ISSUE #42 - February, 2004
Back to ShowBiz Pizza.com Homepage

Marvin's is home to mechanical novelties dating from the early 1900's to modern video games - with just about everything still in everyday operation. However, those in the CEC loop know that Marvin's is also home to a Pizza Time Theatre balcony stage show, which is what I was interested in checking out. Growing up in a ShowBiz dominated state I never visited a PTT, and I knew of the old animatronics mainly from pictures.

Upon arriving at Marvin's, I wasn't too sure what to expect. I was surprised to see the place jumping with children and adults, it was much busier than most arcades I've been to. Among all the flashing lights, moving objects, and chaos was the balcony stage sitting high up on a wall. I didn't stay too long, as I was eager to meet up with Snapper to see if he'd made any progress getting the show running.

Unfortunately things weren't going so good. The show hadn't run in a good 10-15 years. Both of the reel to reel players didn't want to play the reel I brought. The computer had alterations made to it and didn't quite match up with schematics Marvin had, or with the ones that I had brought. After a part of the computer caught fire and the main cyberamics computer driver board began heating up like an oven, we had pretty much declared it a lost cause.

After hours of trying to debug the computer system it became obvious that it wasn't going to happen, so Snapper went to break the bad news to Marvin. We left that day without the characters making a single twitch. Snap agreed to come back once more the next morning to troubleshoot with Marvin's regular tech to attempt one last ditch effort to bring the show to life.

Sunday morning came and we were back at Marvin's again. My girlfriend and I played the video games over and over to pass the morning hours. At various times we'd go to check on Snap to see if any new developments had happened. With the help of a big rubber band, they managed to get one of the reel players working again. All of a sudden the show audio came over the speakers so I ran out to see if anything was going on and Jasper and Munch sprang to life. Now this may seem like a great thing... but since the show hadn't worked in so many years, the characters had become display pieces surrounded by other artifacts. When the characters started moving, things started breaking loose, and falling. A framed Disney poster was on the verge of plummeting, and when before we could get to it we heard the shattering of glass. Snap ran back to get the tape turned off and I assisted Marvin in picking up shards of glass and keeping youngsters at a safe distance.

Despite all the chaos and falling objects it was very nice to see the characters moving again. Everyone in viewing distance, children and adults alike, stopped whatever it was they were doing to watch the show. Perhaps it was because they'd been going there for years and this was the first time they'd seen it in action. Even after everything was secured from falling people still stood around to see what the characters might do next. Unfortunately the reel I brought was from the late 80s and not the most compatible with the cyberamics computer that Marvin had. For some reason only one show would play over and over again.

Getting to vist Marvin's and getting to meet the man who collected a whole building full of mayhem was definitely an interesting time. It was also very nice to see a balcony stage, albeit not in the atmosphere of the Pizza Time Theatre. It's too bad that the trip couldn't have lasted longer. But I was able to visit another far off location that held some CEC history so that's always a good thing.

See ya soon!
- VegaNova