I can't praise this show quite enough. I grew up watching MonsterVision, but not with Joe Bob Briggs hosting the show. Originally the show did not have a regular host. I know Penn & Teller hosted the show nearly the whole month of June 1993, and Bob Denver (The Skipper from Gilligan's Island) host one movie (The Mysterious Island), but before 1996 MonsterVision was mainly just awesome marathons such as Godzilla Bash '94, there were a few Outer Limits marathons (I have 2 different Outer Limits marathons from August of 1991 and December of 1991 with all the commercials intact), there was a Mad Scientist marathon, a Dracula marathon, and many more. I remember growing up watching the marathons with my grandpa, he loved all the cheesy B-Movies that he grew up watching, and it introduced me to some of my now favorites. Those were some of my favorite memories, and I only wish I could go back in time and tell myself to record everything. I wish I could find more pre-Joe Bob MonsterVision recordings. I have nothing against Joe Bob of course, I am a huge fan of his. But the memories I have as a kid staying up late watching the marathons are like nothing else. I have a ton of Joe Bob era MonsterVision episodes, over 100. I was a teenager by the time I started watching Joe Bob host the show. The experience wasn't the same as all the cheesy public domain horror films, but if I stayed up late enough they would show 100% Weird. 100% Weird was kinda like a re-packaged version of the original MonsterVision without the awesome announcer. I would try to catch USA's Up All Night, but it definitely wasn't (to me) as good as MonsterVision. Commander USA was much better than Up All Night, and I was completely devastated when I found out the show was cancelled. Still, there's something about those late nights staying up waiting to see those old movies. Hearing my grandpa tell me about his first experience seeing them was magical. It's such a huge disappointment to see what TNT has become today (TNT Drama, what a JOKE!). I can honestly say that I miss both the early and the late MonsterVision eras, some people I've spoke to about MonsterVision that remember the original show hate Joe Bob, but I think he brought a new life into the show that it needed during that time. When I discovered Joe Bob's MonsterVision (around '98 I think) I had really started getting into collecting 70's, 80's and 90's horror films on VHS. My grandparents owned a video rental store when I was a kid up until 2000 (we had a massive amount of VHS and DVD's just started to surface and become more popular, more convenient and more affordable overall, so that's the main reason we went out of business). I used to take home several horror films I'd never seen before and I found several classics that I fell in love with such as Motel Hell, Return Of The Living Dead 1 & 2, Troll, They Live, The Funhouse, It's Alive and more. I thought very few people knew or cared about these films. Nobody at my school had ever seen them, and I was a proud outcast that only associated with a couple friends that shared the same interests as I. Eventually I got my friends interested in watching the same movies, and it became a competition between us, 'Who could find the best-worst cheesiest classic horror film and introduce it to our group'. That's when I discovered Joe Bob's MonsterVision. I couldn't believe some of the movies that TNT was showing at that time. And Joe Bob's commentary after the commercial breaks was the best part. It was like re-discovering MonsterVision all over again, and I was more mature and ready for the more brutal films from the 80's and 90's. Some people say 'Please bring MonsterVision back! Play new episodes with Joe Bob hosting'. I've seen petitions and lots of comments on the subject. Honestly, to me, it wouldn't be the same.. I wouldn't want to see movies like 'Saw II' or the other crap that Hollywood has shat out over the years, and that's exactly what we would get with a re-vamped MonsterVision. It would be incredible if TNT were to somehow re-broadcast those old shows again, but unlikely. And there would always be many who would be disappointed too. If TNT re-ran the original MonsterVision, the Joe Bob era fans would be angry. If they re-ran the Joe Bob era, fans of the original MonsterVision would be angry (I know I would be, even though I am a huge fan of the Joe Bob, that would mean fans of the original show would likely never get to see our favorite era again). I can say from experience, it wouldn't be the same.. Some people are making these 'Fan Re-Creations' where they just splice Joe Bob's commentary into a DVD or Blu-Ray source copy of the film. I have seen a couple and I can honestly say that I hate them. It makes no sense to me when Joe Bob complains about how the TNT censors did something to the movie, then instead you see an unedited version of the film. It was extremely disappointing and ruined the nostalgic experience for me personally. Watching MonsterVision was all about watching the old TNT versions of the movie, regardless how badly they may have ruined it by censoring or editing it for time. If I want to watch a pristine DVD or Blu-Ray copy of the film I will just do that. I own 99% of everything that was shown on MonsterVision to begin with on DVD and Blu-Ray (besides movies like Pet Shop, because it's never even been released to DVD officially). Until then I'll just stick with my old recordings I guess. I miss the original MonsterVision so much it's unbelievable!!
Review of Monstervision
