How I would have done PTT guest stars

[captslappy]

I got to thinking about it and back in the day each PTT had a slightly different lineup mainly due to the caberet and lounge acts. I know at least for a time there was an overlap on Harmony Howlette and Madame Oink. Some stores had Harmony at the same time others had Oink. But I got to thinking about it. I think a smarter way to have done that would have made the guests like the caberet shows. In other words, let the franchise owners choose their guest like they picked their side shows. Instead of having the whole chain have one guest and run the same tape at every location, let them all have different guests and then make several reels for each guest. Then stores could have swapped guests out with others. I know they did that with the lounge and caberet shows sometimes. Alot of times a franchise owner might have had several stores in a region. For example, let's say I had 4 franchise locations. I could have one store with Harmony and Dolli, One with King and Oink, one with Sally and the Beagles and one with Foxy and Artie. Then over time I could swap the guests around to other stores and maybe moved Foxy to where Harmony was and put Harmony in my other store for awhile. That would have really made each location even more unique. Plus rathter than have a deadline to get new tapes for the balcony, the owner could change them out as he or she saw fit like on the caberet and lounge shows.

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

Hey Captian....this DID happen at a lot of stores back then! Many had alternative shows and Guest Stars. Many of these same locations also had different Cab and Lounge acts. It was rare to have local stores near each other have the same Bot's as far as Guests and Cab Acts go.

Many of these same stores did exactly what you are suggesting...they swapped out Bots' with other local PTT's to keep the entertainment fresh and ever-changing. Danvers swapped out their Cab acts with Newington back in the day, and our Guest Stars often were swapped out to.

So if i'm reading your post right, your idea was indeed implemented. The Captian sails again!! :)

[captslappy]

Mainly what I'm saying is Foxy, Sally, Harmony, and Oink ran for set periods of time. True like I said that some had Harmony and some had Oink but to my knowledge Sally and Foxy were retired with the introduction of those characters. I don't think anyone had Sally or Foxy once the other 2 came out. After Helen was introduced no one had any of the other guest stars. I think it would have been cooler if they had run all 5 concurrently at different locations just like they had different cab acts. Pizza Time pretty much more or less ran like CEC today. Everyone runs the same show tape across the board for a 3 month period. I think they had a little more leeway maybe back in the Pizza Time days. Some folks were running oink, some were running Harmony and I think different stores may have been running different skits. In other words some may have run Harmony 1, others Harmony 2. But I think it should have been a case of You had say 4 tapes per guest and you could choose among the 5 guests just like you could the caberets. So you could have picked either Foxy, Sally, Harmony, Oink or Helen and the owner or manager decided when the guests were changed rather than corporate issuing the new tape and saying "This is the tape and guest everyone will use". Had they done this, the other guests probably would have survived much longer although I think eventually we still would have ended up where we are today. But who knows, maybe we'd have Foxy or harmony as the girl character instead of the younger Helen?

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

Yeah, possibly.

It's interesting to consider that Captain as the only reason Helen became permenant was because she was the current Guest Star character when PTT went under in 1983. Had it happend earlier, we would have no doubt seen Harmony or Oink now onstage and in merchandise.

Spooky thought really...i can't really imagine a "kiddie" version of either of them!!

In fact, it's so spooky a thought...i don't want too!!! Ahhh!!!

[captslappy]

I don't know... CEC and Helen were specifically old originally. Pasqually, Jasper and Munch are not so defined age wise. Obviously Pasqually is an adult because he has facial hair but it has always been black. He wasn't graying back in the day. Only Helen and Chuck were "youthened". Jasper has changed in personality, Munch has changed alot vocally but his personality has stayed the same and Pasqually has pretty much not changed at all or at least very little. I don't think Harmony or Oink would have had to have been altered much. Oink probably would have lost the french accent and Harmony may well have lost her country accent over time. I would have hated to see Oink stay. She's my least favorite character ever. It would have been really great if Harmony Howlette had been permanent. The real question I have though is what if PTT hadn't bankrupt at all and Pizza Time had continued as it was. What guests might we have seen? Would Sally, Foxy, Harmony and Oink eventually have come back for another round with new shows? We'll never know but it's fun to think about.

[Harmony Howlette rules]

I always figured Jasper as the oldest, Chuck E. or Munch as the youngest. I think it's the fact that Jasper has this kind of 'been-there-done-that' attitude...kind of gruff and worldly. There's actually a topic about the character's ages on the CEC board somewhere...
Ah, here it is...
p074.ezboard.com/fshowbizpizzacecboardfrm17.showMessage?topicID=175 8.topic (http://p074.ezboard.com/fshowbizpizzacecboardfrm17.showMessage?topicID=175 8.topic)
Really makes you think, huh?
Ok, not really.

[captslappy]

Maybe with CEC the modern store I'd agree with that. But Pizza Time I think CEC himself is definately the oldest. He was very elderly and came off as a cocky old man. Jasper was arguably as old as Chuck but I don't think he was older. Helen also was unquestionably elderly. Pasqually was not an old man but not a kid either. I see him and Munch and some of the other guests as a little younger. Maybe late 20s or early 30s. Pasqually might even have been in his 40s but I don't think that much thought was put into defining their ages.

[Harmony Howlette rules]

I'm saying now, though, actually...
Yes, back then, Chuck E. was definetly the oldest.