Banjo Billy Pizza

Banjo Billy's Pizza

Banjo Billy's Pizza was a short-lived, independent Chuck E. Cheese-style restaurant in Houston, Texas, that operated from 1994 to 1997-1998 in the ''Federal East Plaza'' mall. The place, albeit not as big like a Chuck E. Cheese's, proved to be quite successful, so much so that in 1995 two television commercials were filmed (one in English and the other in Spanish).

Retrofits: The Pizza Time Theatre characters used on a yellow "House" stage were retrofitted into five new characters. Mr. Munch turned into Cole the Bull (Dolli Dimples' mask was used for Cole the Bull, as opposed to Munch's), Helen Henny turned into Johnny B. Rooster, Jasper T. Jowls turned into Banjo Billy, Chuck E. Cheese turned into Rose the Bunny, and Pasqually turned into Paul the Elephant. Animatronics: The characters were created by modifying existing, older animatronics from a Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre.

Legacy: The restaurant closed in the late 1990s, and although there were plans to move the animatronics to Arkansas, this did not materialize, and their final fate is largely unknown, with some speculation that they were destroyed.