Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza (Here We Go Again!)

Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza (formerly known as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, and simply Chuck E. Cheese's) was an American entertainment restaurant chain founded in 1977 by Atari's co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Each location featured animatronic shows, arcade games, ball pits and amusement rides in addition to serving pizza and other food items. The chain's name was taken from its main character and mascot, Chuck E. Cheese. The first location opened as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California. It was the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment, thus being one of the pioneers for the "family entertainment center" concept.
After filing for bankruptcy in 1984, the chain was acquired in 1985 by Brock Hotel Corporation, the parent company of competitor ShowBiz Pizza Place. The merger formed a new parent company, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. which began unifying the two brands in 1989, renaming every location ShowBiz Pizza.
== History ==
=== Pizza Time Theatre ===
Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who sought to expand video-game arcades beyond adult locations like pool halls to family-friendly venues. His experience in the amusement park industry, and his fondness for the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland, influenced his concept for Pizza Time Theatre. He has said, "It was my pet project ... I chose pizza because of the wait time and the build schedule—very few components, and not too many ways to screw it up."
Prior to founding Atari, Bushnell would drive around the Bay Area with Atari co-founder Ted Dabney looking at different pizza parlors and restaurants to brainstorm concepts. "Chuck E. Cheese was always his (Nolan's) passion project, even before Atari was a thing," said Dabney. "He wanted to start a business of family-friendly restaurants with amusement park midway games. I think initially it made no fiscal sense, so he shelved it for a while, but then when Atari took off, he had the means to pursue it, plus a built-in distribution model for Atari's new releases."
When his first animatronic show was being assembled, Bushnell learned the costume he had bought for his main character, a coyote, was actually a rat, prompting him to suggest changing the name from "Coyote Pizza" to "Rick Rat's Pizza". His marketing team believed this name would not be appealing to customers and proposed "Chuck E. Cheese" instead. The company adopted the rat as their mascot.
The first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre opened in San Jose, California, in 1977. In 1978, when Atari's then-corporate parent, Warner Communications refused to open additional locations, Bushnell purchased the rights to the concept and characters from Warner for $500,000. Gene Landrum then resigned from Atari and was made the restaurants' president and chief operating officer. By the end of December 1979, there were seven PTT locations, six in California and one in Nevada (Sparks). Its animatronics were produced fully in-house by PTT employees.
=== ShowBiz ===
Main article: ShowBiz
To expand beyond California and the west coast, Bushnell began to franchise, resulting in a co-development agreement between himself and Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management in June 1979. The agreement handed Brock exclusive franchising rights for opening Pizza Time Theatres in sixteen states across the Southern and Midwestern United States, while also forming a company subdivision, "Pizza Show Biz", to develop the Pizza Time Theatres.
Late in 1979, Brock became aware of Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc. and his work in animatronics. In November 1979, he scouted Fechter's business and concluded that Creative Engineering's animatronics would be too strong a competition for Bushnell's work. Brock therefore requested that Bushnell release him from their co-development agreement, wishing to develop with Fechter instead.
In December 1979 Brock and Fechter formed ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc., and Brock gave notice to sever his development relationship with Bushnell. ShowBiz Pizza Place was conceptually identical to Pizza Time Theatre in all aspects except for animation, which would be provided by Creative Engineering. ShowBiz Pizza Place opened its first location on March 3, 1980, in Kansas City, Missouri.
Upon the opening of ShowBiz Pizza Place, Bushnell sued Brock and Topeka Inn Management over a breach of contract. Brock immediately issued a counter-suit against Bushnell, citing misrepresentation. The court case began in March 1980, eventually settling out of court with ShowBiz agreeing to pay Pizza Time Theatre a portion of its profits over the following decade. During this period, Topeka Inn Management changed its name to Brock Hotel Corporation and moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas. Both restaurants experienced increased success as the video game industry became more robust. To maintain competition, both franchises continually modified and diversified their animatronic shows.
=== Mergers, restructuring and Concept Unification ===
In 1981, Pizza Time Theatre went public; they lost $15 million in 1983. By early 1984, Bushnell's debts were insurmountable, resulting in the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Pizza Time Theatre Inc. on March 28, 1984. Brock then bought the floundering company, finalizing the purchase in May 1985 and merging the two restaurant companies into ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc.
After the merger, both restaurant chains continued operating under their respective titles, while major financial restructuring had begun. During this period, Creative Engineering began to sever ties with ShowBiz Pizza Time (officially splitting in September 1987). In 1989, ShowBiz began restructuring the restaurant chains under "Concept Unification". The change consisted of removing the Pizza Time Players animatronic show from their restaurants and converting it into Leo Lyons and the Rockin' Farm, featuring characters from ShowBiz Pizza that replaced Creative Engineering's characters, The Rock-afire Explosion. Between 1989 and 1992, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza locations were rebranded as ShowBiz, effectively ending the "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza" brand within the restaurant storefront.
=== International locations ===
In 1981, the restaurant franchise debuted in Australia under the name Charlie Cheese's Pizza Playhouse. The name change had to do with the common meaning of the word "chuck," which in Australia is a reference to the phrase "to throw up." The first location, located in Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, relocated in 1982 to a location in Carina, Queensland. Pizza Time Theatre, Inc. also opened multiple locations in Hong Kong that closed in the late 1980s, and at least one restaurant in Singapore, which closed shortly thereafter as a result of the initial company's 1984 bankruptcy. Two locations in Puerto Rico franchised by Santa Rosa Enterprises would open in 1983: one in San Juan, Condado in September of that year, and one in the Santa Rosa Mall in Bayamón which would open in either November or December of that year. Both stores would be short-lived and would approximately close by the end of 1985. Pizza Time Theatre also opened a location in Creteil, France in 1984 and planned to open a location in Ealing, England in the mid '80s, but the plan failed.
== Entertainment ==
=== Video arcade ===
Since the company's inception, one of the primary draws for the business was its video arcade offering inside restaurants. Within the arcade, customers could play coin-operated video games or redemption games, the latter of which involved games of skill that rewarded players in the form of tickets based on score. Tickets could be redeemed later for merchandise, such as candy and toys.
The coin-op games accepted brass tokens issued by the company, stamped with various logos and branding that evolved over time.
=== Animatronics ===
Another primary draw for the centers was their animatronic shows. There were historically several different styles of animatronic shows in use within the company, details of which would vary depending on when the location opened, whether it was renovated, available room for animatronic stages, and other factors.
When the first location opened in 1977, the animatronic characters were featured as busts in framed portraits hanging on the walls of the main dining area. The original show featured Crusty the Cat (the first character to face retirement as he was soon replaced with Mr. Munch in 1978), Pasqually the Singing Chef, Jasper T. Jowls, the Warblettes, and the main focus of the show, Chuck E. Cheese. By 1979, many restaurants had also added "cabaret" shows in separate rooms of each restaurant. One of the early Cabaret characters was Dolli Dimples, a hippopotamus who played the piano and sang in the blues/jazz style of performer Pearl Bailey. The in-house control system, which consisted of a 6502-based controller in a card cage with various driver boards, was called "Cyberamics".
While Fechter separately produced the Rock-afire Explosion animatronics for ShowBiz Pizza through the early 1980s, Bushnell and Pizza Time Theatre continued work on characters for their portrait format and newer balcony performance stage shows under the umbrella of the Pizza Time Players. Development on Cabaret concepts slowed greatly after Pizza Time Theatre Inc.'s bankruptcy in 1984 and its purchase by ShowBiz a year later. From 1985 to 1989, the merged company kept their brands (and their respective animatronics) mostly separate.
"Concept Unification" was undertaken beginning in November 1989 and continuing through 1992 to eliminate Chuck E. Cheese characters from locations and replace them with ShowBiz characters. The animatronics used for the Pizza Time Players were redressed as "Leo Lyons and the Rockin' Farm", with new costumes. Production of new Chuck E. Cheese's showtapes ceased in 1990; all showtapes were comprised of recycled material throughout 1991 and 1992.
=== Characters ===
* Chuck E. Cheese was the titular mascot, a rat who was outgoing, friendly, and liked singing and entertaining families. In the early years, he was much more abrasive to the other characters, before being toned down. Voiced by: John Widelock (1977-1984), Scott Wilson (1983-1990) and Lonny Wilder (1986)
* Helen Henny was a female chicken who was a world-famous Broadway actress. She had a tendency to insert clucking noises into her sentences. Voiced by: Nancy Lenehan (1977-1979, 1983-1986) and an unidentified voice actress (1986-1990)
* Mr. Munch was a purple monster who had a habit of eating anything, including pizza. He replaced original character Crusty the Cat in 1978. Voiced by: Fritz Heilbron (1978-1982), Scott Wilson (1982-1990) and Lonny Wilder (1986)
* Jasper T. Jowls was the banjo player, a goofy bloodhound dog hailing from Tennessee. Voiced by: John Widelock (1977), Scott Paulin (1977-1985), Scott Wilson (1986), and Bob West (1986-1990)
* Pasqually, the only main human character, hailed from Italy and enjoyed opera. Voiced by: John Widelock (1977), Joe Spano (1977-1983), Scott Wilson (1982-1986), and Bob West (1986-1990)
Category:Here We Go Again!