Intro to Munch's Make Believe Band

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Munch’s Make Believe Band, previously called the Pizza Time Players and the Pizza Time Theatre Gang were a rotating cast of animatronic characters making up the entertainment of Pizza Time Theatre and later Chuck E. Cheese's- with brief appearances at ShowBiz Pizza Place. The band would start with the first store’s opening in May 17th, 1977 at San Jose, CA (370 S Winchester Blvd), and continues entertaining to this day though puppeted and walkaround characters in videos and locations- with minimal animatronic presence.

The Early Cast

The initial set of characters, created by Gene Landrum, Bob Black, and Fantasy Forest, all played various skits and songs to entertain guests in the showroom of each Pizza Time Theatre location. The characters were expressive, interacted with the audience, and were aware they were robots controlled by a central computer.

• Chuck E. Cheese, originally envisioned as a coyote, then as Rick Rat, and then finally The Big Cheese, before a trademark issue landed him with the final name- and ‘The Big C’ as a nickname, is the main face of the brand and leader of the Pizza Time Players. Chuck E. was a cigar smoking loud mouth with a New Jersey accent, who would be beligerrant towards his fellow animal crew- while playing nice for guests and kids. He would frequently call out to ‘The Big Computer’ to turn off Jasper, alongside claiming Pizza Time Theatre executives were in the audience, such as Gene Landrum, Mike Hatcher, and Nolan Bushnell.
• Crusty the Cat was one of the earliest characters envisioned after The Big C. Originally noted as a ‘Small Antagonist Cat’ alongside a Bulldog and Bird for the prototype band, he would develop into a character centered around being unlucky, alongside Chuck E.’s ‘straight man’. Crusty would only last the first two years in the cast, leaving around late 1979 and never being seen again.
• Pasqually was the singing Italian chef claimed to be in the kitchen making the pizzas for guests- making brief appearances through a swinging door mechanism for skits- or for an attendant to take over and announce when pizzas were ready to pick up.
• Jasper T. Jowls, originally slated to be named Billy “Banjo” Boggs, is a country singing hound dog meant to be a baffoon with tendencies to go into laughing and howling fits, much to the dismay of other characters. Jasper would also flirt with multiple of the rotating female guest stars.
• The Warblettes were a trio of soul-singing magpies named Daisy, Maisy, and Irmagard that played backup and main vocals in songs, with minimal character interactions.
• The Pizza Time Orchestra was a collection of sentient props and musical instruments used to diagetically introduce additional sounds into the showtapes not heard from the direct tape audio. Most props had names, such as Timmy Triangle, Woody Woodblock, Teddy Tamborine, The Skillet Sextet, Wally Washboard, Chubby Churn, and Speedy Spoons. The character wouldn’t be mentioned past the first showtape, and became just a set of animated props that grew smaller over time.

Showtapes were rotated out frequently focusing on various genres and themes, alongside special shows that could be called from the control panel- notably for birthday celebrations.

Early Guest Stars

Guest stars were planned as soon as the first location opened, with the initial concepts planned for ‘Elkton John’, ‘Glen Camel’, ‘Piggi Lea’, ‘Beary Mannylow’, ‘Elvis Sealy’, ‘Duck Owens’,‘Captain Pegleg & Patch’ and ‘Foxy Farah’. Each guest star would play off a popular singer, and bring a genre of music to the tape. The eventual star lineup would exclusively be of female characters.

• Helen Henny, based off Helen Reddy, was a chicken that would appear from August 12th, 1977 to February 1978. She would continue to make future appearances throughout the brand’s lifetime.
• Madame Oink, based off Peggy Lee and originally named Piggi Lea, was a French pig guest star who appeared in February to October 1978, while also making frequent re-appearances as a guest up until August of 1983.
• Foxy Colleen, originally ‘Foxy Farah’ and based off Farrah Fawcett, Foxy would be an Irish fox guest star who ran from October 1978 to 1979, also making a re-appearance in 1980.

Kooser Cast

The second store, San Jose, CA (1371 Kooser Rd), which opened in December 1978, would change up the main cast, alongside adding new characters and acts.

• Mr. Munch was the replacement for Crusty the Cat at the Kooser store, being a shaggy monster alien in reference to the song ‘The Purple People Eater’- though as a purple pizza eater. Munch would continue in Crusty’s place at all future locations, eventually replacing him at the first location in late 1979 as well.
• Mopsey Sisters were living mops that replaced the Warblettes while serving the same role and voice. They would be removed and replaced by the Warblettes in April of 1980 once the location got the Balcony Stage, and never seen again.
• Dolli Dimples was the flirtatious singing hippo that was placed in a separate Cabaret piano bar away from the main characters, running a solo performance. She would mark the forward use of Cabaret and Lounge acts to be used across each location, sometimes having characters switched out- while sometimes keeping them for a store’s entire run. These characters would rarely be given new showtapes, as opposed to the main cast recieving a new show around every quarter.
• Helen Henny would make a re-appearance as the store’s guest star while Foxy Colleen was still debuting at the San Jose, CA (370 S Winchester Blvd) location. She would last until 1979, before making additional appearances as a solo Lounge character at at Huntington Beach, CA (15511 Edwards St) and Citrus Heights, CA (7614 Greenback Lane) in late 1979.

Standardization

As stores grew past the initial two locations, the cast would begin to be toned down. Chuck would lose his cigar after the The Great American Smokeout in 1980 and become less mean, the exaggerated voices and obnoxiousness of some characters would be lessened as well.

• Sally Sashay was a skunk guest star with a Southern Blues song selection, appearing from November 1979 to 1980.
• Artie Antlers was a moose Cabaret act harkening to Tin Pan Alley jazz that ran from August 1979 to 1982.
• Dr. Quack was a duck Cabaret act exclusive to Simi Valley, CA (71 Tierra Rejada Rd) in late 1980 that featured children’s songs.
• The Beagles were a four dog parody of the Beatles set as a Lounge act from October 1980 to 1982.
• Harmony Howlette was a Texan coyote guest star appearing throughout 1981.
• The King was a lion Elvis parody that ran from 1981 to 1984 as a Lounge act.
• B.B. Bubbles was a pink elephant playing various regional American music situated as a Cabaret act in 1983.

ShowBiz Era

Helen Henny would make another return appearance in August of 1983 and March of 1984 as a returning guest star. Due to the bankruptcy of Pizza Time Theatre and its merger with ShowBiz Pizza Place, the guest star concept would be halted, permanently making Helen Henny the female vocalist of the group.

The merging of the brands would have ShowBiz attempt to cross-promote the restaurants by having Billy Bob and Chuck E. Cheese interact in various forms. More info on the ShowBiz cast in the Intro to the Rock-afire Explosion. The Warblettes would also be replaced by the Singing Flowers through the late 1980’s, serving the same role as backup vocals with the same voice.

More info coming soon. . .