chuck e cheese история
History of Chuck E. Cheese’s Overview
A brief introduction.
PROLOGUE
The history of Chuck E. Cheese’s begins with Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell grew up in Utah and while earning an electrical engineering degree from the University of Utah, Bushnell worked as a games division manager at the Lagoon Amusement Park. It was during this period that he learned the business side of the entertainment industry, studying the leisure habits of consumers and figuring out ways to market to those habits. Upon graduating, Bushnell left Utah and moved to California with the hopes of becoming an engineer for Disney.
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-effective 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 one would consider a success. Adding to their troubles, when attempting to incorporate Syzygy they discovered the name was already in use. Forced to adjust, they renamed their fledgling company Atari Inc.
Thanks to the programming help of a new Atari employee, Al Alcorn, the game PONG is developed as a follow-up to Computer Space. Although PONG was hugely successful when it was tested in a Sunnyvale pub, Atari was unable to raise venture capital forcing them to manufacture and market the game themselves. Although Atari soon found themselves successful, Dabney left the company in early 1973 after having a falling out with Bushnell.
PIZZA TIME THEATRE
Included in the sale contract to Warner, they agreed to fund the building on one restaurant featuring Bushnell’s concept of animated entertainment. 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 Division. This division explored several concepts including using antique Wurlitzer organs, creating an antique store themed restaurant, and so on. In the end Bushnell decided «aw heck, let’s just go with the animals,» and thus the entire concept was reverted back to his original idea – using audio animatronic characters in a pizza restaurant.
One of Bushnell’s first moves was to hire a man named Gene Landrum to become the Atari Consumer Division President and general manager of the Atari Restaurant Operating Division. Landrum had recently worked with Atari doing a market study for the Atari VCS (2600) and Bushnell entrusted him to flesh 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 only company that responded to his request was a small outfit located in the high desert of California called Fantasy Forest Manufacturing.
Along with refining their mascot, a group of supporting characters was also developed. Crusty, a black and white baseball playing cat; Billy «Banjo» Boggs (soon renamed Jasper T. Jowls), a hillbilly hound dog; 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 (often referred to as Atari Grass Valley) to design the control system to make the show work.
A second location was secured in San Jose on Kooser Road. This former grocery store was 19,000 square feet 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 as a cabaret room featuring Dolli Dimples, a piano playing hippo, and the Fantasy Forest Game Preserve (named after Goldbrandsen’s Fantasy Forest company) were new additions for the Kooser store. A few changes to the cast of characters were also made, including changing out the Warblettes for the Mopsey Sisters, and swapping out Crusty the cat for a new purple monster character named Mr. Munch.
Back at Atari, Bushnell had become more and more frustrated with Warner’s management and conservative market responses. They were slow to pursue new inventions such as the Atari 2600 home video game system, and Bushnell’s unhappiness reached a peak in November 1978. He shortly thereafter left Atari, but the non-competitive agreement he signed 2 years earlier would come back to haunt him, as it barred him from competing with Atari in the video game world. Unable to compete in the arcade industry, his full attention became devoted to creating an empire of Pizza Time Theatre restaurants.
SHOWBIZ PIZZA PLACE
TIM created a new division within 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 between Brock and Bushnell. Pizza Time Theatre was continuing to grow and develop, bringing Joe Keenan on board to become the new company president and making Landrum the new Senior Vice President of Development. Keenan and Bushnell had worked together for years at Atari, with Keenan being appointed to Bushnell’s chairman position when he left Atari. The move to bring him onboard at Pizza Time was done ahead of a planned IPO, signaling to investors that the «old team» at Atari was back together and ready to succeed. By the end of 1979, Pizza Time had 8 units open, including the first two outside of California.
In November 1979 they found what they were looking for. The IAAPA convention in New Orleans, Louisiana featured a company out of Orlando, Florida named Creative Engineering, Inc (CEI). At this particular convention their exhibit was hard to miss, as two fully animated shows were on display, The Wolf Pack 5 and the Hard Luck Bears, occupying their own large room across from the main exhibit area. Creative Engineering had been operating since 1975, originally incorporated for the purpose of manufacturing the inventions of its (then) 21 year old President, Aaron Fechter.
At the next IAAPA show in November 1977, CEI had more advanced animatronics on display including a trio of singing heads and full characters such as 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 better in an artistic sense, but his engineers at Atari could build a superior control system. Knowing that Bushnell’s people were fully capable of taking apart 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 group of singing animals that was inspired by the Rocky Horror Show. The Wolf Pack 5 sang a range of 50’s and 60’s do-wop and it’s characters included the Wolfman, Fats Gorilla, Dingo Starr, Beach Bear, and Queenie the Fox. Another discussion occured between Fechter and Bushnell, and this time around Bushnell offered to purchase CEI. Again Fechter declined, but Bushnell left a final invitational offer to involve them in the operation of Pizza Time Theatre, if interested.
Two weeks after meeting with Fechter, Brock contacted Bushnell and demanded out of the Co-Development Agreement on the grounds of misrepresentation. Bushnell refused to release him from the contract, so Brock began discussions with Fechter about the formation of a new company which would be jointly controlled by TIM and CEI. In December of 1979, Brock severed ties with Bushnell and declared the Co-Development Agreement void. He signed a Pre-Incorporation Agreement with Fechter to create ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc. ShowBiz was to be 80% owned by Brock and 20% by CEI. Having already considered the Co-Development Agreement void, Brock outlines a plan to begin using CEI’s animation with the opening of their second store. The first store, scheduled to open in the Antioch shopping center in Kansas City, Missouri, would utilize Pizza Time Theatre’s animation. This gave the team at CEI the time and opportunity to create a new animatronic show that would be exclusively used for ShowBiz. The souring relations between 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 against 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 made a last minute decision to not use Pizza Time animation at all, turning away the Pizza Time characters away and alerting Pizza Time to the trouble at hand. It also forced CEI to supply the animation for the new store. They chose to provide the Wolf Pack 5, as it was something they already had in production for other clients. At ShowBiz’s request, CEI altered the original Wolf Pack 5 showtape to include references to the new restaurant and changed Queenie into Mini Mozzarella because ShowBiz wanted a mouse to go with the ‘pizza’ theme of the restaurant.
ShowBiz Pizza Place opened its doors on March 3, 1980 in Kansas City, Missouri. The restaurant is very similar to Pizza Time Theatre and used many supplies and decorations obtained directly from Pizza Time, however there are some key differences. The Wolf Pack 5 show entertains guests every few minutes with a short show 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 not on stage as 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’s ad agency, Billy Bob is dressed in red and yellow overalls to match the color scheme used by the restaurant.
Just prior to the opening of ShowBiz’s second store, they won the first round in court against Pizza Time Theatre. The court found that Pizza Time did not show proper evidence that ShowBiz was using trade secrets or competing unfairly. TIM also changed its corporate name to Brock Hotel Corporation (BHC) in April of 1980.
On August 14, 1980, ShowBiz opened its second store in Jacksonville, Florida which contained CEI’s ShowBiz-exclusive show, The Rock-afire Explosion. The Rock-afire Explosion was an amalgam of the Wolf Pack 5 and the Hard Luck Bears and featured the characters Rolfe & Earl, Duke LaRue, Fats Geronimo, Beach Bear, Mitzi Mozzarella, Billy Bob, and the Looney Bird. One key difference that set the Rock-afire apart from Pizza Time’s show was that it had three stages. The three stage format gave more flexibility with the way shows could be presented – one stage could perform by itself, or different combinations of stages could be used to increase the theatrical aspect of the entertainment. Another change made to the second store is the alteration 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 want to escape the animation, a chance 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 during 1980-1982 explode; often times competing stores are opened within sight of one another. In order to stay ahead of their competitor and gain a greater market share of the pizza entertainment industry, both companies continue to innovate and enhance their entertainment, albeit with differing philosophies.
Pizza Time Theatre quickly jettisoned the original animatronic show format, commonly referred to as the «portrait» show and placed all the characters together on one single stage in order to improve the focus on the show. 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 character cosmetics were instead made of wood, foam, and cloth. Along with the standardization of the inner mechs, this was all done purposely to ease both the manufacturing of the animation and make the production cost effective. This was done at the request of Bushnell, who knew a thing or two about cost savings from his experience building PONG machines in rapid fashion.
During the early expansion, both entities made additions and refinements to their respective entertainment. At Pizza Time, new guest 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. Bubbles (1982). New lounge characters included Helen Henny (1979), The Beagles (1980), The King (1981), The Beach Bowzers (1982) and King Kat (1984). The Four Little Shavers also make rare appearances in the prototype Ice Cream Emporiums which were located in a few Pizza Time test locations. The diversity of these cabaret and lounge shows really helped to accent the fun of Pizza Time Theatre restaurants, making them more diverse – one store most likely had a different guest star and different cabaret or lounge show from a store across town.
ShowBiz also made some key changes to the Rock-afire stage. The characters are refined to include updated cosmetics and new costume changes. The spelling on certain characters’ names such as Fatz and Dook are changed, all in an effort 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’s songs are sold in the gift shops. By the beginning of 1982, Creative gets the go-ahead from ShowBiz to begin production of a new character named Uncle Klunk, and by the end of 1982 Creative gives Mitzi and Beach Bear new voices. This new cast of Rock-afire singing talent would remain the same for many years.
BANKRUPTCY AND MERGER
SHOWBIZ PIZZA TIME, INC.
With aggressive marketing and major remodeling, profits began to increase. In 1987, the company opened its first new store in over 3 years. Also in 1987, the company acquired most of the assets of Montery House Inc. a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants. A few of the existing Pizza Time franchises used outside animation such as the Family Album and Hot Fudge shows because of the availability shortage of Pizza Time animation during the company’s slow years. By the late 1980s, these stores received the new Chuck E. Cheese stages – the first new stages to be 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 E.’s House (aka the Rocker stage) which featured the characters on a porch and inside of a house, and a later version called Chuck E’s House FaГ§ade (aka the C-Stage) which was a scaled down retrofit that didn’t have full bodies on the three characters in the center.
The Rock-afire stage was also altered slightly during this time. 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 outside restaurant competitors, so with ShowBiz losing its exclusive rights, this made the Rock-afire stages at ShowBiz unique. Experimentation also began with phasing out the Rock-afire completely. One of the first moves was to introduce new licensed characters to the stage. After considering characters such as Garfield, Spider-man, and Superman, ShowBiz decided on Yogi Bear. After almost 2 years of negotiation and production, Yogi Bear appeared in place of Billy Bob on stage at 3 test stores.
A new standardized show format was implemented system wide 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 one wave. The new ‘cyberstar’ system was introduced to accent this new format and included video monitors to compliment the characters on stage.
CONCEPT UNIFICATION
Many of these arrangements were made in preparation of the company’s future plans. In 1988 Brock Hotel Corp changed it’s name to Integra (A Hotel and Restaurant Company) and shortly after announced plans to spin-off ShowBiz Pizza Time into a publicly traded company, as that year ShowBiz’s sales increased 8.3%. New logos and a rebranding also took place, with ShowBiz Pizza Place becoming simply ShowBiz Pizza, and Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre becoming Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza. By the end of 1988 Integra had dispersed 90% ownership of ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc. common stock to Integra shareholders and ShowBiz common 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.
CHUCK E. CHEESE’S
The early 1990s brought outside competition 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, being an entertainment center targeted toward children, but with a very different theme. Discovery Zone was an indoor jungle gym with many hands-on activities aimed at children. Sales at restaurants begin to slow and following disappointing sales in 1993, ShowBiz Pizza Time drops the word «pizza» from the restaurant name, rebranding it as simply «Chuck E. Cheese’s». A new kid friendly version of Chuck E. is also promoted, giving a thumbs-up gesture in the new restaurant logo. The remaining Monterey’s Tex-Mex Cafe restaurants are also sold off.
In 1995 the company began major remodels which are known as Phase I. These Phase I store refreshes include new features such as Kid Check kiosks to bring parent’s additional piece of mind while letting their kids run around and play, Free attractions such as Skytubes are also added to give them a more level playing field against Discovery Zone. Chuck E. 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 Machine was test marketed. Although the stage was too complex and unstable, it paved the way 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 only one animated figure, Chuck E., with the other characters present only on television monitors.
With all units now completely themed to Chuck E. Cheese, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. changes its company name to Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. in 1998. Phase II remodels begin, increasing the number of games and rides, along with upgrades to the prize redemption areas. In July of 1999, Discovery Zone files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and CEC Entertainment buys out their remaining assets and intellectual property, eliminating its only major competitor and securing themselves as the dominant family 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. Phase 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 company. With the company no longer franchising in the United States, many franchisees who were wanting to expand found themselves unable to grow their business and instead opted to sell their units back. The company also tested new «small town» Chuck E. Cheese’s locations featuring an all you can eat buffet, a costumed Chuck E. on the floor at all times, and a charge 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.
ROCKSTAR & FUNNERGATE
In the summer of 2012 Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. was ready to make some major changes to push the brand forward 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 brand new voice. In May the company had announced they were working with the Dallas-based Richard’s Group on the new marketing campaign. However, any successful roll-out of the rebranding that the company was planning, quickly went up in flames prior to the official debut.
CEC 2.0 AND COVID-19
The pre-Apollo management team at Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. all resigned within a month including CEO Michael Magusiak, chairman Richard M. Frank, Tommy Franks, Tim Morris, Cynthia Pharr Lee and Walter Tyree. Becoming the new CEO in 2014 was Tom Leverton, most recently serving as the CEO of Topgolf.
In 2017 Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. embarked on a major store rebranding initiative known as «2.0» which would help 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 modern design, tokens replaced by the new Play Pass card system for all games, and the removal of all animatronics in favor of an electronic lighted dance 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.
Following 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 development for Six Flags Entertainment Corp. Less than two months following the appointment of McKillips, the covid-19 pandemic took hold in the United States, shuttering most indoor dining establishments across the country. Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, famous for their entertainment offerings, were forced to stay alive solely through delivery and take out services. As a result of this (and also knowing that Chuck E. Cheese isn’t the place most people initially think of when ordering out for pizza) Chuck E. Cheese begins selling pizza under the pseudonym brand Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings through delivery services such as Grubhub, DoorDash, and UberEats. However, unable to bring in enough revenue or secure loans to pay down interest on the company’s debt, Chuck E. Cheese Entertainment, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection June 25, 2020.
