area.

Oh man, I used to love staying up on the weekend to watch Monster Vision. I never got to experience the pre-Joe Bob Briggs era, however.
But for me, on the weekend nights after school was done for the week, it was either I was watching MV, or Up All Night on the USA network with Rhonda Shearer, I think was her name? Obviously she didn't leave as big of an impression to the viewer as Joe did, but it was still fun times.

One thing that I had not forgotten Joe Bob commenting on during one of the movies on Monster Vision was when he talked about a certain scene in "The Serpent and the Rainbow" movie's airing. Entaling the main character's private parts being whacked with a hammer and how he was shocked that no one was bursting into the scene to save the guy, much like you would expect in some other movie where this situation might occur. Yah, sure, it was kind of a horror movie, but it had the feeling of a mystery drama as well, so the scene felt so surreal to see and to have been described in the way that he had done it. I was literally cringing in pain at his description, it was great.

I loved Monstervision. Long live Joe Bob.

I don't really know what kind of a working relationship you have with Spike, but you are affiliated with them in some way, right? So, maybe you could ask them if you'd be able to do your own version of MonsterVision on their channel? Like a lot of people have said on here, if anyone can bring back the horror movie marathons, it's definitely you. Plus, Spike is much more lenient when it comes to censorship, so it wouldn't have the same problems the original show did. You could even call it Monster Madness.

Obviously this is just wishful thinking on my part, but it'd be very nice if this happened, don't you think?

silly james. "i dream that in some form or another, monstervision will come back" It already has, its called MOONSTER MAADDNNEESS !

Joe Bob was the best. I used to watch Monstervision w/ my grandmother and she would nag about his racy comments.

Its some thing that was lost and will be missed alot. I would love to see them bring it back to cable. Now that cable networkd have been doing UNCUT movies on even basic. So it be nice to let them do it to B Horror movies and all the blood cheesey gore

I just love your personal nostalgic reviews. It's like I feel nostalgic towards whatever it is your talking about even if I have never experienced it.

I grew up on this show as well. It was great. I first discovered the greatness that is the horror genre through this program. I was just a kid when it first came on. The movies Joe Bob Briggs would show would sometimes scared me. lol. However, it was great having Joe Bob there to help take the edge off and not make the movies seem as scary by being funny and making fun of the movies.

As I got older and became a teen I discovered yet another great thing about the show and that was Joe Bob could make you feel less like a loser for staying home on a Saturday night watching movies. It was like Joe Bob was there with you, watching the movies with you and making you laugh.

While I never watched Monstervision while it was on, I have to say I've become quite fond of Joe Bob Briggs. I have his book "Profoundly Disturbing", a book about shocking movies and it just shows how insightful he is. It's interesting contrasting that with his brilliantly tongue-in-cheek humor. I saw one video where he spuriously compared the Mona Lisa to the Dogs Playing Poker painting and thought it was hilarious.

i salute You Monster Madness
and you to James the Nintendo Nerd

Wasn't Joe Bob another in a long line of hosted late night video? The first one I remember is Elvira from the 80s, but there were likely earlier examples. By the way, Elvira has recently made a return to TV.

wow its a crying shame I missed this as a kid. WTF. I coulda stopped playing Friday the 13th on my NES and watched creepy old horror and sci fi flicks and I even woulda watched with that joe bob character. He coulda been a role model for me with how hes so outspoken towards networks and censor boards. Damn I missed out.

I'm a bit too young to remember this (I was only ten when the series got cancelled), but I definitely enjoyed the video as an awesome look back to 90s television.

And don't be so sure that MonsterVision is gone for good. Check out what I just dug up on Wikipedia:
"Since the cancellation, Briggs has remained an active speaker and writer, and has contributed commentary tracks to several DVDs.[9] Briggs is planning on hosting a similar program on the yet-to-be-launched network HorrorNet.[10][11]"

And all these years I thought Joe Bob was played by Norm MacDonald!

Wow, Monster vision. I forgot all about this, I looked forward to this every week. Thanks for posting it. It sort of reminds me of the days of movie magic on Discovery channel.

I wish is grew up with this.

I never heard of MonsterVision before. Oh well... at least I can watch Monster Madness instead.

Definetly brings a tear to my eye watching this video. Stuff like this is never on anymore. Since the emergence of DVD and Blu-ray and the over-abundance of channels, monster shows like this are a thing of the past. Not only with monstervision, but with other monster shows. During the seventies and eighties, shows like this dominated the weekend. Makes me sad.

Wow James, thanks so much for doing this tribute to MonsterVision. It was a feature so many of us horror movie buffs know and love. I remember watching this all the time back then, and man... I sure do miss Joe Bob. :(

You are right that it will probably never come back, but we will always have Monster Madness! *sniffle*

I grew up watching such shows on t.v. I watched monster vision, but mostly u.s.a up all night with Ronda Sheer or Gilbert Godfrey. I am a total horror movie fan. In fact it is my wife's and my dream to run a monster horror show on t.v. on internet or what ever.
Ya thats right I said my wife. She's just as big of a fan of horror movies as I am. Also video games.
So when we get that glorious day when we air our first monster movie I will let you know. And I'm not going to do any of that bull crap cut'n out the best parts

Wow. It never occurred to me before but now that you describe all the things that made Joe Bob Briggs great at hosting a show about bad movies (sense of humor, intense attention to detail, strongly opinionated, full of obscure facts) are the same things that make me a fan of Cinemassacre. It's awesome that you made this tribute. I can really see what an influence this had on the work you do now.

Oh man do I remember this! I use to wtach this myself with my bro. If we weren't playin a rented game that nite. We would actually stop just to watch monstervision even Streets of rage could not stop us! I also recall TBS havin a chan marathon NOW THAT WAS MY SHIT!

I do believe there is still a need for monstervision (or monstermadness) with the trivia items I learned there were a load of movies out there I never saw. I would love to see em but most of the time they are a bastard to find over here, let alone on dvd.
So if anyone could get the rights to that and get them on a dvd with say, optional commentary, I would go out and get them.
A lot of hammer studio film boxes contain the same movies and never the really good ones.

I agree with red-letter. I'd watch you do your own version of Joe Bob, if the opportunity ever presented itself for you.

James if anyone could bring back late night horror movie hosting it would be you. Maybe you could do something like that on the internet, do your own commentary throughout the movie. Start with your favorites and go down the list.

Im also a long time watcher of cinemassacre and the angry video game nerd, I stumbled upon the angry nintendo nerd's review of simons quest on youtube one day and ever since then I've been hooked on it, I love james movie reviews, especially the horror reviews as when I was all I used to watch is classic horror films , I've watched every episode of the nerd at least 10 times each, and one day I myself would like to start my own website and videos as ive been collecting horror movies, older video games , and nintendo power almost all my life and it still doesnt compare to how many games and systems the nerd has, anyways thats what i would liked you to know, my love for the Cinemassacre has driven me to be as much as you as possible, thanks

James, I had to create an account just to comment on this and the Monster books from the library. I'm a loyal, longtime viewer. Not that your past videos weren't worth commenting on, I just commented on them in places you had the videos linked to.

I am filled with so much joy and hope for the future. This video is like a clone of mine made this, saying everything I feel. TNT's Monstervision, USA's Up All Night, AMC, TBS. This is how I would view these classic movies. Later on, I got pissed, like Joe Bob because I realized how edited these movies were. There was a charm seeing them like this. Now, I know all too much and only watch widescreen DVDs/Blu-Rays of all movies. But if they reran these late night marathons, as broadcasted, then I would have it on in the background at the least. I grew up on this, these late night marathons ignited my imagination and I also would drift in and out of sleep, wondering if what I saw was real.

After all of that went away, my mother had a new long-term boyfriend. I felt like John Connor, being just me and my mother, and this guy (instead of teaching me about weapons or survival tactics), taught me about film, the different formats, behind the scenes anecdotes, and stories about actors/filmmakers he personally knew, such as Gary Busey (they were both pilots).

Now, I'm grown up and getting into acting in films. In an astonishing stroke of irony, I didn't have to move to Hollywood, Hollywood moved to me, Louisiana is the new Hollywood South.

It would be amazing if our professional futures intersect someday. I feel so much like you when it comes to our collection of games, our appreciation for the numerous ongoing "horror' films. I think we both thought we were alone in our adoration obsession, but thanks to the internet, the love for these things is out there.

Thank you for making these pieces of art.

Hey James, (nice vid btw) have you ever heard of Svengoolie? He shows old horror flicks too on the "U". I'm from Illinios, so I'm not sure you get it but you should definitely check it out.

When I read Frankenstein in 10th grade, my teacher had an old VHS tape of the Karloff film and it was from Monster Vision. The tape was in poor quality, so I volunteered my VHS of Frankenstein.

What about Masters of Horror? James you should do rewiev about it!