Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (lost animated commercial for restaurant chain; 1979)

The restaruant's original 1977 logo (used around the time the commercial aired).

Status: Lost

From December of 1979 through early 1980, Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatre aired a 30-second, animated commercial. Little is known about this commercial except it was mostly aired in California and it was about having your birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.

The Pizza Times was an in-store newspaper made for employees at Pizza Time Theater locations. In Volume 1, Number 1, published in December of 1979, a small blurb under the "Have you heard about..." section talks about a 30-second commercial for birthday parties that will be airing on local TV stations (Most likely in California as most PTTs were located there).^[1]

In a 1979 brochure for Pizza Time Theatre,^[2] it mentions 30-60 second TV ads as a part of the advertising package. This commercial may be a part of that package.

Availability

Some animation cels from this commercial were saved and are now owned by Smitty's Super Service Station owner Damon Breland. The cels were first seen in a YouTube video by Sets, Streets & Eats, where he visits Smitty's,^[3] However most the shots don't show the cels up-close. High quality scans of the cels were posted to the Facebook page for Showbizpizza.com but were quickly removed. The images have been saved and re-uploaded on the Internet Archive.

Possible TV Stations

Los Angeles Area: KTLA, KTTV, KMEX-DT, KABC-TV, KHJ-TV

San Francisco Area: KPIX, KQED, KBCW (KBHK), KICU, KTVU, KGO-TV

Other Areas: KNXT

Notes

The name of the commercial is called "The Great All-American Pizza Show!"
The commercial has many of the same lines as the recently discovered radio advert of the same name.
It is rumored that Colossal Pictures worked on this commercial.
The ad contains up-close shots of the real animatronics housed in their portrait frames.
It is believed the ad was entirely animated, however, it may have been a live-action hybrid.
The same artist who drew the Rat Tales comics which were sold in Pizza Time Theatres at the time, supposedly worked on the storyboards and animation for this commercial. When comparing the cels and the comics, they do seem to be quite similar in style.
Lee Marrs is believed to have worked on the storyboards for the commercial. She is still alive, so this might be a possible lead.