The Rock-afire Explosion - Concept Unification

Concept Unification

ShowBiz Pizza Place was similar to (and competed with) Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, another restaurant chain that was popular in other parts of the United States. In the mid-1980s, both venues began to suffer financial difficulties, partially due to the video game crash of 1983 and also due to Showbiz Pizza's having opened more restaurants than they could afford to maintain. When "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre" filed for bankruptcy in 1984, Showbiz Pizza bought the company, hoping that new talent and merchandising opportunities could save both companies.

The corporation maintained the two restaurant chains simultaneously for several years. Each continued its own stage shows and sold different merchandise. However, in the latter part of the decade, relations between Creative Engineering and Showbiz began to cool. In 1988, Aaron Fechter, the founder of Creative Engineering and creator of the Rock-afire Explosion, claimed that the fallout between his company and Showbiz arose when Showbiz asked him to sign away the licensing and copyrights to the Rock-afire Explosion, which would have allowed Showbiz to cut production costs on the show, such as manufacture of future shows and royalty payments to Creative Engineering. Fechter refused, both on the grounds that Showbiz offered no monetary compensation for the rights, and because Fechter had hoped to franchise Rock-afire out as a cartoon series.

Showbiz began toying with the idea of replacing The Rock-afire Explosion with licensed characters, such as Spider-Man or Garfield, and three locations actually retrofitted the robots at stage left into Yogi Bear and Boo Boo

Ultimately, the company decided to enact a process called "concept unification," in which all Showbiz Pizza locations would be remodeled into Chuck E. Cheeses. The remodel included the elimination of all Rock-afire characters from merchandise and advertising and retrofitting/reprogramming the Rock-afire Explosion robots into a new show called Munch's Make Believe Band featuring the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre characters. Unused animatronics and props were either sold off to other restaurants or destroyed.

"Concept unification" began in 1990 and occurred sporadically at Showbiz locations for the next two years, with the final Showbiz being converted in 1992. As concept unification began at each location, the left and center stages of the Rock-afire show were shut down, leaving only the Rolfe and Earl characters operational. During this period, the characters performed "The Rolfe and Earl Show," featuring the voices of Showbiz employees imitating the characters; the two ran a highlights reel of old Rock-afire shows and wondered aloud what the band would do now, and hinted at the coming Chuck E. Cheese-themed show. "The Rolfe and Earl Show" was the final Rock-afire show; after concept unification had been completed on the center and left stages, Rolfe and Earl were themselves removed.