A franchise deal turns into a rival pizza chain
ShowBiz Pizza Place began with a business relationship that broke down. Robert Brock, a successful hotel and restaurant operator, had agreed to open Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre locations. After a falling-out with the company’s founder, Nolan Bushnell, Brock abandoned that plan and backed a competing restaurant instead.
The new chain needed more than pizza to stand apart. It built its identity around live-looking animatronic characters—mechanical figures that sing and perform onstage. Its central character was Billy Bob, a hillbilly bear, part of a larger band called the Rock-afire Explosion. For families, the characters made the restaurant feel like an attraction as well as a place to eat.
The rival eventually absorbs its rival
ShowBiz opened in 1980, but the competition did not last in its original form. Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company went bankrupt in 1984, and Brock’s company acquired it. The buyer was now responsible for both a rival chain and a familiar name that still had value with customers.
The companies’ combination brought together two businesses built around a similar idea: arcade games, birthday parties, pizza, and animated entertainment. Over time, the brands were brought under the Chuck E. Cheese name. The irony is that the franchisee who left to create a competitor ended up owning the company he had broken with—and the hillbilly bear that helped make his version distinctive eventually gave way to the better-known brand.
