Evolution of Chuck E. Cheese's Animatronic Show Stages 2

From 1979 to 2024, every era of the Chuck E. Cheese's animatronics look COMPLETLEY different. In this video, Freddy Trap breaks down every major update in Chuck E's robotic appearance throughout the decades. #savechuckecheese

The Final Showbiz Locations Theme provided by White Bat Audio, a special thank you to them!

SOURCES (not in chronological order):

SPP Concept Unification Premiere








• Chuck E. Cheese Pearl City, HI - Birthday Star 2010 (TURNTABLE FOOTAGE) -






For any business inquiries, or just to get ahold of me, email

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.

Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

[FreddyTrap]

freddytrap.com

7:07

The Final Showbiz Locations

[nizammulky]

"In 1979 chuck-e-cheese opened their first location"

Me: wait wasn't it 1977?

[DevinKlein-xoes]

History
Pizza Time Theatre
Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who sought to expand video-game arcades beyond adult locations like pool halls to family-friendly venues.[2][3] His experience in the amusement park industry, and his fondness for the Enchanted Tiki Room[4] and the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland, influenced his concept for Pizza Time Theatre.[5][6] He has said, "It was my pet project ... I chose pizza because of the wait time and the build schedule—very few components, and not too many ways to screw it up."[7]

Prior to founding Atari, Bushnell would drive around the Bay Area with Atari co-founder Ted Dabney looking at different pizza parlors and restaurants to brainstorm concepts. "Chuck E. Cheese was always his (Nolan's) passion project, even before Atari was a thing, " said Dabney. "He wanted to start a business of family-friendly restaurants with amusement park midway games. I think initially it made no fiscal sense, so he shelved it for a while, but then when Atari took off, he had the means to pursue it, plus a built-in distribution model for Atari's new releases."[8]

When his first animatronic show was being assembled, Bushnell learned the costume he had bought for his main character, a coyote, was actually a rat, prompting him to suggest changing the name from "Coyote Pizza" to "Rick Rat's Pizza". His marketing team believed this name would not be appealing to customers and proposed "Chuck E. Cheese" instead. The company adopted the rat as their mascot.[9]

The first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre opened in San Jose, California, in 1977.[10][2][11] In 1978, when Atari's then-corporate parent, Warner Communications refused to open additional locations, Bushnell purchased the rights to the concept and characters from Warner for $500, 000.[12] Gene Landrum then resigned from Atari and was made the restaurants' president and chief operating officer.[13][14] By the end of December 1979, there were seven PTT locations, six in California and one in Nevada (Sparks).[15] Its animatronics were produced fully in-house by PTT employees.

ShowBiz Pizza Place
Main article: ShowBiz Pizza Place
To expand beyond California and the west coast, Bushnell began to franchise, resulting in a co-development agreement between himself and Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management in June 1979.[16] The agreement handed Brock exclusive franchising rights for opening Pizza Time Theatres in sixteen states across the Southern and Midwestern United States, [12] while also forming a company subdivision, "Pizza Show Biz", to develop the Pizza Time Theatres.[12]

Late in 1979, Brock became aware of Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc. and his work in animatronics. In November 1979, he scouted Fechter's business and concluded that Creative Engineering's animatronics would be too strong a competition for Bushnell's work. Brock therefore requested that Bushnell release him from their co-development agreement, wishing to develop with Fechter instead.[12]

In December 1979 Brock and Fechter formed ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc., and Brock gave notice to sever his development relationship with Bushnell.[12][17] ShowBiz Pizza Place was conceptually identical to Pizza Time Theatre in all aspects except for animation, which would be provided by Creative Engineering.[12] ShowBiz Pizza Place opened its first location on March 3, 1980, in Kansas City, Missouri.[11]

Upon the opening of ShowBiz Pizza Place, Bushnell sued Brock and Topeka Inn Management over a breach of contract.[12] Brock immediately issued a counter-suit against Bushnell, citing misrepresentation.[12] The court case began in March 1980, eventually settling out of court with Showbiz agreeing to pay Pizza Time Theatre a portion of its profits over the following decade.[12] During this period, Topeka Inn Management changed its name to Brock Hotel Corporation and moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas.[12] Both restaurants experienced increased success as the video game industry became more robust.[12] To maintain competition, both franchises continually modified and diversified their animatronic shows.

Mergers and restructuring
In 1981, Pizza Time Theatre went public; they lost $15 million in 1983. By early 1984, Bushnell's debts were insurmountable, resulting in the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Pizza Time Theatre Inc. on March 28, 1984.[11][18] Brock then bought the floundering company, finalizing the purchase in May 1985 and merging the two restaurant companies into ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc.[11][19]

After the merger, both restaurant chains continued operating under their respective titles, while major financial restructuring had begun.[11] During this period, Creative Engineering began to sever ties with ShowBiz Pizza Time (officially splitting in September 1990), resulting in the unification of the two brands. This is known as “Concept Unification”. By 1992, all restaurants assumed the name of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza.[20][21] The name was then shortened to Chuck E. Cheese's by March 1994 after a redesigned concept.[11][22]

In 1998, ShowBiz Pizza Time renamed itself CEC Entertainment, Inc. to reflect the remaining chain brand.[23][11] CEC Entertainment has since acquired additional family restaurant properties, including 13 locations of the now-defunct Discovery Zone in 1999, [24] and all locations of Peter Piper Pizza in October 2014. Peter Piper Pizza still operates under that name.[25]

International expansion

Chuck E. Cheese's Boulevard Marina in Viña del Mar, Chile

Chuck E. Cheese's Mallplaza in Trujillo, Peru
In 1981, the restaurant franchise debuted in Australia under the name Charlie Cheese's Pizza Playhouse. The name change had to do with the common meaning of the word "chuck, " which in Australia is a reference to the phrase "to throw up.". The first location, located in Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, relocated in 1982 to a location in Carina, Queensland. In January 2024, it was announced that Chuck E. Cheese would be making its return to Australia with a multi-unit franchise partnership with Royale Hospitality Group. [26] [27] Consecutively, Pizza Time Theatre, Inc. also opened at least one restaurant in Hong Kong and Singapore, which both closed shortly thereafter as a result of the initial company's 1984 bankruptcy.[26] Two locations in Puerto Rico franchised by Santa Rosa Enterprises would open in 1983: one in San Juan, Condado[28] in September of that year, [29] and one in the Santa Rosa Mall in Bayamón which would open in either November or December of that year.[30] Both stores would be short-lived and would approximately close by the end of 1985. Pizza Time Theatre also opened a location in Creteil, France in 1984 and planned to open a location in Ealing, England in the mid '80s, but the plan failed.[29]

In 1994, nine years after ShowBiz Pizza Time was formed, the first new international location would open in Santiago, Chile. More restaurants would open in the country, with 13 total stores as of 2023. In the late 90's, there was a plan to expand to Israel, 1998 saw the plan of expanding to Japan first opening in Tokyo. These never materialized. An expansion for the Philippines was planned, and the first location would have opened by 2000. However, these plans (like Pizza Time Theatre's plans for future expansion) never materialized. In the Middle East, locations would open in Saudi Arabia beginning in 2001, the United Arab Emirates in 2008, Jordan in 2019, Bahrain in 2021, and Qatar in 2022. Three new locations would open in Puerto Rico between 2003 and 2008. Another plan to open in the Glorietta mall complex of Makati City, Philippines, was greenlit in January 2013 but that also never happened.[31]

On March 6, 2012, the first Chuck E. Cheese in Mexico would officially open in Monterrey. "Ratón Chito, " an unofficial character, previously represented Chuck E. in the country during the 1980's. This unique incarnation appeared throughout the ShowBiz (and later, Boomis) Pizza Fiesta chain of establishments, conceived as a result of closing Pizza Time Theatres in the United States. Assets from several store closures were shipped to the Mexican franchisees, with the intention of retrofitting the Pizza Time Players to better suit the country's market demographic.[32] Sally Industries of Jacksonville provided the controller equipment for these retrofits, as the animatronics arrived without their original control systems required for operation. The Ratón Chito aspect of ShowBiz Pizza Fiesta was later spun off into Boomis, separating itself from the rest of the company. These stores managed to successfully remain in operation until the 2000's, with one in Aguascalientes auctioning off equipment (including the retrofitted Chuck E. Cheese animatronics) as late as October 2018.[33]

In August 2022, it was announced that the first Chuck E. Cheese in Egypt would open in Sheik Zayed's Royal Mall, with the location opening in February 2024.[34][35]

In February 2023, a third Chuck E. Cheese location opened in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, after the Chaguanas location in 2014, and the San Fernando location in 2016, although the San Fernando location closed sometime in January 2023.[36]

At the time of the Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago opening, Chuck E. Cheese had planned additional international locations to open in Jamaica in late 2023, Guyana in 2024, and another in Jamaica by 2025, as well as a store in Romania, although it was unknown when that store would open.[36]

As of April 2024, Chuck E. Cheese operates nearly 600 corporate and franchised locations, as well as over 120 Peter Piper Pizza restaurants. They are located in 45 states domestically and in 17 foreign countries and territories around the world.[37]

[cec_oregon]

we gona ignore the geust stars like harmony houlette, madame oink, sally sashay ???

[Justabird-rvfy]

Just imagine driving down the road and just seeing a building called the “cheesey museum”

[swetlanalukitschow]

I'm so happy that Freddy Trap is back with these videos.

[mlleolivianne]

Is sad to see in 2025 the chuck animatronic gonna die but him am happy to see the fan make all is force to make show biz in life

[MarkWeiler-is]

Chuck E. Cheese first open in 1977, but you have the location right

[LadyLaurapop]

Believe it or not, I would have loved to dine at the late 1970s version of Chuck E Cheese's for the portrait shows. :)

[watermelon-twcm]

Chuck E Cheese first opened in 1977 not 1979

[Doodlebugthegoldenhamster]

I remember having birthday parties at my local CEC as a kid. It has one animatronic and it barely does anything. I remember when costume Chuck would come out while animatronic Chuck would be standing right there. At my location, all he does is look side to side. It’s lame. Made some fun memories there, though.

[purpleguylovesfnaf]

I wish they never listen to whoever came up with the stupid dance floor idea

[Tgo]

I'm going to be so sad to see the nearest stage to me getting removed because it's the last of it's kind. I believe that it was the CU-1 stage or something like that. It wasn't included in this video, but I think it's a pretty cool stage.

[purpleguylovesfnaf]

Don't forget the awesome adventure machine stage before they had studio c and some chuck E cheese 1 stage has creative engineering animatronics and not cyberamic and theres cyberamic animatronics on a 3 stage and they had other guests star characters not just foxy Colleen

[owenzzzz]

6:00 alpha used to be my place before the dance floor came

[QuietHusband]

As a chuck e cheese employee, it kills me to see that they are removing the animatronics

[purpleguylovesfnaf]

They also had cyberamic animatronics on the portrait stage

[mamamiaWAAAHHH]

I grew up with 1992 (i think) and beta, kappa, and studio c stage. Although i didnt get to see the turn table.

[lightingmcqueen]

I don’t know if this is the same for all locations but the one near me has these posters of all the different characters where the animatronic used to be, it feels like memorial every time I see it and I get a little bit more depressed.

[Endless-Charade]

WAIT WHERE DID YOU GET A PHOTO OF PIZZA TIME THEATRES MAIN AREA LIKE THAT???

DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE?