The History of Showbiz Pizza Place & Chuck E. Cheese in Little Rock, Arkansas

Today, we go over the history of Showbiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese in Little Rock, Arkansas. Thanks to Mike for requesting it.
Credit:
Nathan Spies (For inspiring this series).
/ nathanspies
Wikipedia (For info on Little Rock, Arkansas).
en.wikipedia.o...
Cheese-e-pedia (For providing info in this video).
cheeseepedia.o...
Arkansas Business (For providing article of Parham in 1994).
www.arkansasbu...
CEC Arkansas (For providing photo of Parham in 1997 or 1998).
• Chuck E. Cheese in Lit...
thekuleones (For providing footage of Parham in 2000 and 2003).
• October 2000: Caleb Tu...
• 2003: Swimming, Maggie...
ethanthomasmills (For providing footage of Parham in 2007).
• cec
Ryan Harvill (for providing footage of Parham in 2013).
• Chuckie cheese
Join my Discord server so you can discuss CEC/SPP and Gaming content: / discord
Disclaimer: None of the content I discuss in the video belongs to me and belongs to their rightful owners.
Crap, please don't label this as for kids. It's not meant for kids, it's meant for archival and entertainment purposes.

[@CECPRODUCTIONS-r6e]

I remember back in 2013 visiting this location with my family, and surprisingly they kept the sky tubes, I also have a photo from October of 2013 with me and my mother in the photo sketch with avenger chuck in the corner!

[@TheofficialJay_CECandgames]

The location isn’t abandoned today. They turned half of it into a doctor’s office and the other half went to the gym.

[@ItzaRob]

I spent a long time checking and verifying the info Cheese-e-pedia gave me, and the area is indeed still unused. Maybe abandoned is the wrong word, but the area remains empty and unused to my knowledge as I went on google maps to check and find the exact area it was located in, and it didn't seem to be apart of either of the places. I'd love to see someone go there today though and check the interior of that area that was formerly the CEC and see what's inside of it now to verify that 100% though.

[@TheofficialJay_CECandgames]

UPDATE: I just passed by the location and the space is now a UAMS health center

[@gwenmloveskpopandmore]

Yay I can’t wait!!! I’m originally from Arkansas and still consider it my 1st home

[@rooney.ae_]

Can’t wait for this.

[@SallyandSquirleneA.E]

My day gets better when this man uploads btw i subbed

[@CECPRODUCTIONS-r6e]

THANK YOU!

[@karlgt3656]

bruh

[@hannahsneodream]

Nice video. :) I visited both this location, and the North Little Rock location frequently as a kid, but mostly the NLR location as it was considered the bigger and “nicer” of the two.

[@TimeNerd]

5:55 hey that’s me lol. I have to many memories of this location. For the newer one, no I never remember seeing sky tubes there. And from what I had heard from people who say “they know” those animatronics were indeed taken to north Little Rock. Can’t remember where I had heard that but could be true. I remeber to the right of the showroom were the restrooms and kitchen with a hallway leading to wear Chuck E. Cheese would go to get changed. This one had a huge number of games unlike the other two locations in little have had. They even had the spinning copter ride where you peddle with balloons on top where idk if I see anywhere. It’s crazy how vivid I see it all lol. Thank you so much for this video and can’t wait for more I can suggest

[@ItzaRob]

Great to see you've found this! It would make sense that the animatronics were sent to North Little Rock for spare parts since the location was nearby, but unfortunately that 3 stage is now gone as well, and I'm assuming it's destroyed since that's what usually happens to these locations that remodel to 2.0. Interesting to hear they had a lot of games. It truly seems like this was a great location, so it's a shame it's gone now.

[@TimeNerd]

@@ItzaRob yeah. There’s another video on that same channel with my grandmother in it but it shows basically the same thing, not much different. It’s just a account I have lost the password to lol

[@ItzaRob]

@@TimeNerd Ok so I wanted to go ahead and ask if I could continue using the footage of yours I used in this video. I didn't ask you for permission before so I wanted to now (as you saw I give credit in the video but I also do it in the description).

[@TimeNerd]

@@ItzaRob yes go ahead

[@TimeNerd]

@@ItzaRobalso have no idea why I thought about this and had to come back. In the photo at 9:10 , you can see a door on the far left side that kind of blends in with the building. Now from this photo you can tell that the building is slanted since it is on a incline/downcline. So to get to that door, you had to go up steps to get to it. I found myself climbing this step many times wanting to push the door open to see where it led (before me knowing that it was just outside). No the newer location never got the sky tubes. The sky tubes that the old location had, I remember bigger, and also had the old “put your shoes here” cubbies and sign. They had all the normal games, one of mine being “use the fist to knock over the duck” with chucked bug face on the top. Still my favorite location I have ever visited and one I miss to this day. The look of it in person was something that hasn’t been re done to this day in my opinion. It felt old and grand and even till final days, had that charm. When you entered to the right, they had a small cubby area with just a bunch of munch ticket munchers which I found funny. I also bought a bunch of pushes which I still have and where I got a copy of Chuck E. Cheese and the galaxy 5000 movie once. I bought one online last year and it went to my old address and never got it lol so I’m still on that hunt. Next to the stage room was a straight hallway like you see in the empty room photo. All the way to the back was a door that led to the costume room which I accidentally went into one time. To the right of that was the bathrooms and stuff. The game room was massive. The biggest one I’ve ever been into. This location was special, and not just because it was my home one, it felt like the 80’s without me ever been there. A classic

[@JCMckenna]

I can tell that this location seems to be actually right next to a Kmart, pretty nice 🤙

[@USM20231]

Phoenix AZ!

[@ItzaRob]

I’ll pass for now.

[@RatKingLiam]

Hello ItzaRob! Do you have a discord we could talk on? I heard you are doing a history of Spokane, Washington and Lynnwood. I live in Washington myself and if this is true, I could help you. :)

[@gwenmloveskpopandmore]

I got to go to the old location only once just a year before they relocated and also to confirm the animatronics were taken to NLR and remained there until they got 2.0 in 2019

[@TimeNerd]

That’s what I thought

[@THAIIIGUY]

great video!

[@simonsays365]

only 62 minutes yau. Oh no oh no oh no no no no no

[@oliviabyerly5357]

I got a request what if Chuck E. Cheese pizza time theater never went out of business ( you don’t have to do this idea if you don’t want to)

[@Bliilybob]

And I’m still waiting rob😀 billy Bob once said

[@ItzaRob]

I don't know what for, if you made a history video request, you're going to need to wait awhile before it's fulfilled.

[@SonicBadaBoomProductions]

They did not change his feet weird but I noticed

[@SonicBadaBoomProductions]

Chuck E. Cheese feet to be exact their still the 90s latex mask feet not the plastic mask feet

[@ItzaRob]

Is that why they looked weird? I never knew the feet were latex.

[@JoCox4048]

Almost everything on the characters was latex until the plastic masks were introduced, hands, feet, shoes, etc.

[@ItzaRob]

@@JoCox4048 That's interesting.

[@renstah.z1330]

rodney parham was oddly similar to the fayetteville location that used to be located in evelyn hills shopping center, small features but oddly similar since they both stayed untouched until fayettevilles relocation in 2010.

[@WhoDidWhat17]

I actually went to the Shackleford location in December 2017, and I went to the North Little Rock location before they got 2.0 in late August 2019 (I went in early August 2019 iirc).

[@legopro8836]

By looking at it, I think it’s next to a Kmart

[@TimeNerd]

It was

[@MrBigMac9647]

7:33 notice on the stage that the curtains are still there

[@ItzaRob]

Interesting, I didn't notice that.

[@aprules2]

Hey I would love it if you guys could do some research on the Showbiz location I grew up with in Hackensack New Jersey. It started off as ShowBiz Pizza then became fun time pizza

[@ItzaRob]

I’m not taking anymore history video requests right now.

[@DoseOfRandomDaily]

I think the anamtronks didn't to north little rock For spear parts or got distroude

[@hunterleach5710]

Here is a video recommendation for you , it would be very interesting to hear your opinions on this . What if CEC entertainment did zero budget cuts ? What if studio c had five animatronics instead of one , all 36 movement bots . , What if the idea of the circle of lights , removing munch Junior and pizzacam, studio c kappa and beta was thrown out the window completely . What if they never stopped programming these animatronics and kept the showroom walls up and still dim the lights . And what if 2.0 never removed the animatronics in the dance floor was put in front of the stage , plus with a i , it gets used with pretty much all programming after April of 2023

[@ItzaRob]

I still think older stages would've been removed, but this isn't a bad idea. I'll have to think on it.

[@hunterleach5710]

@@ItzaRob thanks

[@ItzaRob]

@@hunterleach5710 You're welcome.

[@TheMemeMaster2011]

The explosion drum fronts from the 3 stages are not dooks, the last one was gone by the 1990s or maybe it was kept by 2018 because of the design of his drum from one of the Houston stores, you can tell because the drum on Pasqually has a thicker outline and is more triangular compared to dooks

[@ItzaRob]

Interesting, I didn't know that actually. At the very least it's the same design as dook's drum front.

[@CECWashingtonTheCECFan]

9:34 Spokane is actually pronounced as Spo-CAN.

[@ItzaRob]

Alright, thanks for informing me ahead of time so I don't mess it up on the actual history video lol.

[@MrElwoodjayblues]

@@ItzaRob Also fact about the first Spokane location. It originally was a Pizza Time Theater, which got a 2 Stage at some point in the 1990s. Sadly though, no footage exists anywhere of the location when it became a Chuck E Cheese, or any footage of the 2 Stage, but a friend of mine believes it could've had a similar interior to Northridge, since Northridge also had a Balcony Stage, then a 2 Stage. So as of 2023, the 1st Spokane CEC is lost media.

[@karlgt3656]

Second

[@Portpalaza1970]

Could you do a history of the Green Bay location

[@Portpalaza1970]

Pls

[@Bliilybob]

Do anyone else know the box jaspers sits on is a down size pizza cam box on the one stage 😁 said billy bob

[@licyocho7909]

Can you do the history of Patchagoe ny

[@BingusRatOfficial]

Can you do Whitehall, P.A. plzz🙏

[@marcosatheundesirable]

He doesn't take requests anymore atleast for now

[@ItzaRob]

Marco is correct, I'm not taking history requests anymore for awhile.

[@BingusRatOfficial]

thanks bro@wyattsworld5330 🙏

[@boba_kid5785]

Can you do Chuck E. Cheese in Portland Oregon please

[@SnowyHorror]

Can You Do A Video On Tucson Arizona's Chuck E Cheese please.

[@ItzaRob]

I'm not taking anymore history video requests for now.

[@SnowyHorror]

Thats Ok :)@@ItzaRob

[@skittle552]

Day 1 of asking for Fayetteville NC chuck e cheese's

[@ItzaRob]

I'm not taking anymore history video requests right now, sorry.

[@RatKingLiam]

9:32 I'm so sorry but your pronounciation of Spokane really made me laugh. Its actually Spo-can.

[@ItzaRob]

Yes, I've learned that. I've fixed that in the actual history video about it and Lynnwood (which will be out Friday).

[@RatKingLiam]

​@@ItzaRobtomorrow woo

[@karlgt3656]

Hey​@@ItzaRobcan you edit the spokane/lynwood video to include my name

[@ItzaRob]

@@karlgt3656 I don't think I'll be able to, but we'll see what happens.

[@karlgt3656]

@@ItzaRob ok

[@karlgt3656]

The waffle house has found its new host

[@ItzaRob]

Old meme fr lol.

[@karlgt3656]

@@ItzaRob yea