Rock-afire Explosion!

I couldn’t sleep last night, so I was up surfing the net. For an unknown reason, Showbiz Pizza came to mind. For those that are not familiar, this is an 80’s restaurant chain that served pizza, had an array of video games and an animatronic stage show. You may be thinking this sounds an awful like Chuck E. Cheese, and you’d be right. Back in the day, the companies were rivals. However, Showbiz Pizza swept in and purchased Chuck E. Cheese when they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While both Showbiz and Chuck E. Cheese were still operated as separate entities for a time, they would eventually merge after disagreements between the two owners of the company (Brock Hotel Corp. and Creative Engineering, Inc.). The characters that I have fond memories of (known as The Rock-afire Explosion) have since been retired (since they were owned by Creative Engineering), being replaced by the lame Chuck E. Cheese characters.

The band, The Rock-afire Explosion, consisted of several characters: Billy Bob Brockali (the company mascot – a country bear that played the “guitar”), Looney Bird (Billy’s comedic sidekick), Fatz Geronimo (a gorilla that played keyboard), Mitzi Mozzerela (a female mouse that didn’t play an instrument but would occasionally sing and inexplicably wore a cheerleader outfit), Dook Larue (a dog that played the drums…although he was apparently just doing this until he could become a space dog, hence the outfit) and Beach Bear (another guitar wielding bear, but this one was a surfer).

While I did love the characters, I always remembered being a little freaked out by them…especially Mitzi Mozzerela. Despite that, I have fond memories of Showbiz Pizza. They may no longer exist, but at least I can still reminisce whenever I want thanks to YouTube.