page_title: ShowBiz Pizza Place
section_title: ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc.
hierarchical_section_title: ShowBiz Pizza Place / History / ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc.
caption_attribution_description: English: A child rides a ride at the Showbiz Pizza location in Fayetteville, Arkansas in May 1987. The child is Ben Schumin, i.e. User:SchuminWeb.
context_page_description: ShowBiz Pizza Place, often shortened to ShowBiz Pizza, was an American restaurant pizza chain and family entertainment center founded in 1980 by Robert L. Brock and Creative Engineering. The brand emerged following a separation between Brock and Pizza Time Theatre, owners of the Chuck E. Cheese's franchise. ShowBiz Pizza restaurants entertained guests through a large selection of arcade games, coin-operated rides, and animatronic stage shows as a way to provide a complete package of food and entertainment.
  Both companies became competitors and found early success, partly due to the rise in popularity of arcade games during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The type of animatronics used in the ShowBiz Pizza chain – which featured an overall-clad, hillbilly bear named Billy Bob as one of its central characters – distinguished it from its rival which offered many of the same services. Following Pizza Time Theatre's bankruptcy filing in 1984, however, ShowBiz bought the struggling franchise to settle a former court settlement mandate and formed ShowBiz Pizza Time, a combination of the former companies' names. By 1992, all ShowBiz Pizza locations were rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese's.
context_section_description: In 1984, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and its assets were purchased by ShowBiz. As a result of the merger, the newly formed company was named ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. – a combination of the former names. However, both restaurants continued operating as separate entities.
  Richard M. Frank joined the company as president in 1985. Based on customer research, Frank instituted a number of changes to appeal to younger children and parents. Specific measures included increased lighting, a redesigned food menu, table service, self-serve fountain drinks, a revamped ride selection, and distinct toddler areas. However, relations between ShowBiz and Creative Engineering began to deteriorate. Aaron Fechter, founder of CEI and creator of The Rock-afire Explosion, would later claim in 2008 that the fallout was due to a demand by Showbiz to own CEI's licensing and copyrights to the animatronics show. Fechter says he refused, since Showbiz didn't offer monetary compensation for the rights. Despite the refusal, CEI's creative control was jeopardized, as ShowBiz had the ability to program the characters and replicate their voices, allowing them to make changes to the skits. ShowBiz later returned the recording rights to Fechter following CEI's Liberty Show production (in commemoration of the Statue of Liberty's centennial in 1986), but they did not return the programming rights.
  In 1989, ShowBiz Pizza Time became a public company with its stock market launch. The following year, it severed all ties with Creative Engineering and began restructuring the restaurant chains under "concept unification". The change consisted of removing the Rock afire Explosion show from their restaurants and converting it into a new show called "Chuck E. Cheese & Munch's Make Believe Band", featuring the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre characters. In addition, all ShowBiz Pizza locations in the U.S. were rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese's, effectively ending the "ShowBiz Pizza" brand. By 1992, the conversion was complete, and ShowBiz Pizza Time became known as CEC Entertainment, Inc., in 1998 moving its stock from NASDAQ to NYSE. In February 2014, the company was purchased by Apollo Global Management for $1.3 billion.
caption: A child on a ride at ShowBiz Pizza in Fayetteville, Arkansas
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