It’s 1976, and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell is on a mission to launch a family arcade disguised as a pizza parlor. He comes up with a name that’s impossible not to smile at—“Chuck E. Cheese”—and combines pizza, video games, and animatronic entertainment. The chain quickly becoming the go-to destination for a generation of American kids. And as business takes ... Show More
Nov 2024
Chuck E Cheese vs ShowBiz Pizza | Broken Robots | 2
It’s 1982, and after months of bitter fighting, Nolan Bushnell of Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater and Robert Brock of ShowBiz Pizza Place finally strike a legal truce. With the video game market crashing and the novelty of their brands fading, Chuck E. Cheese faces mounting ... Show More
37m 52s
Mar 2018
Atari & Chuck E. Cheese's: Nolan Bushnell (2017)
Before he turned 40, Nolan Bushnell founded two brands that permanently shaped the way Americans amuse themselves: the iconic video game system Atari, and the frenetic family restaurant Chuck E. Cheese's. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," an update on H2OPS, a non-alco ... Show More
49m 16s
Mar 2023
The Strange Tale of Charles Entertainment Cheese, Part One: Atari and Pizza
For many Americans, Chuck E. Cheese is an immediate hit of pure nostalgia -- the pizza! The birthdays! The games! And, of course, the characters. In this week's special two-part episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive deep into the strange history of Chuck E. Cheese, from its founding da ... Show More
37m 37s
Feb 2023
Chuck E. Cheese: Everything You Didn't Know
What do Atari, Pixar, pizza, beer and rats have in common? Jordan and Alex dive into a suspiciously sticky ball-pit under the uncanny valley gaze of an animatronic rat to go deep on everyone's favorite source of cherished childhood memories and/or trauma: Chuck E. Cheese! They'll ... Show More
1h 4m
Mar 2023
The Strange Tale of Charles Entertainment Cheese, Part Two: Betrayal and Nostalgia
As Nolan Bushnell's Chuck E. Cheese concept took America by storm, competitors entered the field. In the second part of this two-part episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore how Charles Entertainment Cheese weathered numerous ups and downs through the decades -- along with some pretty ... Show More
59m 12s
Jun 2023
Pizza & Profit: The Slice Factory Story (Ep 194)
Join Jaime Oikle from RunningRestaurants.com as he speaks with Dom Diana, the CEO and founder of Slice Factory, the family-focused and welcoming Chicago-based pizza franchise and home to Chicago's original jumbo slice. We discussed the history of Slice Factory, its expansion and ... Show More
24m 36s