They weren’t the same then, but a lot of Showbiz Pizza stores were converted to Chuck E. Cheese when Showbiz went broke. Change the skins on the animatronics, change the signage, and there you go…
I smell an “Ask the person who was stuck inside a hot, smelly Chuck E. Cheese costume” thread!
One of my favorite places to go when I was a kid, and one of the reasons I really despise “pan pizza”. Gimme a thin crust like I used to get a Shakey’s. I’ve never understood the appeal of that big fat loaf of bread that Pizza Hut calls “crust”.
Abby’s Pizza has pizza pretty close to what Shakey’s used to serve, but I don’t think they’re as widespread as Shakey’s once was.
I made my first foray into Chuck E. Cheese’s back in August. And hopefully, my last. My sisters and I were returning from a Seattle Mariners game, and we started feeling hungry as we were driving through Tacoma. We decided pizza would be good, and thought we’d check out Chuck E. Cheese’s. We found the place and went inside, just us adults (me: age 41; my sisters: ages 39 and 29). We spent about five minutes in there, decided it wasn’t the place for us, and walked back out without bothering to sit down. Instead, we went to the Azteca Mexican restaurant next door, where I got to enjoy a gigantic plate of steak fajitas and a macho-sized sangria, in a relaxing atmosphere.
I loved Shakey’s pizza as a kid. We had one in Pendleton, Oregon, in the 1970s. (Thanks for the wiki link…I didn’t know the second one was built in Portland.)
I thought the pizza was awesome. Mind you, I was 10, but, still…
Funny story about the last time I was in a Chuck E. Cheese:
One of my friend’s had just turned 18, and she wanted a ‘passage into adulthood’ type of birthday. About 10 of us went to Chuck E. Cheese for the day, and then went to a strip club afterwards. The pizza was better than the strip club food, if I recall correctly. Good times.
Okay, when the guy from Minnesota said this, I made allowances. They like jello with shaved carrots there.
But you claim to be from Chicago. One of the Holy Cities of Pizza.
What’s next, the guy from Maine who likes Red Lobster?
We had the Princess’ 3rd birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s.
NEVER AGAIN. I don’t care how much she begs.
I will, however, take her and the Diva there during off-peak hours, i.e. summer weekday mornings. It’s not so bad when it’s not crowded. The one semi-decent thing about the place, other than the fact they serve beer and wine, is the music videos they play when the animatronic characters aren’t singing. There’s one video in particular I like in which a little cartoon guy tries to get up the courage to ask a pretty co-worker out, and the song that goes with it that goes, “Is it love, is it really love?” There’s also one that I find kind of funny in which Chuck E. is apparently out on a date with the bird (chicken?) girl, mostly because of the humor inherent in a rodent dating a bird.
But…but… they have ski-ball! And if you’re feeling naughty you can surreptiously climb up the ramp a little bit and drop the ball in the bullseye for mad points! Not that I’ve ever done that before or anything.
My sister understands that when my nieces have kid parties like that, my husband and I are not coming, no way, no how, and she doesn’t even ask any more. People could get hurt with us at a place like Chuck E. Cheese. There might be snapping and going over the wall.
Chuck E. Cheese is real??? I thought it was just some nightmarish place that Hollywood invented to frighten parents!
My two nephews each got one birthday party at Upchuck’s. I, the doting aunt, managed to wiggle out of going to either one. Both were during work hours for me, although it would have been easy to get off early.
So I, with incredible sorrow dripping from my voice, told the boys I had to work, and wouldn’t be able to make the party. Huh.
Seriously, who was the marketing genius who thought to use a* RAT* as the mascot for a restaurant? And to name the rat Chucky? I realize this is a probably a personal hangup of mine, since lots of people allow themselves to be called Chuck, but I cannot hear that name without thinking of vomit. So here you have associations with not only rats and vomit, but also with hoards of screaming children. In a restaurant. Really, I cannot imagine how this place is still in business.
I have only been to Chuck E. Cheese one time. I was a young and my mother and I were out shopping. It was a brand new place in the shopping center we had never seen. The only thing I remember was a man sized mechanical mouse that sat on a small stage that would play a piano and sing if you fed it quarters.
I don’t remember any games or if we ate any pizza. I can’t even remember if there were other customers.
I sounds like my lack of memory is a good thing. I may have made the mistake of taking my children there.
Jello with carrots? Ick. Then again, I’ve only been here 17 years. It’s not like I’m from here ;).
We used to go to Showbiz Pizza for my birthday–150 miles away! (My birthday’s in November, so it was part of our Christmas shopping trip.) Showbiz definitely seemed geared for an older crowd in the 1980’s. It had a lot more video games–the only ticket-winning games I remember were Skee-ball and Whack-a-Mole. Oh, and they didn’t always give you one ticket, either, like CEC does today. If you suck, you suck. My sister and I were lucky if we got the smallest prize. They also had the full animatronic band, which is what my parents would watch while we played Skee-ball. My daughter, who is almost 11, seems to be outgrowing CEC in its current configuration…back then, I think that 11 or 12 is when you’d really start enjoying the place.
Autolycus, the Skee-balls at our local CEC have a sensor so that you can’t cheat like that!
They no longer serve beer!!! Oh shit…
My wife is pregnant with our first. What the hell I am going to do when my kid gets invited to a party there? I worked at a Chucky Cheese in collage and my wife worked at a Showbiz. We know the horror all to well. I couldn’t’ count the number of parents who I remember saying “The only thing that makes this place bearable is the beer.”
My only hope is they go under in the next 5 years.
Nah, nah, nah – CEC is great! Take the little rugrats in and turn them loose for an hour while you nosh on your salad (ours has a great salad bar).
Noise? What noise? I’m in The Zone, I don’t hear nuttin.
Shoot, if you get there when it opens, you can snag free tickets off all the games - they have to “test them” every day. I’ve got a whole drawer-full of tickets that I’m saving until mine are old enough to enjoy them. I even learned how to score high on skeeball last time from watching the guy next to me (it involves a certain ricochet). And there’s always coupons in the paper for free tokens.
Just avoid it on the weekends, that’s the trick. You couldn’t PAY me to go there on a Saturday.
Years ago, during one of the periodic dustups over sex ed and free condoms in high school, my older brother suggested that they could solve the problem by forcing all teenagers to work in a Chuck E. Cheese or Showbiz Pizza. His rationale was that no one would ever, ever have kids after that. But, both you and your wife worked at these horrifying places, and you’re expecting your first child!? I see now the flaw in my brother’s plan.
Congratulations, by the way! 
I like the combination mechanical games/video games area. You just don’t see that rich a variety of games anywhere else that you don’t have to pay to get into. The pizza is worse than most frozen supermarket pizza, though. And I’m glad I’ve never been there at peak hours, cause I never had a problem finding a place to sit with myself, my mom and my little sister.
Oh, and I wish I knew of places that recreated the tube maze experience that adults were allowed into without children.
Heh. Surprisingly enough, it was this guy.
There’s an independent place here north of Boston that is like Chuck E’s and Showbiz – it’s Bonkers, and it’s actually pretty good. They have an array of games of all kinds, they’ve got a crawl-through maze that is incredibly large (and with only one exit/entrance, so it’s easy to keep track of kids. Take THAT!, Boston Children’s Museum!), the walls are decorated with original murals, and the pizza’s pretty good. And there’s no annoying mascot wandering around. The staff doesn’t sing birthday songs, and the tables are pretty clean.
How dioes Buster and Dave’s stack up against Chuck E. Cheese? The closest one is in Rhode Island, and I’ve never been.