An idea of a Showbiz Pizza TV show might sound weird, maybe even fake, but for a few months on WOWL-TV 15 in Florence, Alabama, a TV program was shot at the Sheffield, Alabama location titled “The Showbiz Pizza Party”.
The show started on October 17, 1988, and from looking at newspaper archives, ended in the first week of January 1989. The only known episode is featured here, and was taped in December 1988.
This show featured a live host at the Showbiz who would interview children and would have special guests in the area (including a boy’s choir in this episode). Billy Bob makes an appearance near the end of the recording, and even the title screen has a cameo from The Rock-afire Explosion, who sadly doesn’t seem to be featured much here. Also from the known episode, would cut into an episode of the Nickelodeon game show “Finders Keepers”.
This also has some of the first surfaced footage of Sheffield as a Showbiz. This was an interesting franchise, if you take a notice, you can see a framed photo of Mickey Mouse, something not common at other Showbiz locations. This also had a mini golf course installed either inside or outside the location, something that I assume was taken down when it became a Chuck’s in 1991.
One amusing fact is that this was not the only show filmed at this Showbiz, as before the episode in this video, there’s a partial episode of “The Santa Show”, which was an annual tradition on this TV station. While this particular episode was filmed at the Showbiz, maybe even the 1988 run, it is not known if any other episodes were filmed here as footage of this show (and really this TV station in general) is scarce enough.
Other than this video, there is no other footage of this show’s existence. Considering this ran weekly for only a few months on a small TV station in a small town in Alabama, who knows if anybody else taped this show, but it is amazing that anything from this show’s short run has surfaced. Hope you enjoy, and stay tuned, I have more rare Showbiz related stuff, including another TV show that they sponsored in Florida around this time (just not as prominent as this).
