Draft:Extinct CEC Animatronics 1

Introduction

Mini History

Chuck E Cheese's opened its doors on May 17, 1977, in Winchester Blvd, San Jose, California, under the name Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time Theatre. It was the very first family restaurant to integrate food, indoor arcade and animated entertainment. their slogan "Where A Kid Can Be A Kid." was trademarked by Nolan Bushnell Co-Founder of Atari. Nolan Bushnell founder of CECPTT was very fond of the Walt Disney Co, it was a company he looked up to and wanted to work but never got the chance. The inspiration of the animatronic figures in the PTT restaurant was a nod to Disney's audio animatronics. In 1980, another little place named Showbiz Pizza Place. Even though they had competition with each other by having the same concept for themselves both restaurants were very successful at the peak of the Video Game industry. in 81', PTT (Pizza Time Theatre) went public on the stocks, but in 83' went with the infamous Video Game Crash which meant that CEC was struggling, in 1984, the company went bankrupt and was sold to Showbiz and sold everything to them, and was separate until 1989, when Showbiz and Chuck E Cheese merge and branding all the restaurants to CEC Pizza by 1993 and MMBB was born and left behind in history with all of the extinct of the Original Cast that are now Extinct.

1977-1979

The Original Gang

When PTT debut in Winchester and Kosser in 1977, the bots were referred as the Portrait Style when the bots are in portraits when performing. The were known as Pizza Time Players and the cast was Chuck E Cheese, Jasper T. Jowls, Pasquale, Krusty the Cat, and the warblettes, Krusty was one of the original band members in 1977. According to his description he was the cat's Meow, singing and joke telling. His time at Pizza Time was short lived and was the first character to retired and didn't make it out the original restaurant in 1978. When K retired in 1978 he would then be replaced by Munch and was voice by the same voice actor John Widelock for chuck. Every band need back-up singer and the pizza time players were no exception. In the original ___location they opened with the warblettes who provided the background vocals for the band. they are 3 singing crows and considering Bushnell's inspiration with Disney's singing crows in Dumbo. In 78' they went into a brief extinction and were replaced by the Mopsey Sisters for a year then the warblettes return. During the late 80's for the Rocker and C Stages the birds flow the cope and was no longer used in any of the restaurant.

1980-1984, 1985-1993

The Guest Stars

Before PTT went bankrupt and was sold to Showbiz, the PTT players featured had a variety of animatronic guest stars, these original characters were used in both the Portrait and Balcony stages and all of the guest stars utilized the same Cyberamic animatronics but reskinned as a different character and had their backdropped change to coincide with the appropriate show tapes. The first one was an Irish fox in 1978 called Foxy Colleen who performed Irish styled songs. The next was Madame Oink, was a pig that spoke who'd oink anytime someone told her a joke and was around the same as the fox and tried to "hog the spotlight" when she was on stage. The third was Sally Sashay and was a Disco Singing Skunk and was once again short-lived and only appeared in 1979 and got the boot. Next come Harmony Howlett, a tomboyish cowgirl coyote form Western Texas, she was used from 1981-82 while Oink was still being used until 1983. Once the company filed for bankruptcy in 1984, Madame became the last guest star to be featured, then Helen Henny, was a past guest star for the Portrait stage for the Kosser in 1978 was her replacement on the Balcony. To this day, all of the Pizza Time guest characters besides Helen Henny were all extinct.

The Cabaret Stage

A Little while after the Grand Opening of Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time Theatre, locations began receiving a cabaret stage that was added to a separate room in the restaurants. These Cabaret stages would feature animal characters to parody and impersonate famous musical artists, not to mention the names of the characters were very punny. Dolly Dimples who would be replaced by BB Bubbles, and both were pianist. The Beagles who were a group of animatronic dogs that were based off on the Beatles, they were able to be seen performing and perform their songs until they were replaced by The Beach Bowsers, who were the same animatronics robots and were retrofitted to fit the old figures. The animatronics were each were supposed to look like a member of The Beach Boys and performed the Beach Boys Songs. The Infamous one was The King animatronic; he was a 9-foot Lion and was designed to look like Elvis Presley. But later, some of the king animatronics were retrofitted to looking like a Michael Jackson theme character and named The King Cat, it was given a new wig, sunglasses, a red sequins jacket and a white glove like MJ. The King Cat was known as Chuck E Cheese's last hope for success, since the company was in the brink of filling for bankrupt. Only a few of the restaurants got the king cat animatronic before and after the bankruptcy, the remainder of the restaurants kept the original king animatronic, and the last one was said to have been around until 1995. on a sidenote at the time these figures were programmed to the original artist song tracks and would need a license to use the songs for the songs and was one of the reasons why the company went bankrupt and by the mid-90s all of the cabaret acts removed and with the main focus of the main entertainment of the animatronics now being in the main showroom.

1994

Munch JR

Once the companies were officially merged by 1994 all restaurants including all of the Showbiz Pizza Place had them retrofitted into all of the Chuck E Cheese Cast Members. One Rockafire character was named Choo Choo, a baby bear that lived in a tree stump. During the switch over Choo Choo became Munch Jr who is a mini version of Mr Munch with 1 tooth and an orange propeller cap, he'd be seen bouncing up and down to the music but never Spoke, Since the mid 2000s all of the Munch Jr animatronics were removed, their areas have been boarded and carpeted over and joins everyone else in extinction. At one point they had one more Munch Jr animatronic hanging around, and was the Wilmington North Carolina ___location. It had to no maintenance to the Munch Jr animatronic and now joins the rest of the animatronics in extinction.

Now

The Present Day

Depending on the CEC Location you go to, some the restaurants got an updated Studio C in the 90s which only had the Chuck animatronic, so technically the other characters have already been extinct at some locations. In August of 2017 it was announced that CEC that select stores would receive a new test concept, in which it would remove all of the characters in favor of a large dance floor and having the frequent appearance of the live costume characters. CEC Removed their famous tokens and half of their locations due to COVID-19 and for a second time for filing for bankruptcy. By 2024, all of the restaurants with the animatronics were removed in favor of the dance floor.