Remember celebrating birthday parties or other special occasions with arcade games, sky tubes, ballpits, and of course, pizza?

Back the 1990s, these indoor entertainment restaurants were e-i.

I worked at one called Family Fun Center.

My cousin Placido worked at another one, Camelot. Discovery Zone, Bullwinkles, these pizza pleasure palaces are what made growing up in Bill Clinton's America pretty cool. Sorry, baby, Jen Ziers. And then most of them went away. doomed by waning interest, bankruptcies, enclosures. Really, just one of them is still enormous, and it was the weirdest one of them all.

You know which one, everyone.

Chuck E. Cheese.

Chuck E. Cheese, please.

I'm Gustavariano. You're listening to The Times.

Daily News from the L.A LA Times. It's Thursday,

January 14th, 2022. So how the hell does a chain based on an orphaned mouse who plays in a band

survive and thrive? Very carefully. Today we'll talk to L.A. Times business reporter Samantha Masunaga about the company,

and we'll hear from its new chief executive about Chucky Cheese everything, including its infamous animatronic band.

So full disclosure, I've only been to one Chuck E. Cheese.

It doesn't even exist anymore.

It wasn't Fullerton and O.C. and it was hella run down.

I always thought its commercials tried too hard and Chuckie Cheese himself,

Homeway made Mickey Mouse seem as edgy as Cartman.

But what do I know?

The chain survives and it's now even thriving and turning into something I could have never thought imaginable.

Cool.

My colleague Samantha Masunaga did a big piece about Chucky Cheese's past, present, and future.

Samantha, welcome to the Times.

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