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Chuck E. Cheese's is a franchise of video arcades complemented by small rides, pizza (a central focus), 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, Europe, and Israel. Its logo and mascot, named Chuck E. Cheese, is a giant smiling anthropomorphic mouse. Its headquarters is in Irving, Texas.

The business was founded in 1977 by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, and 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.

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. As of January 1, 2006, The company operated 1,000 restaurants in the United States and other countries.

Kid Check

Chuck E. Cheese's employs security measures to prevent child abduction, these are known as Kid Check. The Kid Check booth is the first thing guests see upon entering the restaurant. Whole families are stamped with a unique identification code in invisible ink that reacts only to the blacklight directly over the kid check booth. Company policy calls for the Kid Check booth to be monitored at all times by an employee and never left unattended. Guests' stamps are checked upon leaving to ensure children belong to the adults with whom they are with.

Dining

Chuck E. Cheese's has a large selection of food items to choose from including pizza, buffalo wings, sandwiches, 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 Pizza Time Players cast members.

Birthday Parties

Chuck E. Cheese specializes in birthday parties for those 1-12 years of 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.

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.

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. At some stores, the use of the Road Show has cut down on the use of the "Live!" shows.

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.

Voice Cast

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

Parodies

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. *

External links

1977 establishments | Advertising characters | Fictional mice and rats | Fast-food franchises | Food companies of the United States | Fast-food chains of the United States | Pizza chains of the United States | Pizza franchises | Video arcades | Pizzerias

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Chuck E. Cheese's".

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