So, THREE different TV shows I’ve been watching lately (Arrested Development, The IT Crowd, and I can’t remember the third, but it might be Weeds) have had scenes set in an American chain restaurant that all seemed like parodies of something, but I personally have no idea what that something is.
Curiously, in both The IT Crowd and AD, the restaurant was an American-themed British place, but it was definitely IN America in the last. And I think I’ve seen similar parodies on other American shows before.
Common features included ludicrously oversized and/or “bottomless” portions, a vague cowboy theme, bright lights and lots of screaming kids, and sparklers stuck into the food.
Does a place like this actually exist? I would have said I’ve been to most of the big American chains, but this seems pretty unlike anywhere I’ve been. I’ve definitely never seen a sparkler stuck in anything, which was a common feature in all three TV parodies.
Ooh! Farrells sounds like a pretty close match AND confirms my long-held suspicion that if such a place exists, it’s probably somewhere that mostly exists around LA.
Haven’t seen the OP’s shows, but in the movie “Office Space” the chain restaurant where Jennifer Aniston’s character worked (and the competing restaurant in the same strip mall where they go on their 1st date) looked to me to be based on a mashup of TGI Friday’s and Bennigan’s, with maybe some Chili’s thrown in.
I think of those as being the most quintessentialliest of the quintessential American chains.
Now that I think of it, the Simpsons episode where Moe revamps the bar into “Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag” or something like that also featured sparklers stuck into the food!
Yeah, it looks like there is just one left in California and a couple in Hawaii.
I remember them as a kid in the 70s as they had them in a couple of malls around Milwaukee.
An old episode of The Bob Newhart Show had a similar type restaurant with the wait staff in those same styrofoam hats and crazy ice cream desserts.
(They are there for Howard’s son’s birthday. Bob is deciding what to order and tells Emily he may order The Whale. Then he sees the wait staff at another table ambush a customer who ordered The Whale by putting a silly hat on him, calling attention to him, and proclaiming loudly “You caaaaan’t do it! You caaaaaan’t eat a whale!” Bob immediately changes his mind and orders one scoop of chocolate. The scene ends with the wait staff ambushing Bob with his order, calling attention to him, and proclaiming loudly “Party-pooper Party-pooper this man is a single-scooper!”)
That’s one kind of “cheesy chain restaurant”, the family-oriented kind. Examples include Farrell’s, Big Boy, Johnny Rockets, and the late Ground Round.
Then there’s the adult-oriented chains, where families may eat on weekends but adults take over at night. They serve alcohol and have bars. Examples include Bennigans, TGIF, Houlihan’s, Chili’s, and Carlos Murphy. These are the kind parodied in “Office Space”.
Both type of chains feature big (and sometimes bottomless) portions, cheesy decor, and wait staff with “flair”, and a birthday order might come with sparklers at either. But, you’re more likely to find bright lights and screaming kids at the family-oriented places.
(OK, I just watched the Newhart scene again for the first time in 30+ years…guess it was funnier when I was 9, but still pretty good…:rolleyes: John Ritter as the waiter.)
Farrells was great. Older brother worked at one here in Chicago while I was a little kid, I still remember having my 5th birthday party there with all my friends. Miss it a lot.
Obviously the Chotchkies example is perfect. Ditto the Shenanigans restaurant in the movie “Waiting.”
That said, if we’re talking quintessential Americana, there’s room for Bob’s Big Boy, HoJo, Denny’s, IHOP, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel, etc.
For my money, the one I miss the most from Chicagoland are the Golden Bear pancake houses. If I had a bottle of syrup right now, like a gangsta I’d pour it to the ground in memoriam. . .
The Pennsylvania example would be Eat 'n Park, which started in the '40s as a few burger drive-ins and morphed over time into a regional chain of family restaurants.
I kind of take offense at Farrel’s being compared with a quintessential cliche cheesy american restaurant. It was quintessential, cliche perhaps- at this late date. Cheesy…certainly not… 70’s maybe. American… most certainly… A treat then, commonplace now, grown with Gewoehnlichkeit.
My area of Wisconsin in the 70’s and 80’s had “Happy Joe’s” and “Baxter’s”, kid friendly (especially birthday parties), 1920’s style fonts and lettering, styrofoam hats on the crew, etc. Requisite “Love Tester” in the lobby. Happy Joe’s can still be found in the Midwest, in fact their logo is of a guy in a styrofoam hat (http://www.happyjoes.com/). Oh, of course, we also had a Shakey’s in town too.
That said, I don’t think places like these are really the spiritual predecessors of TGIBennigansili’s/Tschotkie’s/Shennanigan’s, which have always catered more to the dating young/childless adults set over the adults with kids set, instead the “Happy Joe’s” inspired the Chucky Cheese/Showtime Pizza range arcade+food restaurants.
I remember an endless stream of theme chains.
Shakey’s Pizza had player pianos and singing waiters in striped vests and muttonchop wiskers singing Happy Birthday in barbershop quartet style. 1970s
Pizza and Pipes had a chain with Whirlizer organs that had a bunch of peripheral gear all over the room, like remote bass drums and cowbells that could be activated by the organist. 1980s
Chuck E. Cheese
T.G.I.Friday’s since the 70s has been mocked in several comedy movies