7 Old School Restaurant Animatronics That Are A Total Blast From The Past

For many people who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, having a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, ShowBiz Pizza Place, or any other kid-centric restaurant that featured animatronic entertainment was the height of living. It was hard to beat the ultimate combination of pizza, video games, and what appeared to be living, breathing, cartoonish creatures that not only played music, but also partook in witty banter with one another.

It all began in the 1970s with Atari's co-founder (yes, the video game company), who was also behind Chuck E. Cheese. Soon, seemingly everyone got into the game. Such beloved characters as Rocky and Bullwinkle and Bugs Bunny (plus the rest of the Looney Tunes) had their own themed restaurants. Even McDonald's got into animatronics with its moon-headed, sunglasses-wearing crooner named Mac Tonight. But changing tastes and other issues eventually spelled the demise of this strange and wondrous restaurant phenomena. Today, there are only five Chuck E. Cheeses that feature animatronic bands and only one Bullwinkle's Restaurant with its signature act. Although there are still some Rainforest Cafes that have animatronic wild animals, alas, they don't sing.

Atari's co-founder, Nolan Bushnell, dreamed up the idea for Chuck E. Cheese and opened the first one in San Jose, California, in 1977. The musical mainstays, Munch's Make Believe Band, included the restaurant's mascot, a rat named Chuck E. Cheese, and a chicken named Helen Henny on vocals. Munch, a purple monster, played the organ; Jasper T. Jowls, a dog, wailed on guitar; and Pasqually, an Italian pizza chef, kept time on the drums. They were a bit herky-jerky, but kept us kids entertained.

ShowBiz Pizza Place started in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1980 and was Chuck E. Cheese's rival (they later merged). The animatronic band there was called the Rock-afire Explosion and played classic rock, pop, and original music. The MC and band leader was a gorilla named Fatz Geronimo. Additionally, there was Billy Bob Brockali, a country music-singing bear. The characters also told jokes and performed skits.

Gadgets, a New Jersey-based restaurant chain owned by a subsidiary of the Warner Communications Company, was a bit more sophisticated than other, similar restaurant chains. There was a crooner named Sammy Sands that played American standards and told jokes for the adults who enjoyed cocktails from the bar. Meanwhile, the Looney Tunes Revue featured some of the most iconic cartoon characters around — Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and others — voiced by Mel Blanc, who had originally created the characters' voices for the cartoons. The show was elaborate and the animatronic characters were top notch.

Bullwinkle's Family Food N Fun (it later went through several name changes) began in Santa Clara, California, in 1983. It featured the cartoon characters Rocky the Flying Squirrel on cello, Bullwinkle the Moose playing a banjo, and Underdog on sax. Dudley Do-Right, the bumbling Canadian Mountie, would sing as well. Voiced by the original actors, the characters also told jokes and even recited (bad) poetry.

What started out as a 1986 McDonald's advertising campaign to try to lure more adults into the restaurant for dinner became a brief and strange foray into animatronics for the burger chain. If you were lucky enough to see Mac Tonight, a singer with a crescent moon head and sunglasses backed by a trio of chickens, it was an unforgettable sight. There is still one working Mac Tonight at the biggest McDonald's in the world in Orlando, Florida, although he's at a piano and without the chicken back-up singers.

Rainforest Cafe came a bit later than the other animatronic-themed restaurants, opening in the mid-1990s at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. There, you could see a talking tree, a menagerie of animatronic jungle animals, thunderstorms, waterfalls, volcanos, and, in the beginning, lots of live animals. Today there are only 16 left in the United States, but the animatronic jungle vibe is still alive and well.

One of the least-known and short lived restaurant chains with an animatronic show was Tex Critter's Pizza Jamboree. Started in 1982 by California's Castle Entertainment, it had few locations across the United States, but featured some of the most advanced animatronic characters around. While chowing down on pizza and taking a break from video games, you could watch Tex Critter, Skeeter the Rattlesnake, Country Cal, and Foxy Roxy perform country and western tunes.