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John Bloom

John Bloom wrote for Texas Monthly, as both a staff writer and a contributor, from 1978 to 2006. He is a successful investigative journalist, actor, and author who was born in Dallas and raised in Little Rock, and he attended Vanderbilt University on a sportswriting scholarship. His nine books include the true-crime classic Evidence of Love (1984), Profoundly Disturbing: The Shocking Movies That Changed History (2003), and Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story (2016). He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award three times and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by United Press International for his eyewitness coverage of 9/11. Bloom is best known as his alter ego, Joe Bob Briggs, a nationally syndicated “drive-in movie critic” whose wisecracking take on B movies was featured on two long-running late-night television shows, first on the Movie Channel and then on TNT. That tradition continues with his latest series, The Last Drive-In, currently featured on AMC’s Shudder streaming platform. During the course of his hosting career, Briggs has executive produced 20,000 hours of television and has become the leading authority on exploitation and genre films. In 2022, two true-crime articles he cowrote for Texas Monthly were adapted into the HBO series Love and Death.

Featured Articles

Film & TV

They Came. They Sawed.

And they most definitely conquered. The inside story of how a ragtag bunch of hippies made the wildest Texas movie ever (and spilled no more fake blood than was absolutely necessary).

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46 Articles

Feature|
February 1, 2006

Home Movies

From Red River to Rushmore, the 25 best Texas films on DVD.

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Film & TV|
November 1, 2004

They Came. They Sawed.

And they most definitely conquered. The inside story of how a ragtag bunch of hippies made the wildest Texas movie ever (and spilled no more fake blood than was absolutely necessary).

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Books|
April 30, 1982

Gimmie Silver

Beyond Greed is the tale of the Hunts’ journey from silver spoon to silver lust. In Sing Me Back Home Merle Haggard takes a quick look at his life (too quick). Billy Clayton has Gavels, Grit & Glory--or so says his biographer.

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Books|
March 1, 1982

The Writer Stumbles

Celebrity is Thomas Thompson’s flawed venture into fiction; The Last Texas Hero deserves a twenty-yard penalty; Peeper is to be read only to find out who the real Tom is.

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Books|
September 30, 1981

Waste Makes Money

In With No Fear of Failure you’ll learn how you, too, can turn rags into riches. Daddy’s Girl knows Southern discomfort. Petroleum Politics and the Texas Railroad Commission is the history of our own little OPEC.

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Reporter|
December 1, 1980

Texas Monthly Reporter

Cable TV has Dallas in its coils; acupuncture has its day in court; sex education has parents up in arms.

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Energy|
July 1, 1980

Profits? What Profits?

Reading Big Oil’s annual reports for the truth about profits is a little like drilling for oil in the Baltimore Canyon: you know it’s there, but how deep will you have to go to find it?

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Business|
March 1, 1980

Hustlers and Fortune Hunters Beware!

When the cable TV salesman comes calling, you should fully expect your city council to sell you down the river. Not that they mean to do it. It’s simply that history shows most city councils don’t know the first thing about cable. People who can barely figure out the briefs

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Being Texan|
February 1, 1980

The Joy of Kissing

The art of romantic osculation barely survived the jaded seventies. Now it’s time to rediscover the private delights and civic benefits of real kissing.

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Reporter|
December 1, 1979

Texas Monthly Reporter

Whose blonde, curly scalp are the farmers after how do the rich and powerful run? Why, pray tell, does Houston need parks?

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Reporter|
September 30, 1979

Texas Monthly Reporter

South Padre defiled—and you were there; the joy of six hundred maniacal flute players; Dallas’ love-hate affair with Fair Park.

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Reporter|
August 31, 1979

Texas Monthly Reporter

B-a-a-d government meddling irks Texas goat and sheep raisers; something’s rotten in Rotterdam, and it’s driving up oil prices; and the world’s best gymnasts are coming to Cowtown.

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Religion|
July 31, 1979

Let My People Pray

Were the words of Russian exile Georgi Vins heard over the din of the Southern Baptist Convention?

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Reporter|
June 30, 1979

Texas Monthly Reporter

Suffering the lines at the gas pump; gambling in the magazine business; a dragnet for the Southwest’s sneakiest thief; what’s Dallas’ secret?

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Reporter|
April 30, 1979

Texas Monthly Reporter

Playing chicken on the Houston Ship Channel; jousting with 700-year-old knights; will John Hill run for governor again?

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Reporter|
April 1, 1979

Texas Monthly Reporter

Striking the right chord with the Fort Worth Symphony and the wrong one with Mexico; grounding Wayland Baptist’s Flying Queens.

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Reporter|
January 1, 1979

Texas Monthly Reporter

Taking it off at the last of the real burlesque joints; holy war on Austin’s Baptists; why Texas’ election system is stuck in the Dark Ages.

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Reporter|
December 1, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

The dark side of doing business in Saudi Arabia; an endangered mountain in El Paso; and big profits with small airplanes.

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Reporter|
December 1, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

The dark side of doing business in Saudi Arabia; an endangered mountain in El Paso; and big profits with small airplanes.

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Reporter|
November 1, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

Fighting the foolproof crime, playing games you can’t win, building an ice cream empire, and raising hell in Baylor.

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Reporter|
September 30, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

Bucking the U.S. Air Force, breeding horses for royalty, and hightailing it out of town before the Corps of Engineers gets you.

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Reporter|
August 31, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

Welcoming danger with open arms, horse trading over tax relief, picking juries by their faces, and searching after the perfect twirl.

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Science|
August 31, 1978

Laser Days

Lasers have been heralded as the greatest discovery since the computer, but they may be hazardous to your health.

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Reporter|
July 31, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

Plainview puts a lid on deviate sex; billions of animals sleep in a freezer; oil spills are coming and we're not ready.

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Reporter|
June 30, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

Psychiatrists send men to death row; Texas’ loop coasters give up-side-down joyride; Diablos play baseball with Kleenex and kazoos.

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Reporter|
May 31, 1978

Texas Monthly Reporter

Taking on the Shah of Iran in Beeville; trying to save an eaglet in Waco; juggling sex in Galveston; flipping the switch on nuclear power; and fighting panjic at monstrous DFW Airport.

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