A super-sized Last Drive-In season 6 finale is just around the corner in the form of an all-night marathon. Joe Bob and Darcy return to their Last Drive-In roots with a six-movie marathon coming to Shudder on August 30th. When Shudder first aired a one-off Last Drive-In special back in 2018, fans crashed the servers. Six seasons in, it's all come full circle with a new special: The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon.
The marathon is a massive bookend to culminate the show's sixth season. The special premieres Friday, August 30 at 9pm ET on the Shudder TV and AMC+ TV feeds. It will also be available on demand on both platforms the following Sunday, September 1. Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy joined us to chat about favorite moments from season 6, Joe Bob's ongoing quest to bring Walpurgisnacht to mainstream America, and the newly announced The Last Drive-In Season 7. Read our full interview below.
What are your favorite moments from season six?
Joe Bob Briggs: Favorite moment — grilled cheese sandwich. I was the only advocate of the Grilled Cheese episode. It is true, no, it is true.
Darcy the Mail Girl: Oh, my God, why are you lying right now?
JBB: No, there is a Shudder executive who shall remain unnamed.
DMG: That doesn't mean you're the only one.
JBB: He said, “Why are you trying to make a theme night?” And I said, “Because — National grilled cheese.”
The grilled cheese martyr.
DMG: Everyone else hates cheese and bread.
JBB: Well, it was not only grilled cheese, it was the Toxic Avenger and Lloyd Kaufman all on the same night.
I feel like there was a lot of support on Twitter and from the fans if that counts for anything. We were here for it, right?
DMG: Honestly, he felt really validated because he had been looking forward to grilled cheese sandwich night for about three months. So the fact that so many people joined in, even weeks later, they were still posting grilled cheeses, made him very happy.
It's a thing now. You guys start these movements. There's the hot dog one, and now we have the grilled cheese one. There's still the hot dog condiment war going on.
DGG: Walpurgisnacht, he wants credit for that.
JBB: Actually, that's the failed one.
DMG: I've heard more about Walpurgisnacht in the last year than I have ever.
JBB: My goal was to get everybody celebrating Walpurgisnacht as the second Halloween and really having parties, dressing up, doing the liquor, doing the food. Halloween is oriented towards children and Walpurgisnacht is oriented towards adults. I don't know what I'm going to do this Walpurgisnacht, but we got to have a party.
DMG: I'm sorry. The question was, what are our favorite moments from season six?
JBB: Oh, sorry.
Hold on, going back to Walpurgisnacht, because I know this is your soapbox and you're championing it. I wouldn't say it's failed. I think you just need to have a little bit of patience. A movement doesn't catch fire overnight, you're building momentum.
JBB: It's got so many aspects to it. And people were coming up to me at the Jamboree and saying, “Joe Bob, guess what we're doing on Walpurgisnacht.” “What?” “We're going to the Brocken in Germany.” I was like, “Don't do that. No, the whole idea is to bring it here! Have it here!”
DMG: Go where the devil is or it's not real.
JBB: No, we're going to make ours so good that the devil wants to come here.
DMG: All right, challenge accepted.
That's the goal. To be the one who throws a party so epic that the devil shows up.
JBB: We've got mountains in America that are higher than the fucking Brocken, so let's pick a mountain. Let's pick a really spooky mountain and say, “Come here.”
DMG: Again, favorite moments of season six.
JBB: Oh, sorry.
Okay, back to favorite moments of season six.
JBB: Let's see, what's your favorite moment?
DMG: Colleen Camp, for me. She's amazing.
JBB: The reason I liked that night was that a lot of people had not seen Death Game before, so we introduced Death Game to a larger audience.
DMG: I love when we get to let people know just how appreciated they are when they don't know. She was so touched, she was in tears so much of the time she was there. It was just amazing. I also want to add getting to show Dr. Giggles.
JBB: Dr. Giggles, okay.
DMG: I fought so hard for that one, you don't even know.
There was no support for grilled cheese and no support for Dr. Giggles, really?
DMG: There's never support for Dr. Giggles. Every time they were like, “What can we remove,” it was always Dr. Giggles. No, take anything else!
Is there anything you cut so you could keep grilled cheese and Dr. Giggles?
JBB: Oh, we're always having to cut things for various reasons.
DMG: We probably shouldn't say because we'll probably do it in season seven.
When you're choosing movies, you have a group of people with different cinematic tastes, how does that work out?
JBB: I would say that on the horror taste spectrum-
DMG: I have the best.
JBB: Okay. All right, for right now, we'll say you have the best. You're a Roger Corman in the '60s guy or an AIP guy or a '90s guy.
DMG: I'm a, I don't want to say it's so bad it's good because it's art to me. But I'm not very artsy. How's that?
JBB: Well, I go both ways.
DMG: I feel like that's your quote right there.
That is the headline.
JBB: I'm happy to go down and dirty, I'm happy to go European art film if we have the right one.
DMG: To be fair, I'm happy showing all of it. I'm glad we do, but I feel like I'm the one making sure that the Dr. Giggles of the world are represented.
I think that's what makes it interesting.
JBB: There is stuff in the library that I would strongly object to.
Like what? Give me one.
JBB: I don't remember the name of it, but we have an Indonesian horror film that I just think is abysmal, it's a ghost story. I would never show that.
Now that you've had a season of this kind of biweekly release schedule, how does it compare to weekly episodes, and how do you like it?
JBB: Oh, it sucks! I constantly have to tell people when we're airing. People constantly ask me, “Is this a Last Drive-In week?”
DMG: Every Monday when it's Drive-In week, we have to start reminding people.
JBB: It's this week. It's happening again, we're back.
DMG: But there are good and bad things, though. Bi-weekly is crazy. But if that's what we have to do to be able to go longer throughout the year, I love that. I also love that each movie gets more attention when we're just doing the singles.
JBB: I do like doing the singles. It actually allows me to talk more.
DMG: Honestly, that's true because we have to shut you up when we're doing two movies, it's insane. We would be there all night, so you get more leeway.
JBB: Well, remember when we were doing doubles, we sometimes finished at 2:30 in the morning.
DMG: Well, sometimes later.
JBB: The people on the East Coast were saying, “Yeah, I couldn't make it. I'm sorry.”
DMG: But we have problems either way because it's when we start early at 6:00 for my people on the West Coast, they're like, “Why are you guys starting at 6:00? I'm not even home from work yet.”
JBB: Well, the alternative would be to start at 7:00 on the West Coast and start at 10:00 on the East Coast and it's like we're trying to split the difference. I mean, the problem in LA is can you get home from work by 6:00? Not if you have a 9-5 job.
You made charts and graphs and maps and timetables and everything you could possibly do to lay out when there's an episode and when there's not. I tried to do my part. I made an article and I included your chart.
DMG: That was amazing! Thank you for doing that.
No, no, it didn't matter! I tried and it did not matter, still so much confusion.
DMG: It was a joke thing that he made, and it somehow ended up becoming the official schedule.
JBB: I know. Well, even I was using it as the official schedule. I couldn't remember.
DMG: Are we on this week? What's going on, what are we doing?
I literally have it in my calendar, but I just set it for bi-weekly so I know when it's a Drive-In night. I should have suggested that on Twitter for everyone else to do.
DMG: Well, if we do it again this year…
JBB: I am really grateful that the mutant family figured it out and worked hard to be sure they were there on the right days.
We got there, we got there. Speaking of the mutant fam, I feel like no one is more tuned into their fans than you guys are. What has the reception been like? For the bi-weekly model, there was some confusion, but overall, are people happy about the single episodes, happy about the bi-weekly? Would we want to go to single episodes on a weekly basis?
JBB: There are a lot of people who miss the doubles and they would rather us do the double features. But I would say there are more that are either okay with the singles or prefer the singles, and so we'll probably stay with singles, right?
DMG: Probably. Shudder's going to tell us what we're going to do.
JBB: Yeah, I mean, we're talking about this like we're in charge of the show.
DMG: We'll find out.
Are you guys being coy or you really know as much as I do at this point?
DMG: We really know as much as you do, always. Every third week in July or whatever, sure, let's do it.
When the moon is full. All right, that's fair. That gets into Walpurgisnacht territory if we just start measuring it in lunar phases.
JBB: The next time we do Walpurgisnacht, I'm going to make up some kind of guide for your home Walpurgisnacht preparation so that people can be ready. They can have the liquor and plenty of time to order the liquor from Finland or wherever they make it.
Okay, that's perfect. And we will share that, of course.
JBB: And the beers from Germany, Maibach.
Season 7 was just announced, what can we expect, and what do you focus on most when beginning a new season? Are you thinking about the movies, specials, guests?
JBB: New season, bigger and better Walpurgisnacht.
I should have known. I know Joe Bob's answer already.
DMG: He's not even kidding.
I know, I believe.
DMG: Goal One, goal two, bigger and better fucking grilled cheese night. We didn't have the proper bread last time, he was not happy.
JBB: Oh, yeah.
DMG: We will have a Wonder Bread mascot come dance now.
JBB: I insisted on Wonder Bread.
DMG: When he found out it wasn't-
JBB: Whoever went and got the bread, they didn't get Wonder Bread. That's why there was no package on the set. They knew it was going to piss me off because we didn't have actual Wonder Bread.
They got you bunk-ass bread?
DMG: It has to be Wonder Bread.
JBB: It has to be Wonder Bread and it has to be Kraft Cheese product.
DMG: These are our two goals for next season, only those.
Let's get it sponsored by Wonder Bread. Get them officially on board.
JBB: Well, we'll have to wait until National Grilled Cheese Day is on a Friday night again,
DMG: You could just do it close enough to it.
JBB: Well, I don't know. We probably won't do National Grilled Cheese every year, but I'll find something. We've never done hot dogs, we've argued about hot dogs. You know what's on a Friday night this year? The 4th of July is on a Friday night.
You just know that off the top of your head? The 4th of July lands on a Friday?
JBB: No, I was looking at it because I knew you were going to be interviewing me! I'm thinking that's hot dogs. That is hot dogs.
DMG: Can we get, I Know What You Did Last Summer for that? Let's start on it now.
JBB: Yeah, let's start on it now. And you know what? Joey Chestnut has been banned from the hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. We'll get him on our show.
DMG: I Know What You Did Last Summer. Oh, this is the best season ever.
This is going to be my favorite episode of all time. Joey Chestnut, I Know What You Did Last Summer.
JBB: Joey, we are in solidarity with you. We're not even eating Nathan's hot dogs anymore.
DMG: I would want to try that, though. I've always been curious how good I would do at a hot dog eating contest.
JBB: You would wow. I have seen you in action.
Yeah, my money's on you for sure.
JBB: Just thinking about that is kind of freaking me out. Have you watched the hot dog eating contest?
DMG: Don't they make it all wet?
JBB: You have to eat the bun too, I think.
If I don't see this on this next season, I'm going to be very upset with you two.
DMG: Oh, remind us. Hold us accountable.
JBB: You would really do that?
DMG: Yeah.
JBB: If you would do that, that is on the schedule. But who's your opponent?
DMG: You.
JBB: Come on, you would easily beat me.
DMG: Yuki. Yuki looks like he could eat some dogs.
JBB: Yuki could eat some dogs. If we get Joey Chestnut, he's going to beat anybody.
DMG: Yeah, but it would be goals. He's going to be the gold medal. We got to have bronze and… Oh, you know who'd be funny? Felissa Rose.
JBB: Felissa could probably put away some dogs.
Best episode ever.
JBB: We're going to work on that.
DMG: This how our pitch meetings work, by the way. You're seeing our inner thought process.
This is a more serious one, but you guys really foster a sense of community. Recently, John Brennan from the Last Drive-In lost his home in a house fire. One of the show's producers started a GoFundMe on John's behalf and last I checked, they had met their initial goal about 15 times over. I had a similar experience with the community — my dog needed life-saving surgery, and it was the horror community that came together literally overnight to raise the funds. What are your thoughts on how your fans look out for one another across the digital space and then carry that out into the real world?
JBB: I have had a lot of shows, I have never had an experience with an audience the way we experience this audience. I am constantly amazed at how close they feel to the show and to us, and how much of their lives they share with us, their interdependency. We do this annual event, the Jamboree. I think most people come to the Jamboree to meet with the other mutants that they know online, to be in a place where they can all be together in real-time. It's amazing and there's no other genre like that. There's no action film community, there's no rom-com community. I mean, there may be a Hallmark Channel community.
DMG: I think there is. I think there are Hallmark conventions.
JBB: There are, but I don't think it's the same thing. No, I don't think there's the same camaraderie because many of the people in the horror world are in the horror world because when they were growing up, they felt left out and they felt they had a misfit gene. They felt that they weren't part of a community. When they found this community, it's all the stronger because of the universal need to touch other people in your life. It's great, it's remarkable. I don't know anything like it.
The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon Season 6 finale airs live Friday, August 30 at 9pm ET on Shudder TV and AMC+ TV. Stay tuned for more details on The Last Drive-In Season 7.
