Jasper T Jowls 1980 Chuckecheese Pizza Time Theatre Cast Art

A brief introduction...

The post-obit is an overview of the xl+ year history of Chuck E. Cheese's. ShowBizPizza.com is in the process of writing an in-depth book about this company's history titled The Unauthorized History of Chuck E. Cheese's - but until it'south completed and ready for publication, this general overview hits all of the main points. For a more focused history regarding the individual characters and animatronic shows used, check out the Chuck E. Cheese'southward Characters and Rock-ablaze Explosion sections of ShowBizPizza.com. For farther enquiry and study, delight peruse our collection of PDF documents in the ShowBizPizza.com University.

PROLOGUE

The history of Chuck East. Cheese's begins with Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell grew upwardly in Utah and while earning an electrical applied science degree from the Academy of Utah, Bushnell worked every bit a games division manager at the Lagoon Amusement Park. It was during this period that he learned the business side of the amusement manufacture, studying the leisure habits of consumers and figuring out ways to market place to those habits. Upon graduating, Bushnell left Utah and moved to California with the hopes of becoming an engineer for Disney.

When that attempt failed, he went to work for Ampex Corp, a video equipment maker in Redwood Metropolis, California. At Ampex Bushnell befriended a co-worker named Ted Dabney, and soon enough the two were in discussions about starting a business together - specifically a pizza parlor that incorporated Disneyesque amusement. They soon began visiting local pizza parlors and scouting locations to encounter if they could conceivably plough this concept into reality. It was during this fourth dimension that Bushnell and Dabney visited the University of Stanford's computer laboratory (SAIL) to see Spacewar! – the world's very first video game.

Bushnell had the idea to create a cheaper version of the game that could be marketed at the consumer level. With the pizza parlor idea sidelined, the two focused on developing a cost-constructive Spacewar! clone, leaving Ampex Corp (having founded the company Syzygy to market the game they hoped to produce). In 1971 they successfully completed the game, which was titled Computer Space. The game, while not a complete flop, was far from what ane would consider a success. Adding to their troubles, when attempting to incorporate Syzygy they discovered the proper name was already in use. Forced to arrange, they renamed their fledgling company Atari Inc.

Thanks to the programming help of a new Atari employee, Al Alcorn, the game PONG is developed every bit a follow-up to Computer Space. Although PONG was hugely successful when it was tested in a Sunnyvale pub, Atari was unable to heighten venture upper-case letter forcing them to manufacture and marketplace the game themselves. Although Atari soon institute themselves successful, Dabney left the company in early on 1973 after having a falling out with Bushnell.

Profits at Atari explode over the adjacent few years, and finding no other way to remain competitive in the growing video game market, Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 for $28 meg. During the sale of Atari, Bushnell likewise signed a 5 year non-competitive agreement. Bushnell remained as the caput of Atari, simply many of his ideas and pet projects wind up ignored past his new corporate bosses. One project all the same, had already been given the green light.

PIZZA TIME THEATRE

Included in the auction contract to Warner, they agreed to fund the building on one eatery featuring Bushnell'due south concept of animated amusement. Free to finally realize his pizza parlor dream, Bushnell began assembling a team of people to make it a reality. He created The Atari Restaurant Operating Sectionalisation. This division explored several concepts including using antiquarian Wurlitzer organs, creating an antiquarian shop themed restaurant, and and then on. In the end Bushnell decided "aw heck, let'south but become with the animals," and thus the entire concept was reverted back to his original idea – using sound animatronic characters in a pizza restaurant.

One of Bushnell's first moves was to hire a human being named Gene Landrum to become the Atari Consumer Partitioning President and full general manager of the Atari Restaurant Operating Division. Landrum had recently worked with Atari doing a marketplace study for the Atari VCS (2600) and Bushnell entrusted him to mankind out the pizza parlor concept. Armed with a current copy of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) directory, Landrum began seeking people to build the animated puppets that they needed. The merely company that responded to his request was a small outfit located in the high desert of California called Fantasy Forest Manufacturing.

Fantasy Wood was endemic past a human named Harold Goldbrandsen who was primarily a fabricator of mascot costumes. Although he wasn't exactly trained in building animated puppets, he believed he could figure it out as he went. When meeting with Bushnell and Landrum in Sunnyvale, he noticed they had a mannequin in the room wearing a rat costume - 1 he had last seen at IAAPA at the booth of a competitor. Bushnell had actually purchased this costume at IAAPA and, assertive it was a coyote, had tentatively dubbed his new restaurant "Coyote Pizza". Once the costume was shipped and arrived at Atari, the long pinkish tail indicated it was actually a rat costume they had purchased. The costume had become a physical, tangible symbol of what Bushnell was hoping to create. Believing the restaurant would become so successful it would eventually compete with Disney, Bushnell named this costume Rick Rat, as "Rickey Rat" was a little as well close to "Mickey Mouse" for legal condolement.

Later bringing Goldbrandsen on lath to create the costume and animated puppets, Landrum hired Robert (Bob) Allen Black an artist who had worked previously with Atari. Blackness had drawn several cutesy looking cats, dogs, and other creatures - none of which passed any muster with Bushnell. During a coming together with Black, a frustrated Bushnell grabbed the head of Rick Rat, prepare information technology on his desk and said "here, depict something that looks like this."

During this time Landrum was difficult at work hammering out his vision of exactly how this new restaurant would be laid out, creating a presentational outline titled "The Big Cheese". It was not only ane of the proposed restaurant titles, just also the proper name the mascot rat. The proper noun wasn't meant to be nevertheless, every bit it was discovered that Marriott had already trademarked the proper name for its own chain of restaurants. Even though the trademark was on the verge of expiring from non-usage, Atari'due south legal department decided a new and unique name was needed. The proper noun "Chuck Eastward. Cheese" was eventually chosen, as it was both alliterative of Mickey Mouse and because it was a three-grinning proper noun - just maxim information technology forced a person'south mouth to grin.

Along with refining their mascot, a group of supporting characters was besides developed. Crusty, a blackness and white baseball game playing cat; Billy "Banjo" Boggs (soon renamed Jasper T. Jowls), a hillbilly hound canis familiaris; Pasqally, the Italian chef; and the Warblettes, a trio of singing magpies. These characters were the original Pizza Time Players, and were soon fabricated into animated form by Goldbrandsen. To handle the technical side of animating the animatronics, Landrum hired Larry Emmons and the team at Cyan Engineering (oft referred to equally Atari Grass Valley) to design the command system to make the show work.

The first Chuck E. Cheese'southward Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre opened on May 17, 1977 in San Jose, California. The pilot location was a five,000 square foot former brokerage edifice and was the first restaurant of its kind – offer a combination of pizza, animated entertainment, and an indoor arcade. The near unique aspect of the Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre was of course the animatronic show - life-sized animatronic critters that were placed in faux picture frames around the exhibit and entertained guests free of charge throughout the twenty-four hours. The Pizza Time Theatre was as innovational as information technology was groundbreaking and became an immediate success. Improvements and innovations continued to exist tested at the pilot store including the addition of revolving guest characters who would periodically join the animated bandage to keep the prove fresh - Helen Henny in August 1977, Madam Oink in February 1978, and Foxy Colleen in October 1978. Other additions included an improved pizza ordering system called "NOTALOG", developed by Bushnell's onetime partner at Atari, Ted Dabney.

Despite the apparent success of the Winchester pilot store, the heads of Warner Communications were disinterested in the concept. They had purchased a video games company, and were eager to shutter the restaurant so they could better focus on Atari'south struggling entry into the home video game market. Warner finally sold the eatery and concept buying to Bushnell in June of 1978 for $500,000. Bushnell quickly incorporated the business concern into Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre, Inc. and formed a team to open up boosted units. He placed himself and Chairman and immediately hired Landrum away from Atari to become President and Pizza Fourth dimension's start employee. Other talent was soon secured - Greg Tilden became the Director of Technical Operations, Michael Hatcher became the Director of Entertainment, and Ray Davis was appointed Managing director of Engineering.

A second location was secured in San Jose on Kooser Road. This former grocery shop was 19,000 square anxiety and nearly four times the size of the Winchester store. Containing over 100 video games, pinball machines, and other types of games, it was the country's largest pizza parlor upon opening. New attractions such every bit a cabaret room featuring Dolli Dimples, a pianoforte playing hippo, and the Fantasy Forest Game Preserve (named after Goldbrandsen'due south Fantasy Forest company) were new additions for the Kooser store. A few changes to the cast of characters were as well made, including changing out the Warblettes for the Mopsey Sisters, and swapping out Crusty the cat for a new purple monster grapheme named Mr. Munch.

Back at Atari, Bushnell had get more and more than frustrated with Warner's management and bourgeois market responses. They were tiresome to pursue new inventions such every bit the Atari 2600 habitation video game system, and Bushnell'southward unhappiness reached a pinnacle in Nov 1978. He presently thereafter left Atari, but the non-competitive understanding he signed 2 years earlier would come back to haunt him, every bit it barred him from competing with Atari in the video game world. Unable to compete in the arcade industry, his total attending became devoted to creating an empire of Pizza Time Theatre restaurants.

Bushnell aggressively began marketing the Pizza Time concept and trying to concenter franchisees. Promotional paraphernalia was distributed via Pizza Time'south PR firm Eesley Public Relations. In these various flyers, Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre is touted as having the only figurer controlled 3D blitheness outside Disneyland, a fact which wasn't exactly truthful. Regardless, the loftier profit yields attract several clients such every bit Robert L. Brock. Bob Brock, President of Topeka Inn Management (TIM), took an immediate an interest in Pizza Time as his current company was focused on diversifying their enterprises. Brock was already wealthy from being the globe's largest franchisee of Vacation Inn hotels in the Us. In belatedly June of 1979, as a way of securing an sectional franchise deal, Brock signed a $200 meg dollar Co-Development Agreement with Bushnell. This contract gave Brock exclusive franchising rights to open Pizza Time Theatres in 16 states across the Southern and Midwestern U.S. The contract included a target of 285 stores, 200 to be operated directly by TIM and another 85 to be sub-franchised. For these stores, Topeka Inn Management would be the one setting forth the majuscule to build each restaurant, estimated at a million dollars apiece.

SHOWBIZ PIZZA Place

TIM created a new division inside their company to manage their new restaurant wing named Pizza Show Biz. This fully-staffed division was formed to implement an aggressive program of development for the Pizza Time Theatre restaurants. This was happening in addition to several more Pizza Time stores that were opening outside of the agreement betwixt Brock and Bushnell. Pizza Time Theatre was continuing to abound and develop, bringing Joe Keenan on board to get the new visitor president and making Landrum the new Senior Vice President of Development. Keenan and Bushnell had worked together for years at Atari, with Keenan existence appointed to Bushnell's chairman position when he left Atari. The motion to bring him onboard at Pizza Fourth dimension was done ahead of a planned IPO, signaling to investors that the "old squad" at Atari was back together and fix to succeed. By the cease of 1979, Pizza Time had 8 units open, including the first two outside of California.

The relationship between TIM and Pizza Time began to deteriorate very quickly. As it turned out, Bob Brock and his associates were unhappy with the thought of being franchisees. Information technology wasn't but a matter of months before they began seeking a way to venture out on their own. The concept of Pizza Time Theatre seemed elementary enough, and after all, TIM was the ane financing the estimated $200 million cost of the Co-Evolution Understanding. They could build the restaurants, they could purchase the games, simply there was one missing piece of the puzzle for which they still needed Pizza Time to provide – the animated entertainment.

In November 1979 they constitute what they were looking for. The IAAPA convention in New Orleans, Louisiana featured a company out of Orlando, Florida named Artistic Engineering, Inc (CEI). At this item convention their showroom was hard to miss, as two fully animated shows were on brandish, The Wolf Pack v and the Hard Luck Bears, occupying their own large room across from the master showroom area. Creative Engineering had been operating since 1975, originally incorporated for the purpose of manufacturing the inventions of its (so) 21 year old President, Aaron Fechter.

The first invention pushed past CEI was minor car called the "Jutta" that got 90 miles on a gallon of gas. Although the Jutta garnered media buzz the current gasoline crisis left Fechter unable to raise enough capital to put the auto into production. Attempts to raise majuscule for the Jutta pb Fechter down a path of several inventions, somewhen leading to the market of designing and creating animated characters in 1976 - displaying an animatronic head called "The Scab" at the IAAPA convention of November of that year.

At the next IAAPA show in Nov 1977, CEI had more than advanced animatronics on display including a trio of singing heads and full characters such every bit Friendly Freddy and Count Dracula. It was at this convention that Fechter was introduced to Bushnell who discussed with him his concept that utilized animated characters in a pizza restaurant. Bushnell displayed an interest in purchasing only characters without a control system, pointing that CEI's characters were improve in an creative sense, but his engineers at Atari could build a superior control arrangement. Knowing that Bushnell'southward people were fully capable of taking autonomously conductors and finding out how a show worked, Fechter feared that Bushnell would quickly run him under and thus politely declined his offer.

By the time the 1978 IAAPA convention took place, CEI unveiled their newest animatronic creation – the Wolf Pack 5, a grouping of singing animals that was inspired by the Rocky Horror Show. The Wolf Pack five sang a range of 50's and 60's exercise-wop and it'south characters included the Wolfman, Fats Gorilla, Dingo Starr, Embankment Bear, and Queenie the Play a trick on. Another word occured between Fechter and Bushnell, and this time effectually Bushnell offered to buy CEI. Again Fechter declined, only Bushnell left a terminal invitational offering to involve them in the operation of Pizza Time Theatre, if interested.

Soon afterward the 1979 IAAPA show, Brock and an acquaintance from TIM traveled to Orlando to run across with Fechter personally. Upon arriving, Brock was surprised to find not "a kid making junk in his garage," every bit Bushnell had characterized Fechter, simply a company that employed 25 people and created quality animation. Brock explained to Fechter how he was unhappy with Pizza Time'southward animation - something that Bushnell assured him that in fourth dimension would become ameliorate and amend. However, with Brock's first Pizza Time Theatre franchise simply a few months from opening, Brock was nervous over the thought of CEI's superior animation possibly being utilized by future competitors.

Two weeks after meeting with Fechter, Brock contacted Bushnell and demanded out of the Co-Evolution Understanding on the grounds of misrepresentation. Bushnell refused to release him from the contract, so Brock began discussions with Fechter nearly the formation of a new company which would be jointly controlled by TIM and CEI. In Dec of 1979, Brock severed ties with Bushnell and declared the Co-Evolution Agreement void. He signed a Pre-Incorporation Understanding with Fechter to create ShowBiz Pizza Identify Inc. ShowBiz was to exist eighty% owned by Brock and xx% by CEI. Having already considered the Co-Development Agreement void, Brock outlines a plan to begin using CEI's blitheness with the opening of their second store. The beginning store, scheduled to open in the Antioch shopping middle in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, would utilize Pizza Time Theatre's animation. This gave the team at CEI the fourth dimension and opportunity to create a new animatronic show that would be exclusively used for ShowBiz. The souring relations betwixt Bushnell and Brock quickly exploded into litigation. Pizza Time Theatre Inc sued TIM (and Brock personally) over breach of contract. TIM immediately issued a counter-suit confronting Pizza Time Theatre (and Bushnell personally) on the grounds of misrepresentation. This contested battle remained pending in the California courts for over 2 years.

As the franchisee equipment and supplies arrived at Antioch, Brock fabricated a last infinitesimal decision to not use Pizza Fourth dimension animation at all, turning away the Pizza Time characters away and alerting Pizza Time to the trouble at mitt. It as well forced CEI to supply the blitheness for the new store. They chose to provide the Wolf Pack v, every bit information technology was something they already had in production for other clients. At ShowBiz'due south request, CEI altered the original Wolf Pack 5 showtape to include references to the new eating house and inverse Queenie into Mini Mozzarella because ShowBiz wanted a mouse to go with the 'pizza' theme of the restaurant.

ShowBiz Pizza Identify opened its doors on March 3, 1980 in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri. The eatery is very similar to Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre and used many supplies and decorations obtained directly from Pizza Time, however at that place are some key differences. The Wolf Pack v testify entertains guests every few minutes with a short bear witness throughout the day. What was going to be the cabaret is transformed instead to the 'disco room' and contains a separate Wolfman animatronic. Billy Bob is also introduced at the 1st ShowBiz and exists non on stage equally an animated character, but only in walk-around character form. Billy Bob is loosely based on a character from CEI's Hard Luck Bears animatronic show. At the request of Stan Emerson, president of ShowBiz'south ad agency, Billy Bob is dressed in red and yellow overalls to lucifer the color scheme used by the restaurant.

Just prior to the opening of ShowBiz's second store, they won the start circular in court against Pizza Time Theatre. The court plant that Pizza Time did non show proper show that ShowBiz was using trade secrets or competing unfairly. TIM likewise changed its corporate name to Brock Hotel Corporation (BHC) in April of 1980.

On August 14, 1980, ShowBiz opened its 2nd store in Jacksonville, Florida which contained CEI'south ShowBiz-exclusive show, The Rock-afire Explosion. The Stone-ablaze Explosion was an amalgam of the Wolf Pack 5 and the Difficult Luck Bears and featured the characters Rolfe & Earl, Knuckles LaRue, Fats Geronimo, Beach Deport, Mitzi Mozzarella, Billy Bob, and the Looney Bird. I key difference that set the Rock-afire autonomously from Pizza Time's prove was that it had three stages. The three stage format gave more flexibility with the way shows could be presented – i stage could perform by itself, or different combinations of stages could be used to increase the theatrical aspect of the entertainment. Some other change fabricated to the 2nd store is the amending of the disco room which became the sports room. The Wolfman is also removed from this side room, and a large television screen is added allowing parents, who desire to escape the animation, a risk to watch sports or soap operas while their children played.

ANIMATRONIC PIZZA WARS

With the pending litigation hovering above both companies, Pizza Time and ShowBiz embark on an aggressive expansion plan. The number of new stores that open up during 1980-1982 explode; oft times competing stores are opened inside sight of one another. In guild to stay ahead of their competitor and gain a greater market place share of the pizza entertainment manufacture, both companies go along to introduce and enhance their amusement, albeit with differing philosophies.

Pizza Time Theatre rapidly jettisoned the original animatronic bear witness format, commonly referred to as the "portrait" prove and placed all the characters together on i single stage in order to ameliorate the focus on the testify. This new setup, complete with redesigned half-bodied animatronics, becomes known as the Balcony Stage. Whereas the the original portrait characters were designed by hand and had cosmetics constructed with latex and fiberglass, the new grapheme cosmetics were instead fabricated of forest, foam, and fabric. Forth with the standardization of the inner mechs, this was all done purposely to ease both the manufacturing of the animation and brand the production toll effective. This was done at the request of Bushnell, who knew a affair or two about price savings from his feel building PONG machines in rapid fashion.

ShowBiz nonetheless was intent on having an animatronic evidence that was as sophisticated as possible, with CEI going to groovy lengths to do everything they could to hide the fact that their characters were really machines. The trade off of course, was the massive cost needed to produce the shows. In addition to the cost of the Rock-afire Explosion show (capped at $100,000 past the Manufacturing, Sales, and License agreement) ShowBiz was as well spring to ordering a continuous flow of animatronic shows from CEI in order to maintain their exclusive license to the Rock-afire Explosion characters.

During the early expansion, both entities made additions and refinements to their respective entertainment. At Pizza Time, new invitee stars were introduced including Sally Sashay in 1979 and Harmony Howlette in 1981. The cabaret shows were also expanded to include several new characters. New cabaret characters included Artie Antlers (1980), and B.B. Bubbling (1982). New lounge characters included Helen Henny (1979), The Beagles (1980), The Male monarch (1981), The Embankment Bowzers (1982) and King Kat (1984). The Iv Little Shavers also make rare appearances in the prototype Ice Cream Emporiums which were located in a few Pizza Fourth dimension exam locations. The multifariousness of these cabaret and lounge shows really helped to emphasis the fun of Pizza Time Theatre restaurants, making them more diverse – one shop nigh likely had a different guest star and unlike cabaret or lounge show from a store across town.

ShowBiz likewise made some central changes to the Rock-afire stage. The characters are refined to include updated cosmetics and new costume changes. The spelling on sure characters' names such as Fatz and Dook are changed, all in an try to streamline the shows and mass produce them in a standardized format. Merchandise with character names and artwork is produced and vinyl records of the Rock-afire'south songs are sold in the gift shops. By the offset of 1982, Creative gets the become-ahead from ShowBiz to begin production of a new character named Uncle Klunk, and by the stop of 1982 Creative gives Mitzi and Beach Bear new voices. This new bandage of Stone-afire singing talent would remain the same for many years.

Defalcation AND MERGER

In 1982 the contested lawsuit betwixt Pizza Time and ShowBiz is settled out of court, with ShowBiz agreeing to pay Pizza Time a portion of its profits for the next 14 years – an expense estimated to exist in the range of $50 one thousand thousand. Despite the settlement in favor of Pizza Time, the two companies yet engaged in heavy competition. As the companies battled for customers, Bushnell placed Pizza Fourth dimension in the easily of others while he invested his interest and time in other ventures.

When Pizza Fourth dimension went public in 1981 it increased Bushnell's worth to somewhere in the range of $seventy million – much of information technology in Pizza Time stock. Being an inventor and innovator, Bushnell'southward goals were to start a company, manage it to a stable and successful point, and then move onto new projects. Information technology had come that time with Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre, and Nolan handed the operation of the company over to others, while he founded a visitor called Catalyst Technologies to springboard his new products. Several new products came from this visitor such as Compower, Axlon, Etak, Androbot and Magna Microwave. These new products included shopping on computers using laserdisc, computer controlled navigational maps for vehicles, robotic children's toys, and life-size personal robots. Although these new ventures were semi-successful, the year 1983 would spell disaster for Bushnell and his personal projects and fortune. In the U.Southward. the bang-up video game crash hits, mainly due to a massive corporeality of cheaply made and await-akin games which flooded the abode marketplace. Pizza Time Theatre lost $15 million while Atari, the video game giant, lost $539 million.

Much of Pizza Time'south profits had been funneled into new ventures, opening new subsidiaries inside the company such as Kadabrascope, which was to pioneer computer blitheness, Zapp's Bar and Grill, which was Pizza Fourth dimension's foray into adult dining establishments, and Sente Games, which was Bushnell'southward long-delayed return to the arcade video game market. Past July of 1983, Pizza Time was commencement to hemorrhage coin, reporting their first loss always at $3 1000000. Keenan and other lath members attempted to finish the bleeding past closing unprofitable units and changing the pizza recipe to entice customers. Bushnell withal believed that Sente would cure all of Pizza Fourth dimension's troubles one time he was able to debut the company, finally free from the non-compete agreement he was yet bound by (which expired on Dec nine, 1983 at x:08 a.thousand.) He also refused to let become of Kadabrascope and Zapp'southward in order to free up greenbacks for the visitor.

The successful year-end to 1983 that Bushnell had anticipated never came. As problems connected to mount, Bushnell resigned as chairman and CEO on Feb 1, 1984. Straddled with debt and losing shut to $xx 1000000 per month, Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 28, 1984. Although ShowBiz had manifestly won the "pizza war" against their competitor, they weren't in much better condition, having faced a months-long sales reject. ShowBiz was no longer opening new stores, had resorted to endmost downwardly nearly a dozen low-book units, and complete unused Stone-ablaze phase shows were start to pile upwardly in storage at CEI. Uncle Klunk finally made his debut just to wind up a dismal failure, and other characters in development like Paul McCartney and 2d generation upgrades for existing Rock-afire characters were scrapped entirely. Relations between ShowBiz and CEI had also begun to sour, with Fechter stepping down every bit Director of Amusement and ShowBiz get-go to manage much more of the entertainment in-business firm than ever before.

Ironically, the arguably nigh valuable asset left to Pizza Time's remaining estate was the settlement agreement that was still owed by ShowBiz. In a mutually benign maneuver, ShowBiz decided to embark on a merger with Pizza Fourth dimension, swallowing up the remains of their assets start with much of their franchise system, and thus purging the debt that ShowBiz owed. In society to make this purchase, a xc% agreement was needed - of which Brock simply owned 80% of ShowBiz (with CEI owning the other twenty%, effectively giving Fechter veto power over whatsoever such changes). With Brock explaining to Fechter that this was the only way their company would survive, Fechter sold him 10% of his shares giving him the 90% needed to proceed. In club to make the purchase of Pizza Time, ShowBiz issued four,000,000 shares of ShowBiz Pizza Place common stock equally well every bit 500,000 shares of preferred stock to the creditors of Pizza Time. After acquiring the concluding of the Pizza Time assets, ShowBiz Pizza Identify Inc. adopted the new name of ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc.

SHOWBIZ PIZZA Fourth dimension, INC.

In 1985 Richard Yard. Frank joined the company as president and CEO of ShowBiz, replacing Brock who remained CEO and chairman of Brock Hotel Corp. Prior to joining ShowBiz, Frank had been the COO of Steak and Ale which was quite successful. He decided to accept the reigns at ShowBiz Pizza Time after visiting several ShowBiz and Pizza Fourth dimension Theatre restaurants and observed the children running around and loving the concept - despite the fact that the stores were run downward and the service wasn't very good. It was quite a take a chance to have over a newly merged company that was on the brink of defalcation only Frank saw value in the concept beyond where information technology was at - if children loved the experience (as poor as it was at the time) he wondered how dandy it could be if it could be done in a more than quality way.

Frank'southward first move as head of ShowBiz Pizza Time was to cease the bottom-line bleeding. Well-nigh leases weren't being paid, debt wasn't being paid at all, and all acquirement was allocated to make payroll and paying suppliers for what was absolutely needed to operate. With 359 total restaurants, Frank fabricated the hard decision to close around 100 of the to the lowest degree profitable locations. ShowBiz'due south parent company, Brock Hotel Corp, was likewise facing dire straits. With the assist of the Hallwood Group, major financial restructuring is undertaken. In order to stave of bankruptcy, debt was renegotiated with 96 per centum of Brock's creditors and reduced the debt from $110 million to $30 million. The proceeds gained from endmost the less profitable units was enough to pay off the remaining debt. Overall, Brock Hotel Corp's cyberspace worth went from a negative $64 million to a positive $55 million, and the company emerged with a new board of directors. Brock was given a payout and left the company that diameter his name, with Anthony J. Gumbiner becoming chairman and Thomas J. Corcoran Jr. promoted to President and CEO.

The restructuring is completed by mid-1986 and further changes are made to help stabilize in-shop sales at ShowBiz and Pizza Fourth dimension restaurants. Focus is placed on food quality, execution, parent & children satisfaction, marketing, and finances. In order to chase off teenagers and make the restaurants family unit friendly, rules were put in place preventing anyone under 18 from entering. All but the most popular video games were removed and more redemption games of skill were installed. New entertainment ventures were explored as part of the Attractions Development Plan - these ranged from minor cost-saving amusement enhancements to full calibration changes, such as toying with the idea of removing the Stone-ablaze Explosion from ShowBiz restaurants.

It is also during this time that ShowBiz learned how to plan the Stone-ablaze shows – at one indicate going and then far as to produce their own in-house showtapes using talent from a local production squad who was also producing the Chuck E. Cheese showtapes. The changes made during the merger wiped out the original Manufacturing, Sales & Licensing Agreement between ShowBiz and Artistic Engineering, replacing it with the Settlement and Licensing Agreement - a legal understanding that gave Creative buying of the unused shows that were still in their possession, assuasive them to sell those shows to other restaurants, and removed ShowBiz's sectional rights to the Rock-afire Explosion. Information technology also gave ShowBiz more flexibility with the content and control of the Rock-afire Explosion shows that remained in their restaurants. An outside visitor Creative Presentations Inc. was hired to do some of the add-on retrofits such as the Liberty stage, which was installed organisation-wide beyond ShowBiz stores in 1986.

With aggressive marketing and major remodeling, profits began to increase. In 1987, the company opened its commencement new store in over 3 years. Also in 1987, the company caused near of the assets of Montery House Inc. a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants. A few of the existing Pizza Time franchises used outside blitheness such as the Family Album and Hot Fudge shows considering of the availability shortage of Pizza Fourth dimension animation during the company'due south deadening years. By the belatedly 1980s, these stores received the new Chuck E. Cheese stages – the first new stages to exist produced since the balcony stage in the early 1980s. The two new stages were very similar and used retrofitted balcony characters. The original was called Chuck East.'south House (aka the Rocker stage) which featured the characters on a porch and inside of a house, and a later version called Chuck East's House Façade (aka the C-Phase) which was a scaled downwards retrofit that didn't have full bodies on the three characters in the heart.

The Rock-afire stage was also contradistinct slightly during this fourth dimension. Billy Bob's stage was changed from Smitty's Super Service Station to the ShowBiz Pizza Campground. Creative had begun selling the Rock-afire to exterior eating house competitors, so with ShowBiz losing its exclusive rights, this made the Stone-afire stages at ShowBiz unique. Experimentation as well began with phasing out the Rock-afire completely. One of the first moves was to introduce new licensed characters to the stage. Later considering characters such as Garfield, Spider-homo, and Superman, ShowBiz decided on Yogi Bear. Afterward about 2 years of negotiation and production, Yogi Acquit appeared in place of Baton Bob on stage at 3 test stores.

A new standardized prove format was implemented system broad and was known as the 'Birthday Wave' format. This new format consisted of shows that were 8-12 minutes long and were designed to make birthday shows easier to execute. By showing a birthday show at a certain time, several parties could be served in i wave. The new 'cyberstar' organisation was introduced to accent this new format and included video monitors to compliment the characters on phase.

CONCEPT UNIFICATION

Many of these arrangements were made in preparation of the visitor'south future plans. In 1988 Brock Hotel Corp changed it's name to Integra (A Hotel and Eating house Company) and soon later announced plans to spin-off ShowBiz Pizza Time into a publicly traded company, as that year ShowBiz's sales increased 8.three%. New logos and a rebranding also took place, with ShowBiz Pizza Identify becoming simply ShowBiz Pizza, and Chuck E. Cheese'due south Pizza Time Theatre becoming Chuck E. Cheese'due south Pizza. By the finish of 1988 Integra had dispersed 90% ownership of ShowBiz Pizza Fourth dimension Inc. common stock to Integra shareholders and ShowBiz mutual stock began trading on NASDAQ in early January 1989. Unfortunately after making ShowBiz it's own publicly traded company, Integra never recovered. Their own stock halted trading in late 1991 and Integra filed for bankruptcy in mid-1992 from which they would not emerge.

Once ShowBiz was on information technology'south own, new ventures were undertaken including perhaps the most major streamlining maneuver in their history - a major rebranding effort known as Concept Unification. By September of 1990 all ties with Creative Engineering had been broken and ix ShowBiz stores had removed the Rock-afire Explosion characters, retrofitting them to resemble the Chuck E. Cheese characters. As profits seem to stay steady and in many cases increasing, more and more Rock-ablaze stages were converted into Munch's Make Believe Band. The Porch and Rocker stages were also transformed into a similar version of the Brand Believe Ring (becoming either the Road Stage, or a 1 or 2 stage variation known as an Existing Stage). Concept Unification lasted for approximately 2 years, and by 1992 all restaurants were united under the single banner of Chuck Due east. Cheese's Pizza.

CHUCK E. CHEESE'S

The early 1990s brought exterior contest which forced ShowBiz to adapt in order to compete in the new market. Discovery Zone was one of the entertainment concepts that became a source of major competition, existence an entertainment center targeted toward children, only with a very unlike theme. Discovery Zone was an indoor jungle gym with many hands-on activities aimed at children. Sales at restaurants begin to deadening and following disappointing sales in 1993, ShowBiz Pizza Fourth dimension drops the word "pizza" from the eatery name, rebranding information technology as simply "Chuck E. Cheese's". A new child friendly version of Chuck E. is also promoted, giving a thumbs-up gesture in the new eating place logo. The remaining Monterey'southward Tex-Mex Buffet restaurants are also sold off.

In 1995 the company began major remodels which are known every bit Stage I. These Phase I store refreshes include new features such as Kid Bank check kiosks to bring parent's additional piece of mind while letting their kids run effectually and play, Free attractions such as Skytubes are also added to requite them a more level playing field against Discovery Zone. Chuck Due east. himself is officially changed from a rat to a mouse and is given a new kid-friendly image.

In 1997 a new test stage called the Awesome Adventure Automobile was test marketed. Although the phase was besides complex and unstable, it paved the fashion and gave rise to the Chuck E. Cheese stage show concept known as Studio C. Designed and produced by Garner Holt Productions, Studio C contained simply i blithe figure, Chuck E., with the other characters present only on television monitors.

With all units now completely themed to Chuck East. Cheese, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. changes its company proper noun to Chuck E. Cheese Amusement, Inc. in 1998. Phase II remodels brainstorm, increasing the number of games and rides, along with upgrades to the prize redemption areas. In July of 1999, Discovery Zone files for Chapter eleven bankruptcy and CEC Entertainment buys out their remaining assets and intellectual property, eliminating its only major competitor and securing themselves as the dominant family unit entertainment center in the U.S.

The early 2000s proved to be a boon for the company, with sales increasing and new locations opening constantly. Stage III remodels were instituted in 2000 with a focus on enhanced games and rides and all new Toddler Zone and Skytube improvements. The 300th company-owned location was opened in March of 2000, and franchised locations were aggressively purchased back by the visitor. With the company no longer franchising in the United States, many franchisees who were wanting to expand institute themselves unable to grow their business concern and instead opted to sell their units back. The company too tested new "small town" Chuck E. Cheese's locations featuring an all you can eat cafe, a costumed Chuck Due east. on the floor at all times, and a accuse for admission at the door. Ultimately these locations were given a scaled down version of Studio C, suggesting that the influence of animated characters was still important.

In 2003, the 400th company-owned location was opened, and in 2005 the 500th location was opened. Phase IV remodels began in 2004, featuring updated interior and exterior decor and a new company logo and colour scheme. Aforementioned store sales in many units became fairly stagnant, with lilliputian to modest increases, only the franchise buybacks and opening of additional units kept acquirement flowing and increased the company's bottom line. Cutbacks in entertainment were starting to surface however - the Studio C animated concept was scaled down from the original "alpha" to a "beta" version, featuring an animatronic with one-half the movements and less bells-and-whistles throughout the rest of the show. Plans to roll-out Studio C system-broad, with the original goal of reaching completion in 2002 never materialized, leaving many stores with much older animatronic shows that had been in functioning for several decades. Some Studio C shows were installed with piffling more than than a backdrop of color changing circles known every bit Circles of Lights, eventually giving fashion to Circles of Lights stages with no animatronic character at all (with only the costumed character actualization periodically to perform special shows). By the mid-2000s the costumed Chuck East. was planned to accept a flow of new outfits to proceed the grapheme fresh, each named after a progressing letter of the alphabet starting with "A". The first was the majestic and green "Avenger" outfit. No other outfits followed, leaving the Avenger wait to become a mainstay for several years.

Although the company had held its head higher up water through the Great Recession, many of the mechanisms it had used to stay afloat were beginning to run sparse. Remaining franchises to absorb into the company were few and far between, and the company had all but saturated the market to aggrandize much further. Rather than take the risk of opening units every bit fast and furious every bit they had been, they began offer franchise options one time once again in the U.s., saving company funds to invest into existing stores. Sources of revenue were in greater need and the company began to remove the "free" entertainment options in many locations - pulling out Skytubes and Toddler Zone'due south and replacing them with boosted games or, in some stores that had the room, bumper cars and other premium attractions.

ROCKSTAR & FUNNERGATE

In the summer of 2012 Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. was ready to make some major changes to button the brand forrard in a new direction. Much of this was accomplished by contemporizing the Chuck E. Cheese character into a CGI "rockstar" mouse, with a completely new look and a make new voice. In May the company had announced they were working with the Dallas-based Richard'due south Grouping on the new marketing campaign. Nevertheless, any successful whorl-out of the rebranding that the visitor was planning, quickly went up in flames prior to the official debut.

In tardily June, subscribers to the new Chuck E. electronic mail club were given preview access to an mp3 described as "Chuck Due east.'s commencement single" - which ended up being the promotional track to the rebranding entrada called Say Cheese (it's Funner). Online fans speedily noticed the voice sounded quite different from Duncan Brannan who had voiced Chuck E. since 1993. When one of the online fans contacted him directly to ask if he was still doing the vocalization, Brannan responded past posting a "press release" to his Facebook wall describing how he was allow go in a farewell letter of the alphabet to his fans. That bye posting was archived to ShowBizPizza.com and within a few days, referenced in an article by the Dallas Morn News. Within hours other outlets and blogs were reporting almost it - Gawker, the Huffington Post, Perez Hilton and many others had all written about it (many of them unfairly latching onto the parts of Brannan'due south posting regarding his religious views). The next day the AP had published an article making headlines in hundreds of news outlets. Rather than focus on the overall ad campaign, the news cycle instead focused virtually entirely on Brannan's replacement by Bowling for Soup frontman, Jaret Reddick. Compounding the bug was the use of the term "funner", which, although grammatically right, sounded weird - the company had simply used the term "more fun" in a campaign a few years prior.

Nigh of the press received over the rockstar rebranding was a disaster, not to mention that the character updates weren't immediately popular with the full general public. Sales failed to turn around, forcing the visitor to release a obviously text annual report, the likes of which had not been seen since Pizza Time Theatre entered bankruptcy in the early 1980s. In 2014 Apollo Global Management caused Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. and its 577 worldwide stores for approximately $950 one thousand thousand. As a event of the merger, Chuck E. Cheese's became a privately-held, wholly-owned subsidiary of affiliates of Apollo. Before long after, the company caused the Peter Piper Pizza chain of restaurants - operating both bondage nether the parent company Queso Holdings, Inc.

CEC 2.0 AND COVID-19

The pre-Apollo direction squad at Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. all resigned inside a month including CEO Michael Magusiak, chairman Richard Yard. Frank, Tommy Franks, Tim Morris, Cynthia Pharr Lee and Walter Tyree. Condign the new CEO in 2014 was Tom Leverton, nearly recently serving as the CEO of Topgolf.

In 2017 Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. embarked on a major shop rebranding initiative known as "2.0" which would assist integrate the new rockstar version of Chuck E. Cheese fully throughout the stores. These new 2.0 restaurants were called Chuck E. Cheese Pizzaria & Games, with upscale features, muted and modernistic pattern, tokens replaced by the new Play Pass carte du jour organisation for all games, and the removal of all animatronics in favor of an electronic lighted trip the light fantastic floor on which the costumed character performs. Similar to what occurred with the rockstar revamp, media outlets seized on the news regarding the removal of the animatronics, leading to often less than positive press and social media reactions.

Remodels continued over the next few two years, with newer openings scaled dorsum due to budget constraints. In 2019 the company announced the rebranding of the restaurants to but "Chuck E. Cheese" dropping the possessive. An attempt to take the visitor public through a merger with the trounce company Leo Holdings Corporation fell apart shortly after being announced. The plan was to debut the visitor at a valuation of about $one.4 billion, and planned to utilize money from the deal to pay downward debt, which stood at $958 meg.

Post-obit the failure of the public offering, Leverton resigned as CEO in early 2020 and was replaced by David McKillips who had been the president of international evolution for Half dozen Flags Entertainment Corp. Less than ii months following the appointment of McKillips, the covid-nineteen pandemic took hold in the United States, shuttering about indoor dining establishments across the country. Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, famous for their entertainment offerings, were forced to stay alive solely through delivery and accept out services. As a consequence of this (and also knowing that Chuck E. Cheese isn't the place nigh people initially think of when ordering out for pizza) Chuck E. Cheese begins selling pizza nether the pseudonym brand Pasqually's Pizza & Wings through delivery services such equally Grubhub, DoorDash, and UberEats. Yet, unable to bring in enough revenue or secure loans to pay down interest on the company's debt, Chuck E. Cheese Amusement, Inc. filed for Affiliate 11 bankruptcy protection June 25, 2020.

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Source: https://www.showbizpizza.com/history/index.html

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