We weren't wealthy but during summers, mom had a little Pizza Hut buffet budget because we'd gorge ourselves on their slices and we wouldn't be hungry for the rest of the day. It was a blast! Arcade and all you can eat? It was a better and simpler time.
The pan pizza from the 1980s was made with fresh dough and served in a cast iron skillet. It was incredible. Buttery, crunchy, thick, and sizzling. You just can’t get that anymore.
How the hell do you do a 13 minute video on Pizza Hut and not mention the all you can eat buffet that was a staple of the 90’s and early 2000’s. I grew up with that and the nostalgia is amazing. Can’t believe that didn’t get any focus.
Also them ditching their iconic styled restaurants with the trademark roofs, and changing the 'cozy restaurant experience with proper waiters' to a fast food formula.
I worked at Pizza Hut for 5 years and the most underrated item was one not on the menu but served every lunch buffet: the dessert pizza. A thin and crispy base, apple cinnamon compote as sauce, crumbly streusel as a topping, and a drizzle of icing on top. I miss it
Me too and I got itfor my family the other day and it was crap. Just normal tasting pizza nothing good about it at all. Crap sauce. I don't know what's different but I remember it tasting way way way better. Really disappointing. The breadsticks too were nothing like I remember. Sad really.
My pizza hut used to serve pitchers of beer. And they had TVs playing all the big games, football basketball baseball soccer etc. When I was in middle school, we would go ride our bikes there on Sundays to watch nfl games and get wings. This was right when they started doing wings so it was a big thing! I miss those times
Frankly, my family gratefully avoided restaurants playing TV. We went out to enjoy food and converse. Don't know if all Pizza Huts had TVs back then, because there were none of that franchise in our area.
I managed a local pizza hut for about 15 months back in 1971. The menu then was just perfect. Had the company not made any of the goofy changes and simply stuck to the original plan, the chain would still be in favor today. A grave mistake to attempt competition with others, has come to be the downfall. I would guess that over the past 35 years, I only give them a try, perhaps once, if that, per year. In fact, where I live, the best pizza houses are the same ones as when I was a kid, way back in the late 1950's to mid 1960's. These are the ovens producing product born with local families.
I can only imagine the atmosphere of working in a pizza hut in the early 70s. Had to have been amazing.....until you see the sunday church crowd or a whole baseball team walk in lol.
The NES port of the TMNT arcade game included the Pizza Hut logo in the background of a few levels, which also came with a coupon for a personal pan pizza. In retrospect, it seemed like an analog targeted ad.
The Pizza Hut ads in the TMNT Arcade port for the NES was the first product place I saw in a game, I know it wasn't the first instance of product placement in a video game, but I found it really amusing. Then there's infamous Pizza Hut product placement in the mecha anime, Code Geass 😂
I grew up with Pizza Hut, as it started in my hometown of Wichita, KS. I even worked as a delivery driver for a few months back in the day. I am surprised they didn't mention the Back to the Future 2 tie-in. Of course, it's well passed 2015 now, and we have yet to see a dehydrated pizza.
Funny thing is the reason why Pizza Hut is not the same anymore is because they do not make dough everyday anymore. They switch to a frozen dough. So, fast cheap is the reason why they suck
I feel like kids today are missing something integral to their childhood. Going to Pizza Hut after a big football game or baseball game was one of the highlights of growing up! One of the rare times getting to go out to eat with the family and you could go to the buffet at Pizza Hut, drinking gallons of soda the plastic red cups and if you're lucky getting a few quarters to play some video games. Man times sure have changed!
Back in my day, our favorite pizza place was a local, non-chain restaurant. There were no nearby chains. We ate there and loved it, even to the weird cave-decor they had. NY / CT style pizza. Awesome good. They still exist, a few decades later, in two restaurants, no caves now. Last time I was there, the pizza was still good. (I no longer live nearby).
@@tanikokishimoto1604 I can absolutely appreciate that, it seems like most of those places are even going the way of the dodo as well. He just seems like convenience of having it brought to you as taking over.
@@juansanchez209 I heard about them for a while. And when I made a trip to Southern California last spring, I made a point to go to a Shakey's. Of course they also have fried chicken in addition to pizza
We never got Pizza Hut when I was a kid. We had an awesome local pizza place around the corner we went to. The only time I have really had Pizza Hut was when I would go to the city and after a concert or bar hopping, I'd stop in at the one in Penn Station and get a supreme personal pan pizza and garlic breadsticks to eat on the train ride home.
When I was a kid, the only time I got Pizza Hut was when I got that Book It! ticket. My family didn't have a lot of money, and the nearest Pizza Hut was half an hour away. I guess I don't have quite the same sense of nostalgia as others my age for the Hut.
Priazzo was fantastic! I was only a kid when it was still available, but I still remember how amazing it was! The closest alternatives I've been able to find are Unos Pizzeria and Papa Murphy's Stuffed Pizzas. Pizza Hut should really bring it back!
I agree! I worked there from 1990-93. On my lunch breaks, I'd always make my own and stuff that thing to the max. Had to run it through the conveyor oven twice so that everything on the inside was able to cook, lol. I remember being real upset when our manager told us it was being discontinued
Our local sit-down Pizza Hut closed a couple of years ago post-COVID (we still have a takeout-only location). In its heyday, not only was it the best pizza in town, but they had sit-down _Galaga_ and _Ms. Pac-Man_ cocktail cabinets, and in the lobby, a standup _Centipede_ cab and for a time a _Taxi_ pinball machine. God I miss legacy Pizza Hut! 😭
I feel like a lot of restaurants need to take a step back and do a turn around. Domino''s did that about 15 years ago because things weren't going so well. (See video: domino's turnaround) They took a step back, actually listened to the harsh comments people had about their food such as "Crust taste like cardboard" and "Sauce taste like ketchup" and they did a turn around. They improved on everything and are now basically the no. 1 pizza chain.
There was a Domino pizza place nearby when I was in college. It was indeed cardboard. If they really have turned things around in the past 15 years, perhaps I should give them a try now. Not sure if there's one local enough to me today.
My daughter got a Personal Pan every year when she was in the age group for Book It. My wife later worked for Pizza Hut as a store manager. I didn't think it was possible to get tired of pizza, but it is!
I have so many childhood memories attached to PIzza Hut. I remember going to my Dad's 40th birthday party at the local Pizza Hut in the late 80's. When I turned 40, my wife scheduled my birthday party at the same Pizza Hut. That was just a great experience. This was just a couple years before Covid.
I was born and raised in North Jersey, so Pizza Hut was never a go-to for me. But I did participate in Book It as a kid, so monthly trips to Pizza Hut were always on my family calendar
I think Marco's Pizza is currently the best national pizza chain. They have an awesome "2 For Tuesday" deal for a "Buy One, Get One" - Just had it last Tuesday - 2 deluxe pizzas with tax included was just under $18 when you pick it up. The taste really reminds me of 1980s Chuck E Cheese pizza!
Wonderful video, Weird History Food! I took part in Pizza Hut's Book It program. I saw it as a win-win, I loved reading, pizza was cool, and I got prizes too. I also got the latest physical copies of TMNT games for my Nintendo switch, and they came with a coupon for Pizza Hut's personal pan pizzas.
I love that every WHF video winds up going through multiple title and thumbnail changes once published, almost fooling me into thinking I hadnt just watched it!
I have way too much nostalgia for Pizza Hut than I should, between it being the go-to place for a lunch with my grandma and being rewarded for doing something I already enjoyed as a kid with Book It. Sucks that there isn't one near me anymore.
I did the Book It! program a few times. I loved to read as it was so I had no trouble reaching the number I needed to get a free personal pizza. Fun story, I started as a Domino's kid and hated the idea of Pizza Hut, but when I finally tried it I was hooked and every time we got to go there it was a treat. Not just the pizza and the pitchers of soda, but the crane machines, too.
I loved Pizza Hut when I was growing up. I earned several free pan pizzas. My parents loved their salad bar. I miss their lunch buffet. It had a pasta covered in pepperoni that I still crave. None of their current pasta offerings even come close. I loved and miss the Pizza Hut of my childhood from the 80s-90s. The new versions not so much.
Dominos and then Little Caesers were what we got on Friday nights. Pizza Hut was the special treat we got when we had an outing or it was a special occasion. But oh how we looked forward to that jukebox, old arcade games, and red plastic cups.
About 10 years ago I gave up on the pizza hut because it seemed to me that no one in the hut cares about the pizza they served me. About 6 years ago my wife finally agreed with me. We no longer buy pizza from chains.
I'm in complete agreement. I live in a predominantly Mexican area...can you imagine how far from a traditional Pizza Hut pizza they are? Yup; 10 years now.
Usually the only chain I buy from anymore is Little Casar's, not because it's good, but because it's hot and ready. It is easy to see which employees actually care about taking their time and making quality food vs those who only want a paycheck. I'm sure the same thing applies everywhere.
bring back the salad bar and arcade games. I miss playing rampage waiting on that golden pizza. while mom eat a salad and dad smokes outside. yes they had an outdoor smoking area that had mosquito fences with heat and fans. used to be a real family friendly place.
Outdoor smoking area? Ours had an indoor smoking section, which was separated from the non-smoking section by... literally nothing. In fact, this was pretty much every restaurant until the early 90s. I do not miss that at all.
indoor I understand. that would suck. but outdoor was great. its costed them sometimes cuz of heat. but I remember it work out. smoker was outside separated by a door and they would bring your pizza out to you. it gave people their freedom.
Lots of nostalgia there. In Canada, the dine-in/sit-down Pizza Huts seem to have all closed, at least in the west. (Last time I was in one was in 2013, in South Dakota.) The Canadian chain also has a lot fewer varieties than the American one; Big New Yorker hasn't been on the menu here in quite a while.
Pizza Hut was where we either took the kids because they had a BookIt coupon, because we had a coupon, or for lunch for the buffet. If we were truly after GREAT and not merely good, filling or cheap, we always lived in an area with better choices for pizza.
I always wondered why people choose this corporation and not some small pizzeria, arent United States full of Italian immigrants? Here in Czechia or in Slovakia, there are plenty Czech creators of nice pizza and we have very little amount of Italian guys. Still, there are few Pizza Hut locations - 16 restaurants in Czechia and 3 restaurants in Slovakia. Maybe we are too poor for it in smaller cities and villages but we have plenty of small businesses with nice pizza, with real cheese and dough made from 6 ingredients - water, salt, sugar, oil, yeast and flour ....while hand tossed PH pizza contains: "ENRICHED FLOUR (BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, YEAST, SOYBEAN OIL. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: SALT, VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN, DATEM, SUGAR, ENZYMES, ASCORBIC ACID, SUCRALOSE. PAN OIL: SOYBEAN OIL, TBHQ ADDED TO PROTECT FRESHNESS." www.nutritionix.com/pizza-hut/ingredient-search/premium
First time I went to a Pizza Hut sit down restaurant was in the late 90s.. wasn’t very impressed .. everything tasted frozen.. im so glad they never called it Mary’s Pizza.. there is a local chain of 4 restaurants called Mary’s pizza and it blows fast food pizza away
@@Percocet_6.2 submit 3,127 examples of how it didn't happen. Why 3,127? Because 3,128 would be hyperbole to make a point. Take your lying @$$ elsewhere
As a Gen X, Pizza Hut was definitely a special family affair, especially during their All You Can Eat days. Definitely hits that nostalgia feel. The one I went to a lot has now turned into an IHOP.
I was working at Pizza Hut when the Piazzo came out. It was such a pain as it was so thick that we had to use a spiral spiked thing inserted in the top so that it would cook all the way through. They were very hard to clean.
Pizza Hut in Asia is a whole different experience, more "high-end" dining... they have a full bar/drinks menu, a large assortment of fresh salads and pasta dishes... it's downright fancy!
I haven’t had my first full Pizza Hut pie until after adulthood. For the longest time my Pizza Hut experience was capped at the ones you’d find attached to a target or Taco Bell. Me being from nyc there were no full sized franchises until recently. The family bought a house in nj with a Pizza Hut less than 30 seconds away if you don’t get any red lights and I haven’t looked back since. In my personal opinion Pizza Hut pan is the best bar none
Very nice timing! I recently started going to Pizza Hut for the first time in decades this week, thanks to their new Hut Box deal. Its one of the few decent Pizza deals these days. Sadly my local pizza Hut no longer has the in door restaurant part open anymore. Can only take out orders.
Tell me, are there no private pizza makers in your state? (Where are you from?) Is quality of Pizza Hut better than those who owns "pizzeria" restaurant? Here in Czech republic or Slovakia, there are plenty and they have better pizza with real cheese (not sure if Europe´s Pizza Hut use real or fake like in USA) and better prices. I even work in some "company", which is not exactly like little pizzeria but we have decent pizza with real cheese for some $ 4,76. Surely, minimum wage in Czechia is $ 4,93 not $7,25 (and median wage is $ 1544 not like $ 4948 like in USA).
@@Makoto03 - and how much those PH deals cost? Also, is it good deal when you consider what you eat? Or do them small pizza places use same ingredients from than one "cheese" factory in (I think) Colorado?
@@richardgalbavy7103 The Hut Box is only $6.99. It comes with a personal pizza and hot wings. So its not much cheaper but its good for me who can't eat a whole pizza to begin with and prefer smaller ones.
Put myself through the first two years of college running the night shift at one in the mid-00s. We still had the red roof, red cups, dining room, salad bar, arcade, and party room like the 80s never ended. Was sad to see it torn down in 2018.
1970s Pizza Hut was our go-to family dine-in restaurant after any kind of event. Seemed like fancy restaurant to 7 year old me. I loved their Italian sub that came with potato chips and a pickle. During high school, I dated a girl who worked at a Pizza Hut. I loved her so much. She always smelled like pizza and we got a 50% discount on any order. She eventually quit that job and I fell out of love with her.
The peperoni Bigfoot pizzas were the greasiest things on planet earth!!! 12 napkins minimum just to sop up the grease so we could cut them!!! Hated delivering the Bigfoot pizzas!!! Too big and bulky, especially with 2- 2 liters of soda and multiple pies!!! Throw in multiple orders of breadsticks and the Casper toys and life got real tricky on a snowy Superbowl Sunday in Utah!!! All the personal pan pizzas were frozen disks, unlike the regular pizza dough that was made fresh daily!!! I miss the '90s!!!
A "foot long" pizza is rather small at 12 inches, with most large pizzas starting at 14 inches. The Bigfoot was rectangular being *three feet* long. Hope they paid for this spot (and extra for the beloved narrator) because I was undecided for lunch today, and I'm going to the Hut. Also while Pizza Hut might've gotten the first online order, they didn't get the most memed. I thought it was also Pizza Hut, but turns out it was Domino's involved in the "none pizza with left beef" that got famous in October 2007.
It’s kinda funny, my parents were divorced so at my mom’s we always had Dominos, and at my dad’s we had Pizza Hut. Personally I like dominos best, but over everything I think stuffed crust is the most delicious. It’s only a twice a decade thing though due to my outrageously thunderous lactose intolerance 😅
John Bender helped the Carney brothers craft their first pizza dough recipe. Also, the pan pizza was developed after their expansion to East Coast resulted in low adoption. It was essentially their way to adapt East Coast Pizza to reflect local tastes
Anybody remember the Chicago Dish pizza they had in the early 2000's? That was one of my favorites, it had chunky tomato sauce on top of the cheese instead of underneath.
I had no idea that Book It program was still alive! I wish I knew before my daughter graduated Elementary School. Free personal pan pizzas for reading books were the best!
I agree with you. Same for my town. Every time I have a Pizza hut pizza, I never felt disappointed. That pizza hut aroma I get from eating a pizza hut pizza is still amazing to this day.
I have so many pizza deep dish personal pans that I can make more than a dozen pizzas. Many times we would make them for dinner. We also have some small deep dish pans as well as medium standard pans and a large. I also have a number of pizza hut pans and lids for making bread stickts and a number of other branded pizza hut stuff.
A stuffed crust Pizza Hut was an incredible treat for me right into the the late 00s. I only realised nobody liked it anymore a few years ago. When I was a kid in the 90s it was ALWAYS Pizza Hut
I worked at Pizza Hut in the 90s. Don’t forget about the Triple Decker (1.5# of cheese on a medium), Smokehouse Pizza, Taco Pizza, and of course their sub sandwiches with creamy Italian dressing. Classic!
The Triple Decker was my favorite! Absolutely sucked to make cuz everyone wanted it, and we would be out of thawed crust and cheese and have to borrow from other area units. It was so popular!
5:29 -- So President Clinton took a time machine away from the whole Lewinski shebang and declared Book-It Day in 1988? Sa-weet! Somehow I didn't remember that. I must have been on a different timeline.
Pizza Hut is still my favorite pizza place ever! Wish we had one on Oscoda Michigan. In order for us to have some we have to go to alpena and that’s an hour away 🙁
Fun fact: For the 1993 Silvester Stallone movie "Demolition Man" Pizza Hut was used for some international releases of the movie instead of Taco Bell since Taco Bell was virtually unknown in many foreign countries at the time. This included both dubbing and changing the logos during post-production. Taco Bell however remains in the closing credits. In both the Dutch and Swedish releases the subtitles still use Taco Bell while the sound and picture have been altered. Also, when using closed captioning on cable television, references to Taco Bell are changed to Pizza Hut.
One of my earliest memories was eating a pan pizza (when it had a crunchy buttery crust) and sipping on fountain coke from a plastic pitcher with Space Invaders video game and a jukebox playing in the background. Alas, no more.😢
As someone from the Detroit area who was too poor to afford dominos or Pizza Hut. Little Caesars, know. Affectionately as little skeezers. We dined out at least one night with little Caesars. Dominos, despite being a local, Detroit company, they were too much. I grew up poor and the illitch family feed me with decent pizza at suboptimal pricing. I advocate 100% for little Caesars. It's not the best you can get, but on a budget and not spending 25$ on a single pie, it's better than you can imagine. I grew up on it, there's that nostalgia with the scent and taste. I'm a caesarian 110%,
The real fall of Pizza Hut was the $10 any way you want it special. Yes, they did it to survive the Great Recession, but it had a cost. That handmade crust, the fresh toppings, the plentiful cheese, the buffet and salad bar, the arcade games and jukebox - all the things that define our nostalgia about Pizza Hut, well, those things had a price attached. And when the profit margins got thin, because Pizza Hut chose sales volume over quality, then the nice things that cost money had to go. And that's why your pizza is a sad cardboard disk, thin on toppings, served in a bare dining room - or delivered by a college kid more worried about where his next weed hit was coming from than quality of food.
Initially yes, but now it’s driven by consumer trends. People don’t care about eating out or cannot afford to but will gladly pay a bit extra to have it delivered by some rando taking a side gig break from Uber.
I remember enjoying the AYCE pizza bar+frozen yogurt bar as a kid along with Nickelodeon/YTV Kids nights as a kid along with treating my friend to Half & Half pan pizza pies pre-Covid, Pan Pizza, Thin & Crispy and Stuffed Crust are my fav crusts and my fav topping combo is Jalepeno+Hot Pepper+Pineapple+Pepperoni and Extra Cheese.
Oh man the Big Foot pizza i was starting to remember that as a little seezers pizza. Holy crap i havent thought of the big foot in decades man i miss that pizza
I have not been to a Pizza Hut in 25+ years as I prefer to make my pizzas homemade, but I do remember how much I enjoyed a slice of their deep dish pizza. It is a crunchy tasty treat. Shalom
If you lived in a small town in the 70s to 90s, the Hut was about your only option for pizza, though eventually you could probably pick up one at a gas station too.
During the 1990's you could get a March Madness basketball from Pizza Hut. If I'd known they'd become scarce I wouldn't have played basketball with them.
The Pizza Hut lunch buffet with all you can eat pizza in the 90s deserved a couple of minutes in this video, that buffet was my childhood every summer
Absolutely.
Agreed! You were able to sample things you normally wouldn’t order! 🍕❤️
Wendy's and KFC also had them they rocked
They had one in noblesville, indiana for the longest time. Heard they closed it in recent years.
We weren't wealthy but during summers, mom had a little Pizza Hut buffet budget because we'd gorge ourselves on their slices and we wouldn't be hungry for the rest of the day. It was a blast! Arcade and all you can eat? It was a better and simpler time.
The pan pizza from the 1980s was made with fresh dough and served in a cast iron skillet. It was incredible. Buttery, crunchy, thick, and sizzling. You just can’t get that anymore.
Nobody believes me when I tell them that Pizza Hut was actually GOOD at one point
The pan crusts still use 1/2 inch of oil.
@@HappyHarryHardonYou exaggerate a bit. It was one pump of oil for Mediums and 2 pumps for a large. Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
It's the cheese. I think they cheap out these days.
I'm not a fan of pizza crust but I could get behind that pan crust.
I got to read goosebumps, get a ribbon AND get free pizza as a kid. Always had fond memories of pizzahut. Nobody out pizzas the hut.
followed by Are You Afraid Of The Dark and Eerie, Indiana.
Respect. I got a ribbon and free pizza for reading a Goosebumps book as well! Needless to say, it was awesome. Those really were the days.
Me too.
I had a few of those vouchers
Such a great ad campaign they’ve had me hooked for 15ish years now it may not be the best but it is my go to
How the hell do you do a 13 minute video on Pizza Hut and not mention the all you can eat buffet that was a staple of the 90’s and early 2000’s. I grew up with that and the nostalgia is amazing. Can’t believe that didn’t get any focus.
Also them ditching their iconic styled restaurants with the trademark roofs, and changing the 'cozy restaurant experience with proper waiters' to a fast food formula.
I worked at Pizza Hut for 5 years and the most underrated item was one not on the menu but served every lunch buffet: the dessert pizza. A thin and crispy base, apple cinnamon compote as sauce, crumbly streusel as a topping, and a drizzle of icing on top. I miss it
Omg I remember that!
I used to think having Pizza Hut was a luxury back then
Same!!!
Me too and I got itfor my family the other day and it was crap. Just normal tasting pizza nothing good about it at all. Crap sauce. I don't know what's different but I remember it tasting way way way better. Really disappointing. The breadsticks too were nothing like I remember. Sad really.
I still do!
@@dqreps The pizza is completely different than how it was in the 90s
It was. Pizza and fast food in general was much better in the 80's and early 90's. It was at least somewhat real, it's all fake garbage now.
I recently bought a "red plastic pizza hut style" cup off eBay. Gives me that nostalgia hit every sip
@@youdontknowme2915 what size are they? I found a small one and a 20 oz , which i bought
16 oz on Amazon 🙃
@@soggyorigami eBay was better. I want a bigger cup!
@@youdontknowme2915Were you around for the “Beauty and the Beast” Ad Campaign?
@@youdontknowme2915 Do half of them leak like they did back in the day?
My pizza hut used to serve pitchers of beer. And they had TVs playing all the big games, football basketball baseball soccer etc. When I was in middle school, we would go ride our bikes there on Sundays to watch nfl games and get wings. This was right when they started doing wings so it was a big thing! I miss those times
In the 80’s when I was a little kid we always ate at Pizza Hut when we went out as a family so my parents could get beer.
My Father literally refused to go to our local Pizza Hut when the didn’t renew their liquor license. It’s an authentic Ramen restaurant now.
Frankly, my family gratefully avoided restaurants playing TV. We went out to enjoy food and converse. Don't know if all Pizza Huts had TVs back then, because there were none of that franchise in our area.
And they used to have arcade games and boxes of toys for little kids. It was a great place to have dinner.
@@GingerBeard327 I don't like ramen! I like my men cooked!
I managed a local pizza hut for about 15 months back in 1971. The menu then was just perfect. Had the company not made any of the goofy changes and simply stuck to the original plan, the chain would still be in favor today. A grave mistake to attempt competition with others, has come to be the downfall. I would guess that over the past 35 years, I only give them a try, perhaps once, if that, per year. In fact, where I live, the best pizza houses are the same ones as when I was a kid, way back in the late 1950's to mid 1960's. These are the ovens producing product born with local families.
I can only imagine the atmosphere of working in a pizza hut in the early 70s. Had to have been amazing.....until you see the sunday church crowd or a whole baseball team walk in lol.
The NES port of the TMNT arcade game included the Pizza Hut logo in the background of a few levels, which also came with a coupon for a personal pan pizza.
In retrospect, it seemed like an analog targeted ad.
I was waiting for them to mention that, but you know how Nintendo is🤷♂️
Analog?
We had a tmnt and Simpsons games in to mid 90s
@@supernothing77 I loved those TMNT & Simpsons arcade units, such nostalgia from my childhood!
The Pizza Hut ads in the TMNT Arcade port for the NES was the first product place I saw in a game, I know it wasn't the first instance of product placement in a video game, but I found it really amusing. Then there's infamous Pizza Hut product placement in the mecha anime, Code Geass 😂
I grew up with Pizza Hut, as it started in my hometown of Wichita, KS. I even worked as a delivery driver for a few months back in the day. I am surprised they didn't mention the Back to the Future 2 tie-in. Of course, it's well passed 2015 now, and we have yet to see a dehydrated pizza.
You look like it
I'm from Wichita too. Grew up on pizza hut. Since Pepsi bought it, they are pricing themselves out of business.
Funny thing is the reason why Pizza Hut is not the same anymore is because they do not make dough everyday anymore. They switch to a frozen dough. So, fast cheap is the reason why they suck
I feel like kids today are missing something integral to their childhood. Going to Pizza Hut after a big football game or baseball game was one of the highlights of growing up! One of the rare times getting to go out to eat with the family and you could go to the buffet at Pizza Hut, drinking gallons of soda the plastic red cups and if you're lucky getting a few quarters to play some video games. Man times sure have changed!
For me growing up it was Shakey’s instead of Pizza Hut
Back in my day, our favorite pizza place was a local, non-chain restaurant. There were no nearby chains. We ate there and loved it, even to the weird cave-decor they had.
NY / CT style pizza. Awesome good.
They still exist, a few decades later, in two restaurants, no caves now. Last time I was there, the pizza was still good. (I no longer live nearby).
@@DragonKazooie89California? There’s still 2 here in Los Angeles that I go to a few times a year for old time’s sake
@@tanikokishimoto1604 I can absolutely appreciate that, it seems like most of those places are even going the way of the dodo as well. He just seems like convenience of having it brought to you as taking over.
@@juansanchez209 I heard about them for a while. And when I made a trip to Southern California last spring, I made a point to go to a Shakey's. Of course they also have fried chicken in addition to pizza
I seem to remember something called the Pizone? Pizza Huts take on a calzone. Was delish! I'd like to see that come back!
Used to go to the all you can eat buffet with my grandma. Didn’t know how good we had it
You are the 2nd commenter here whom I saw with a remark about that all you can eat buffet.. it did sound gluttonously great
I remember getting free pizza alot as a kid because I loved to read. The Book It program was a big thing at my school
It copped a lot of bad media. And my state banned such things from mcdonalds , pizza etc.
We never got Pizza Hut when I was a kid. We had an awesome local pizza place around the corner we went to. The only time I have really had Pizza Hut was when I would go to the city and after a concert or bar hopping, I'd stop in at the one in Penn Station and get a supreme personal pan pizza and garlic breadsticks to eat on the train ride home.
When I was a kid, the only time I got Pizza Hut was when I got that Book It! ticket.
My family didn't have a lot of money, and the nearest Pizza Hut was half an hour away. I guess I don't have quite the same sense of nostalgia as others my age for the Hut.
Priazzo was fantastic! I was only a kid when it was still available, but I still remember how amazing it was! The closest alternatives I've been able to find are Unos Pizzeria and Papa Murphy's Stuffed Pizzas. Pizza Hut should really bring it back!
I don't remember it, but it sounds really good and I want one.
I agree! I worked there from 1990-93. On my lunch breaks, I'd always make my own and stuff that thing to the max. Had to run it through the conveyor oven twice so that everything on the inside was able to cook, lol. I remember being real upset when our manager told us it was being discontinued
Pizza and books were two of my favorite things when I was little. I made sure I read more than anyone else every 9 weeks.
Hell yes! I went crazy hard on Book It and still have my official Book It certificate! :)
They neglected to mention Spaceballs, featuring Pizza the Hutt.
Oh yeah, that was a funny scene.
Our local sit-down Pizza Hut closed a couple of years ago post-COVID (we still have a takeout-only location). In its heyday, not only was it the best pizza in town, but they had sit-down _Galaga_ and _Ms. Pac-Man_ cocktail cabinets, and in the lobby, a standup _Centipede_ cab and for a time a _Taxi_ pinball machine.
God I miss legacy Pizza Hut! 😭
I feel like a lot of restaurants need to take a step back and do a turn around.
Domino''s did that about 15 years ago because things weren't going so well. (See video: domino's turnaround) They took a step back, actually listened to the harsh comments people had about their food such as "Crust taste like cardboard" and "Sauce taste like ketchup" and they did a turn around. They improved on everything and are now basically the no. 1 pizza chain.
There was a Domino pizza place nearby when I was in college. It was indeed cardboard. If they really have turned things around in the past 15 years, perhaps I should give them a try now. Not sure if there's one local enough to me today.
My school had a read books and get a personal pan pizza program. I got a lot of pizza as a kid like this
Was Book It Day in 1998 or 1988? Reagan was still president in 1988, Clinton was in 1998.
I caught that too. It has to be 1998. But he did say two presidents later, so it's like half of a mistake. lol
A reupload gotta be coming
Bill clinton declared book it day when he was governor of arkansas in 1988. Dreadfully error
Bill clinton declared book it day for the state of Arkansas When he was governor in 1988.
Book It! I would’ve forgotten about this if I hadn’t watched this movie. Great content! 👊
My daughter got a Personal Pan every year when she was in the age group for Book It. My wife later worked for Pizza Hut as a store manager. I didn't think it was possible to get tired of pizza, but it is!
I have so many childhood memories attached to PIzza Hut. I remember going to my Dad's 40th birthday party at the local Pizza Hut in the late 80's. When I turned 40, my wife scheduled my birthday party at the same Pizza Hut. That was just a great experience. This was just a couple years before Covid.
I was born and raised in North Jersey, so Pizza Hut was never a go-to for me. But I did participate in Book It as a kid, so monthly trips to Pizza Hut were always on my family calendar
I think Marco's Pizza is currently the best national pizza chain.
They have an awesome "2 For Tuesday" deal for a "Buy One, Get One" - Just had it last Tuesday - 2 deluxe pizzas with tax included was just under $18 when you pick it up. The taste really reminds me of 1980s Chuck E Cheese pizza!
Wonderful video, Weird History Food! I took part in Pizza Hut's Book It program. I saw it as a win-win, I loved reading, pizza was cool, and I got prizes too.
I also got the latest physical copies of TMNT games for my Nintendo switch, and they came with a coupon for Pizza Hut's personal pan pizzas.
I love that every WHF video winds up going through multiple title and thumbnail changes once published, almost fooling me into thinking I hadnt just watched it!
I have way too much nostalgia for Pizza Hut than I should, between it being the go-to place for a lunch with my grandma and being rewarded for doing something I already enjoyed as a kid with Book It. Sucks that there isn't one near me anymore.
As a kid, I like when Mom and Dad took us to Pizza Hut, but we liked going to Shakey's much more
Love me some Shakey's. I boosted a pint glass from the one on van Buren in riverside 20 years ago. Still use that bad boy.
Ah, Shakey's with the curly straw!
@@JayTemple My fanny hurts
I did the Book It! program a few times. I loved to read as it was so I had no trouble reaching the number I needed to get a free personal pizza.
Fun story, I started as a Domino's kid and hated the idea of Pizza Hut, but when I finally tried it I was hooked and every time we got to go there it was a treat. Not just the pizza and the pitchers of soda, but the crane machines, too.
I loved Pizza Hut when I was growing up. I earned several free pan pizzas. My parents loved their salad bar. I miss their lunch buffet. It had a pasta covered in pepperoni that I still crave. None of their current pasta offerings even come close. I loved and miss the Pizza Hut of my childhood from the 80s-90s. The new versions not so much.
Dominos and then Little Caesers were what we got on Friday nights.
Pizza Hut was the special treat we got when we had an outing or it was a special occasion. But oh how we looked forward to that jukebox, old arcade games, and red plastic cups.
About 10 years ago I gave up on the pizza hut because it seemed to me that no one in the hut cares about the pizza they served me. About 6 years ago my wife finally agreed with me. We no longer buy pizza from chains.
Same with McDonald's...the burgers rarely look anything like the ads.
I'm in complete agreement. I live in a predominantly Mexican area...can you imagine how far from a traditional Pizza Hut pizza they are? Yup; 10 years now.
Usually the only chain I buy from anymore is Little Casar's, not because it's good, but because it's hot and ready. It is easy to see which employees actually care about taking their time and making quality food vs those who only want a paycheck. I'm sure the same thing applies everywhere.
I love stopping when I happen across a red roof location, the nostalgia rush when I walk in has never gone away!
bring back the salad bar and arcade games. I miss playing rampage waiting on that golden pizza. while mom eat a salad and dad smokes outside. yes they had an outdoor smoking area that had mosquito fences with heat and fans. used to be a real family friendly place.
Yes! 🙌
Outdoor smoking area? Ours had an indoor smoking section, which was separated from the non-smoking section by... literally nothing. In fact, this was pretty much every restaurant until the early 90s. I do not miss that at all.
indoor I understand. that would suck. but outdoor was great. its costed them sometimes cuz of heat. but I remember it work out. smoker was outside separated by a door and they would bring your pizza out to you. it gave people their freedom.
Salad bar? I don't even know where the nearest one with a dine-in area is!
Lots of nostalgia there. In Canada, the dine-in/sit-down Pizza Huts seem to have all closed, at least in the west. (Last time I was in one was in 2013, in South Dakota.) The Canadian chain also has a lot fewer varieties than the American one; Big New Yorker hasn't been on the menu here in quite a while.
Pizza Hut was where we either took the kids because they had a BookIt coupon, because we had a coupon, or for lunch for the buffet. If we were truly after GREAT and not merely good, filling or cheap, we always lived in an area with better choices for pizza.
I always wondered why people choose this corporation and not some small pizzeria, arent United States full of Italian immigrants? Here in Czechia or in Slovakia, there are plenty Czech creators of nice pizza and we have very little amount of Italian guys. Still, there are few Pizza Hut locations - 16 restaurants in Czechia and 3 restaurants in Slovakia.
Maybe we are too poor for it in smaller cities and villages but we have plenty of small businesses with nice pizza, with real cheese and dough made from 6 ingredients - water, salt, sugar, oil, yeast and flour ....while hand tossed PH pizza contains:
"ENRICHED FLOUR (BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, YEAST, SOYBEAN OIL. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: SALT, VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN, DATEM, SUGAR, ENZYMES, ASCORBIC ACID, SUCRALOSE. PAN OIL: SOYBEAN OIL, TBHQ ADDED TO PROTECT FRESHNESS."
www.nutritionix.com/pizza-hut/ingredient-search/premium
Yes, the small, non-chain pizza places are almost certainly going to be better!!!
The dine in experience stood out for me. Our church youth group would stop in the local Pizza Hut a few times a month!
Worked for these guys in the ‘90s, didn’t eat pizza for a while. ❤
First time I went to a Pizza Hut sit down restaurant was in the late 90s.. wasn’t very impressed .. everything tasted frozen.. im so glad they never called it Mary’s Pizza.. there is a local chain of 4 restaurants called Mary’s pizza and it blows fast food pizza away
LOL TH-cam ran a Pizza Hut an ad during this video
That didn't happen.
@@Percocet_6.2 submit 3,127 examples of how it didn't happen. Why 3,127? Because 3,128 would be hyperbole to make a point. Take your lying @$$ elsewhere
Tagerted marking for the win lol
@@Percocet_6.2this statement is false
@@Thekowaikaiju OK pizzahut bot
I still have one of my book it pins from the late 1980s. It still has some stars on it also, although they are fading away.
I remember that Land before Time promo!!! 😂😂
In particular I remember the ad with kid having a birthday party on the Land Before Time VHS tape.
Me too.
@@archaea9 I remember that too.
As a Gen X, Pizza Hut was definitely a special family affair, especially during their All You Can Eat days. Definitely hits that nostalgia feel. The one I went to a lot has now turned into an IHOP.
I wrote an article on RetroJunk about the change in Pizza Hut about 10 years ago. It's still the 3rd highest scoring article on the site to this day.
Link?
I forgot about the twisted crust pizza! Nice video, lots of good memories in there!
I was working at Pizza Hut when the Piazzo came out. It was such a pain as it was so thick that we had to use a spiral spiked thing inserted in the top so that it would cook all the way through. They were very hard to clean.
I worked at Taco Bell during the debut of the chalupa. We both had our own personal Vietnam.
I loved Book It! I would share my personal pan pizza with my grandpa. Such a sweet memory. And I'm still an avid reader. Thanks Pizza Hut!! 😊
Pizza Hut in Asia is a whole different experience, more "high-end" dining... they have a full bar/drinks menu, a large assortment of fresh salads and pasta dishes... it's downright fancy!
Hong kong is like fine dining. Very strange
I haven’t had my first full Pizza Hut pie until after adulthood. For the longest time my Pizza Hut experience was capped at the ones you’d find attached to a target or Taco Bell. Me being from nyc there were no full sized franchises until recently. The family bought a house in nj with a Pizza Hut less than 30 seconds away if you don’t get any red lights and I haven’t looked back since. In my personal opinion Pizza Hut pan is the best bar none
Very nice timing! I recently started going to Pizza Hut for the first time in decades this week, thanks to their new Hut Box deal. Its one of the few decent Pizza deals these days.
Sadly my local pizza Hut no longer has the in door restaurant part open anymore. Can only take out orders.
Tell me, are there no private pizza makers in your state? (Where are you from?) Is quality of Pizza Hut better than those who owns "pizzeria" restaurant? Here in Czech republic or Slovakia, there are plenty and they have better pizza with real cheese (not sure if Europe´s Pizza Hut use real or fake like in USA) and better prices.
I even work in some "company", which is not exactly like little pizzeria but we have decent pizza with real cheese for some $ 4,76. Surely, minimum wage in Czechia is $ 4,93 not $7,25 (and median wage is $ 1544 not like $ 4948 like in USA).
@@richardgalbavy7103 I'm in North Carolina. We have a lot of Pizza places here but I haven't seen any pizza less than $8 at any place in my town.
@@Makoto03 - and how much those PH deals cost?
Also, is it good deal when you consider what you eat? Or do them small pizza places use same ingredients from than one "cheese" factory in (I think) Colorado?
@@richardgalbavy7103 The Hut Box is only $6.99. It comes with a personal pizza and hot wings.
So its not much cheaper but its good for me who can't eat a whole pizza to begin with and prefer smaller ones.
@richardgalbavy7103 why do you care so much what others eat? They'll eat what they want.
Looooved Pizza Hut growing up- I was in marching band in high school and my dad used to take me to get a personal pan after every game we played!
Put myself through the first two years of college running the night shift at one in the mid-00s. We still had the red roof, red cups, dining room, salad bar, arcade, and party room like the 80s never ended. Was sad to see it torn down in 2018.
i managed a ph in a large college town. absolutely nuts when stuffed crust first rolled out in the 90s
I miss the Pizza Hut we had in our town. Now we have to travel to get Pizza Hut.😢
The "Big New Yorker" is the biggest sham in all of food.
1970s Pizza Hut was our go-to family dine-in restaurant after any kind of event. Seemed like fancy restaurant to 7 year old me. I loved their Italian sub that came with potato chips and a pickle.
During high school, I dated a girl who worked at a Pizza Hut. I loved her so much. She always smelled like pizza and we got a 50% discount on any order. She eventually quit that job and I fell out of love with her.
The peperoni Bigfoot pizzas were the greasiest things on planet earth!!! 12 napkins minimum just to sop up the grease so we could cut them!!! Hated delivering the Bigfoot pizzas!!! Too big and bulky, especially with 2- 2 liters of soda and multiple pies!!! Throw in multiple orders of breadsticks and the Casper toys and life got real tricky on a snowy Superbowl Sunday in Utah!!! All the personal pan pizzas were frozen disks, unlike the regular pizza dough that was made fresh daily!!! I miss the '90s!!!
I remember the Book It as a kid! I used to get the pepperoni personal pan pizza when it came time to get my free pizza!
A "foot long" pizza is rather small at 12 inches, with most large pizzas starting at 14 inches. The Bigfoot was rectangular being *three feet* long.
Hope they paid for this spot (and extra for the beloved narrator) because I was undecided for lunch today, and I'm going to the Hut.
Also while Pizza Hut might've gotten the first online order, they didn't get the most memed. I thought it was also Pizza Hut, but turns out it was Domino's involved in the "none pizza with left beef" that got famous in October 2007.
thank you. "foot long" pffft
I miss the good old days of Pizza Hut. I use to enjoy watching the funny shorts of the Pizza Head Show. Pizza Head was hilarious.
Oh.... That shirt said 'Book It'... 'Book'.
The good old days!! Eating in was an experience.
It’s kinda funny, my parents were divorced so at my mom’s we always had Dominos, and at my dad’s we had Pizza Hut. Personally I like dominos best, but over everything I think stuffed crust is the most delicious. It’s only a twice a decade thing though due to my outrageously thunderous lactose intolerance 😅
John Bender helped the Carney brothers craft their first pizza dough recipe. Also, the pan pizza was developed after their expansion to East Coast resulted in low adoption. It was essentially their way to adapt East Coast Pizza to reflect local tastes
I remember those PSX Demo Discs back in the late 90s
Anybody remember the Chicago Dish pizza they had in the early 2000's? That was one of my favorites, it had chunky tomato sauce on top of the cheese instead of underneath.
I miss the dine in Pizza Hut restaurant
My school was in the Book It program way back when. I was getting free pizzas every so often, and they were crazy good!
Pizza Hut has been and always will be my favourite pizza
It's garbage anymore, as bad as Dominos!
I had no idea that Book It program was still alive! I wish I knew before my daughter graduated Elementary School. Free personal pan pizzas for reading books were the best!
I wish my town had a Pizza Hut instead of a Dominos
I agree with you. Same for my town. Every time I have a Pizza hut pizza, I never felt disappointed. That pizza hut aroma I get from eating a pizza hut pizza is still amazing to this day.
Our closest Pizza Hut was closed and demolished about 15 years ago(it sat at the edge of a canal, and the building was sinking into the ground).
Luckily for Pizza Hut they didn't hire a spokesman like Jared from Subway. Jared be getting footlongs for a long long time now.
LOL, he certainly punctuated the meaning of "eat fresh".
Rape jokes are never funny.
@@pretendtobenormal8064 Not true.
@@pretendtobenormal8064 a bit subjective
@@pretendtobenormal8064 When it includes a chomo getting what's coming they always are funny
I have so many pizza deep dish personal pans that I can make more than a dozen pizzas. Many times we would make them for dinner. We also have some small deep dish pans as well as medium standard pans and a large. I also have a number of pizza hut pans and lids for making bread stickts and a number of other branded pizza hut stuff.
A stuffed crust Pizza Hut was an incredible treat for me right into the the late 00s. I only realised nobody liked it anymore a few years ago. When I was a kid in the 90s it was ALWAYS Pizza Hut
Nobody? Fuck that. Stuffed crust kicks ass
I worked at Pizza Hut in the 90s. Don’t forget about the Triple Decker (1.5# of cheese on a medium), Smokehouse Pizza, Taco Pizza, and of course their sub sandwiches with creamy Italian dressing. Classic!
The Triple Decker was my favorite! Absolutely sucked to make cuz everyone wanted it, and we would be out of thawed crust and cheese and have to borrow from other area units. It was so popular!
Book It is capitalism actually doing something positive.
I remember getting those dumb medals for reading books. I just want that personal pie right around the turn into the 2000s
5:29 -- So President Clinton took a time machine away from the whole Lewinski shebang and declared Book-It Day in 1988? Sa-weet! Somehow I didn't remember that. I must have been on a different timeline.
Pizza Hut is still my favorite pizza place ever! Wish we had one on Oscoda Michigan. In order for us to have some we have to go to alpena and that’s an hour away 🙁
Fun fact: For the 1993 Silvester Stallone movie "Demolition Man" Pizza Hut was used for some international releases of the movie instead of Taco Bell since Taco Bell was virtually unknown in many foreign countries at the time. This included both dubbing and changing the logos during post-production. Taco Bell however remains in the closing credits. In both the Dutch and Swedish releases the subtitles still use Taco Bell while the sound and picture have been altered. Also, when using closed captioning on cable television, references to Taco Bell are changed to Pizza Hut.
I still love going to the Pizza Hut. I first started going there half a century ago.
One of my earliest memories was eating a pan pizza (when it had a crunchy buttery crust) and sipping on fountain coke from a plastic pitcher with Space Invaders video game and a jukebox playing in the background. Alas, no more.😢
I had those Land Before Time hand puppets. So much glorious nostalgia.
As someone from the Detroit area who was too poor to afford dominos or Pizza Hut. Little Caesars, know. Affectionately as little skeezers. We dined out at least one night with little Caesars. Dominos, despite being a local, Detroit company, they were too much. I grew up poor and the illitch family feed me with decent pizza at suboptimal pricing. I advocate 100% for little Caesars. It's not the best you can get, but on a budget and not spending 25$ on a single pie, it's better than you can imagine. I grew up on it, there's that nostalgia with the scent and taste. I'm a caesarian 110%,
The real fall of Pizza Hut was the $10 any way you want it special. Yes, they did it to survive the Great Recession, but it had a cost. That handmade crust, the fresh toppings, the plentiful cheese, the buffet and salad bar, the arcade games and jukebox - all the things that define our nostalgia about Pizza Hut, well, those things had a price attached. And when the profit margins got thin, because Pizza Hut chose sales volume over quality, then the nice things that cost money had to go. And that's why your pizza is a sad cardboard disk, thin on toppings, served in a bare dining room - or delivered by a college kid more worried about where his next weed hit was coming from than quality of food.
Initially yes, but now it’s driven by consumer trends. People don’t care about eating out or cannot afford to but will gladly pay a bit extra to have it delivered by some rando taking a side gig break from Uber.
I remember enjoying the AYCE pizza bar+frozen yogurt bar as a kid along with Nickelodeon/YTV Kids nights as a kid along with treating my friend to Half & Half pan pizza pies pre-Covid, Pan Pizza, Thin & Crispy and Stuffed Crust are my fav crusts and my fav topping combo is Jalepeno+Hot Pepper+Pineapple+Pepperoni and Extra Cheese.
I loved the Bigfoot pizza. Used to order it on Friday night and live on it until Tuesday. Those were the days. 🍕
Oh man the Big Foot pizza i was starting to remember that as a little seezers pizza. Holy crap i havent thought of the big foot in decades man i miss that pizza
I remember redeeming those book certificates back in the day - glorious!
I have not been to a Pizza Hut in 25+ years as I prefer to make my pizzas homemade, but I do remember how much I enjoyed a slice of their deep dish pizza. It is a crunchy tasty treat. Shalom
As a kid in the 90s the hut was my favorite for 3 reasons bread sticks stuffed crust and free pizza for school work 🤟🤟
If you lived in a small town in the 70s to 90s, the Hut was about your only option for pizza, though eventually you could probably pick up one at a gas station too.
During the 1990's you could get a March Madness basketball from Pizza Hut. If I'd known they'd become scarce I wouldn't have played basketball with them.
Wow, no mention of Hot Dog Bites pizza? That's my all-time favorite discontinued Pizza Hut item.
Dominos?
I miss the old Pizza Hut buildings as well as the "Book It" program when I was a kid.