Uncle Klunk / Santa Claus Stage

Uncle Klunk and Santa Claus were designed to be traveling characters - to be installed in a location for a few months, then moved to a different store, and so on. Plans early on called for a continuing parade of new traveling characters, in order to give ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurants a fresh new look and feel - something to draw new interest and keep customers coming back for repeat visits. Uncle Klunk was the first new character designed for this test.

There was quite a lot of stage preparation required when switching over to the new Klunk setup. While Klunk and Santa both took over stage right, which was Rolfe & Earl's stage, the installation was a lot more complicated than just a simple cosmetic swap. These guest characters and stage changeouts traveled around between 1983 and 1985, and not every store received it.

Description of the Klunk Stage

Uncle Klunk's stage retained the old rainbow curtain as a backdrop, and also used Rolfe's applause sign, which was retrofitted with a new face-plate to become an "On The Air" sign. There was a special valance created for Uncle Klunk, and an animated Abomination sign that would drop down from behind the valance. Several props were added to the stage such as a Coo-coo Clock (with his animated Bird sidekick), a table with a telephone and fruit basket, a portrait of Klunk's mother, and a television camera that was hung from the ceiling.

Description of the Santa Stage

The Santa stage was decorated to appear like the inside of a house, complete with a false window that revealed a snowy outdoor scene. A giant fireplace adorned with a chimney and stockings sat against a light blue backdrop. There was also a holiday wreath and large decorated Christmas tree. A special stage valance was also used for Santa's stage that simply read "Seasons Greetings".

Technical Info / Installation

Because the Klunk animatronic was so much more sophisticated than the other robots, a special controller (computer) needed to be installed as well. This controller contained two driver boards - the left board controlled movements 1-15, and the right board controlled movements 16-30. Certain lighting adjustments needed to be made during the installation as well, including the addition of a pee-wee spot for the Clock / Bird.

One of Klunk's most amazing features was his ability to pick up and set down a telephone (or banana) that was next to him on a table. In order to successfully make this animation work, the placement of the phone (and also fruit basket) had to be carefully placed in order for the animation to function properly. A special portion of the diagnostic tape, titled "Set Phone" and "Set Banana", were included for this purpose of getting the correct placement of these props during the stage construction.

Special carpet was even sent out as part of the installation package, in order to ensure that Klunk's placement was correct. The stage installation was done in two parts, a pre-installation, where stage right was prepped ahead of time, and then the actual installation of Klunk and the stage decor. Special showtapes were created that only utilized the other two stages, to allow store techs the ability to perform the construction over the course of several days without it being noticed.

History / Legacy

Creative Engineering was given the go-ahead by ShowBiz to begin production of the Klunk character in early 1982. As stated before, the idea was to keep the Rock-afire more versatile by introducing a line of traveling characters, much in the fashion that Pizza Time Theatre did with their female Guest Stars. Showtapes echoed this idea, with Billy Bob asking guest to tell their friends to come to see Klunk, as he'd only be there for a "couple of months".

The unfortunate reality was that the market was dwindling for the Family Entertainment industry, partly due to the U.S. arcade crash. When Klunk / Santa were introduced in ShowBiz, it failed to increase the already hurting profits. The entire concept of traveling characters was basically derailed before it was able to even get off the ground. Funds were also siphoned away from Creative's R&D department and ending the possibility of any other traveling characters from ever seeing the light of day - including a Paul McCartney character that was currently in the development stages.