The History Of CEC Pizza Time Theatre In Spokane WA!

追加: 2026-05-04

[00:00:00]Welcome back to Set Streets and Needs, guys. I'm Chris Bower, and today I am in Spokane, Washington in front of a Walmart. Now, there was not always a Walmart here. Behind me used to be the site, the exact address of the first Chuck-E-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater here in Spokane. So, we're going to go talk a little bit about the history, and then we're going to go visit what became of that Chuck-E-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater.

[00:00:25]Not in the Walmart. It's different spot from the Walmart. But either way, hope you'll stick around for the history of Chuck-E-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater and Chuck-E-Cheese or at least one of their locations here in Spokane. Let's go see it.

[00:00:56]So, Chuck-e-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater opened April 14th, 1983, right here behind me at 2301 West Wsley Avenue.

[00:01:05]That's where we're at. Uh, it was a franchisee store, even though I'm not exactly sure the name of the franchisee company that had it or how many stores they had in this region or state. It actually turns out that this location was owned by two local restauranteers named Tim and Tom Finerty. They own several restaurants around the Spokane area and there's no photos or video of this location as a Chuck-e-Cheese Pizza Time Theater. Um, at least none that I can find or that have been uploaded. But because we know about a main element that was in this Chuck-e-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater, which is the Chuck-e-Cheese's Pizza Time window, uh, very famous piece of memorabilia and history. Um, I can imagine that the interior of the place looked exactly like this commercial from the early8s.

[00:01:57]>> This is the place for you and your friends. This is the place where the party never ends. It's the good time place. Everyone agrees. When you're hungry for fun, it's Chuck E. Cheese.

[00:02:09]Chuck E. E. Cheese. Chuck E. E. Cheese.

[00:02:12]When you're hungry for fun, it's Chuck E. Cheese. If it's a candy, that's a hry for fun. It's Chuck E. Cheese. When you're hungry for fun, it's Chuck E.

[00:02:25]Cheese.

[00:02:26]>> You'll notice the kids walk in and they're standing in front of that window. Probably exactly how it was inside there. They ran over to the Tinker Towers, Chuck-E-Cheese's Tinker Towers playground, uh, to play on the slides, crawl in the tubes, jump in the ball pits. Um, you can just imagine that's how it probably looked. This location did stay open through the merger of Showbiz and Pizza Time, Inc.

[00:02:50]in 1984. Just a little background on that merger. In 1984, Chuck-E-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater filed for bankruptcy.

[00:02:57]Uh Atari had gotten into trouble the year before with the ET video game and the whole house of cards was starting to fall apart. Um so they filed for bankruptcy and of course Brock Hotel Corporation that owned Showas Pizza Place jumped in and bought them for two main reasons. One 100% their best their biggest competitor. They now own them.

[00:03:18]And also the second reason was is they were paying millions a year to Chuck-E-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater for the lawsuit that Nolan Bushnell had won against Brock because Brock had broken their agreement at the beginning cuz he was supposed to help Bushnell launch Chuck-e-Cheese and he had jumped in with Aaron Factor and Creative Engineering and they had formed a competing pizza chain show pizza place. Anyway, they now owned them as of 1985. I believe they finalized the deal and that left a lot of Chuck-e-Cheese Pizza Time theaters to either be closed down or to just keep running under the new company name Showbiz Pizza Time Inc.

[00:03:59]which they did until the 1988 and '89 remodel. What that was all about was to trade was to change these Pizza Time theaters over uh get them, you know, take down the old signage. It no longer would be called Chuck-E-Cheese's Pizza Time Theater. they would now be called Chuck-E-Cheese's Pizza. And they changed the exterior signs. They changed uh the name, the brand, all that. Um added all kinds of things like the parody movie posters inside, which is my favorite part of that remodel. Another important part of that remodel was the interior.

[00:04:30]If you remember, the Pizza Time Theaters had balcony stages. They started with portrait stages, but there was only about 19 of those. So, the bulk of the rest of all those locations had balcony stages. Balcony stage bots were of course cyberamics but they were from the waist up. They had no legs Lieutenant Dan. So part of getting uh these new remodels done giving them a fresh face was to change that stage but they didn't really have another option besides the rocket fires that were in showbiz. Uh they didn't want to overhaul the bots.

[00:05:00]So what they did was come up with what's called the sea stage or we call it the sea stage but all it was was a home decor a porch uh uh basically making the entire stage look like the front of the house. It was the precursor to the rocker stage. Um so the whole front of the h the whole stage became the front of the house and the bots would of course stay in their exact positions.

[00:05:25]They may have moved some around but they were still halfbody bots that just stayed in those positions.

[00:05:30]Um, and they were had a house. They had some of the the flowers were in front of Munch, uh, little flower boxes with the singing flowers, uh, things like that.

[00:05:40]And that was the Seastage remodel that all those former Pizza Time theaters got. They rebranded them to Chuck-e-Cheese's Pizza and the rest is history. So, the Seastage was put into the Spokane, Washington location right here. It was performing, but it was only here for about 5 years. It got put in in 1989 or 90. It only lasted till about 1994 when they got the phase one or phase two remodel. Uh I call it the peeler and rose remodel. You guys know what it is. But basically the remodel was they added the decor, the shelves with the the archived little statues of Chuck-E-Cheese uh in different outfits all modeled by Dan Peeler and Charlie Rose, tremendous artists. And of course that came with another remodel of the stage which would have been a two-stage.

[00:06:25]and the first time that fullbodied bots were put into this location. They had a two-stage here. Munch's makeelieve band was performing every day. Uh the store looked great. It had the new shelves and all the new art on the walls. The 1993 Showbiz Pizza Time Inc.

[00:06:43]Um gang goes to the drive-in. Gang goes to Broadway. Those are my two favorite art pieces. That was all part of that remodel. Um and much more. Uh, but that was all put in here in 1994. They would have also gotten the exterior sign, the Chuck thumbs up outback. He's motioning Outback according to Peeler and Rose Outback Chuck sign. Uh, and they would have dropped the pizza from the name and they would have now been called Chuck E.

[00:07:11]Cheeses. That of course was in 1994.

[00:07:14]Then sometime in late '9 where their store was that they've been leasing from whoever owned it at that time had sold it to guess who?

[00:07:29]Walmart. And Walmart was of course saying like uh we'd like to build a bit bigger of a building than what's on there now. So we're going to be leveling this building. So Chuck-E-Cheese found a little piece of land about 5 milesi from here and they quickly built a brand new Chuck-E-Cheese in March of 2000. They simultaneously, not saying that right, closed this location, this Chuck-E-Cheese, well it was Chuck-E-Cheese by then, but used to be Pizza Town Theater and opened the brand new Chuck-E-Cheese's about five miles from here. When that happened, they took this two-stage, the bots from this two-stage, they were not going to get destroyed. They saved them. They took them to Lynwood, Washington, over by Seattle, about 4 and 1/2 hours from here. And those were the bots, the Cyberamics that were installed on that three stage at Lynwood Washington.

[00:08:20]Lynwood Washington had an incredible uh store full of awesome art. But they were also the only store that had a cyberramic band, Munches Make Believe Band, on a former three-stage. And uh if you want to check that out, you can link the video right up here, my visit there.

[00:08:36]So they sent the bots over to there and then they were they knew the building was getting tore up. So they actually took some other things from this store to the new store, including some of the decor. They had some of the uh uh pieces of art that I mentioned, the drive-in piece, and a couple others. Some of the decor that either the staff or the management liked, they took it with them. But one key thing they knew they had to save because they knew this building was about to get completely torn down so that this building could be on top of it. They had to save their Pizza Time Theater window and save it they did and put it into the new store. And we're going to go check that out right now.

[00:09:23]Which brings me to this masterpiece.

[00:09:26]this window hung in that original location we just came from that's now a Walmart uh 5 miles away from here in Spokane. Um they moved it over here knowing they were about to tear that building down. They took it out of the wall there, installed it here and the store opened March 20th of the year 2000. Um closing one chapter of Chuck-E-Cheese history and opening another. I think it was very poetic.

[00:09:51]What a great smart idea. Probably from whatever manager was there at the time or franchise company owner. Um I'm so glad this didn't get destroyed. There's only two of these in existence. Uh there is this one that has been here since 2000 and in the other store since 1983.

[00:10:08]And the only other one was at the SPT warehouse. They installed it into the Chucks Arcade flagship location in Kansas City, but that has closed. We assume everything from Chuck's Arcade was taken out and taken back to the SPT warehouse where it stays today. I can't imagine they would have thrown all that stuff out. Um, I know I say that. I can say that with confidence now.

[00:10:32]Chuck-E-Cheese knows what they're doing.

[00:10:34]They're keeping the stuff now. And also, Kansas City's pretty close to Topeka.

[00:10:39]Uh, if you're uh if you can't keep that stuff, yeah, the rest of it doesn't have a prayer. So, but I'm positive they kept it. But I have no doubt, just like in that commercial, this window was probably right at the very front of the restaurant. They greeted the patrons as they came in.

[00:10:57]Ah, you can just imagine this was set in probably wood paneling, the old wood paneling of the Pizza Time Theater, the walls, and it just matched everything perfectly.

[00:11:08]Um, these are I mean, only two of these in existence, guys. It's It's pretty incredible. Um, it really is that this has gotten saved over the years.

[00:11:22]Thank the vintage nostalgia gods.

[00:11:29]>> Of course, this is from the other side of it.

[00:11:39]That is cool.

[00:11:42]Here I am, guys, in front of the alpha stage here at the Spokane, Washington uh Chuck-E-Cheese. The the well, the former Pizza Time Theater Chuck-e-Cheese that closed became this one. It's about 5 miles away. Uh hop skipping and jumping around the corner. They opened, as you can see, with an alpha stage. They went from a two-stage that was at the former Pizza Time Theater and they opened with this alpha stage. Uh Alpha Stages had been around for about 3 years at that point. Um they were very popular and uh yeah, so we're going to kind of go over this store and talk about a few of its key features that were brought over from the last store. Well, first of all, look at here, Chuck. Now, uh I said in an earlier video in Burlington, Washington that this was the last or that was the last 32M bot. That is not true cuz we're standing in front of one. Um what I should have said was the last one on a beta stage.

[00:13:01]That's what I should have said, but I didn't say that.

[00:13:05]And a few of you made sure I knew about that. And as well you should I should have clarified. Yes, we are in front of one of the old ones. One not of original obviously they were putting these alpha stages from 97 through I think 2002 maybe 2000. So this would have been later in the alpha stage age. Um but we are in front of a 32M a 32 movement Chuckbot in his Avenger attire which means he's ready for the beach but looks to be in fantastic shape. Of course, he's been on Random Movement since September of 2000 2022. Sorry, I can't talk today. Um, and he's just here hanging out. He doesn't really sing much anymore. Frog got his uh throat. Frog on the throat. What's the saying? I don't remember. Cat got your tongue. I Well, if a cat got his tongue, you missed the whole mouse. He just got the tongue. But we do have bird. Bird's up here. Pizza time. Clock's up here. And Chuck's waiting on that phone call to start performing again from the old pizza phone. Of course, we have the background with the sea up on top of the stage and the bridge and the what we don't have.

[00:14:20]You guys already see no Apple TV.

[00:14:24]No reason for that to be gone, but it is. Oh, no, it's not. No Apple TV. But if you look at the rest of the stage, we got the desk lights do still work. Um, two panels on, three panels off, it looks like. And, uh, we have our middle our center stage looking fantastic.

[00:14:47]Of course, the former blue screen is now a black screen. It does nothing.

[00:14:53]We also have a black panel over the former art, which I don't know. No, I think that's a beta stage feature. the Chuck surfing and munch under the sea. I think that's for beta stages only. Uh we got our ticket blaster, but let's face it, most exciting thing about this store is the art.

[00:15:12]So, we start with the art piece that hangs in my bedroom. I got this art piece right here. Gang goes to see Hello Dolly on Broadway from 1993 Show Biz Pizza Time Inc.

[00:15:26]right next to the Elvis piece. I first saw this at the Tupelo Chuck-E-Cheese, which is exactly where it should be cuz that's Elvis's birth town. Uh, next to Elvis, we've got Chuck Trek CCTV.

[00:15:41]Next to that, we got the Sea Files Mussy TV, the Mussy TV, and to round it out on this side, the cheesy television Mussy TV. All of these are in amazing condition from 1998, which makes sense why they're in here in 2000. They were still doing those remodels, so this art was very relevant.

[00:16:06]the ones that aren't. It doesn't mean they didn't put them in there, but there's a very strong chance that these were in here earlier, but at the other location, because these were very common with the Pewer and Rose remodel, meaning when they put all those vintage shelves in, they put a lot of those in.

[00:16:27]And >> on this side over here has my favorite piece of all time.

[00:16:35]1993 Show Pizza Time Inc. Gang goes to the drive-in. Chucking his sweet Caddy.

[00:16:42]Actually, that's not a Caddy. That's a Pontiac Bonavville. My bad. Chucking his sweet Bonavville.

[00:16:48]Um, absolutely love this piece. Always have. It's my favorite piece of Chuck-E-Cheese art of all time.

[00:16:55]I've made my piece with I'll probably never own it since this is probably one of the last stores that's hanging in and there's no way I'll be around when if they ever take take it off the wall and I'm sure someone else will have already grabbed it. Across from that we have name that cheese that was from the later 90s which makes more sense of when this opened in 2000 for it to be in here as do the Chuckfeld must see TV piece and the CWO must see TV piece all from 1998. Um do I know for sure if these pieces these few early 93 pieces were brought over? No I don't. But I think it's a good chance because if they brought over the main feature that we're going to go look at, it just makes sense. I can see it if if management at that time of not and I don't mean corporate, I mean the store manager or whatever the franchise company that owned it, manager at that time, if they knew enough to bring that window and have that window brought over, I feel like bringing some piece of art would have been a no-brainer. And some of this art is earlier than the mustsee TV pieces and the other remodels. So, and the fact that they have both phase 4 and phase 3 elements in here, it makes me feel like it was a management decision. Also, I forget what year these are from, but the confetti posters, those post in the comments below. I do not remember the year those came out, but those were earlier, were they not? Am I wrong about that? I don't remember ever seeing a date on these, but I haven't really studied up. I'll ask Peeler knows since their chuck study poster rocks.

[00:18:42]>> The really cool thing about this alpha stage is all the lights are still up. I mean, they've got the full full package.

[00:18:50]Um, a lot of this went away when they kept when stores kept downsizing the stage or turning off certain features.

[00:18:57]This has everything, man. It's got them all. And uh, most of them are just pointed here at the showroom, which is really cool because this showroom is darker. They have the recessed lighting, but there's a lot more lights over in the play area, and this is darker in here, which is very reminiscent of the old showrooms. And it also shows you, look how much you can see the light coming from the little table lights that hang down. And it's because it's so much darker in here than the rest of the store. So, I just think that's a really cool feature that they still have here.

[00:19:35]And of course, right along with those other 1993 pieces, I always bring this up. This is again another indication I feel like this was brought over from the old store because this is always with those 1993 pieces. And that's of course the gang in the old timey old west photo. Love this piece. Also from 1993 and uh yeah it just I don't know it feels like it's them from that store. It just feels like it's from that store.

[00:20:05]Also, keep in mind these are from when the company was called Show Pizza Time Inc.

[00:20:14]And from that remodel, these were put in 98 with the new name CEC Entertainment.

[00:20:22]I don't know. It doesn't feel like they would put in their old named logo pieces in the late '9s. It feels like they would have done those during the mid '90s remodels and they just kind of lasted. But at this location, they couldn't have just lasted because this location moved and they brought some things like that window and I'm pretty sure those pieces of art with them and put them on the walls here. Uh it makes sense. I don't have any confirmation on that. I'm sure whoever was managing or working here then would be able to confirm or deny that. Um, and if you know anybody, post them in the comments below. Or if you guys are watching, post in the comments below. I'd love to hear from them. So, down the hallway, we have one of two or three places left you can see the Mount Chuckmore piece. This is one of the coolest pieces of Chuckar ever made. Um, the first time I ever saw it was at Tully Road and I believe it's still there at Tully Road, but then the second place I saw it was at Northridge before they did the remodel. Northridge used to have a big one of these up in their loft above the showroom and it's gone now cuz that's where the video wall is. But I always love the Mount Chuck Moore. It's just so good.

[00:21:40]Um, yeah, it's wood and uh would go for many thousands of dollars on the open market, but I've never seen one even come up.

[00:21:52]Also, down the hallway, we have some of the very old postcards. And again, another indication of why I think these came from the old store. These would have had the old store would have had this logo for the 88 remodel, Chuck-E-Cheese's pizza. That's when these would have been put into the store. It would have been in the early '9s. Um, they got that remodel in 1994, which tracks timeline wise. They've also got the Munch Tropics old uh postcard also with the Chuck-E-Cheese's pizza logo. And again, makes me believe this was from the 94 remodel at the former Pizza Time Theater that came over here in 2000.

[00:22:36]But you guys tell me, see if you guys know about that.

[00:22:41]So, getting over into the little kids area, we got High Five. We've got the little boat.

[00:22:49]And since I've gotten here last, we do now have a trampoline zone with a single piece of Chuck-E-Cheese art behind it.

[00:22:57]We also have the KC Cobra. And we have one of the older carousels, which let's see if they have a date on this one. This one I'm not seeing an exact date.

[00:23:17]I'm also not seeing Well, hold on. We got it somewhere else over here.

[00:23:21]So, this was created for the CC Entertainment Company. I've seen these in many uh not many, but I've seen these in several, so I'm not surprised. Um, but these are not the ones that had the uh uh where a kid can be a kid uh monogram on them. This is a little bit different version, but uh these are still really cool and old. Of course, we have the bus and this little guy Octonauts.

[00:23:48]And it gives us over to our guy without his camera. That's all gone. But we can still give our man Chuck a high five.

[00:23:57]Also, one quick point, the booths, they do have the old booths. Um, over in the main showroom, they have the redbacked greensided booths, but these ones are actually from the mid to late '9s. Um, they have the blue and the red back booths. These are really old. Um, you don't see these that often. It's pretty cool. They were clearly put here when this was open. Or, I'm just going to throw this out there. Maybe could have been some of the booths they brought over that. Maybe they brought some of the booths over because it would make sense in the right era. They probably would have gotten these in the ' 94 remodel. So, that would make sense. So, that could have happened, too.

[00:24:40]They've got these booths on both sides of the kids area, the small kids area.

[00:24:44]But that gets us over in to the other game area. We got Hammer 2 right next to the trampoline zone going into the main arcade. We got Sky Riders. We got Superbikes 3. We got Water Blast.

[00:24:57]Ghostbusters.

[00:25:00]Guys, this is one of maybe two stores I've ever seen these in. These Chuck-E-Cheese Super Shots are so rare. Really rare.

[00:25:12]Um, they have no doubt have a date on them, too. Let's just look real quick.

[00:25:16]But no matter what, they're dated and we can tell when it is cuz this is Let's see. We got Coach Chuck. That That logo just screams late '9s. Um, see if we can see a date.

[00:25:33]I'm not seeing a date, but it's pre-1998 cuz that's Showbiz Pizza Time Inc. Uh, that would be pre98.

[00:25:44]So, we're looking at I don't know mid90s.

[00:25:48]And again, I'll bet you bet you dollars to donuts, these came from the former Pizza Time Theater as well. Um, they probably did not want to get rid of these because they're logoed. They look fantastic and they probably brought them over. Uh, and strong choice. I love it.

[00:26:05]They are so cool. I love all the branding on them. Um, very unique and, uh, it's awesome that they're still here.

[00:26:15]We also have down the clan. We got NFL.

[00:26:19]We got our classic alley roller ski ball machines.

[00:26:24]More of those old booths. Again, I' I'd put money on those. Came from the former Pizza Time Theater. I'm not meaning to call it a Pizza Time Theater, meaning it was a Pizza Time Theater. I know it was a Chuck-e-Cheese when it closed. Closed in 2000. I'm just saying it used to be Pizza Time Theater. So, I can say former Pizza Time Theater. Quit coming at me.

[00:26:45]Of course, we've got Halo and Batman and Nickelodeon Nitro and Doodle Jump, Clutch Shoot, Hoop It Up, Mario and Sonic, Trolls, Fishbowl Frenzy, and right up by the PTT window, we've got the Big Wind, Super Span.

[00:27:06]We still have the old branding on the walls.

[00:27:11]I just love it. Look at that salad bar.

[00:27:14]Oh, I love it. Which brings us over to the store where we have I see a little Pasquali plush. So, we got some some of the little plushes. We got the Helen face purse. Still got one of the Christmas stocking hats.

[00:27:30]We got the Chucky pillow blanket.

[00:27:34]And uh all looks like packed and ready to win. Get your tickets out here. So, now let's talk about the confetti posters. I'll be having a video coming out very soon with Peel and Rose talking about restoring these confetti posters.

[00:27:51]Really excited about it. I know you guys are going to love it. Keep an eye on my channel if you haven't already. Hit that subscribe button. I know you watch my stuff. Do it anyway.

[00:28:00]We've got that Pasquali right there.

[00:28:03]They've got a full set in the store, but they're all spread out. I don't want to poke in too much, but we have Helen's right there. And in the men's room, we got the classic Jaspers.

[00:28:13]One last thing, they also have the old emergency exit sign. It's one of the few original things you can find in almost every Chuck-E-Cheese. So, we do have Munch on the other side of the showroom.

[00:28:25]We got Pasquali. We saw Jasper and Helen, which leaves just one guy, and he's out in the vestibule, Mr. Chuck himself. Here's what's great about Chuck. He has the original lenticular eyes. One is falling off, which makes him nightmare fuel now. But he is out here in the lobby, which is where you would have normally seen a rub the token for good luck, but I'm very glad to see a confetti chuck. They've got all five here in the store. One with the lenticular eyes. And since we're out here, we got Let's cover the other stuff. They got the old mission statement with the Peeler and Rose Outback Chuck logo.

[00:29:08]We got all the little signage that's got all the old branding on it. Love that.

[00:29:14]And my favorite one where Chuck's in his tux, the where a kid can be a kid statement. So good. I love it. Also by the front entrance, we do have the three giant warhole pieces. I don't see the little warholes in here, but they're not necessary because this place has such incredible art. We don't need the little warh halls. They're nice. Don't get me wrong. I like the warh halls, but nothing's better than the 93 Showbiz Pizza Time Inc. pieces.

[00:29:44]Nothing.

[00:29:47]Mr. Munch.

[00:29:49]All right, guys. as well. That was a nice little revisit here to the alpha stage in Spokane. Um, I do love coming to see Chuck. I love coming to uh see the store. This store's got amazing art.

[00:30:03]Again, we don't know if it's ever going to get remodeled or just left alone.

[00:30:06]God, we hope it gets left alone. If they do, they have to do something with that window. Um, I would hope they would do something with all of it, but you never know. Um, so anyway, nice little revisit. Hope you guys enjoyed it and we'll see you in the next video. Bye now.

[00:30:26]later, Chuck.

[00:30:31]>> You too, Chuck.

[00:30:35]Also, before we leave, we can't not talk about the outside. Is that 1994 remodel? I'm sure they put it in later, but like the old red and yellow awnings.

[00:30:49]Ah, the old Chuck-E-Cheese's logo.

[00:30:53]Absolutely love the outside of the store.

[00:30:59]Those awnings just make it.

[00:31:04]All right, now later, Chuck.