Remembering ShowBiz Pizza Place of Jackson, Michigan...

UPDATED on Saturday, March 19th, 2016 at 6:26pm EST

P.S., I can't believe that THIS ShowBiz Pizza had already closed down for a brand-spanking new @$*%!? Big Lots store for Billy Bob's sake!!!!!!!!

Billy Bob is rooting for some kid who while
that exact same kid playing a video arcade game
(SOURCE - M-Live Jackson News Blog)

Pizza Time Bancy will like to make a special "THROWBACK" post,...

We Remember when Jackson, Michigan used to have a ShowBiz Pizza.   In the words from the M-Live Jackson News Blog Article on "ShowBiz Pizza" in Jackson, Michigan;

Billy Bob and Looney Bird at ShowBiz Pizza Place
in "Argyle Road" Jackson, Michigan, U.S.A. Circa 1982

ShowBiz Pizza Place, 1050 Argyle St., wasn't around very long, but it left its mark on the county's teen scene in the early to mid-1980s.
ShowBiz Pizza Place was the competitor of Chuck E. Cheese's, a child's paradise of pizza, games and electronic puppets.

In late November 1982, Jackson kids rejoiced when one opened in the former 12,000-square-foot Great Scott supermarket that had closed in 1978. The 300-seat restaurant had about 60 arcade games, including video games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, and coin-operated rides. There was a room with a big-screen TV for sports and a "quiet room" for parents to escape the noise of the games. But the restaurant's most unique feature may have been the "Show Room," which was described in a Citizen Patriot "Dining Out" column as, "the nearest thing I've seen to a dimly lit night club for the younger set." 

The Rock-Afire Explosion at ShowBiz Pizza Place
in "Argyle Road" Jackson, Michigan, U.S.A. Circa 1982

The "show" was "The Rock-afire Explosion," which featured a stage lit up by "Billy Bob," an animated singing and guitar-strumming hillbilly bear in overalls, "Looney Bird", and the rest of the animatronic band featuring "Fatz Geronimo," a gorilla on the synthesizer keyboard, "Dook LaRue,", a doggone dog on the four-piece drum set, "Beach Bear," a polar bear on the rock 'n roll guitar, "Mitzi Mozzerella," a common gray mouse that is the show's female singer, and "Rolfe and Earl," the common gray wolf-and-yellow fuzzy puppet comedic act duo.  The band had a repertoire of 13 songs, including a medley of Elvis numbers.  The ShowBiz menu was pretty basic — pizza, deli sandwiches and a salad bar. However, there were some uncommon combinations, including the Pizza Royale, which included corn kernels as a topping. 

Teen Night at ShowBiz Pizza Place in
"Argyle Road" Jackson, Michigan, U.S.A. Circa July 1984.

By 1984, Jackson's ShowBiz Pizza Place had established itself as a teen hangout, which upset some patrons who didn't like that kids were being dropped off there by their parents. Fearing these kids were driving customers away, management began strictly enforcing a rule barring persons younger than 18 from entering unless they were accompanied by an adult. Employees even checked identification at the door after 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. We want to be a family restaurant, not a hangout," Jeff Schlaud, manager, told the Citizen Patriot at the time. As a compromise, in July 1984, ShowBiz began offering dances from 9 p.m. to midnight on Fridays for teens age 13 to 18. They were chaperoned by employees dressed in top hats, bow ties and red vests. 

ShowBiz Pizza Place in "Argyle Road" Jackson, Michigan TODAY!
PHOTOGRAPHED on Saturday, March 18th, 2016
(Special thanks to my brother, Sebastian Igafo-Te'o, for taking
this iOS photo of what "Jackson" ShowBiz looks like now as of 1987!!!)

Attendance was limited to 472 teens at a time. They usually had a sell-out crowd, with some lining up as early as 7:30 p.m. to get in and others waiting outside for teens to leave so they could finally get in.  It all came to an end in 1985 when a merger combined ShowBiz Pizza Place with its rival Chuck E. Cheese. The Jackson store was closed that year and the building sat vacant until Big Lots, which still occupies the spot today, moved in during 1987. It's a doggone crying shame that they didn't even convert ShowBiz Pizza's Jackson, MI location into a Chuck E. Cheese's around 1990-92 after keeping Jackson ShowBiz open instead but that backfired and now it's gone forever thanks to "Big Lots" in Jackson! (Also, it's too bad that I don't like the new "Wabbit" show (featuring Warner Bros. Cartoons/Termite Terrace/Warner Bros. Animation's Bugs Bunny as the title character!) for ruining the American broadcasting of seasons "three" and "four" of Aardman Animation's popular British stop-motion plasticine animated HDTV series "Shaun the Sheep" on Cartoon Network!!)

However, Here are some FASCINATING TIDBITS mentioned on the M-Live Jackson News Blog article on the "ShowBiz Pizza Place" in Jackson, Michigan THAT WASN'T!!:

1. Chuck E. Cheese had considered the Jackson spot ShowBiz Pizza Place claimed for its restaurant, but abandoned the idea, saying the location was too large for the size of store it wanted in town.
2. When it spent $1.8 million to gut and reconstruct the old Jackson supermarket, ShowBiz was in the midst of a building boom. By the time the Jackson restaurant opened in 1982, a new ShowBiz was opening about every three days someplace in the country.
3. In January 1983, Jackson's ShowBiz Pizza Place installed two educational computers and offered time on them at no charge to school classes from 9-11 a.m. weekdays. The computers were programmed to play 10 games covering such subjects as math, spelling and economics.
4. In February 1983, Jackson's ShowBiz Pizza Place acquired a liquor license that had been held in escrow for four years by Catherine E. Alspaugh, owner of the former Silver Foam Tavern, 1442 Cooper. The tavern was destroyed by a natural gas line explosion in February 1979.

Yours Sincerely,
MICHAEL "Mooter" IGAFO-TE'O - Autistic Animation Hobbyist since 2007 and Part-Time Audio-Animatronics Fan with Autism since 2004!!!
P.S., IF Any Comments about our lated blog post on "Pizza Time Bancy", please let us hear from you!