When I was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, there were a good number of hosted movie shows to choose from. There was, of course, Elvira. On a local channel, I could watch movies that were presented by the duo of Big Chuck and Lil’ John. On The Movie Channel and later TNT, I could watch drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs host movies. From 1989 to 1998, USA Network aired a hosted movie show on Friday and Saturday nights that was called USA Up All Night, and I regularly tuned in for that. Programming tweaks were made here and there over the years, but for the most part USA Up All Night consisted of three movies that would air from 11 pm to 5 am. Gilbert Gottfried hosted USA Up All Night on Saturday nights, and on January 4, 1991, comedian/B-movie actress Rhonda Shear took over from Caroline Schlitt as the host of the Friday night edition. Joe Bob Briggs now has a show called The Last Drive-In on the Shudder streaming service, which is about to wrap up its sixth season with a six movie marathon called The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon – and it has been revealed that former USA Up All Night host Rhonda Shear is going to be a special guest during the marathon!
The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon will premiere on Friday, August 30th at 9pm ET on the Shudder TV and AMC+ TV feeds. The marathon will then be available on demand on both platforms the following Sunday, September 1st.
The special has the following description: Joe Bob Briggs, Darcy the Mail Girl, and a few surprise guests are up all night to party like jungle animals for The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon, a dusk-to-dawn marathon event celebrating 6 years and 6 seasons with 6 killer movies… just like the devil intended.
On The Last Drive-In, the world’s foremost drive-in movie critic hosts eclectic horror movies, talking about their merits, histories and significance to genre cinema.
Rhonda Shear first hinted at her involvement with The Last Drive-In with a social media post back in June:
After dropping a hint of his own in an interview with our friends at Bloody Disgusting, Joe Bob went ahead and confirmed that Rhonda will be showing up during the Nightmareathon:
Rhonda Shear’s crossover into the world of The Last Drive-In follows in the footsteps of an Up All Night comic book that was published a while back and had Rhonda as the lead character, with Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl making guest appearances.
Will you be watching The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon, and are you glad to hear that Rhonda Shear of USA Up All Night will be sharing the screen with Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl during this marathon special? Let us know by leaving a comment below.