Stage Locations

[Aitrus21]

My apologies if these questions have been brought up a million times, but I was just wondering:
1. What ever happened to the original CECPTT in San Jose? I know it closed down, but what were the events surrounding it's closure, and when did it close?
2. Are there any places (Chuck E Cheese or not) still running the old balcony CECPTT stages, or RAE stages?
3. Are there any places where one can see any historical CECPTT or SPP memorabilia (including animatronics)?
4. Does anyone have video of any CECPTT shows, or know where I could get mp3's of CECPTT shows?
Any light shed on these questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who work at and run Chuck E Cheeses for being the people who gave me childhood memories I will never forget =)

[captslappy]

1. What ever happened to the original CECPTT in San Jose? I know it closed down, but what were the events surrounding it's closure, and when did it close?

PTT went into bankruptcy in 1983. Many stores were closed during that time. Showbiz Pizza bought them out and they became "Showbiz Pizza Time". In the early 90s they began phasing out showbiz pizza and turned all existing Showbiz Pizzas and Pizza Time Theaters into "Chuck E. Cheeses". Any store with the Rock-afire converted that show into the Munch Make Believe Band by changing the masks and costumes of the characters. This was called Concept Unification. The last of the Showbiz pizzas closed in '92. Several Showbiz Pizzas are still open overseas but not in the US.

2. Are there any places (Chuck E Cheese or not) still running the old balcony CECPTT stages, or RAE stages?

Yes. A place called Marvin's Mechanical Museum in Michigan has an old Balcony stage. Many CEC stores use the old half body robots but it is not actually set up like the balcony. It is set up as the MMBB show. The Warblettes, King and other caberet characters were phased out a while ago. As for the RAE, you can find them in various places around the country still including the Looneybird stores in Jackson Tn, a second location near New Orleans, a bowling alley in Nashville Tn, various Billy Bob Wonderland stores in several states, a fair in Chicago where the show is trailer mounted, and various collectors also own private shows in their homes. Unfortunately, most RAE and MMBB shows are in bad condition and most do not run very well anymore.

3. Are there any places where one can see any historical CECPTT or SPP memorabilia (including animatronics)?

Yes. Marvins Marvelous Mechanical Museum. (Marvin3m.com- the CEC show he has is not depicted) Also a place in Cincinnati Ohio has a grocery store called Jungle Jim's. It has the King, Warblettes and other animatronic characters inside. (www.junglejims.com). It does not have an affiliation with CEC.

4. Does anyone have video of any CECPTT shows, or know where I could get mp3's of CECPTT shows?

I don't know about videos, but a lot people on here actually have copies of some of the old reel to reel shows from Pizza Time Theater.

[dheineCECfan]

...I'm still searching around the net for someone who has on video or DVD-R film or video footage taken from the first Winchester Blvd. San Jose, California Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre primary of the first wall portrait Pizza Time Players show (starring Chuck E., Jasper, Crusty, Pasqually, Foxy Colleen, and the Warblettes) after that first CECPTT San Jose, California location opened in May 1977. No luck yet, but stay tuned even into 2004...

[BeachBear25]

I have to correct one thing captslappy...you said:

"various Billy Bob's Wonderland restaurants in several states", which is not true. Currently there is only 1 location - Billy Bob's Super Wonderland in Barboursville, WV.

Also, there is apparantely at least one CEC store which has the old setup - a Rocker stage! Not sure about the location though...

[captslappy]

Ok thanks Beach Bear. I know at one point there were several but we do not have any in my state so I was not sure on that.

[Aitrus21]

Thanks for the info guys =) drop me an e mail d heine at aitrus21@hotmail.com if you find any footage. Which CEC has the rocker stage location BeachBear25? I'm pretty excited. I'm going back home for the holidays (from college) and I’m planning to visit my childhood Chuck E Cheese which has an MMBB stage. I was wondering, what are the differences in the stages (after the balcony stages)? The MMBB stage I’m going to visit is an MMBB C stage (It’s the one in Fairfield, CA).

[BeachBear25]

Like I said, I'm not sure where that location with the Rocker Stage is. Back on the CEC Board, there's a post by MelvinDaMoose which shows a recent pic of him on the Rocker stage. However, they haven't responded to my questions of where the location is...a very brief, sort-of vague rundown of the CEC stage through the years goes like this...

Late 70s-early 80s: "Portrait" stage setup, w/ archaic robots
Early 80s-Mid 80s: "Balcony" stage setup, w/ 8-movement bots
Mid 80s-Mid 90s: "C" & "Rocker" stage setups, w/ same 8-movement bots
Mid 90s - present: MMBB, some where retrofitted Balcony, and C stages, others were made by Animation World for new stores.
Late 90s - present: Studio C, single character shows, w/ many TV monitors. The other characters are in puppet form on the video.

Also, you can't forget the 3-stage MMBB shows which are retrofit Rock-afire Explosions, used in ShowBiz turned Chuck E Cheese's Pizza restaurants..."Concept Unification"...

Hope this helps! :D

[dheineCECfan]

Also: I remember former poster Dbenjami mentioned on this message board in 2001 that the TV show "Real People" did a feature in 1979 about Nolan Bushnell and CECPTT with footage of the wall portrait robots and the Dolli Dimples show. I also wish I found this "Real People" episode on videotape or DVD-R with the Nolan/CECPTT feature (either from original NBC broadcast or syndicated "More Real People" rebroadcast or CBS Eye on People rebroadcast).

[BeachBear25]

Also, to give you a brief rundown of the stages (like you had originally asked for)...

"Portrait": Big half-bodied characters in...well...wall portraits! Pretty basic...
"Balcony": The 4 main characters (half-bodied) w/ guest stars all on a balcony, which was raised off the floor and had changing scenery/sets. Most people think of this stage when they think of PTT.
"C" Stage: This was just a revamped balcony show basically. Had the characters in a house facade, Helen became a regular around this time, and the Warblettes were retrofitted into the singing flowers...
"Rocker": Pretty much like the C stage, except Chuck, Helen & Jasper were life-sized robots on a porch. Munch & Pasqually were half-sized, in the windows...also had singing flowers...

The C & Rocker stages came around the time the 2 companies became one, and all stores were called "ShowBiz Pizza".

"MMBB": This one we should all know...all the characters, save Chuck E, comprise Munch's band. There are 1, 2 & 3 stage varieties. The 3-stage being the Rock-afire retrofitted into CEC characters...there is also a version of MMBB called the Road Stage, which still uses half-body robots, as MMBB...

"Studio C": basically today's standard. While there are still many stores with MMBB, any new stores opened since 1998 have this show. Alpha, Beta, and Cappa are the 3 different (progressively cheaper) varieties...

Hope this helps!

[CEC3066]

Actually only a handful of CEC stores breifly called themselves "ShowBiz" while the majority stuck w/ the Chuck E. Cheese name

[Jasper]

"MMBB": This one we should all know...all the characters, save Chuck E, comprise Munch's band. There are 1, 2 & 3 stage varieties. The 3-stage being the Rock-afire retrofitted into CEC characters...there is also a version of MMBB called the Road Stage, which still uses half-body robots, as MMBB...

These are now referred to today at CEC Entertainment as the "Existing Stages". The 1 & 2 stage shows are called the "CEC Stage", and the original MMBB is now referred to just as the "3-Stage".

One thing missing from Beach Bear's awesome list is the "Awesome Adventure Machine"...the short lived predecessor to Studio C.

[BeachBear25]

You're right, I forgot about AAM. Just tried to do that list really quickly I guess...:\ :)

Also, I never think of the different stages as "Existing Stages" or "CEC Stages". Not that they aren't technically referred to by those names, but I just think it's much easier to remember them as just MMBB 1, 2 or 3 stage...;)

[BeachBear25]

CEC3066...even though all stores might not have changed the CEC signage and everything, weren't they technically all called ShowBiz Pizza for a while?

[CEC3066]

Not all CEC stores chose this temporary name change.