ISSUE #19 - December,
2001 Back
to ShowBiz Pizza.com Homepage
Hello fans! I hope that everyone's
been well lately. My plans were to do some major
updating over Thanksgiving break, but somehow things
got changed around. My friend was wanting me to go
with him out to Tennesse to spend Thanksgiving with
another one of our friends who recently moved out
there. And just has luck would have it, that was the
same week that Looney Bird's was opening up in
Jackson. Serendipity or dumb luck? Who knows, all that
mattered was Looney's was opening and I was going.
Besides, I have some more time off soon for
updating.
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November 23, 2001. The day before the big
grand opening, and the 5th day the store had been
open. We came upon a Coca-cola banner flapping in the
wind outside the shopping center where Looney's is
located that was announcing the grand opening. Then my
eyes landed on the Looney's sign - which was really
cool, the Looney Bird head is like a relief and it
sticks out of the sign. The neon lights could be seen
through the windows. Inside the setup looked similar
to Chuck E. Cheeses, with a few exceptions. There was
a walkway leading from the front doors to the ordering
counter, and it divided the arcade section from the
kiddie section which had the ball crawl and sky tubes.
The inside deco was really neat, everything had deep
purple trimming, and the neon lights were purple too.
The celing was painted blue with white clouds, and the
company's website address was actually painted on the
walls. There was also paintings on the walls of a
train with the letters "LB" printed on it, and an
airplane with the familiar Looney Logo.
When friend and
I ordered and saw that the menu had titles such as
"Mitzi's Appetizer", "Looney Bird's Pizzas" and
"Choo-choo's Salads" - VERY cool. From there we
ventured to the show room, where the show was playing
and things were busy.
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Collectable
Of The Month |
Looney
Bird's Child's T-shirt
- This cool little shirt is one of the 1st
Looney's collectables available from the Jackson store
- these were given away during the grand opening
celebration.
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This was one of the coolest
parts of the visit - actually getting to see the
Rock-afire entertaining families. It was similar to
what I saw when visiting Billy Bob's Wonderland, but
much different too. Sorta like if Billy Bob's had been
given a shot of adrenaline - that was the scene at
Looney Bird's. Picture a brand new classic Rock-afire
show playing loud and in full motion, a Looney Bird
and Billy Bob walkaround plus a troop of employees
leading a dance in front of center stage, kids and
adults both dancing with them, and after the
performance was over the audience actually applauded.
I kid you not. It was just like in those campy
promotional videos that are really cheesy and you can
tell everyone it them was paid to act happy. Only this
wasn't acting, and the people and excitement was real.
I have home video to prove this if there's anyone out
there who doubts me. And to make things all the more
impressive, just know that this wasn't done for a
birthday party or anything special - this was just a
regular show.
The walkarounds and employees were out on the
floor for nearly the entire time I was there. And it
worked out great too. The stage was raised up about 3
feet or more allowing everything to still be seen
while everyone was dancing below. The showroom was
open to the rest of the store, but since the volume
was up it drained out the noise of the rest of the
store. There was a big screen right beside Rolfe's
stage that was playing Cartoon Network. One of the
cool things about the stage, was the valance banner -
they had it custom made in a dark purple material that
matched with the rest of the store (while keeping the
original frill and labels). In my oppinion it actually
looked better than the traditional maroon color.
The shows were playing consistantly, with short
intermissions. They were the newer compiled tapes, but
most of the songs had the original voices and there
was only a few of the horrid ones that used recordings
by the original artists. And the only major technical
problem was that the curtains weren't working yet, but
that's about it.
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Cool
Picture of the Month |
Looney Bird's Showroom Jackson, Tennesse
- This picture shows what the new Looney's showroom looks like with the classic RAE show.
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I was also able to
meet Jeff Wall, the owner and mastermind behind the
concept. Although the franchise and Looney Bird idea
was invented and test marketed by Creative
Engineering, much of the concept for the Tennesse
store was all Jeff's. He and his wife Amy were the
owners of a daycare center and children had been there
business and they had come to understand their likes
and dislikes. Much of this research was what went into
Looney Bird's - which was the reason for the purple
color scheme. Also trains and planes were voted the
most popular vehicles which is why they were painted
on the walls. Jeff and Amy were also the ones who did
the artwork for the wall decorations. One interesting
note is that the train on the wall of the showroom was
finished right before the Sept. 11th attacks. So the
next day they added an American flag on the end of the
train.
Jeff was really nice, wait change
that... INCREDIBLY nice to my friend and I. We sat and
talked awhile about how everything was going and how
exciting it all was. He filled me in on some of the
behind scenes information about franshise options and
stuff like that. Apparently interested investors had
already flown in to see Looney's and were interested
in getting stores of their own!
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Yet another
bonus was that Jeff saw the entertainment value in
using the classic show. Yes, using the old show
doesn't fit in with the "Looney Bird's" theme as well
as the new show would, but it's worth it to have the
better and more active entertainment that only the
classic show can provide. Surprisingly enough there's
still enough classic shows around for a limited number
of stores, but if the Looney Bird concept really takes
off, an option of putting the show back into
production is being kicked around. Who knows, I mean
this seems like quite a stretch, but how many of you
ever thought of a store opening with the classic show
in 2001? |
So there's no telling what could
happen. If nothing else, Jeff wants to put some of the
dolls back into production, along with lots of Looney
Bird merchandise. We could even see something like
Rock-afire CDs, and stuff like that. Jeff has really
invested himself into this and he's serious about what
he does. He's even paid close attention to the
collectability of what his store produces. He was kind
enough to give me some of the items that they were
giving away for the grand opening, and most of the
items had either the companies website address or
store address printed on them. Quite a brilliant move
if you ask me.
We also got to try out some new desert pizza
that one of the employees had put together that day.
It was really cool. My friend was even impressed,
which was amazing. The whole week leading up to this
he had been hounding me about being overly-obsessed.
Yet when he saw Looney's and we got to meet with the
owner, I think he finally realized why I put so much
of my time and effort into building on this site like
I do. It's just nice for me to see that someone out
there has the means of making my dreams come true, and
I want to do everything that I can to help him along.
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You know,anymore it seems that us
fans are the only faint reminder that ShowBiz and the
Rock-afire Explosion ever existed in the first place -
and yet here's this store out in Tennesse that's brand
new, and showcasing the Rock-afire in their full
glory. Looney's isn't some ancient relic that managed
to survive past the 1980's. It's brand new and cutting
edge, yet retro at the same time. ShowBiz is gone and
will unfortunately never be back. But don't look at
Looney Bird's as simply "the next best thing" - it's
much better than that. If you live in Tennesse or have
any way of getting to visit this store, you should by
all means do so. I realize that not everyone can make
the trip, but those who do won't be dissapointed. So
try to get out and see Looney's. And if it becomes a success
there might just be one opening up close to you in the
near future. I wish Jeff the best of luck!!
Until Next Month, -
VegaNova |
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