December 16, 1994 Chi chi chi chia! Chia pets…they only come out at Christmas, and they’re only manufactured not far away in Tecate, Mexico. But as News 8’s Larry Himmel reports, this year all is not right in Chia-Land. It was the year of Jurassic Park so Larry and photojournalist Bruce Patch got really creative and turned the chia pet factory into Chiassic Park—A Steven Stealberg Film—get it? We were all pretty amazed here at CBS 8 wondering how Bruce did the special effects—long before digital editing special effects tools were available. Larry visited the factory often in the 1990s and President Mike Chavez was always a good sport and played along. Bruce Patch recently retired from CBS 8 after a long, storied career. He shares his memories of the chia tradition and this story: This was our third visit to the Chia Pet Factory in Tecate, Mexico. The first two times, in the previous two years, were classic Himmel stories. A slice of life and work at the factory. But, we had another idea for this story. With the permission and wonderful holiday spirit, the manager said " we can do anything, with the Chia Pets." So, Larry and I came up with the idea of the Chia Pets attacking him. The stop frame animation is one of my favorite film techniques. Each scene was improvised, with Larry following my direction. I locked down the camera, hit record and moved each piece. A tedious task but worth it. The factory folks said again...'' do whatever you want...". So, crash bang, breaking, smashing and chaos ensued. Yeah, we broke dozens of Chia Pets. The magic is in the editing. Lots and lots of editing. I used the music from the Jurassic Park movie. Thus the name Chiassic Park. I used the "Chi Chi Chi Chia Pet" jingle from the Chia Pet commercial and sped it up to create the pet sounds. It is one of my top 10 favorite pieces I did in my nearly 45 year career. Thank you for showing it and keeping Larry's spirit alive, especially at Christmas. See other chia stories here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc3n2XbX9RM&t=223s