John Bloom is an investigative reporter, essayist and actor who was born in Dallas, raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attended Vanderbilt University on a sports-writing scholarship. Bloom began his writing career in Texas, earning two National Magazine Award nominations for his work with Texas Monthly. He was later fired from the Dallas Times-Herald for writing (as "Joe Bob Briggs") a parody of the then-popular song, "We Are The World". Joe Bob Briggs began his television career on The Movie Channel, hosting Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater (1987) for nine years. During this time, it became TMC's highest-rated show, earning two ACE award nominations. He currently hosts TNT's Monstervision (1993) on Saturday nights, and is at work on an autobiographical screenplay.