The first time I went to Chuck E. Cheese, I was an adult.
I had grown up watching the TV commercials for ShowBiz Pizza (which later became Chuck E. Cheese), but no matter how many times I sang the jingle — “Showwwww Bizzzzzz Pizza, where a kid can be a kid!” — my parents never saw fit to take us there.
Decades later, I watched my child run in terror from Charles Entertainment Cheese, the giant mouse mascot roaming the floor after animatronic characters played instruments and sang during programmed shows. The atmosphere was chaotic, the pizza was subpar, and I wondered how the place had lasted so long.
I’m sure I would have a different view if I’d had this experience when I was younger. With the announcement of 10 new Chuck’s Arcades opening nationwide, it seems I have another chance to experience the joys of Chuck E. Cheese in a more adult-focused environment.
In Georgia, a visit to Chuck’s Arcade involves a trip to Buford Mall, where enthusiasts can find retro games like Centipede, Ms. Pac-Man and an updated version of Space Invaders, alongside newer games.
At each location, the animatronic characters from the restaurant’s Munch’s Make Believe Band, phased out in 2020, are frozen in time in glass cases.
By the time you’re an adult, it seems like you should have mastered the art of entertaining yourself. But as my colleague Danielle Charbonneau reports, the success of this new venture largely hinges on generations of young adults seeking a nostalgic escape from the craziness of the world.
All generations feel nostalgia to some extent, but Generation Z and millennials are pushing the trend today. Disruptions to their education, the struggles to find jobs and economic challenges have led young adults to retreat from the present.
Among members of Gen Z, 37% say they feel nostalgic for the 1990s, according to data from GWI.com. Millennials aren’t far behind in their longing for simpler times.
Those feelings of nostalgia also explain why claw clips and low-rise jeans are back en vogue, along with movie sequels and live-action remakes of every Disney film ever made. They offer insight into why the top 5 most discovered songs by Gen Z on Spotify include 1984’s “Smooth Operator” by Sade and Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God).”
Credit: Danielle Charbonneau
Credit: Danielle Charbonneau
Ironically, the mid-1980s weren’t the best years for Chuck E. Cheese, whose founder spent several of those years mired in bitter legal proceedings with his former business partner before the company restructured and built a new brand identity.
Pizza Time Theater was the once-shelved dream of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, according to showbizpizza.com, a 20-year-old website dedicated to maintaining the history of the restaurant.
Bushnell initially wanted a coyote for a mascot, but he mistakenly ordered a rat. Competing rodents seemed like kismet since Bushnell thought he was creating the next Disney. Pizza Time Theater opened its first location in San Jose, California, in 1977.
A year later, Bushnell left Atari and focused his full attention on Pizza Time. He enlisted a co-development partner to help him franchise the operation. Robert Brock, then the largest U.S. franchisee of Holiday Inn hotels, would soon double-cross Bushnell, voiding their contract while working with a new animatronics company to create a very similar restaurant concept. In 1980, Brock opened the first ShowBiz Pizza in Kansas City, Missouri.
For the next two years, the competitors raced to expand their respective companies. It all came to a head in 1984 when Bushnell resigned from Pizza Time and the company filed for bankruptcy. Brock purchased the company, but it would take until the early 1990s for the two entities to unify under the new Chuck E. Cheese brand.
A series of remodels, updates and structural changes through the late ’90s and forward resulted in the restaurant that younger millennials and members of Gen Z remember as the Chuck E. Cheese of their childhoods.
All was going well until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic brought yet another bankruptcy filing, private equity investors and more changes.
Along with the ball pits, which were eliminated in 2011 because of hygiene concerns, the animatronics, sky tube tunnels and physical tickets were also out. In their place came trampolines for an additional charge, a mobile app and video walls.
Company leadership also updated the pizza recipe, developed partnerships with brands such as Paw Patrol and Marvel — which resonate with a new generation of kids — and offered a tiered subscription membership.
Anyone going to Chuck E. Cheese today in search of a trip down memory lane would probably be disappointed.
That’s where Chuck’s Arcade fills a void.
“The arcade was created for adults and lifelong fans who grew up surrounded by the electric glow of arcade screens, the symphony of digital soundtracks and the thrill of chasing high scores with friends long into the night. Chuck’s Arcade is a modern-day love letter to The Games and people who made Chuck E. Cheese great,” said a company spokesperson in a press statement announcing the launch of Chuck’s Arcade.
This is the place where nostalgia meets the future, they said. And maybe it will be — at least until younger generations discover that escapism and nostalgia are not enough to quell their rising anxiety, and they seek solace elsewhere.
Read more on the Real Life blog (AJC.com/opinion/real-life-blog), find Nedra on Facebook (facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and X (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.
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