Greeny Zone was an area at Jillian's restaurants themed after Greeny Phatom. As of 2017; two locations exist: San Francisco, CA and an independent location in Greensboro, NC.
History[]
In 1997, the first Greeny Zone was opened in the Jillian's in San Francisco, CA. The area included the Greeny Phatom Band (which is The Rock-afire Explosion but with GP cosmetics), a Greeny Arcade machine, and a walkaround Little Guy or Little Girl. All they had to do to make Dr. PBS' cereal box guitar was to get an empty cereal box, an empty roll of toilet paper, and a cardboard box.
The area became so popular that a second Greeny Zone was opened in the Jillian's in Worcester, MA, followed by the ones in Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, Charlotte, NC, and Las Vegas, NV.
In 2000, a newsletter for the Greeny Zone was launched. The first 100 people who subscribed received a free Little Guy walkaround costume.
In 2001, Big Idea announced that VeggieTales sketches and songs would premiere at all Greeny Zones in September. The first VeggieTales segment to premiere on the Greeny Zone AppleVisions was the Forgive-O-Matic commercial.
By 2013, the entrance to the Greeny Zone in the Dave & Buster's Grand Sports Café (formerly a Jillian's) at Philadelphia Mills was blocked by a wall with the Greeny Arcade machine sold to Daniel Farkle (a former employee at said location). Memos reported that the walkarounds were sold on eBay.
On September 29, 2016, it was reported that Big Idea Entertainment decided not to renew their license with Apple Entertainment. The following day, Big Idea had ordered the latter to remove all VeggieTales and VeggieTales in the House clips from intermissions shown during Greeny Zone performances. The following week, a DVD of the September 2016 show with VeggieTales/VeggieTales in the House clips had been put up for auction, with the winning bidder being Anthony Irving (a huge fan of the show) from Worcester, MA.
On January 30, 2017, an independent Greeny Zone was opened at the Friendly Shopping Center in Greensboro, NC.
As of 2017, the Greeny Zone at the All American Pub (formerly a Jillian's) in Charlotte, NC has been removed.
As of today, the San Francisco location is still open in a state of disrepair: Dr. Beanson wimply touches his tune machine, Little Guy is completely broken (from 2008 to around 2011, he would frequently make gargling and glitch noises during performances before shutting off completely in 2011) and Dr. PBS' cereal box guitar has been replaced with a Fender 1951 Heavy Relic Telecaster as of 2009. Current owners Apple Entertainment stated that they did not plan to fix the location and announced on January 5, 2017 that the location would close for good on September 4, 2017 (Apple Entertainment operated the Greeny Zones via an agreement with Jillian's).
In the Worcester location, however, everything had worked perfectly. According to Robert Stainton's blog, the entire Greeny Zone was still intact, complete with the walkarounds.
At some point during 2017, the Worcester location had closed. The walkarounds, animatronics, and Greeny Arcade machine were donated to a local Salvation Army store soon afterwards. Robert Stainton had reportedly bought the Little Guy and Dr. Beanson animatronics along with the Little Guy walkaround.
At some point, it was reported that a man named Charlie Gaston had broken into the Greeny Zone at Dave and Buster's Grand Sports Café by prying off part of the wall blocking the entrance to the Greeny Zone and stole Dr. Beanson's tune machine and Dr. PBS' cereal box guitar. It was later reported that some other guests had gotten into the Greeny Zone due to the wall having not been repaired. A few days later, the wall was repaired and Charlie had been arrested, with both props later being sold from the property to Anthony Irving.
Current state of the San Francisco Greeny Zone[]
As of January 2017, Little Guy and Little Girl's animatronics have been shut off completely while Dr. Beanson and Dr. PBS are in states of massive disrepair. As of October 2016, Dr. PBS is suffering from the same glitch noises that Little Guy had for the last 3 years of his operation, while Little Girl would frequently switch on and off from 2012 until the location shut her off in 2013. Dr. Beanson's damage is currently limited to cosmetic damage and the majority of his electronics are still working perfectly with the exception of several limbs.
On January 3, 2017, a group known as Greeny Revival made a Kickstarter to restore the San Francisco Greeny Zone to its normal condition. Surprisingly, although the goal was $300,000, the group raised $4,248,345 for restorations. The day after the Kickstarter, Wesley Sadler (the operator of the Greeny Arcade machine) allowed them to restore the Greeny Zone there.
Robert Stainton and Apple Entertainment CEO Janna Apple soon jointly announced that the closure of the San Francisco Greeny Zone was cancelled and the location would stay open. This was met with positive reception, mainly from Greeny Revival's backers.
Locations[]
- San Francisco, CA
- Greensboro, NC (independent)