Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (lost animated commercial for restaurant chain; 1979)

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Chuck e cheese old logo.jpeg

The restaruant's original 1977 logo.

Status: Lost

From December of 1979 through early 1980, Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatre aired a 30-second, animated commercial. Little is known about this commercial and there are very few remnants left of its existence.

The Pizza Times was an in-store newspaper made for employees at Pizza Time Theater locations. In Volume 1, Number 1, published in December of 1979, a small blurb under the "Have you heard about..." section talks about a 30-second commercial for birthday parties that will be airing on local TV stations (Most likely in California as most PTTs were located there).[1]

In a 1979 brochure for Pizza Time Theatre,[2] it mentions 30-60 second TV ads as a part of the advertising package. This commercial may be a part of that package.

Availability

Some animation cels from this commercial were saved and are now owned by Smitty's Super Service Station owner Damon Breland. The cels were first seen in a YouTube video by Sets, Streets & Eats, where he visits Smitty's,[3] However most the shots don't show the cels up-close. High quality scans of the cels were posted to the Facebook page for Showbizpizza.com but were quickly removed. The images have been saved and re-uploaded on the Internet Archive.

Possible TV Stations

Los Angeles Area: KTLA, KTTV, KMEX-DT, KABC-TV, KHJ-TV

San Francisco Area: KPIX, KQED, KBCW (KBHK), KICU, KTVU, KGO-TV

Other Areas: KNXT

Notes

  • It is rumored that Colossal Pictures worked on this commercial.
  • It is believed the ad was entirely animated, however, it may have been a live-action hybrid.
  • The same artist who drew the Rat Tales comics which were sold in Pizza Time Theatres at the time, supposedly worked on the storyboards and animation for this commercial. When comparing the cels and the comics, they do seem to be quite similar in style.
  • Lee Marrs is believed to have worked on the storyboards for the commercial. She is still alive, so this might be a possible lead.

Gallery

Images

Videos

Michael Armenta's video on the subject.

MrBones' video on the subject.

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A video by LSuperSonicQ mentioning the subject.

See Also

External Links

References