Thank You, Joe Bob: The Last Drive-In's Final Night

It's hard to sum up what Joe Bob Briggs means to me in a single blog post, but I'll try.

I didn't have cable growing up, so I missed his Showtime days entirely. My introduction to Joe Bob was TNT's MonsterVision in the late '90s. At the time, my girlfriend was away at college, and I was either working full-time or living at home while I attended school — most weekends were mine. So on Saturday nights, I'd settle into the little downstairs apartment I had in my parents' house, crack open a few beers, and watch the movies. Alone, but not really alone. Joe Bob kept me company. I'd get up Sunday morning, grab the paper, and flip straight to the TV listings to see what was playing the following week. It was a comfort I didn't fully appreciate until much later.

Fast forward to 2016. A MonsterVision design had been on my list of ideas for Fright-Rags since basically the beginning — I just never got around to it. One day I was talking to our artist Justin Osbourn about projects we wanted to tackle together, and he brought it up before I could. I couldn't believe someone else out there knew Joe Bob. We said yes immediately, and then I thought...why not actually reach out to him?

So I tracked down his contact info, introduced myself, and asked if he'd be interested in coming up to Rochester, New York for a screening and a poster signing. He said yes. A few months later, on a Friday night in October 2016, I picked him up at the train station. He was taller than I expected.

We grabbed dinner that night, talked about cigars and bourbon, and he asked if I wanted to check out the cigar bar I'd mentioned. We ended up sitting there until one in the morning. The next day, he came by the office to sign posters, and I posted a photo on Twitter. Within an hour, I had a DM from a woman who was absolutely giddy...she was meeting Joe Bob the following week at a book signing and wanted to know if he was as cool as he seemed. I told her he absolutely was.

That evening, Joe Bob did a 45-minute intro for The Warriors — a genuinely fascinating deep dive into the New York subway system — to roughly 100 fans. When the movie started, he found me in the lobby and asked what I wanted to do. "Let's go back to that bar," he said. So we walked down the street, had another cigar and bourbon, and strolled back when the credits rolled. My brother and I had built a full MonsterVision set in the theater — fake trailer, old TV, lawn chairs — and I hosted a Q&A on stage before Joe Bob met with everyone who came out and signed autographs until the last person was done.

It was about 12:30 AM when I figured he'd be ready to call it a night. Instead: "Let's go back to that bar." We closed the place out around 2:30 in the morning. Joe Bob knows how to party!

He had brunch with me the next morning, and I dropped him back at the train station. It was one of the best weekends I can remember.

About six months later, I got another DM. Remember the woman who reached out when I posted that photo? That was Darcy. And she was writing to tell me she was Joe Bob's new mail girl — and that she'd been instrumental in bringing him back to television. They were doing a new show: The Last Drive-In, a 24-hour movie marathon. My friend who was a producer on the show asked if we'd like to do a shirt for the event.

Of course we would. Justin got to work on a new design, and on June 25th, 2018, The Last Drive-In premiered. The show was such a success it broke the internet. Our shirt sold out. And the rest, as they say, is history. When we had Joe Bob back to Rochester in 2022 (with Darcy this time), it was a sold out show of over 250 fans.

These last nearly eight years have been something I genuinely couldn't have imagined. Horror fans are already a passionate lot, but Joe Bob fans are in a category of their own. Their dedication to him and Darcy is incredible. Every Friday night when the show airs, I see people on X and Instagram getting ready — the lounge pants, the socks, the t-shirts, the Joe Bob and Darcy plushies, the beer koozies — and it genuinely moves me. Every single week. It never gets old.

I always knew this day would come. I knew The Last Drive-In would have to end, at least in this form. And even knowing there are four more specials ahead, I feel it the same way you do...I am a proud member of the Mutant Fam.

So thank you — to every single person who has ever bought anything Joe Bob-related from us. You've let us be a small part of how you celebrate something you love, and that means more to me and this company than I'll ever be able to properly express.

And thank you, Joe Bob and Darcy, for eight years of incredible television.

Long live the Mutant Fam, and I am looking forward to the next chapter, in whichever form that will take. Because as we all know...The Drive-In Will Never Die!

- Ben