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Chuck E. Cheese's

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The current logo for Chuck E. Cheese Pizza

Chuck E. Cheese's is a franchise of restaurants, complemented by arcade games, small rides, animatronic characters, and other popular diversions for young children such as climbing equipment, tubes, and giant slides. The franchise has locations all over the world, including the United States, Canada (14 restaurants in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario), Latin America, and Saudi Arabia. Its logo and mascot, named Chuck E. Cheese, is a giant smiling anthropomorphic mouse, which had been changed from what had been a rat in 1995. The company's headquarters are located in Irving, Texas.

Contents

[edit] History

The business was founded in 1977 by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre; "E" stands for "entertainment".<ref>This is according to the narrator of a staff training video, the "Chuck E. Cheese Walkabout Character Guide".</ref> The theatre featured singing animatronic characters. The original Pizza Time Players main show lineup featured Crusty the Cat, Jasper T. Jowls, Pasqually, and the Warblettes performing with Chuck E. in a "theater" where customers could eat their pizza. Other Pizza Time Players cast members added in later years included Mr. Munch, Dolli Dimples, The Mopsey Sisters, Foxy Colleen Flannigan, Sally Sashay, Madame Oink, Harmony Howlette, and Helen Henny.

In 1984, the company's parent, Pizza Time Theatre, Inc, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was purchased by competitor ShowBiz Pizza, which also featured pizza, video games, and singing animatronic characters. It was at this time that Richard M. Frank became the CEO and decided to change the target audience from the 10 to 17 years age group to the 0 to 12 years range they have today. Both the Chuck E. Cheese's and ShowBiz names continued to be used until 1992, when Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza became the name for all of the restaurants.

In 1999, CEC Entertainment, Inc., the owners of Chuck E. Cheese's, bought out their own primary competitor, Discovery Zone.

[edit] Franchising

CEC Entertainment initially franchised their restaurants, but are currently not offering any new franchise opportunities, instead concentrating on adding new company-owned stores, as well as acquiring existing franchises. Those franchises that are still left will eventually run out of time on their contracts and/or be bought out by CEC Entertainment. As of January 1, 2006, The company operated over 500 restaurants in the United States and other countries.

[edit] Kid Check

Chuck E. Cheese's employs security measures, called "Kid Check", to prevent child abduction, children leaving unattended, or children getting mixed up with another group while leaving. The Kid Check booth is the first thing guests see upon entering the restaurant. Families are stamped with a unique identification code in invisible ink that reacts only to the black light directly over the kid check booth. The invisible ink helps prevent the stamp from being washed off either from going to the bathroom or by a potential abductor. Company policy calls for the Kid Check booth to be monitored at all times by an employee and never left unattended. Each guest's stamp is checked upon leaving to ensure children belong to their accompanying adults.

[edit] Dining

Chuck E. Cheese's has a large selection of food items to choose from including pizza, buffalo wings, sandwiches, breadsticks, mozzerella sticks, cinnamon sticks, and salads. There are pictures around the walls in the dining room, consisting of music artists' albums and movie poster covers being satired or parodied by the Chuck E Cheese characters. Chuck E Cheese also serves wine and beer at some of their locations.

[edit] Birthday Parties

Chuck E. Cheese specializes in birthday parties for those of any age. Two party packages are available and a minimum of 4 guests is required. During a birthday party, guests are served by a host/hostess, view a live show, and play games. You have unlimited time to use the showroom on weekdays and limited time during the weekend depending on how busy it is.

[edit] Entertainment

At the time of the company's formation through the mid-1990s, the company's animated characters were a main draw for the stores. More recently, less attention has been placed on that part of the company's concept. There are several different styles of animatronic shows in use within the company, depending on when the store opened, whether it was renovated, whether it was an original ShowBiz Pizza property, and other factors. The company's current show that is installed into all new stores, "Studio C", consists of a single animated Chuck E. Cheese character, and utilizes large television monitors, lighting effects, and interactive elements. In some markets, the company has also tried a new store concept that does not use any animated show.

The stores also offer a wide array of video games and traditional mechanical games including Skee Ball. A large number of the games offer prize tickets as premiums which can be used in trade for prizes or treats.

[edit] Road Show

The Road Show is performed at the Kid Check stand as well as the Skee Ball Area. Kids are gathered via the PA system and told to come dance with Chuck E. to win free tickets. After the dance, Chuck E. and other cast members throw large amounts of tickets into the air for children to collect. This is not the same as the Live! show that is performed during birthday parties.

[edit] Live Show

The Live Show is performed on the stage in the showroom. Chuck E. dances with the birthday guests and "sings" Happy Birthday. Once more Chuck E. throws tickets for the children and assists the host/hostesses in cutting the birthday cake.

[edit] Voice Cast

This chain featured voice actors performing animatronic characters from the Chuck E. Cheese line over the years.

[edit] Parodies

Main article: List of pop culture parodies of businesses

[edit] Tokens

The brass tokens issued by the company for use in their video game arcades exist in numerous varieties and are eagerly collected by exonumia enthusiasts. [1]

Chuck E. Cheese's is currently testing a card access method for use with their arcade/skill games. Stores will no longer use tokens, instead using a refillable card to access credits (tokens) and points (tickets). This concept is currently in the testing phase in Irving, Texas where the company is currently headquartered.

Nine other locations in the United States are also testing the token cards, including North Canton Ohio.

[edit] References

<references />

[edit] External links


Children's Entertainment Center (CEC)-related articles
Ball pit | Chuck E. Cheese's | Discovery Zone | Indoor maze | Jungle gym | Playground | Play structure | Wonder Camp
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