Showbiz Pizza (found Yogi Bear and Boo Boo animatronic audio showtape; 1987)

The Yogi and Boo Boo animatronics on stage.

Status: Found

Date found: 15 Aug 2020

Found by: ShowbizPizza.com

Showbiz Pizza was a popular restaurant chain located in America. The chain was founded by Robert L. Brook and the company Creative Engineering in 1980 in Kansas City, Missouri. The chain was an arcade/restaurant place, featuring a stage filled with animatronic characters. These characters played in a fictional band called the Rock-Afire Explosion, the fictional band members and animatronics on the stage were usually "Billy Bob Brockali", "Fatz Geronimo", "Mitzi Mozzarella", "Dook LaRue", "Beach Bear", "Rolfe & Earl", "Looney Bird", and many other guest characters. These characters would later be replaced in favor of the Chuck E. Cheese characters after the two companies merged. By 1992, Showbiz Pizza rebranded all locations as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza, which is still in operation to this day.

Yogi Bear and Boo Boo's Inclusion

In 1987, Showbiz wanted to introduce licensed guest characters into Showbiz. After looking over some options, the most cost-appropriate choice was Hanna-Barbera's Yogi Bear and "Boo Boo". They soon made these animatronics and set them up in three separate locations (Omaha, Nebraska, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Augusta, Georgia.). The design of the animatronic was done by Jul Kamen and Paul Linden, using the mech of the Rolfe animatronic as a base for Yogi. The prototype was soon completed by Creative Presentations Inc. in April 1987.

Build of Yogi.

After the completion of the models, a showtape was produced and written by Showbiz Pizza's entertainment department. Yogi Bear and Boo Boo's in-show voice actors, Daws Butler and Don Messick recorded the lines for the tape.

The Showtape

The showtape itself was believed to be completely lost. Nothing was known about the properties and details of the audio for the show in the showtape, or anything about the show itself, with the exception of images of the show set up on stage, background audio for the voice-over, and scripts. All that was known are the voices used.

Fate Of The Show

Due to a lack of documentation, the popularity of the show is unknown, but it is safe to assume it was an utter failure given the fact it was never moved anywhere else besides those three locations they were initially installed at.

Discovery

On August 15th, 2020, the full audio was posted to YouTube by fan website ShowbizPizza.com as a part of their "Rock-a-Palooza 2020" event for the Rock-afire Explosion's 40th anniversary. The audio was preserved on a cassette by co-producer and scriptwriter Steve White and is complete with only a few seconds missing from the song "Every Breath You Take" due to cassette duration.

Gallery

• 

  From the Entertainment '87 Enterprise Packet.

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  Newspaper scan.

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  From the Entertainment '87 Enterprise Packet.

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  Aaron Fechter claiming to not own any copy of the Showtape.

External Link

• The full Showtape. Retrieved 15 Aug '20

See Also

• Boss Cat (found British opening and ending titles of "Top Cat" animated series; 1962-1989)
• CBS Storybreak "What Happened in Hamelin" (lost episode from animated series; 1987)
• Dastardly & Muttley - Operation: Pigeon Pursuit (lost build of unreleased PlayStation 2 video game; 2007-2008)
• Fender Bender 500 (partially found episodes of "Wacky Races" reboot animated series; 1990s)
• Gotcha (partially found full version of "Jetsons: The Movie" song; 1990)
• Jetsons: The Movie (lost Janet Waldo vocal performance of animated film; 1988-1990)
• Jokebook (partially found Hanna-Barbera animated series; 1982)
• Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone (partially found episodes of syndicated animated series; 1990)
• Return of the Bunjee (lost ABC Weekend special; 1985)
• Rock Odyssey (found Hanna-Barbera animated film; 1987)
• The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (partially found Hanna Barbera live action-animated TV series; 1968-1969)
• The Flintstones (partially found production material for cancelled Seth MacFarlane reboot of animated series; 2013)
• The Flintstones Movie (partially found Sega Channel exclusive build of 2D movie tie-in platformer; 1995)
• The Funny World of Fred and Bunni (partially found live-action/animated variety show pilot; 1978)
• The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour (partially found NBC comedy variety show; 1978)
• The Moxy Show (partially found episodes of CGI anthology series; 1993-2000)
• The New Teen Titans "Just Say No!" (partially lost Hanna-Barbera anti-drug animated PSA; 1983)
• The Ruff and Reddy Show (found episodes of NBC Hanna-Barbera animated series; 1957-1960)
• The Snorks (partially found unaired pilot of Hanna-Barbera animated TV series; 1982)