ShowBiz Pizza Time (Johnson)

ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc. is a company owned by Sammonds Industries. The company is the owner and operator of Chuck E. Cheese's and ShowBiz Pizza Place locations in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan.

Corporate History
Chuck E. Cheese's, originally named Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell's experience in the amusement park industry, as well as his fondness of The Walt Disney Company, was influential in the conceptualization of the Pizza Time Theatre concept. The first location opened in San Jose, California in 1977, and was labeled as the first family restaurant to integrate food, animatronic characters, and an arcade. In 1978, Bushnell purchased the Pizza Time Theatre concept from Atari's then-corporate parent, Warner Communications.

Franchising
As the restaurant became increasingly successful, he began to franchise, resulting in a co-development agreement between Bushnell and Bob Brock of Topeka Inn Management in 1979. The agreement handed Brock exclusive franchising rights for opening Pizza Time Theatres in sixteen states across the southern and midwestern United States, while also forming a company subdivision, "Pizza Show Biz", to develop the Pizza Time Theatres.

ShowBiz Pizza Place
In November 1979, Brock met Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering Inc. Concerned that Fechter's animatronics would be too strong a competition for Bushnell's work, Brock requested that Bushnell release him from the co-development agreement, citing misrepresentation. In December 1979, Brock and Fechter formed "ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc", severing Brock's business relationship with Bushnell. ShowBiz Pizza Place was conceptually identical to Pizza Time Theatre in all aspects except for animatronics; which would be provided by Creative Engineering and, needless to say, were much more advanced than Pizza Time Theatre's half-bodied animatronics. ShowBiz Pizza Place opened its first location on March 3, 1980, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Upon the opening of ShowBiz Pizza Place, Bushnell sued Brock and Topeka Inn Management over breach of contract. Brock immediately issued a counter-suit against Bushnell, citing misrepresentation. The court case began in March 1980, eventually settling out of court; with ShowBiz agreeing to pay Pizza Time Theatre a portion of its profits over the following decade. During this period, Topeka Inn Management also changed its name to Brock Hotel Corporation and moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas. Both restaurants experienced increased success as the video game industry became more robust; and to maintain competition, both franchises continually modified and diversified their animatronic shows.

Merger
In 1981, Pizza Time Theatre went public; however, the evolving video game industry resulted in significant losses for Pizza Time Theatre; losing $15 million in 1983, and by 1984, Bushnell's debts were insurmountable, resulting in the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Pizza Time Theatre Inc. ShowBiz then bought the foundering company, recreating itself as ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc.

Restructuring
After the merger, both restaurants continued operating under the different titles, while major financial restructuring had begun, eventually becoming publicly traded in 1989, with sales increasing by 8.3%. During this period, Creative Engineering began to sever ties with ShowBiz Pizza Time (they officially left the company in September 1990) after Fechter refused to sign over rights to the Rock-Afire Explosion animatronic band, eventually resulting in the unification of its mixed characters. By 1992, all restaurants assumed the name of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza. However, the name was changed to Chuck E. Cheese's in 1994 during a redesigning of the concept. In 1998, the company renamed itself CEC Entertainment, Inc. Part of this renaming was related to a move from the NASDAQ to the NYSE. In 1999, CEC Entertainment, Inc. bought out competitor Discovery Zone. Chuck E. Cheese's celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2007.

Sammonds Acquisition
On November 14, 2015, Sammonds Industries announced its acquisition of CEC Entertainment Inc. Initially, Apollo Global Management refused to sell, but after a massive letter-writing campaign by fans who had heard that Sammonds' plans involved bringing back ShowBiz Pizza Place and the Rock-Afire Explosion, relented, and sold CEC Entertainment for $3.2 billion.

The acquisition was completed on December 10, 2015, bringing 590 locations under Sammonds control. Overnight, at many CEC locations, the animatronic shows went down for what was initially called "refurbishment". Speculation among online communities, especially at Retro Pizza Zone, pointed at Sammonds beginning work to bring back the Rock-Afire Explosion.

The Return of ShowBiz Pizza Place
On December 28, 2015, Sammonds Industries officially announced the return of ShowBiz Pizza Place and the Rock-Afire Explosion. Fans were overwhelmed with joy, and Retro Pizza Zone exploded in celebrations. Later in the day, Aaron Fechter released a video on his YouTube channel officially confirming that CEI would be involved in the band's return.

Over the next several days, he made several more videos revealing he had gotten Burt "Sal" Wilson (Fatz Geronimo), Rick Bailey (Beach Bear), and Duke Chaupetta (Dook LaRue) back for the band, with Fechter staying in the roles of Billy Bob, Looney Bird, Rolfe DeWolfe, and Earl Schmerle. Shalisa James (Mitzi Mozzarella) had refused to come back, believing she now sounded too old to be a role model for young girls. As a result, Sammonds Industries launched national auditions to find the new voice of Mitzi, eventually selecting 10-year old Sarah Locke of Kenner, Louisiana.

Meanwhile, 53 Chuck E. Cheese locations began undergoing "Concept Division", in which the Concept Unification process was undone. These locations were henceforth renamed ShowBiz Pizza Place, including new signage, new paint, and a completely redesigned interior, including installing a wall between the dining area and the gaming area to get the lighting just right for the shows.

In addition, Sammonds CEO Andy Sammonds identified the Studio C and Circle of Light stages as "sacrelige", as they only had one animatronic or, in some cases, no animatronics at all. These were earmarked for immediate replacement; over half of these stages were replaced by a new stage called the "Rock Band Stage", featuring all of Munch's Make-Believe Band, updated to their current appearances; the animatronics on these stages are manufactured by Garner & Holt in the same style as the Chuck E. animatronic on the Studio C and Circle of Lights stages. The remaining stages were replaced by the Rock-Afire Explosion (as in several cases, the 3-Stages were put behind walls intact for the conversion to the Circle of Lights stages).

All other existing stages (1-Stage, 2-Stage, and Road Stage) were refurbished but otherwise untouched, and the last remaining Rocker Stage was donated to a museum prior to its replacement by a Rock Band Stage.

The first location of the resurrected ShowBiz Pizza Place opened on February 18, 2016 in San Jose, CA at Tulley Road (which for years had been CECs flagship location). The doors opened at 10 AM, and at 8 PM, the Rock-Afire Explosion made their official return, playing a short setlist of all of the songs from the original 1980 showtape. They received a standing ovation.

Over the next year, more and more CEC locations were transformed into ShowBiz Pizza locations, and new ShowBiz locations were opened, though more often than not, they were opened at or near where ShowBiz locations had once stood.

Expanding to Japan
On January 2, 2016, Sammonds Industries announced the formation of a new ShowBiz franchise in Japan, slated to open its first location in March. This franchise was the culmination of several meetings with Japanese investors and correspondances between Andy Sammonds and Aaron Fechter regarding options for the animatronic shows.

It was decided that, since the Rock-Afire Explosion was too "American" for Japanese audiences (even though 95% of the country spoke English following World War II), they would be replaced by characters who were more relevant. According to insiders, it took Andy literally seconds to think up a replacement: Ho-Kago Teatime from the hit anime and manga K-On! It was a match made in Heaven, as K-On! was massively popular, and the series was already on its way to the Sammonds Aligned Universe, and could use their voice-changing abilities added in the Sammonds version to enable the use of Rock-Afire material. Making the replacement even more seamless was the fact that the characters could easily replace the Rock-Afire characters.

Henceforth, it was decided. For the transition to Japan, Center Stage would be completely remodeled. Instead of a forest setting, it is now set in the Light Music Club room at Sakuragaoka High School. Each of the Center Stage characters were replaced according to their role: Dook was replaced by Ritsu, Fatz by Mugi, Beach Bear by Yui, and Mitzi by Mio; Mio presented a bit of a challenge, as she plays bass, while Mitzi is simply the female vocalist; the decision was later made to have Mio remain as bassist, and also serve as a prominent vocalist in the band (even though all characters would be vocalists, as with the Rock-Afire Explosion). Choo-Choo and Antioch were completely omitted from the new set-up, while the Sun and Moon were retained. The changes for the Japanese locations only affected Center Stage, and Stages Left and Right were completely unchanged, retaining Billy Bob, Looney Bird, Rolfe, and Earl.

The first Japanese location opened on March 12, 2016.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS