Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast Episode #46 - Discovery Zone and Leaps & Bounds - the story of the short-lived indoor play centers for kids in the 90s!

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a huge push for the opening of indoor entertainment centers for children.  There was Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E Cheese of course which we discussed in a previous episode of the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, that being episode #37.  For whatever reason, several different corporate entities wanted to get a slice of the indoor entertainment center pizza and for those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, we got to reap the benefits of it.  And coincidentally, eat pizza while doing so.  Discovery Zone came onto the scene in 1989, hoping to become the most popular indoor entertainment center for children.  I visited both Discovery Zone and Leaps and Bounds on multiple occasions growing up, sometimes with my sister in tow.  

With that being said, on today’s show we will be discussing the short-lived story that is Discovery Zone and it’s rival Leaps and Bounds.  What started in the late 1980s as a way to, at least according to their marketing, help kids exercise, exploded into hundreds of locations across the country and abroad.  And just as quickly as the business grew, it faded away, seemingly overnight.  So, grab your knee pads because crawling through all of those tunnels is a doozy, some comfortable clothing and your party hat, here we go. 

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop culture time machine. You are tuning in to episode # 46 - Discovery Zone and Leaps and Bounds, two now defunct, indoor entertainment centers for children. By the way, I hope you and your family had a nice holiday season the past few weeks, it’s good to be back! 

If you grew up in the Midbest like me and my sister did in the 1980s and 1990s, there is a very good chance that you ended up at one of these germ infested hamster tunnel-like play areas, perhaps for a birthday party or a place to kill a few hours if it was rainy or cold outside.  

In the late 1980s, 3 gentlemen developed what would become Discovery Zone or DZ for short.  Their names were Jim Jorgenson, Ronald Mitsch and Dr. David Scheonstadt.  The first location opened in Kansas City.  Their goal was to provide opportunities for kids to get exercise via an indoor play facility which included roller slides, trapezes, zip lines, interconnecting tubes and ball pits galore. In the ballpit for example, there was often a pyramid shaped padded climbing tower in the middle, complete with ropes to help kids climb to the top.  Some of the slides emptied into ball pits, or rather pink eye pits, let’s be real. This was unlike Chuck E Cheese which focused on video games and Showbiz Pizza, which focused on video games too but also dining while watching and listening to a terrifying audio animatronic band.  Discovery Zone expanded quickly, opening 15 locations in just the first 18 months.  One of Discovery Zone’s early slogans was that their facilities were quote- “funbelievable fitness for kids.” COMMERCIAL CLIP HERE.   The mascot for DZ was a talking robot named Z Bop.  

In addition to the physical activity areas, Discovery Zone also featured things like the “DZ Diner” where customers could get food like pizza, pretzels and tater tots all which could be washed down with a delicious soda.  Smaller kids could play in the Micro Zone which had a lot of the same elements as the main play area but on a smaller scale.  

It cost about 6 dollars per child for the first hour of play and then about 2 dollars an hour for each extra hour.  Employees of Discovery Zone were typically teeangers or young adults.  

The standard uniform included a red or blue polo shirt tucked into a pair of khaki shorts or perhaps black wind pants.  Employees often wore baseball caps and had whistles to utilize if kids were getting out of hand. 

In direct competition to Discovery Zone was Chuck E Cheese of course, but also Leaps and Bounds which was an offshoot of the McDonald’s play places which started in their restaurants in 1987.  McDonald’s saw their play places as an extension of their happy meals or perhaps a place to burn off the high calorie count found in their kid’s meals.  The Play Places were designed by a company named Leaps and Bounds. With the success of those found in the restaurant chain’s locations, they decided to open stand alone Leaps and Bounds.  The first location opened in 1991.  

There was both a Leaps and Bounds location and Discovery Zone location within about 20 minutes of my house growing up.  I definitely remember having conversations with my friends at school about which they preferred.  Do you like the primary color scheme of Discovery Zone or the Bold Color scheme of Leaps and Bounds?  You have to pick one!  

One major draw of both Discovery Zone and Leaps and Bounds was the ability for families to host their child’s birthday party there.  Both facilities offered food for the group, a party room for opening gifts and eating cake and the chance for all of the kids to run around like crazy until they were sweaty and/or lost their socks in the ball pit, never to be found again.  I celebrated one of my birthdays at Discovery Zone.  Based on the photos I looked at recently, I’m going to guess I was turning maybe 9 or 10 when I got dressed up in my Land’s End sweatsuit which perfectly matched the Discovery Zone’s color scheme to celebrate another fun year of childhood.  And just like so many of my birthday parties, my sister came with to celebrate and brought one of her friends with.  I also remember having a “lock in” at Leaps and Bounds, meaning I spent the night at Leaps and Bounds with a small group (maybe it was the Girl Scouts or something?) I can’t remember.  Anyways, me and some friends got to spend the night crawling around Leaps and Bounds until our knees and wrists just couldn’t take it anymore.  I remember taking breaks in the parent’s room which overlooked the entire facility through large, glass windows. There were also TVs in the parent’s room. I think I may have attempted to take a cat nap in one of the tubes, but that didn’t quite work out so when I returned home the next morning, I was exhausted and slept well into the afternoon. 

In 1994, McDonald’s sold all of their Leaps and Bounds locations to Discovery Zone, so by that year, there were 347 Discovery Zone locations across the United States, Canada and I want to say there were also some locations in Puerto Rico.  For just $111 million dollars, Discovery Zone became a leader in indoor children’s entertainment. Here’s an excerpt from an article from the Chicago Tribune about this merger:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-07-19-9407190331-story.html

With this big merger, Discovery Zone was really starting to focus on quantity not quality and as a result, things started to take a turn for the worse. A vast majority of Discovery Zone locations only saw an influx of business on weekends, so it was hard for locations to turn a profit.  Further, a decline in food quality and employees was noticed by customers, in particular the parents who were taking their children to Discovery Zone.  Apparently the frozen tater tots and pizza were no longer up to snuff.  Despite the acquisition, DZ ended 1994 with 10 million dollars in losses.  

With the sale of Leaps and Bounds, McDonald’s became an investor in Discovery Zone and so too did Blockbuster.  Both of them viewed DZ as a chance to market their respective businesses and to replace some DZ executives with Blockbloster executives which proved to be a mistake.  Blockbuster executives were hoping to incorporate Nickelodeon and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into the DZ establishments.  New executives were also hoping to develop some type of family entertainment complex to compete with Dave and Busters.  Unfortunately, none of these ideas really came to fruition.    

In March of 1996, DZ filed for bankruptcy (SOUND BITE), they were over $350 million dollars in debt.  The company had spent so much money building hundreds of facilities which cost about ¾ of a million dollars just to open, not to mention remodeling and converting Leaps and Bounds locations to DZ.  What further led to significant losses was the lack of repeat business, once you went to a Discovery Zone a few times or perhaps a birthday party or two, the excitement of visiting there sort of wore off.  And I imagine for parents, because they couldn’t really also play with their kids at DZ, there is just not a huge incentive to return.  I know that I like to go places where I can play with my kids, but the thought of crawling on my hands and knees for 3 hours sounds horrible and painful I might add.  

DZ tried to reinvent themselves by adding technology-based attractions like Men in Black themed laser tag and kids karaoke.  All of their efforts, however, were a day late and a dollar short.  Competitors like Chuck E Cheese were already focused on video games and had a card based system where money could be loaded on a debit card and kids could play games until they ran out of funds.  They seemed to be a step ahead of everyone else.  

In June of 1999, DZ closed half of their locations without any notice to employees or families who had booked parties there.  A few locations were sold to Chuck E. Cheese but most locations became other businesses or were demolished at a later date. This came at a tough time because they had just revamped half of their locations.   Here’s an excerpt from an article from CNN about the closures and money troubles for DZ.  

https://money.cnn.com/1999/06/30/companies/discovery/

Just a year later, a judge ruled there was no possible way for DZ to recover from their incredible debts and the bankruptcy was shifted to Chapter 7 and the business was liquidated.  

By the end of 2001, all of the remaining DZ locations closed.  It was the end of an era.  I wonder how many pairs of children’s socks were found in the ball bits when it was cleared out or how many cases of pink eye were documented.  I guess we will never know.  

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look back on Discovery Zone and Leaps and Bounds, two well-known businesses who had the same goal - provide opportunities for fitness and fun to children via an expansive indoor facility.  Although the business was relatively short lived, the memories definitely still remain, including those of us who celebrated our birthdays there, like me.  

There are a plethora of fascinating videos about Discovery Zone on YouTube.  There are a few short documentaries about it as well as a very 90s video depicting a day in the life of a DZ employee.  I’ll post those, along with some old school home videos that have also been posted on YouTube in the show notes.  

Also, I wanted to share that I will be doing a giveaway!  A first in the history of the PCRP! My wife gave me a very thoughtful gift for Christmas, a ton of stickers with the PCRP logo on it.  I wanted to give listeners an opportunity to receive some stickers sooooo, if you are a listener of the show and you have a show idea, please email it to me at popcultureretrospective@gmail.com  If I pick your show idea, I will mail you a sticker (or two!).  Please include a mailing address with your email and I’ll make sure to send them to you if your show idea is selected.  I’ll take show ideas through March 1, 2022.  

If you are enjoying the PCRP please rate the show on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform.  Please tell your family and friends about the show.  I hope you will join me for my next show where we will be discussing:  Classic 1990s shows on Nickelodeon for Tweens, i.e. Salute Your Shorts, Clarissa Explains it All and Hey Dude.  

Until then BK, BS and HOTYM.  And Rest in Peace Betty White and Bob Saget, two staples of sitcom history and beyond.