Say Goodbye to the Last Vintage ’80s Chuck E. Cheese
The last of the vintage ’80s Chuck E. Cheese locations is on the verge of a complete remodel. It’s the end of an era.
If you were an ’80s kid, you probably had nightmares about a dead-eyed, animatronic animal band after visiting Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre. If you were a ’90s kid, you probably have fuzzy memories of pizza and games Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza (they’d dropped the “Theatre” from the name by the late ’80s). Nowadays, it’s just Chuck E. Cheese (not “Chuck E. Cheese’s”), and there are about 560 of them peppered across the U.S. of A.
My fuzzy memories are of a Cub Scouts field trip to the Peabody (or was it Danvers?) location in the ’80s. Yes, the band and the music were off-putting. My cousin was downright terrified of the herky-jerky pizza rat and his minions. But the pizza was fine for my grammar-school palate. And there was Skee-Ball! And a Funhouse with a bunch of tiny rooms you could work your way through, complete with a slide at the exit. My fellow Cub Scout Steve would not come out. I still can picture his mom screaming up the slide at him.
Say Goodbye to the Last Vintage ’80s Chuck E. Cheese
Those vintage vibes are about to be nothing but a memory. The YouTube channel 80s Life recently shared a walk-through video of the Chuck E. Cheese at 8425 Reseda Blvd. in Northridge, CA. The news is that this location is about to receive a full makeover, erasing all traces of it’s ’80s/’90s glory. So let’s take one last look at a Chuck E. locale that for many of us serves as a time capsule of sorts. Simpler times with simpler pizza and simple games to win simple prizes. And take a look at those booths!
