Balcony Stage

[MMBBfan327]

The stage most of us grew up with. What feelings/memoirs do you carry from the Balcony? I never got to see one unfortinatley, however pictures/showtapes do give you a hint on it.;) Anyone care to share some stories, or first experiences?

[captslappy]

The balcony is the first and only main stage show in the context PTT. The later stages like the porch set up were past my time. The balcony from a scenery stand point was fairly bland when compared to the porch or MMBB set up today but it's my favorite because of what I grew up with. I like the fact it had no TV monitors and it was just the characters. I also liked the fact the clappers and flags made the whole show feel like it went around the room. I think something was really lost once the birds and clappers got retired. I also like the guest concept. I still wish they'd kwpt Harmony forever if they were going to keep just one character permanently. I saw Harmony, Oink and Helen as a kid. I never saw the colored birds. The black ones were the only version I knew of until I got to the board.

[YoungCaliHottie]

i definately miss the flags and clappers! a local cec had them until a remodel in the late 90s.

[dheineCECfan]

The balcony stage of the long gone CECPTT in Hoffman Estates, Illinois (operated from 1983 until its takeover by Little Caesar's Family Fun Pizzaria in 1986) is where I first got to know the robots of Chuck E., Jasper, Pasqually, Munch, and Madame Oink (later replaced by Helen Henny).

[MMBBfan327]

A CEC actually kept the flags and clapper board until the late '90s!!! Wow, that's freakin' sweet!!! Elmbrook got rid of them in the 94/95 remodel, which also took The KING and the "C"-Stage in favor of a one stage MMBB.

[YoungCaliHottie]

i wish i woulda taken pics of the clappers and c stage! guess i was young and never thought about it ever possibly changing... :(

[dheineCECfan]

There was even a CEC location near El Toro, California that had a PTT style balcony stage until its 2001 closing.

[captslappy]

I think many stores kept the birds, clappers and flags in place. They were no longer programmed once the porch/rocker stage came into being. The instructions for remodeling told stores to staple curtains in front of the birds and remove the clappers and flags but it was eaiser for most stores to just leave them in place. They just were no longer used. I wouldn't be suprised if some locations left the birds visible in fact.

[MMBBfan327]

What? They put curtains over the birds? I'd like to see a picture of that.

[captslappy]

The birds in most stores were in a recessed cubby in the wall away from the balcony in most cases. From what I have heard, many locations just stapled curtains in front of them rather than go to the trouble to remove them. It makes sense when you think about.

[MMBBfan327]

Oh, yeah I guess you're right. I remember seeing a pic of them actually attached to the stage, and I thought, how can they put curtains over?

[dheineCECfan]

For C stage/Rocker stage: The birds were replaced by talking flowers.

[captslappy]

That was not typical. Usually they were high up in the air and in a recessed area. You probably saw the pic of the birds at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum and his show isn't set up the way it would be in PTT. The cover didn't go over them, it went in front of them so they were hidden from view and it wouldn't be obvious to guests that there was anything behind the curtains.

[MMBBfan327]

No, it wasn't Marvin's. It was from an actual PTT. IDK where I saw it though.

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

Captian...just so you know..

The various show "extras" ( birds, flags, etc.) were still programmed into the Porch/Rocker stage tapes. In fact, i was stunned to discover that even up to the early 90's there was programming for thesr things! When you would play the showtape "Best of CECtv 93 ( or 94...whatever one it's called!) the LED driver lights pulse in time to the music during certain times...mostly during the backgroud vocal ( oviously for birds or flowers animations) and at the end of the skit ( more then obviously the flag option). I was amazed to learn this while studying the driver light.

So it's safe to say that there was programming availbie for the "extras" so that those few rare stores that still had this stuff operated could indeed have these things going during the show! Awesome!!

[menutia]

Is there a comparison to the driver circuits for these shows?

I'm just curious as to the original actions per card being changed for the later incarnations? Specifically, what are the "new assignments for the cards after the shelf show. Where does the Wink operate from? What are the new lighting assignments? What happened to the circuits for the flag wavers and band board -etc?

~M

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

The flag wavers ran off of the Guest card during the Porch/Rocker era.

The Wink to this day still runs off of Chuck E.s card.

The lighting has it's own card as you already know....

[captslappy]

There are 2 light driver boards on the balcony show computer. One does back lighting and the other operates spots.

[YoungCaliHottie]

that would have to be true about the flags and clappers working because my younger brother was born in 1993 and my grandfather, mother, younger brother, and myself went to cec the first day he was out of the hospital! we went to that pico rivera location. and i remember it like it was yesterday. all clappers and flags worked 100%.

[captslappy]

The band had it's own board and the clappers ran off that. The guest always ran the flags. CEC originally ran the birds and apparently later the wink ran off of him in their place.

[MMBBfan327]

It must have been hard to get the wires all around the showroom, no?

[captslappy]

Not really

[MMBBfan327]

mmmk I thought it was, nm

[Larry the Tech]

I just wanted to bump this up because of the "Curtains over Warblettes" thing.

The Band Board and Warblettes had drapes behind them. During the creation of the porch stages, PTT had future plans for both of them (though they never were used again), so they just told you to keep them in place but hide them with the curtains behind them.

I got this info from page 26 of the installation manuel. http://www.showbizpizza.com/info/documents/spt/spt_facade-install.pdf

[pizza2483]

i remember the balcony stage. i think our location had chuck E, mr. munch, the dog. the pizza maker. and the bird. sorry i dont remember all the names at the moment. i remember the long tables in the room where the animatronics were. and the dark wall paper. and the curtains.

[Larry the Tech]

i remember the balcony stage. i think our location had chuck E, mr. munch, the dog. the pizza maker. and the bird. sorry i dont remember all the names at the moment. i remember the long tables in the room where the animatronics were. and the dark wall paper. and the curtains.
Chuck E. Cheese (rat)
Mr. Munch (monster)
Jasper T. Jowls (dog)
Pasqually Pieplate (chef)
Helen Henny (aka Nevin's gf) (chicken)

There ya go ;)