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12/29/2006: Why am I at Chuck E. Cheese's?

Earlier tonight, I had to attend a birthday party for a five-year-old on the woman's side of the family. Usually, I'd come up with some form of faux flu to get out of going to such a thing, but tonight was special: His birthday party was being held at Chuck E. Cheese's.

This Chuck E. Cheese's has stood tall in my city for over a decade, but I'd never gone into it until tonight. Actually, I don't think I've ever been to Chuck E. Cheese's before tonight. The closest I came was this place called "Razzmatazz" over in Jersey, which had the same kind of audio-animatronic stageshow, but with a far larger arcade and an all-around surreal floorplan. (Picture a well-lit Lazer Tag arena filled with pizza and video games — that was Razzmatazz.) So, while I wasn't unwise to the ways of such places, I admit to being pretty excited to see Chuck in action for the very first time. Despite this probably being one of the smaller establishments in the chain, the rat did not disappoint.

The stageshow was creepy and hilarious, and just about completely ignored by every kid in the place. I spent an hour or so reading various Chuck E. Cheese's fansites (they exist!) when I got home, and from what I'm gathering, the animatronic bands are being phased out of many of the restaurants, because they are CREEPY, and because kids are just 100% more interested in playing various games of chance than watching electronic nightmares sing showtune spoofs.

Tonight, Chuck and friends were all singing Christmas songs, complete with corresponding videos playing on old, grainy televisions mounted on nearby walls. Regardless of the kids' apathy, I couldn't help but appreciate the sights I was seeing, because if nothing else, these were not sights a person gets to see everyday. I was particularly interested in the purple dude in the middle, at least in part because his "instrument" looked like a spaceship. I took him as nothing more than a McDonald's Grimace ripoff at first, but now that I've done my homework, I know that he's in fact "Mr. Munch," a storied showman who's gone through seventeen names, roles and voice levels before settling in as the band's resident jive soul bro.

Pizza is the standard at all Chuck E. Cheese's, but it's not the kind of pizza you'd order on a Friday night from Uncle Tom's down the street. Hell, it's not even like the pizza you'd get from a Domino's or Pizza Hut. I'm hesitant to call it "bad," but calling it "good" is contingent on liking Chef Boyardee-esque tomato sauce mixed with cheese that seems to serve a purpose more along the lines of Thompson's Water Seal than a flavorful additive. This isn't to say that it's not edible pizza, because it is. In fact, because the pie slices are cut so small, you can eat about twenty of them before feeling like you've done anything wrong at all. There was also a salad bar, but for me, salad bars and rooms swelling with sneezing children rarely mix. I stuck with the pizza, and now the pizza is stuck in me.

This place was pretty small for a Chuck E. Cheese's, so there weren't a lot of great arcade games or anything. Since the chain caters more towards young kids than older ones, what's left is a bunch of ticket-bearing "casino" games that depend more on luck than skill. The tickets, worth a point each, can be redeemed for a bunch of really rotten prizes — and some not-so-rotten prizes, assuming you can amass thousands of them.

We started playing a few games just for the hell of it, but stopped once we were informed that you can actually buy points for a penny a pop. It didn't take long for me to do the math: We spent ten bucks on tokens to play games, and we got around a hundred tickets for our efforts. I realize that a 90% loss is par for the course in casino arcades, but I really hated having the plain facts right there in front of me. Especially when the best prize in the damn place was a plush doll in the shape of a Tootsie Roll.

More positively, I was extremely fond of the mirrored pizza slice wall art seen in the picture above. If someone had cast Donatello instead of Tom Hanks in Big, that so would've been on the loft wall.

Getting back to the stageshow, we spent most of the night in awe of Pasquale, one of the animatronic band members who looked like a cross between Super Mario and Cap'n Lou Albano, which was even more incredible when you realize that he looked nothing at all like Lou Albano as Super Mario. The reason? His mustache had come unglued and was completely sideways. Pasquale lacked the chutzpah to fix it himself, so later in the evening, one of the workers had the unfortunate task of hopping onstage to try to right a wrong mustache. I'm not kidding when I tell you that it took the poor woman a solid five minutes to do this, and even at that, she couldn't get it completely straight. I hope this doesn't mean that Pasquale's gonna get axed from the show, because the only thing better than a band starring a rat, duck and purple monster is a band starring a rat, duck, purple monster and a dude who looks like Cap'n Lou Albano. I'm pulling for you, Pasquale.

In the surprise of the night if not the entire century, a costumed character version of Chuck E. Cheese burst forth from the backstage area to sing, dance and take pictures with all of the kids. Some cried, but most went wild. Me? I was a little confused. Didn't the children care that there was already a "real" Chuck E. Cheese onstage? Did they believe that there were two Chuck E. Cheeses? Did they comprehend the concept of breaking the fourth wall?

I thought I was going to give the woman a lot of shit for making me go to this, but since I'm a two-year-old, I left smiling. I can't help believing that what I saw tonight is a dying fad, and that like-styled establishments that pop up in the future will probably do away with the dated stageshow entirely. I'm not saying that I don't understand why that would happen, but I'm not sure I like it. Everyone needs to be creeped out by ginormous dolls that occasionally come alive to sing and crash cymbals once in their life.

When I was a kid in southern California we had Showbiz Pizza instead of Chucky Cheese but it was exactly the same. I think they ended up getting bought out by CC. I remember peeking under the curtains in between shows and seeing all of the characters just sitting there smiling in the darkness. Man that really was creepy…

Ah, Chuck E. Cheese. Nolan Bushnell's other business success. Whose mascot is a RAT. A RAT. Who came up with that.

Fun story: I got banned by my parents from going to Chuck E. Cheese as a child because one time I had a shit fit when my Mom decided it was time to leave the Birthday party and I decided it wasn't. I guess I must have been 4 or 5 at the time. I think my Mom still resents me a little for that.

Interestingly enough, according to Wikipedia, Chuck E. Cheese (I.e. Pizza Time Theatre) filed for Chapter 11 in 1984 and got bought out BY Showbizz Pizza. they just took over the more widespread name for future use.

When I lived in Santa Clara, CA, they had a place called Bullwinkle's that was pretty similar to Chuck E. Cheese's but was themed after Rocky and Bullwinkle, Underdog, and George of the Jungle (all from the same animation studio, I believe). I was only three when we moved away, but we have a picture of my sister's birthday party there.

PS I've never been to a Chuck E. Cheese's either. We weren't big on birthday "parties" at my house. Just opened presents with the family at home.

Ha that's funny I just went to Wikipedia too and learned that the guy who voiced Pasquale and Jasper T. Jowls from 1988-1998 also did the voice for Barney.

I went to one of these when I was five or six. I don't think I cried… I think set the example for how I would behave at parties until I was sixteen or so– go, eat the horrible food, sit alone in a corner either afraid to or not wishing to join any activities. I was no fool, even then.

I'm in SoCal also, but we always had the Cheese. I remember peeking under the curtain too, and I swear I remember justifying the double Chuck E. by thinking the guy walking around was the "real" Chuck E. and the one on stage was just…a robot? A stand-in? Who knows. I haven't thought of those secondary characters in years (why don't they have them getting all extreem with Chuck in the commercials?) but I loved those playbill style posters they had of everybody that I'm willing to bet they still have.
I also remember the two versions of the Chuck E. Cheese birthday party…the official one some kids had where Chuck brought out the cake for ya and everyone got some specified amount of tokens, and the one the rest of us had, where you smuggle your cake and maybe even better pizza in and just set the kids loose with like two bucks worth of tokens and let them bug their parents for the rest.

Thanks for the info in the last thread, Cameron and Timbo. That kinda sucks, I'm a lefty and that always added another layer of appeal to Zelda for me.

Chuck E Cheese is just one of those great repositories of memories for me. I've been there a million times, and had one of my favorite birthdays as a kid there. It was at the height of my Ghostbusters fandom and I got a shit-ton of toys, most notably the Firehouse.

I remember playing Ghosts 'n Goblins over and over, cause as we all know, it's a beast. Don't think I ever got past the first level. Hey, I was young, sue me.

I also remember going there a couple years ago with a group of friends. One of the most memorable nights of my life. Can't begin to tell you how much fun we had. If you find 20-somethings going to Chuck E Cheese disturbing just know that another friend of ours got kicked out one night for drinking there ALONE

I've done two birthday parties at Chuck E.'s place over the years. When my now-24 year old son turned 3, I had his party there since the house we lived in was so tiny we could barely turn around, much less fit any extra people in….plus his birthday is December 11th and I wanted to do something non-Christmassy for him. Part of the party package included a picture with Chuck E., and the pic is priceless - my son is pulling as far away from the big rat as he possibly can, with a look of sheer terror on his face. Poor kid.

The other party was just last February. My daughter wanted her 16th birthday party there, complete with the cake and hats and everything. She actually started a trend at the high school by doing that…lol. I guess compared to the spoiled brats I see on "My Sweet 16", I'm very, very lucky to have a kid who didn't expect a mega-blowout with a giftwrapped BMW at the end of the evening.

Damn son, you really missed out if you've never seen the Rockafire Express in their heyday…..that was some quality, Disneyland level shit right there…….anamatronics that good were rare in the 80s, but Showbiz Pizza (later bought, and gutted by Fuck E Sleaze) was one of those great memories of the 80s, for me, right up there with Children's Palace……

One time our Mario broke and the mechanic had to fiddle around with a hand up his ass for about 2 hours. It was creeeeepy. But I think the reason kids weren't bothered by the two Chuck E.'s was that they don't really take the one on stage to be real, which is also why they're not overly interested in him. When we were little we just thought that the stage version was a robot that came to life at night when the curtain was closed and everyone had left. I guess he was kind of the "dark, mysterious, evil" Chuck E. whereas the one that hangs out with you in person is the real shebang. Anyway, here I am up on stage kicking back with the Chuckster:
http://photos-163.facebook.com/ip007/v16/154/81/7950583/n795...

Never been to a Chuck E. Cheese's.
The local frozen pizza/cabinet arcade games joint was a dive called Sideshow Pizza.
Had a creepy-as-fuck animatronic fox.

I feel like I've mentioned this before, but it seems appropriate to re-mention on this particular thread…

For my cousin's 4th birthday, her parents treated her to a Chuck E. Cheese party with practically the whole family and all her little daycare friends. She asked me to take her to the bathroom (I was 9 at the time), so we started to head that way, but then the Chuck E. Cheese mascot came walking out of a back room to greet the kids. She got really excited and ran over to meet him. About that time he spotted his hot waitress friend and, in what he must have thought would be a too-smooth move, snuck up behind her and hoisted her into the air…

To this day she is terrified of rats and people is mascot costumes. And possibly waitresses.

Wow, I had no idea the animatronics were still in a few Chuck E Cheeses places. The last time I was in the one in my city, the robot animals and their stage were gone. That was in 1993.

Anyone remember the old Pizza Time Theatre setup that had several different rooms with other animatronic characters in them, and faux movie posters by the pizza retrieval area for films like "Crocodile Chuckee" and "Munch"(in place of "Jaws")?

RageTreb: Bullwinkle's Restraunt lives. It's the main attraction of a place called "Family Fun Center" in Wilsonville, OR.

I was reading the Disney Articles before stumbling upon this one, and this put me in a great mood for nostalgia goodness at 3AM.

For one thing, a few years ago I had the exact same experience as you. I was a good 6 years older than the Bday boy, and it was also my first and only time in a Chuck E Cheese. The pizza, the crappy games, the Grimace Clone (I wanted that guy to come out instead of Chuck. They said that the others sometimes come out), and I definately remember Pasquale, just not the name.

BUT There's a place by me that I've been to dozens of times that's in the LI area, Farmingdale to be exact. Yes, for the 3 other LI XE-ers here, you know what I'm talking about: Fun Zone. I've had many a birthday there (my own or otherwise), and there are similar ripoffs of the ripoffs (my favorite being the Leprechaun, because he rarely came out). Kickass arcade games out the wazoo, I still have dozens of points from it, and I haven't gone back there in a few years. And a Nathan's right in front.

I also remember Discovery Zone and also going in exactly once. The one I went to is now a Chinese Buffet (that I've gone to several times)

RageTreb- I've been to Bullwinkle's. A friend of mine had a birthday party there when I was a kid- it was the only time I ever went there as we lived in Concord and I think that's a bit of a haul (I think, I don't really remember). I had a plastic mug from Bullwinkle's that I used well into my teens. My mom eventually made me throw it away.

I remember they had these weird tokens that had this zig-zag shape to them. I should have had the foresight to pocket one. I also remember a colored water fountain type show that was set to "Sailing" by Christopher Cross (I think that's who it was).

I only got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's once, when I was too little to enjoy anything except the pizza. When I got older I DESPERATELY wanted to go to Discovery Zone but we never did. I remember I stopped being friends with one girl in second grade because she had a birthday party there and didn't invite me. (She grew up to be a snob anyway, so no great loss there)

I had several (and attended several) birthday parties at whichever Chuck E. Cheese's is closest to Concord, and I remember it being this huge, amazing place. I live in Maryland now, and when I was working with kids I was invited to a birthday party and the CEC nearby, and was very underwhelmed as it was MUCH smaller. People have said "you're older now, it won't have the same impact." but it's not just that, the CEC nearby really is much lower in quality.

We also have this place in Maryland called "Jeepers" which is similar, I think. I'm not convinced that I've ever actually been in there, but I do have this vague memory of going there with my cousins once. They have some kind of dimimutive roller coaster there, I think.

True story: I worked at Chuckie Cheese for 2 days, and yes I wore the Chuckie suit.

aw man i'd pay good money to see the animatronics, at chuck e cheese or especially if it was at one of the showbiz's (do those even still exist in any form?)

i remember both places fondly from my childhood, especially showbiz.. from what i remember the one i used to go to had several different rooms, one main room with the robot show then several different rooms that might be showing a care bears movie in one, or another with the arcade in it.. good times

there's a chuck e cheese down the road, i went a couple years back for a girlfriend's kid's birthday, but from what i remember the "show" was on a movie screen, i don't think they had the robots anymore.. and this one didn't have all the seperated rooms, just 3 foot high walls seperating the dining area from the gaming area. man the 80s seemed like so much more fun for a kid

The double Chuck thing certainly donned on me as stupid, but it never actually bothered me because I knew both Chucks were fake.

In fact, I don't think I ever did believe in the existance of a fictional character.

Hah. I've been to Razzmatazz. Matt's not lying about the floor. Most of the kids spent more time staring at that than at the Not Chuck E. Cheese Band.

There's also a Confederate Jersey Edition, Captain Good Times. The arcade selection was shitty; I think the game that raked in the most quarters was Rampage, and no offense to Rampage, but it was 1990. They should've had Ninja Turtles. But if I remember correctly, it made up for that with more impressive in-building rides for the younger kids. I do remember getting stuck on a "Dumbos" type ride except with sparkly-painted rocket ships while everyone else was singing happy birthday to my friend. I just kind of screamed WOOO YEAH every time I flew past their table.

Thanks for this article, Matt! However, I have to disagree with you about the pizza. It's a wonderful, blissful experience that includes a person dressed up as a rat. When my time on this planet is nearing its end and the heavily armed mob is closing in on me, I will think of nothing other than the pizza at Chuck E. Cheese.

I never had the fortune of having my birthday party at CC's, but all my friends did. And I was a genuine ski ball addict. Everyone else was playing street fighter and x-men, but I wanted to play the games that gave me tickets. I mean come on…their tickets. You can play that game anywhere for a quarter, but this place gives you 1/1000th of a radio each time you win.
Sad but true… I still have about 900 CC tickets in my closet. They are in about 5 different styles which I don't know if thats because of time or being in different states, but I want to be buried with them.

I went to a handful of psuedo-Chuck E. places as a kid like Major Magic's and shit. I don't think I ever went to the real thing until my one artist friend was having her 16th birthday there, which would have made me 20 at the time. I remember they had one of those ride-on machines (a fire engine, I think) that would take a photo of you while riding so we made her cram her ass inside and all stood around while it took our picture. Good times. We also went to see Rocky Horror together, which we hadn't done since she was 10 and I was 14. I paid a transvestite to give her a lap dance. She still says it was the best present she ever got.

My first job was at Chuck E Cheese. Good God what hell that was. Fun fact: The "E" in Chuck E Cheese stands for "Entertainment." Chuck Entertainment Cheese. Yes, I to wore the suit. Numerous times.

Ah Razzmatazz… Matt are you upset that they finally knocked down the building? Even though its been gone for years, I could never help but stare lovingly at that crazy looking building as I drove over the raritan- then i'd slam into the back of some dude car cause I wasnt be paying attention to the road.

The only thing I remember besides disjointed animatronic memories, were MINI video games meant for kids not tall enough for thier adult-sized counterparts. They had a Berinstien Bears themed game.

The only time I ever entered one of those places was after a trip to the science center. I remember being less impressed by Chuck than by science, and totally creeped out.

We used to have Showbiz Pizza in St. Louis. I think their main character there was some sort of bear? I remember going out to Utah during the summers and we'd always go to Chuck E Cheese, and my family there had no clue what Showbiz was.

I've been to a CEC within the last couple months. I took my kids there just for grins. It was wayyy smaller than others I've been in before.

Does anyone remember Major Magic's? Same concept that had several locations in Western NY, but now appears to only be in a Toledo suburb.

I think at one point, in Buffalo there were CEC, Showbiz, and Major Magic's. And I used to want to go to all of them, because there's nothing better than pizza AND video games.

Ahhh..Chuck E. Cheese, I had a b-day party there when I was young… i remember I got lots of Rainbow Brite dolls that year - - awesome.
I remember under the actual stage show thing, there was this dark and creepy tunnel that you could crawl through, it was great. So when you were bored with the show (which i think every kid was eventually), we had our secret hideout to hang in.

Invader Norbert..I used to work at that Discovery Zone where the chinese buffet is now. Interesting job… I remember the nite we all had to come in and do a heavy sanitizing/cleaning of the entire playground thing….yea, that was fun.

When I was growing up in Lubbock, we had a local place called 50th Street Caboose (complete with LGB train around the bar) that was my favourite place for games + Food. The food was actually really good–burgers, chicken strips, and even chicken fried steak and a few more fancy dishes for the adults.

The arcade was the obvious draw when I was a kid. they had all the good ones: TMNT, X-Men, the Simpsons, a few recent fighting games, etc. Later, they would get really cool stuff like that Jurrassic Park game you sat in or the Star Wars game by Sega (not to mention Alpine Racer, which was awesome). I spent most of my tokens on Ski-Ball and other skill games that gave you tickets, however. That's where the real fun was.

The best part was that 50th Street Caboose had this tokens-for-grades policy. Every 6 weeks, when you got your report card in the mail, they would give you something like 5 tokens for every A, four for every B, etc. Well, not to brag, but save my 6th grade year, I got straight A's in everything. So that would be 45 free tokens. Remember, this was back when arcade games/skill games consumed, at most, 2 tokens per play. So it was a goldmine.

I used to buy stupid trinkets every time, but I started saving them up one year and amassed several thousand tickets/token. Bought a huge stuffed bear (That my Dad had to air out outside because it smelled of cigarette smoke from sitting in the bar so long).

When I was older, I still had a huge collection of leftover tickets, but the thrill was gone. One day I took all my tickets, walked up to some random 6 year old that was with his family and said "here, take these" man, that kid's face lit up like a light.

Thanks for bringing up these memories, Matt…I hadn't thought about that part of my childhood in a long, long time. I'm going to Dave and Busters tonight for a friend's Bachelor party, and now having remembered all this, I'm really excited about going now and hopefully reliving my youth.

I have some videos of the stage show, and me… as a 2 year old, dancing. I hated the games… I hated the toys… I hated the Chuck E. Cheese who walked around… I LOVED THE STAGE SHOW.

I believe I'm still under a lifetime ban from all CEC's in the Johnstown-Altoona-State College PA area after an unfortunate incident in which a six-year-old girl got in the way of our game of "Peg Your Buddy in the Ass" in the ball pit. I guess it wouldn't have been so aggregious if we hadn't been there the week before and decided to get on stage and rock out with the band. The CEC in Johnstown still had the animatronics when I was there. I recall it being rather small, but most of the ones I'd been to were rather small when compared to the one on Roosevelt Blvd in Philadelphia, which has been some regional joint and had a roller rink in it too. Or at least it had been. I dunno if it's still in that location. I have a vague recollection of Chuck skating with us, but I don't know if it's real or it's some sort of wishful thinking that I've converted into a memory.

As for the double Chuck phenomena, I applied the Mall Santa Rule — he's they were Chuck helpers because the Real Chuck was super busy he couldn't be everywhere at once.

I'm kind of indifferent when it comes to Chuck E Cheese. For kids, it's probably a lot of fun. Most kids I've observed there are generally not enthused until the cake comes around. Kids + sugar = parental nightmare, but funny to watch when the kids aren't yours!

I imagine Chuck E Cheese is very similar to what Hell must be like, but even more so for the poor souls who have to work there since they deal with the kids and the mess and the high-maintenance robotic devil spawn that is supposed to provide the much ignored "entertainment" for the ADHD-ridden, sugared-up bi-polar messes some people call their kids. Most of the precious little moppets I see running all over Chuck E Cheese shouldn't be allowed to run loose in public!
But, that's just me. I see the cup as half empty…..until some dork kid knock it over into my lap. Then, it's ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!! >:(

Growing up in the 80s, Chuck E Cheese was THE place to birthday. My favoritest memory? My best friend (we're still good friends actually, crashed at his place while I was in Manhattan) had his bday there and to keep us quiet until the pizza arrived, his mom gave us some tokens.

We of course played the arcade TMNT game. Well, this bigger kid was so hell-bent on beating the thing that he fed all of us an endless supply of tokens. And we beat it. Being a kid with like a dollar a week allowance, seeing Shredder in that game was like rarer than seeing Santa on Christmas Eve.

Our Chuck E. Cheese was built in the early 80's. It started as a Chuck E. Cheese, became a Showbiz shortly thereafter, and then became Chuck E. Cheese again. I remember it mostly as Showbiz. I always felt that their characters were a little less…um…bizarre. My two favorites were the big ape in the gold jacket and the cheerleader, who was some animal too nondescript for my memory to name. A dog maybe? My sister had a high school birthday party at CEC, possibly her 16th, which would mean it's been 8 years since I've been in one, but they still had the show. I know it's not the best, but I can't believe that kids have now become so unimpressed with having an animatronic show while they're eating that they're being eliminated (I blame the fact that every restaurant is filled with TVs now.) It wasn't the quality, it was the novelty. That breaks my heart. As for the pizza, yeah it was mediocre, but it was the taste of Chuck E. Cheese. It was all part of the experience. When that taste hit your tongue, you knew you were mere bites away from tokens, bright lights, and buzzers. The best part about Chuck E. Cheese for me is that it was the only time I wanted to play video games that my dad didn't respond with, "No, it's just a waste of money." Instead I got, "Here's your tokens." Oh man! Chuck E. Cheese!

We used to have both Showbiz and C.E.C here in Springfield,IL now we just have C.E.C. I remember playing Firefox (the movie game) and Tron. I have also been to our state fair and the carnies bring an animatronic show on a trailer. I happened to look over and it was old C.E.C characters and boy was it sad. It included the Big gorilla even

Ya know what would be really fun? A Chuck E Cheese that was built over an Indian burial ground!

Reading through all the posts, it seems that there are a disproportionate amount of us X-E people that are native NYers…

My man got in a sh!t-load of trouble for throwing a skiball at the back of Chuck E Cheese's head once ;P

Jeff Mack, I'm sorry more of us aren't from NY. What matters is that we are all human beings, after all. Right? Well…except for Chuck E Cheese……and Ronald McDonald……and that Burger King guy with the huge noggin! He creeps me out, too. Never trust an entity which has no soul!

I grew up in the suburbs. There were no sidewalks, and most all of the fun came from establishments like Chuck E. Cheese. I went there all the time as a boy, for birthdays. Never once had a proper party there, though. We would just get a regular table. There was a time when I was absolutely GOLDEN at Skeeball. I would get that ball into the 100,000 Point hole so often the machine shut down and started flashing "TILT." Ours used to have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade unit, too, and that seriously rocked.

I went to a CEC for a friend's child's birthday party a few years ago. I grew up with Showbiz and had never seen the Rat before. I think it disturbed me that they stamped our hands with invisible ink type stamp that had the same number for the entire group. That way, when you left, they checked to see if your number was the same as the kid's number you were leaving with. I guess it is a good security plan but something must have happened for it to be instituted.

BTW - the best way to get tickets is to master one of the chance games, wait for the little kids to pump money into it to build up the grand prize total and then swoop in and profit. I think I scored about 500 tickets that way which I gave to the birthday girl. I am not that much of a jerk.

Where I live in MI; in the mid 80's, having a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese was HUGE. Getting to eat pizza and watching a light-up musical show was was cool when your 5 years old. Actually, I still have some old 80's tokens too, wonder if they are worth something?! While I never had a Chuck E. Cheese b-day party, I had a McDonalds one. Which was also the big thing for kids parties at that time too, I think I probably went to one almost once a month. Around here there is also a place called Caesarland that's owned by Little Caesars. I haven't been there and I don't even know how long it's been there, but I am assuming that it's like Chuck, but maybe with better pizza.

Man ohh man…The last time I was at the Chuckster's
for a Birthday I recall opening the Land of The lost
River raider/boat vehicle. That was great, but the one here had the first Turtles arcade game. Needless to say I didn't play much ski ball.

I, too, grew up with Showbiz Pizza in Milwaukee. Here's a site that has more than you'll ever want to know about the chain.
http://rock_afire.tripod.com/index.html

Little Caesar's pizza is WAAAAYYYYY better than Chuck E Cheese's. Would you agree?

I was turned away from our local Chuck E. Cheese on my 22nd birthday

Lousy, agist bastards said we weren't allowed in with out a kid under the age of five. And I was so looking forward to rolling around in that ball pit encrusted in fecal matter.

Oh, well. our local den of animatronic monstrosities in the eighties was Bulwinkle's, where the stage show was made up of, you guessed it, characters from the Rocky and Bulwinkle show. Unfortunatly, it closed around 88 or 89, and after I saved all those free pizza passes. Why Bulwinkle…why?

My whole life I have ALWAYS wanted to go to a Chuck E. Cheese!! Especially since it (or similar places) are always mentioned on tv and movies…alas, I am Canadian and I don't even know if we HAVE Mr.Cheese here or not. Sigh. So many of my childhood hopes were crushed due to the barren ruralness I grew up in.

You know, I've always wondered what it's like inside a Chuck E. Cheese. I thought it would be more yellow. With, like, faux bricks of swiss cheese hanging from the ceiling. This is slightly better than I expected.

The closest thing to a Chuck E. Cheese's I've been to was Lazer Park and Barcode–before it burned down. But Barcode was way cooler. It had *escalators*.

My friend once sang the wonders of Chuck, but mostly because a game of DDR only cost one token. It may be different today.

I love Chucks…been there a thousand times. I do miss Showbiz. Nowadys, when they won't let us in to chucks, we go to Dave and Busters…an adult size Chucks, with..duh duh..alcohol!

Finally, a topic I can relate to. Obviously, that's not true but I can go on and on about the late great Showbiz Pizza. I have actually posted about this before (9/24 and one probably in summer of 2005 when I took the niece and nephew).
CORRECTIONS:
The band was the Rock-a-Fire Explosion and their main mascot was a bear named Billy Bob.
In my hometown of Jax, FL, there was a Showbiz AND a CEC. The CEC was HUGE. Like a warehouse. All of those robots were IN DIFFERENT ROOMS!! I only went once but I remember it well.
I have much more vivid memories of SHOWBIZ because I went there a lot.
Now, it is a CEC and totally gutted. Bunch of B.S. games as Matt described. There was only one robot and the kids were ALLOWED to crawl all over it.
I totally agree that the stage show is dated but that is why it was great.

Muppet Baby — What province are you in? They supposedly have locations in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC.

I knew someone who used to work at a Chuck E. Cheese. He told me that the animatronic band is actually controlled by a CD player. You put in a CD and they will do motions that match to the music regardless of what the CD is. He said after the place would close and they were cleaning up, they'd put in a CD of something like Limp Bizkit and Chuck and his band would perform for them.

Muppet Baby - We did indeed have Chuck E. Cheese in Canada, or at least we did in Winnipeg (and really, if we had it here, it should be everywhere). I didn't go there for a birthday party though, just went there with my cousins. I remember saving up all my tickets to get a CEC keychain and I used to clip it to the bag I took to all of my friends' sleepover parties as a kid. Then I lost the keychain and for the longest time, I couldn't remember if I had been there or not, or if it even existed (it was way across town from where we lived, so we never passed by it or anything).

I wasn't too into the arcade games. I felt like if you couldn't get tickets, there was no point. I mostly played Skee-ball and that vaguely offensive game where you shot balls out of a miniature cannon at rows of guys that looked like (sigh) stereotypical native american chiefs… Um, I really hope they've changed the focus of that game by now. I actually remember feeling uncomfortable about it back then, as an 8 year old! Is it possible those guys are supposed to be something else and I just thought that because I was a stupid kid?

Anyways, the CEC in Winnipeg closed about 10 years ago, I think. Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure the building that it used to be in is a bar/club now called Coyote's (loosely based on Coyote Ugly). I wish someone could confirm that one for me…

Those of you interested might want to check out http://rock_afire.tripod.com/ which has a ton of info on ShowBiz Pizza Place, The Rock-Afire Explosion, and Chuck E. Cheese. Lots of pictures, information, etc. Sure to jog your memories.

-Paul.

Oh and for those interested in talking about Animatronics; please join us at the Animatronics World Yahoo Group:

The guy who created the Rock-Afire Explosion is a member and we frequently talk about 'em there.

The band at Fun Zone was the one from Showbiz!! I wonder why Wolfe & Earl were leprechauns…for one thing, there was a rainbow in the stage they were on. They hardly ever came out for the kids (looking at their profile, they look a bit creepy for 6 year olds)

If anyone wants to see videos of The Rock-Afire Explosion and/or buy one of your very own, you can do so here:

Jason wrote: "He said after the place would close and they were cleaning up, they'd put in a CD of something like Limp Bizkit and Chuck and his band would perform for them. "

In San Diego we used to go to a wonderful placed called Organ Power Pizza which was the same concept but with a kick ass HUGE organ that rocked the place during stage shows!

In Torrance (L.A.) there was a Chuck E. Cheese just up the street from us and my brother discovered that they just throw away the tickets at the end of the night completely intact so he used to dumpster dive for them and then a day or so later he would take a crap load of them in and get some prizes that you would normally have to spend a fortune to get if you did it the old fashioned way and paid for tokens. Also most of the games had pretty lame ticket dispensers so if you held the ticket ribbon just right you could manage to pull out another 20 plus tickets before it locked or they broke off. The last time I played Skee Ball at the pier I noticed they had corrected this little bonus feature. Bummer.

Here in AZ they have a place called Organ Stop Pizza and they serve "pizza" (and I call it so very lightly) that has the same taste and consistency of cardboard so I envy you the chef-boyardee sauce! I haven't gone to a CC here yet but I have done Amazing Jake's and the name says it all. They serve MARGARITAS and BEER there!!! Love it!

The one here in town is fairly new (about 2 years old) and they do not have the animatronics at all. What they do have is an array of TV screens and a green screen apparatus where you stand in front of a camera and you're projected into the video on the screens. There is a robot Chuckey but in the few times I have been there, I have never seen it work. All the arcade games are either crappy or just plain old (not even fun retro-old except for a combo Space Invaders/Qix machine). Ah, nothing like spending a shitload of money on Chef Boyardee pizza and crummy games. At least my 3 year old girl has fun…until Chuckey comes out and makers her poop her pants every single time. It's an instant reaction - Chuckey enters, freudette poops. Hmm, I forgot how much fun it is to say "Poop". Poopoopoopoop.

A) The band at my Chuck E. Cheese was the Showbiz Pizza Band (Keep in mind this is Waco, TX…So I'm not sure how CEC ended up with that to start with)

Cricket
I, too, remember pulling out tickets the right way. The last time I played Ski-Ball, they had replaced the ticket thing with a thermal printer that printed a total. Ruined the whole game, IMO. Who DOESN'T like tons of paper tickets?

Also, I went to Fun Zone years before I went to that Chuck E Cheese party, so you could say I was spoiled by the Showbiz band as well (I definately remember the cheerleader!).

There's a Dave & Busters by me that used to be a Jillians…I was unimpressed due to:

2) you had a card instead of tokens. I liked the jingle of shaking the tokens in my hand better.

I've only been to a Chuck E. Cheese once. I was young, and what sucks about it, is that everytime I see the commercials for it, I still have flashbacks from when I was there, even though I can't remember jack about it. Except for this one arcade game, that was like DRagon's Lair. You know, the real time laser disc video game? I believe it starred the Character from Lupin 13, or someone that looked ALOT like him and was called Cliffhanger or something like that. Obviously this was back in the 80's. Other than that, I have fleeting recollections of the yellow walls. ???!?!?

The only other place I've been too, ALOT, for birthday parties was Hot Skates. In Lynbrook. How's that for LI living….

There was also Skate USA, or something like that in Queens, Which I believe was in Jackson Heights on Roosevelt Avenue, underneath the train tressel. This was when I was VERY young, and a place my older cousins use to go to.

Dave and Buster is pretty cool. The first one I was ever in was in Florida, just outside of Hollywood I believe. I was on a businnes trip and went there with my cousin who lives in Miami. There's a new one by me. Haven't been to that one yet, but I heard it's agreat place to get hammered and play video games in.

Do you mean the Barcode in Times Square? I was there a couple of times. Another great place to get hammered and play video games. I do remember the pool tables being rather small though.

I can't stand that Sweet 16 show. That, hell, pretty much everything on MTV is the epitome of what's wrong with this country.

If I ever have a daughter like the ones on that show, I will have her party at CEC, or whatever equivilant exists. I'd even pay to bring back the animitronics show to add to the torture.

I bet I still have my "Chuck E Cube" from Brian Jones' birthday party. I think it was 4th grade around 1982 and the Chuck E was brand new in town. Rubix Cube was still hot and they had been advertising the Chuck E Cubes on TV.

The next time I went to one, I was 17 and the girl I was dating had a friend working there and we picked her up at closing time. The only reason I remember that is that there were still a couple of people eating in there and one of the kids working there was sweeping behind a waist high wall with his jeans around his ankles ala Marky Mark at that MTv basketball game singing "You got what I need" loudly. The eating patrons couldn't see below his waist, but anyone walking through the front door could. It was really funny.

I love Chuck E Cheese. One time I went there and there was this fat kid who was WAY too old to be there. He had an armful of tickets, and was walking around showing them off like he was hot stuff. It was amazing.

Has anyone bought any of the Chuck E Cheese whoopie cushions? I forgot how many tickets they cost, but they are hilariously crappy. Not even made out of the normal whoopie cushion rubber. It's more of a cellophane material. It barely makes any sound, and rips apart after minimal usage.

Chuck E. Cheese was so awesome- I had my birthday there once- it was very much like you described. Somebody stole my friend's jacket, and we never got it back. I think I was there a couple of times for parties (also McDonalds, but that was more frequent). I remember my first best friend who was three years older and lived down the street got a plastic best friends necklace with her tickets and gave the other half to another girl. I was so upset, I cried and cried. After she found out I was upset, we had more best friends things- it was nice, until she hit junior high. I was always st ends. I never thought the animatronic characters were real, and they also didn't creep me out that much.

All of my friend's younger siblings as well as my cousins had their parties at Caesarland which is not as good, though the food is better. We had a Girl Scout trip there one time and they used to have a carpeted barrier wall surrounding the jungle gym equipment, and I ran at it to talk to my mom or something, I don't remember, and I ended up flipping over it and gave my face a bad case of rug burn. I had a couple of scabs for a while. The next time I had to go there, the wall was gone. Even that place used to be better in the early 90s.

I would have posted earlier, but I was enjoying all the rememberineses about the old days of Chuck. the family went there back in the day. Now, the last time I went, a few years ago, it seemed like a strip mall pizza place with one of those kid-sized Habitrails running through it. Child-friendly Casino pretty much desribes it now. You know after those animatronic scorpions blew up Zak Wylde, the damage to their robotic reputations was done. Back in my Bay Area days, the one in San Jose had a room that had a coin box outside the door. Drop your token in, and it would explode in a riot of stobe lighting and black light. Fun to run around in, and had a warning outside the door that the room might be a bit vomitrocious to some of your more queasy types. good times…

kingklash, the Jax SHOWBIZ had the same disco creepy room. I remember Cobras or something lighting up on the walls. That room didn't last too long but the memories will always disturb me.

All of our Showbiz Pizzas became CC, and I haven't been their since. I definately remember Billy Bob and the gorilla, but not so much the others (I could have sworn their used to be a pirate character). I remember getting balloons filled up with that cool machine. I also mainly focussed on the ticket machines. Especially the one based on Bozo's old Grand Prize Game. I live in Iowa. I'm not even sure CC even exists anymore here. They may have all become Loco Joes or something.

Some people metioned Major Magic's: googling seems to imply that the only one left is the one in Sylvania, the Toledo Suburb mentioned upthread. But that's "my" Major Magic's! I remember going there as a kid, but the last time I was there was 2000, for my eighth grade choir christmas party. I liked it better than Chuck's. Our local par pizza place is small and just can't comfortably contain all the kids they shove in there. I was there last Christmas to take my little sister to a birthday party; I left with a raging headache.

I rememeber Discovery Zones too, but as far as I can tell, I picked up mononucleosis from the ball pit at a Chicago-area Discovery Zone, so although they weer fun, my memories aren't exactly fond ones!

I have never been to a CEC, the first time I realized they were in Canada was about 2 months ago, when I passed one just outside of Toronto. The closest thing we had around my area was a place called Choo Choo Charlies, (now called Choo Choo's Partyzone) and I didn't ever get a chance to go to that until I was 12. It's sucks b/c I just knew that I would love to have a party in a place like that! Oh well, I guess if they have one in Buffalo I can, as we say, go over the river and take my son when he gets older. Man, I just know I'm gonna live my childhood through my kid, that is just not good.

You know how McDonald's has done some locations with a retro theme? And restored one of their first locations to its' pristine original condition? There should be at least one Chuck done up like in the old days. That should appeal to us old farts.

I was not aware of the McDonald's retro re-openings. Where did you hear about that?

Man oh man……….the chuckster! That plave invokes memories of playing the TMNT arcade game and getting pissed off cause our flow of tokens got cut off right when we got to the final bosses…the ball pit was always a good time even if you got jumped on mercilessly. nothing would be finer than to drown in a sea of plastic balls…oh by the way my christmas was good. I got the standard money and socks and also some MST3K DVDs. awesome.

There is a McD's in OKC that combines the retro asthetic with modern overkill. Kind of a Planet Krypton ideal of nostolgic-chic. The old twin arches with a two-story Playland. Hot rod convertable on display and drive-thru convenience. Were it that my world was so Plasma-screen Art Deco.

Am I the only one here who had a Chuck E. Cheese with that flashing light room? It was like a hole in the wall crawlspace. You put the token in, the light flashed, and you pretty much crawled around watching your hand blink in and out of sight.

There was also a bar area hosted by a lion dressed like Elvis (or was it the hippo on a lounge piano?). Then again, maybe I'm confusing it with a Burger King (you heard right kids, a Burger King) that had a full arcade and I think their own coin-operated animatronics that sang birthday songs on their own, like Chuck and the crew.

(Speaking of Burger King, the original was just an actor dressed up in a king costume–sans the big head–that turned his ring and transported all the good little kids to Burger King. I would have rather gone to Friendly's. Better Ice Cream and I'll take a good grilled cheese sandwich over hamburgers.)

Sadly, they closed the Pizza Time Theater around here, and moved to a smaller building as plain old "Chuck E. Cheese". A few games and the usual ball pit, but nothing I can't play at Quassy Amusement Park's arcade. (That's in CT, by the way.) It's sad to think how Chuck's used to be Birthday Mecca and now it's just that roadside temple.

For those who want to know the names of the Chuck E. Cheese characters including The King:

Wow, we had alot of oldschool posters come back for this one! The power of the CEC

Yeah, this was/is a really great thread.

I almost feel like I want to seek out other CECs now, but I have my limits, and probably would only let myself do that if I first let myself offer babysitting service to my siblings on a weekend.

in england our less blinging theme parks all had those original rock-a-fire robots playing in the restaraunts. i spent a couple of summers working at my local park where one of the least popular jobs was sitting around all day turning the machinery on once per hour. i never got to do that shit!

Oh wow, those little fishy icons managed to get the "The wholesome snack that smiles back until you bite their heads off!" Goldfish song stuck in my head.

There's a retro MCD's around here that basically has a fishtank along with some neon pink and green lights throughout. But the biggest thing there is a statue of the Mac Tonite sitting in front of a piano.

Yeah, this party is still jumping.
The best thing I found on YouTube VALIDATES MY OLD MEMORY OF AN INTERACTIVE BILLY BOB ROBOT mentioned on the 9/24 "Thriller" thread. YES! Click my name.
ShadowWing the Technorganic Autobot, did a good job describing the format of the old CEC similar to the one in Jax, FL with the different rooms. Read the kingklash posts for more disco room action.

I can't help but wonder what happens to the animatronics when places do decide to get rid of them. Thrown in the trash? Sold for parts? Part of me hopes that somewhere there's an animatronic band graveyard like the sign graveyard in Vegas, where some guy has the creepiest fucking warehouse in the world filled with those things. Some of them working, some of them not. Some come on at random, some don't come on at all, and some are motion sensative.

Old animatronics are often destroyed, but some have made it onto the secondary market…

has a ton of videos including a multi-part one on how to control the Interactive BillyBob called "For Whom The Bear Tolls".

We had both CEC and Showbiz Pizza here in Tulsa. I remember liking Showbiz more. If I remember right, it was Showbiz that had muliple rooms. I think there was a room in the back no one ever seemed to eat in, but it had a smaller animatronic show. I think it was some kind of ventriloquist act.

Man. I hadn't thought about CEC or Showbiz in years… Now I'm going to spend the next few days thinking about it. I have a terrible memory. I don't know if I'm repressing something or if I'm just stupid.

In sixth grade my class went to CEC's after a field trip, they had the animatronic band and I was completely enthralled. I'd never been to CEC's before and had no idea they had anything like that inside. The characters were pretty beat up, they definitely had the look of things no one had made any effort to repair or clean up in years. I swear they had a song instructing kids not to hit themselves with safety pins, I still wonder if I made that up or not. I also remember some old troll made me sit out for running. Running! It's a friggin Chuck E. Cheese's! She made me sit down at a table by myself and left me like I was in time out or something. I just got up and went back to playing games. I should have thrown up my pizza on her.
Oh, and the Discovery Zone in Manassas, VA might have been the coolest thing ever. I don't know if they were all the same, but that place was a beast.

My birthday party, every year for quite a few running was held at Chuck E Cheese. My bday comes right around Thanksgiving, so it was a good excuse to get all the extra relatives out of the house for awhile. When my family first started going it was a Showbiz and I do remember the different rooms. No one seemed to eat in the movie room… the main room had the stage where the mascot animals did their Christmas themed stage act. There were monitors setup overhead that played various old cartoons while waiting (Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, etc) and would have commercials inbetween counting down the next stage performance. The arcade was always waaaay outdated but had the cool playarea with the balls, a mini carousel thing, one with horses, one with spaceships. Ski ball was da SHIAT and very fun. The only arcade games I remember them having was Pacman, Mario Bros, and Duck Hunt. THey were underwhelming in comparision to the physical riding entertainment or ticket giving gambling machines.

I got lots of stuff from there, the best being a chuck E cheese plastic mug and one featuring the Quik Bunny. Stopped going there around 1992 or 93 was the last time I think. My dad just announced one year that i was too old for it and my cousins (same age) were out hunting instead. So poo. Sad to hear the stage acts are getting axed. Those were so creepy cool. They weirded me out. A dude in a bear costume used to roam the place til it changed to Chuck E Cheese, then the rat ruled all. And a giant rat hugging you sounds like a nightmare, not a fond bday memory.

When I was little, whenever my parents asked me where I wanted to eat, my answer was invariably "Showbiz!"

All of ours around here are now Chuck E. Cheeses. The last I went to one, I was around 20, with my 22 year old 9-month-pregnant cousin, and her 26 year old sister. I don't know why we decided to go there, but when we did, the guy at the door gave us a look like we were there to bust up the place, and said "you know this is a place for _kids_, right?" Yeah, we thought we'd bring an extremely pregnant woman and start up a riot.

I watched that Youtube vid on changing the Showbiz show to the CEC one…I couldn't take more than 4 minutes, that was depressing as hell. Even the MUSIC was depressing! BTW, someone submitted it to fark.

Lemurcat- I live in stupid, rural, rustic New Brunswick, which I sometimes love (like in Autumn, when the trees turn colors) but sometimes hate- like when I want to go to an establishment such as Chuck E. Cheese.

I always pictured CEC being like that place Junior and John Ritter go to in "Problem Child 2" except with more arcade games, and a ball pit…or kind of like that pirate restaurant from that episode of "Full House"…man, I have to get to a real CEC!

I know I'm very late with this, but in Cary NC there is a Bullwinkle's and I wonder if it's like the Bullwinkle's someone mentioned earlier. From what I have read its a place for kids to play with food and games and shows and stuff. I'm not interested in that, as the food can't be all too good since they probably focus more on the entertainment value.

I went to a Chuck E. Cheese when I was ten. The thing I remember about it was the really bad pizza.

If I'm going to play games and stuff like that I'll go to an arcade place or an arcade at a bowling alley (although most of the time i go to alleys for bowling!). They are probably more lenient in terms of what games can be featured at those places.

I should also add that unfortunately out here in the Triangle the pizza options are not very good. About 90% of the pizza places here are New York style places. :p I'd rather have Chicago style pizza. Then again I guess I'd rather have NY pizza than the tripe CEC sells.

Hi, this is actually my first time posting on here, but I've been reading articles on here for a while. Anyway, this brought back a lot of memories. I only been to Chuck E. Cheese once, but I recall going to Showbiz on quite a number of occasions. One thing I always seemed to like was that they kept the real mascot, which at Showbiz was a bear named Billy Bob I believe, out of view when the animatronics were doing their show. I'm pretty sure it was to give you the illusion that they were the same character and the Billy Bob character just came off the stage. Of course, being a little kid I believed that sort of thing but I also believed the Muppets, E.T., the mascots for the Chicago White Sox in the 1980s (I'm from Chicago by the way), and yes even Santa Claus were real!

Anyway, my father and brother who had their birthdays (my father passed away almost two years ago) on the same day celebrated at Showbiz one year and I got so jealous that I demanded that my birthday be there! My birthday is six days (December 19th to be exact) before Christmas so this was our sort of "Non-Christmasy" thing to do during the holidays. Well, must I say that I really did enjoy Showbiz.

Now, when I say I only was at Chuck E. Cheese once, it was mostly because what I remember from Showbiz was gone with Chuck E. Cheese (CEC bought out Showbiz in the Chicagoland area because there are NO Showbiz pizza places in Chicago anymore). The only part I held on to were the video games (had to play The Simpsons game and it seemed that every Showbiz place I've been to all had Paperboy, which was always a favorite of mine and of course I had to play it, and yes it was at CEC when I went there that one time) and Ski-Ball. Oh yes, and I must say that I did like the pizza. However, at Showbiz in between shows they had a movie screen come down and show old movie shorts such as "The Three Stooges" or a Howdy Doody bit, or even a Warner Brothers cartoon. Anyway, CEC had televisions that showed singalongs with the cast so that was no fun! Also, I was getting older and now I pretty much grew out of the whole experience. Unfortunately, I don't have any kids or nieces or nephews so I can't rekindle that memory for now.

Anyway, one other point I wanted to mention. I've never been to CA so I am jealous because that Bullwinkle place would be somewhere I would want to go. Rocky and Bullwinkle is my all-time favorite cartoon so seeing a live-action animatronic moose and squirrel would make my day! Actually, I also heard in Hollywood there's a statue I believe on Rodero (is that the way it's spelled or is it Rodeo) DR of the famous Moose and Squirrel, or maybe it's Sunset Blvd. I don't know because like I said, I've never even been to CA so I know I'm missing out on a lot!!!! Anyway, thanks for reading my comment and Matt, you sure do put up a great site. Of the many articles I've read of yours, every one of them is a trip down memory lane! I could get hooked on your site and do nothing but read your articles/blogs and watch your commercial and other clips all day! Of course, I'm in the military and also currently stationed in Iraq so that's kind of impossible right now. Anyway, great job on the site!!!!

we dont have that place in england closet thing we have is probably pizza hut lol.

Darth Galvatron - you know, there was one episode of 'My Sweet 16' that has always haunted me. It featured a girl who was adopted by a very wealthy couple and she talked about her life before being adopted. She and her younger brother were homeless. The brother wasn't adopted by the couple, and there was no mention of whatever happened to him. I wondered if the couple only wanted a girl….and the thought that the brother was still somewhere in the Child Welfare system while this girl was being spoiled rotten just galls me.

My sister just started working with that Chucky Cheese fella. I walked in today and saw a MIB/Chucky Cheese parody photo. Tommy Lee Jones played by the weird Grimace/Chris Farley lovechild beast.

I don't wanna be a dick or a Debbie Downer, but I have to make this clear again:

Showbiz bought out CEC, not vice-versa!! The rat was more popular than the bear, so Showbiz became CECs. That vid is still depressing.

Grr!! Every time you people say My Sweet 16, all I can think about is the girls cosmetics line from the 80's!

Yeah, Darth Galvatron! That's exactly the Barcode of which I speak! You win the prize! A round of leftover egg salad for everyone!

Also, I think I figured out why the notion of Chuck E. Cheese creeps me out: I am ALWAYS reminded of the spoof on Invader Zim–Bloaty's Pizza place. Creepiest. Themed. Restaurant. Ever.

Aww…Christmas is officially over. The santa icons are gone. Where are my chestnuts??? Why does everything taste of baked cheese crackers with "NO TRANS FAT!!!"?

I figured, if Santa had to go, a good way to make people feel okay about it would be to replace him with delicious Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.

My grandparents took me to CEC when I was very young. This was after being to one birthday party there, and grandparents take you to all the cool places your parents don't, so I had to go. The place was so loud that they had a positively miserable time, the entire time. I felt so sad for them that I never asked to go back.

Along similar lines, the place to have a birthday party on the north shore of Nassau County way back when was at Arcadia Amusements in Bayville. For a few hours all the games were free, and at the time this place had the need-to-play games. Of course, time could be hazing my memory, as I hadn't been back in about 16 years, and now the place is torn down. It was rebuilt as a haunted house attraction for October; now I don't know what's going up there.

Hmm. I guess I'm okay with these little goldfish. They're classy. Not like those rogue flavor blasted sorts.

Love the new stickers (and the goldfish). This is a great thread as well, that page that everyone linked to is a treasure trove. How could I have forgotten about Helen Henny?
Happy Friday everybody! Welcome to the blog, Brian!

JLAJRC - There is one in DSM, don't know how far away you are from there. Well, technically it is in West DSM, on 22nd St, across from the Hooters.

I haven't been here in forever it seems. I still need to finish the 24th and 25th of the advent.
Chuck e Cheese is crazy. I think it's crazier than when I was little. But my son loves it. It's just so hard to keep track of little kids when they are running like little madpeople though the restaurant.

I don't think anyone has mentioned it (I read this all, but I could have missed it), but I found something interesting while scanning the above linked website (from Manimal, Paul, Thorzul, and others). In the photo section, it appears that "Snap" installed the Rock-afire Explosion in his (or her) basement?!? My first thought was that that would be so awesome to do. Then I thought about it some more, and decided that it would thoroughly creep me out to have a functioning (or non-functioning) setup like that in my house. And I LIKE vaguely creepy tacky-looking things like that! That's dedication.

(I'm going to try to link to the exact page under my name. There is also a page of more current photos.)

I used to go to Chuckecheese to play Dragon's Lair. It was the only place around that had it. It was worth the buck they charged to play it.

In middle school we took a field trip to Chuck E. Cheese (well, it was a field trip to the zoo and we ate at Chuck E. Cheese) and got banned (the entire school) for being too rowdy in the ball pit…and also breaking a ski-ball machine…and I think one kid might've tried to steal something from behind the prize counter…

thorzul thanks for posting that vid! i wouldn't have thought to look on youtube for this stuff, but looking at some of the old rock afire shows is amazing! showbiz was so awesome, too bad that went the way of the more apparently mainstream chuck e cheese concept

and Paul that setup is amazing, if i ever found a practical reason and means to have the animatronics set up i'd so be on that, something so magical about those things, i guess as with much of memories from childhood

too bad kids today can't appreciate this kind of crap! their toys are getting alot better though

Bullwinkle's rocked, we had one in edmonton. there was a water show with lights in front of the stage and boris n' natasha faces on the side that would come alive and make fun of the band. also snidely whiplash was in a cage right when you walked in. it was pretty dark in there and everyone wore those glow stick head band things, that place was great i wish it were still open

I hope I'm not doing something wrong by getting off-topic and talking about another article, but the last blog entry for the "Tales From the Darkside" episode was November 4th. Anyway, if I was ratted for it, I don't care!

I wanted to mention that the episode Matt reviewed, "Anniversary Dinner" was probably the only episode I even remember of the series! Actually, there was one other episode that I don't remember the plot to at all. All I remember is there was this old man who was dying and I think he had leprosy or something. Anyway, there's a scene near the end where he sneezes and his nose falls off. The episode ends with the handkerchief he used when he sneezed showing his nose laying there. Don't ask me why I remember that and nothing else, but then again, I was a young kid when this show aired (which was on good old WGN Channel in Chicago, before the days when it was brainwashed with the WB Network, which is now CW), and the opening theme creeped me out with the narrator that I couldn't get past the opening theme anyway! Well anyway, did what I describe sound familiar to anybody?

Anyway, back to the anniversary dinner episode. I was just wondering if this episode is available on any of the Tales From the Darkside videotapes. This is a forgotten series that hasn't seen the light of DVD daylight yet, but from what I hear the show's producers, George Romero and Richard Rubinstein, had a falling out and that may have caused legal entanglements. Of course, why would they release the movie on DVD and not the TV series? I see that Amazon had posted six volumes and I was wondering if one of them had "Anniversary Dinner" on them. The other day when I was looking to see if they had a copy of the Amazing Stories episode, "Go To the Head of the Class" on videotape. I have to admit, after reading that article, I wanted to see that episode BADLY and I couldn't wait until Universal released Season 2, which right now who knows if that's going to happen! Anyway, I found a used copy on Amazon which also included the "Family Dog" episode so I get a double treat!!!! Anyway, after looking for a copy of that, it dawned on me to search to see if maybe the Tales From the Darkside series had a volume with "Anniversary Dinner" in it. Anyway, just wondering and I needed an excuse to write something so I thought I would send another blog, even though I'm way behind and commenting about an article written almost two months ago!!!!

I went to a Chuckie Cheese's "restaurant" one time. I remember going home and not getting a wink of sleep that night, thinking that Chuckie was gonna get me for some reason. Probably ’cause of those creepy-ass robots. (And for the record, I'm fully aware that I spelled it "Chuckie" when everyone else spells it "Chuck E." Fight the power, man!)

If I recall, my CEChas a little key-pad built around the robot stage where you can type your name and if it's in their database they will say it.

Trish
I remember that one. I barely watch MTV anymore. Unfortunately, because of where I work, I need to keep up with certain things, so I have to on occasion turn it on and leave myself wondering WTF happened to the human race

I liked Barcode. I went there a few times with buddies from work. Had a great time, and there were usually lots of girls there. Went one night with some friends, only to find it was closed. I didn't know it had burned down.

Aw man, Christmas is officially over….I don't care, I still have the Jukebox, and YOU CAN NEVER TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME….EEVVVAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!….

This is a great thread. It's amazing to see how Matt strikes gold with his little outings.

I'm sure some of you Transformer fans already know, but for those who don't, there is a website for the new live action Transformers movie that has lines recorded by the original Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen. He will be reprising his role in the new movie, so they had a contest to see what lines would make it in the movie or something like that, so the new recordings are up. Here's the link:

Maybe this will bring back some memories just like this thread. Let's keep the nostalgia rolling….!

Somewhere, in the deep, dank recesses of X-E, there is a secret project. Animatronic Lego people are being constructed as we speak. The Knacks and Kuse Rock'n'Roll Gold Ribbon Thunderhammer Stunt Spectacular and Bar-B-Q Sammich Armageddon is comming to a strip mall near you!

This article definitely brings back memories! I remember one time when my brother (was about 10 at the time) ripped Chuck's tail off as he was passing by. LOL!!!

Oooooh, I like it!!! And just think - the little kiddies could get their pictures taken with Waiterbot. Talk about traumatizing childhood memories….

Stone: That's the one I think about. Haven't been there in years. I'm rarely in that area except to go to the 1/2 Price Bookstore.

Brian: Sci-Fi showed that episode not too long ago. Christian Slater played the grandson, Brent (Data) Spiner played the doctor. Don't remember the title, but his nose comes off because his grandson puts pepper in his napkin.

I remember my CEC until about 10 years ago when an ex employee shot the place up and killed 7 or 9 people there. Thank god he waited until they had closed.

A search on Google has informed me that there is a Bullwinkle's still, and it is in North Carolina. I think you can click on my name to see it. If not- http://www.bullwinkles.com/

Ah, CEC. Just got back from working there earlier today. Yeah, the pizza sucks (unless you drench it in Red Pepper), and…well, I can't justify it. I can tell you this much, though. RESPECT those guys in the Chuck E. costume. Take it from personal experience, kids beat the ever living piss out of you when you wear that thing.

I grew up on Long Island. Now here in Suffolk, we had a huge Chucky Cheese (This was the way it was spelled originally on the sign) in Commack. The place was huge. They had a big door and a small door just for kids. In 1983 the place to me, was like a temple of worship. I remember playing the Tron and Star Wars games. I always got my ass handed to me at Dragons Lair. In the early days there was a gigantic play area, kinda of like a big hamster cage for kids. They had seperate dining area's and bathrooms. If you were lucky, you had a private champagne room with the animatronic charcters. Which had the stage you could crawl under. Eventually Chucky's fell into disrepair. Everything went to shit. They took out the playland, the kids door and shut down the tunnel under the stage. Around the early 90's Chuck sold his store to some crooks. In all reality from what I heard, was that parents got sue-happy and took closed the place down. It sucks to have your childhood closed down due to drooling mongloid retards whose parents don't watch them. (So I guess not only is Chuck responsible for entertaining your children, but, he and Munch have to supervise them as well) The place became "The Emporium". The Emporium was more of a generic arcade with lousy food. The place was a bootleg Chucky's. Complete with generic moving charcters. (So generic in fact, I cannot remember any of them, alas, they were falling apart and barely moved. Many of them had exposed moving parts. This was creepy and yet cool in a "Child's Play 2" kind of way)
Okay, I'm almost done here kiddies.
Nathan's bought the place, cleaned it up eventually and it becamee tolerable. However, nobody at "Nathan's" learned from history and it too closed in the late 90's.
Now in present day, the building is an all you can eat japanese buffet entitled: "Sushi Park". The place looks like the perfect place to have a ninja showdown. The food isn't bad either, I enjoyed it. However with the abundence of dead fish, nothing sings at you while you eat.

I still have 'Gee, Our 1st Album!' by the Rock-A-Fire Explosion that I got when I had a birthday at Showbiz Pizza Place. It was my favourite place as a kid…

I went to Chuck E. Cheese once, and it felt completely wrong… I was gutted when I found out it had been taken over. That YouTube video posted earlier on of the changeover was heartbreaking to watch.

Actually, I really should convert that Rock-A-Fire album to MP3… I've also got a 7" Vinyl too, with 'Happy Birthday' on it…

Hmm…there's another Paul here, so I'm going to have to resort to using an initial. Bah!

When I was a little kid, I used to be terrified of those robots. Looking at the pictures and the videos, I can see why…those things are outright creepy. I'm surprised, though, that it was Chuck that gave me nightmares and not Pasqually, the Forgotten Mario Brother.

When I was younger, I remember having some kind of bizarre dream where, at some giant football game, Chuck would plummet out of a plane, on fire, and smash into the field. I remember seeing a horrifically battered and scarred mouse costume in the next part of the dream. Not sure what that says about me, if anything other than that I had lousy dreams as a kid.

We used to have Major Magic's restaurants here in Metro Detroit. As far as I know, though, the two I went to are bo