Initially, the program (which acted as a marathon of older horror, science fiction, or fantasy films) revolved around a mysterious claymation-style moon character who was featured in the bumpers alongside a creepy-sounding disembodied voice, who served as the narrator for the show and its promos.

When MonsterVision premiered on Saturday, June 29, 1991, it was little more than a marathon of older horror, science fiction, or fantasy films beginning at 8:00 PM ET and ending well into the early morning.

Films often fit a general theme, such as "TNT Salutes The Outer Limits," "Halloween Night," "Attack of the Sea Monsters," "A Christmas Nightmare," "Harryhausen Havoc," or recurring "Godzilla Marathons," although other occasions had somewhat unrelated choices.

[11] A number of later marathons, beginning on Saturday, June 5, 1993, were presented by the well-known entertainment duo Penn & Teller, before the show then transitioned to voice-over narration for the remaining duration of this period.

MonsterVision would typically show no more than two films per night, though several episodes were much longer, such as the 1997 "Super Bowl Sunday Special," which consisted of sixteen continuous hours of horror movies.

[20] Nevertheless, before each movie, Briggs would often give the audience his formal on-air "Drive-in Totals," a list of what he considered to be the most notable, gory, or humorous points in the film, followed by a rating of up to four stars, usually all delivered in a deadpan style.

★★★★"[21]After each commercial break, Joe Bob would deliver a diverting short or long monologue concerning observations he made about the film, as well as popular culture, society, and his thoughts about life in general.

Joe Bob frequently described his notional day-to-day activities, including supposed problems with his girlfriends (or lack thereof) and his four ex-wives (usually the fourth, "Wanda Bodeine").

Lastly, Briggs usually signed off each episode of MonsterVision with a casual debriefing on the movie just-ended, along with a series of deliberately bad jokes, and a reminder that "the drive-in will never die!

This running gag culminated with a Halloween marathon of Friday the 13th movies, which portrayed strange occurrences throughout the night, leading to Joe Bob realizing that Turner was trying to 'kill' him.

Moving from Dallas to Los Angeles, not only was the general aesthetic of the show changed to feel more 'Hollywood,' but the first film of each episode going forward tended to be more 'mainstream,' while the second was usually in accordance with traditional MonsterVision.

[26] Nonetheless, possibly due to a decline in ratings, TNT was unable to fully justify the increased budget after the move to Los Angeles, thus shifting to a one-movie-a-night format starting on Saturday, January 15, 2000.

[34] Despite some technical difficulties, these films included: Tourist Trap, Sleepaway Camp, Rabid, The Prowler, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Daughters of Darkness, Blood Feast, Basket Case, Re-Animator, Demons, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Hellraiser, and Pieces.

[36] Additionally, these segments also included Darcy the Mail Girl (Diana Prince), who not only showed up in movie-themed outfits to banter with Joe Bob and bring him messages from fans, but also spent the entire time live-tweeting with viewers.

[38][39] Following the unprecedented success of the "July 2018 Marathon," on Tuesday, September 5, 2018, Shudder announced that they had made the decision to greenlight two more specials for 2018, as well as The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs series beginning in 2019.