Random Chuck E. Cheese Origin Story Is Sadder Than You Rememb (7 items)

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  (#1) Chuck E. Cheese Intended To Combine Amusement Parks With Restaurants

  Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater, as it was known back then, was the brainchild of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell saw the future of entertainment being a hybrid of the burgeoning video game industry, family-friendly dining, and a scaled-down version of theme parks like Disneyland or Six Flags. Naturally, that meant creating a stable of characters to rival Mickey Mouse or the Looney Tunes.

  The main difference between Pizza Time Theater and more traditional amusement park characters was the emphasis on animatronic technology over people in mascot costumes. Characters like Chuck E. Cheese, Jasper T. Jowls, Mr. Munch, and Pasqually would be rendered via advanced (for the time) robotic puppetry. Chuck, his friends, and the Dolli Dimples Cabaret would "perform" every eight minutes in their showrooms, guaranteeing customers ample opportunity to see the machines simulate a live music act.
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  (#2) The Chuck E. Cheese Characters Were Very Different In The 1980s

  The current, canonical sob story of Chuck E. Cheese's origin wasn't how the character was initially conceived, though. At first, Bushnell envisioned his mascot as a coyote, which would necessitate calling his restaurant chain "Coyote Pizza." The employees working to develop the mascot robot thought it was a rat, so they designed a rodent version of the character. Rather than scrap the work that had already been done, Bushnell leaned in and renamed his project "Rick Rat's Pizza." That didn't go over with marketing teams that suggested associating a restaurant with an infestation of rats was a bad idea (this was decades before Ratatouille). Thus, Chuck E. Cheese was born.

  Still, the first Chuck was nothing like the one we have today. Instead of the very modern, child-like version of Chuck that exists today, the character was a more cynical, world-weary, grumpy adult show business veteran. He was akin to a snarky, Don Rickles-style Vaudeville comedian. In the March 1979 edition of Western Foodservice magazine, Mr. Cheese was described as a "street-wise, Jersey-born rat who makes rude comments and interrupts his guests." The first animatronic Chuck scowled and had the kind of shifty eyes one might associate with a less than savory individual. The original 1979 version even carried a cigar! Progressively, his look evolved into the friendlier version that most millennials remember.
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  (#3) Chuck E. Cheese Got A Major Makeover In 1995

  The collapse of the video game industry in 1983 devastated Nolan Bushnell's business. He had to resign from running Chuck E. Cheese's parent company and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1984. The Chuck E. Cheese franchise was purchased by its rival, Showbiz Pizza for $35 million in 1985. The merger allowed the combined company to thrive throughout the 1980s. They was able to go public in 1989 and would eventually define childhood for an entire generation of Americans. The Pizza Time Theater characters were integrated into the Showbiz universe in 1990, with all of the Showbiz characters eventually being phased out in favor of Chuck E. Cheese and Munch's Make-Believe Band.

  By 1995, the financial bloom was off the rose. Revenues declined from $272 million dollars in 1993 to $264 million in 1995. The home video game market had roared back, with 64 million video game consoles in US homes in 1995. Systems like the Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation, and Super Nintendo slowly chipped away at the customer base for arcades. The animatronic robots that once seemed so futuristic were showing signs of age. The vaudeville references in the Pizza Time Theater concept were outdated and didn't appeal to the average '90s kid. 

  So, what did appeal to '90s kids? The masterminds behind Chuck E. Cheese decided it was an amalgam of generic irreverence and skateboard culture. The new Chuck would be younger (possibly an early teen) and dress a bit like Bart Simpson. He would roller blade and skate (always with a helmet, of course). He'd also stop interrupting and insulting his bandmates. But if Chuck E. Cheese wasn't a rude showbiz rat, what was he? Where did he come from, and why did he dedicate his life to serving pizza and entertaining children?
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  (#4) The New Chuck E. Cheese Is An Orphan Who Loves Birthdays

  In 2014, the Chuck E. Cheese website posted an e-book called "The Story of Chuck E. Cheese." The story was part of yet another reimagining of the character, who was now a thinner and more rambunctious rodent. Chuck was given jeans, a more expressive face, and a more rock 'n' roll edge. "Charles Entertainment Cheese," his full name, would receive an elaborate origin, in which he grows up in an orphanage called "St. Marinara's." Because he grew up without a family, he also grew up without a birthday. That made him love other kids' birthdays even more than most.
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  (#5) Chuck E. Cheese Moved To New York And Was Homeless

  After winning $50 in a Pong tournament, Chuck moves to New York City. But without a place to live, he takes up residence in a pizza parlor because of how much he loves the smell. The parlor was owned by a man named Pasqually, who would go on to be part of Chuck's coterie of associates and bandmates. 

  But initially, Pasqually was skeptical of poor Chuck. After all, he's a mouse. So, Pasqually tried to get rid of Chuck until he started singing. A singing mouse shocked Pasqually, but he saw opportunity. He made Chuck a featured attraction of his restaurant. After initial jitters, Chuck found his voice and sang his heart out for a little boy who was having a birthday party. Thus, the pizza empire of Chuck E. Cheese and Pasqually was born.
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  (#6) The Other Chuck E. Cheese Characters Also Have Their Own Backstories

  In addition to The Story of Chuck E. Cheese, the company commissioned stories for all of the ancillary characters in the Charles Entertainment Cheese extended universe. Each of the characters became younger than their original versions, even kindly chef Pasqually. Chuck met Helen Henny while playing Pong. He recruited her to join his band after the Pasqually incident changed his life. Helen is a vegetarian, loves video games, and is interested in fashion.

  The dog character, Jasper T. Jowls, became a southern country bass guitar player who helps Chuck and Pasqually's tour bus when it breaks down in Nashville, TN. You see, Chuck and Pasqually took their "rodent sings 'Happy Birthday'" act on the road, and naturally, they recruited Jasper to be their new bass player. 

  Mr. Munch became an alien obsessed with pizza who had a preternatural talent for playing the keyboard. It's also revealed that Pasqually is a first-generation Italian immigrant who dreamed of making the best pizza in the world, while simultaneously being the greatest entertainer ever.
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  (#7) Chuck's Origin Story Took The Internet By Storm

  The grimness of The Chuck E. Cheese Story became a bit of a running gag online, to the point where the link to the e-book is no longer available from the Chuck E. Cheese website, likely due to the unexpected press reaction to the attempt to modernize the character for the 21st century. In a sense, the Chuck E. Cheese origin story fulfills something of Nolan Bushnell's initial dream of creating a universe of Disney-like characters. Chuck's tragic backstory sounds like the kind of thing people might see in a Pixar cartoon: a sad childhood leads to a sense of purpose in creativity, like in Ratatouille, Monsters Inc., Coco, and more. But for some reason, it feels out of place in the character bio for a restaurant mascot. It would be like if the Hamburglar got taken in for insider trading.

  Still, the evidence of the Chuck E. Cheese origin lives on on the internet, even if the company might not want to talk about it. As Chuck E. Cheese tries to survive an evolving business landscape through such peculiar moves as selling their pizza under an assumed name on delivery apps, one can expect them to continue revising and refreshing their namesake.

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