I was stranded in Florence Kentucky one time and the one saving grace was a Big Boy next to a liquor store. So I went in there and there was a family of four with the mom and dad both smoking, blowing smoke right into their kids' faces and the mom was pregnant. The waitress was maybe 18 and had a face beautiful for the pictures. I hope she made it. I went to that liquor store and drank a lot of vodka. That's what I remember about Big Boy. I don't think they have them in my neck of the woods.
Last time I went to one I was a little kid and it was still called Bob's Big Boy.
There's maybe a hundred left in America, sans Bob after the original company went bankrupt. They are huge in Japan though.
I'm surprised there's not more crossover with restaurants. Sure, it's easy to find anime and Japanese restaurants and things in the states, but attempts like Todai have pretty much gone tits up, whereas Hard Cock Cafe and Big Boy, KFC and the rest seem to be flourishing over there while they barely seem to exist over here. I for one would like to see more Japanese chains make it over to the states. That's why we have the Sister City program. You get our shitty food and we get yours!
Whenever anyone says X is huge in < insert foreign country > that they don't have direct experience with, it's safe to assume that they're full of shit. And half the time when they *do* have direct experience, they're still full of shit.
Big Boy has been long gone from my area for the last 20 years. The last one I ate at was a Frisch's Big Boy, which had a different mascot than the iconic Big Boy statue.
I've always loved Jonathan Winters and I had forgotten about these big boy ads. I'll never forget when he showed up on The Tonight Show with Robin Williams. I thought for sure Carson was going to keel over from laughter right there on the set.