Pee-wee's Playhouse was a Saturday Morning television series onCBS that aired from September 13, 1986 to November 17, 1990. It starredPaul Reubens asPee-wee Herman who lived in his Playhouse with a whole bunch of wacky characters.
[After Pee-wee wins dinner for two on Big Question]
Jack: Thanks for playing, and I hope you had fun![Pee-wee screams] I get it! Secret word!
[Pee-wee attempts to putt his golf ball into the windmill, but misses; his friends cheer]
Pee-wee: But I missed!
Conky: But nobody misses like you do, Pee-wee.
Chairry: What style. What flair.
Randy: What a lotta hooey. Psst! Hey, Pee-wee, come here.[Pee-wee walks up to him] Lemme straighten you out. Can't you see what's goin' on? Why do you think everyone's bein' so nice to ya?
Pee-wee: 'Cause they like me.
Randy: Ah, wise up, Pee-wee. Put two and two together. Everybody's bein' nice to you, because they want you to take 'em to that dinner. That's the only reason.
Randy: Bored? There's plenty of things to do on a rainy day.
Pee-wee: I know Randy, but I've done all them already.
Randy: No, you haven't. See this phone here?
Pee-wee: Yes, I've called everyone I know.
Randy: So? Call some people you don't know.
Pee-wee: What do you mean?
Randy: Here, I'll show you.[goes into the picture phone and dials a number of a housewife]
Housewife:[picks up the phone] Hello.
Randy: Hello. Is your refrigerator running?
Housewife: Why, yes.
Randy: Then you better go and catch it![laughs; hangs up] See, Pee-wee? It's easy. You try one.
Pee-wee: No, Randy. That's not fun. It's not nice to make prank phone calls!
Randy: Don't be such a chicken.[dials the number again] Here. It's ringing.[hands the phone to Pee-wee]
Housewife:[annoyed] Hello?
Pee-wee: Hello. Is your refrigerator running?
Housewife: I've had just about enough of this! My husband is a police officer.[dramatic music] Darryl?
Darryl: Yes, dear?[takes the phone from his wife] What's your name, kid?
Pee-wee: Pee-wee Herman.
Darryl: Well, you listen to me, Pee-wee Herman. Making prank phone calls is against the law! If I wasn't such a nice guy, I'd take you downtown and throw ya into jail! And you'd have a criminal record for the rest of your life.[dramatic music] Would ya like that?
Pee-wee: Uh, no, sir. I mean, no, officer!
Darryl: Yeah. All right. I'll let you go this time. But next time, you're goin' to jail.
Jambi: Hey, I got a genie joke for you. How many genies does it take to cross the road?
Pee-wee: I don't know.
Jambi: 4. One to ride in the box, one to push the box, one to watch for traffic, and one to wish he was on the other side![laughs] "Wish he was on the other..."[notices Pee-wee's confused look] Guess you had to be there.
[Pee-wee tosses Pterri's toy out the window]
Mr. Kite: Interception![catches the toy]
Pterri:[flies up to Mr. Kite] Hey! That's my toy!
Mr. Kite: Not anymore.
Pterri: You have no business with that toy. Give it back.
Mr. Kite: No. It's mine.
Pterri: Pee-wee! Pee-wee!
Pee-wee: Yeah, what is it?!
Pterri: Mr. Kite won't give me back my toy.
Pee-wee: Mr. Kite, give Pterri back his toy!
Pterri: See?! Pee-wee said you have to give me back my toy!
Mr. Kite:[tosses Pterri's toy back to him] Baby.
Pterri:[catches his toy] I am not a baby. Pee-wee, Mr. Kite called me a baby.
Pee-wee: All right, Pterri. Get in here.
Pterri:[flies back inside] Why do I have to come in? Mr. Kite doesn't have to come in.
Mrs. Steve:[barges into the playhouse] Pee-wee, lock the doors. Shut the windows. Hide!
Pee-wee: What is it, Mrs. Steve?!
Mrs. Steve: There's a monster on the loose.
Pee-wee:[screams] A monster! A monster![screams again, then suddenly stops] Wait a minute. I don't believe in monsters.
Mrs. Steve: Look![everyone else screams] Is it the monster?!
Pee-wee: No. You said the secret word, Mrs. Steve.
Mrs. Steve: I'm telling you, I saw a monster. It had a big round eye and two mouths. It was horrible! I have to go warn the other people in the neighborhood![exits]
[Dixie enters]
Pee-Wee: Hi, Dixie!
Dixie:[combing around the playhouse] Announcing his highness, the King of Cartoons!
King:[offscreen] Oh, no, Dixie. I'm too afraid to get outta the cab.
Dixie: It's okay, your highness! I checked out the playhouse. The coast is clear. There's no monsters in here.
King:[nervously enters the playhouse] You sure there's no monster in here?
Chairry: See, Pee-wee? The king is afraid of monsters, too.
Pee-wee: Did you see a monster?
King: Oh, no, but I heard all about it from Mrs. Steve.
Pee-wee: Oh, that Mrs. Steve's got everybody scared. There's no such thing as MONSTERS!
Dixie: Ya can't be too sure. Make it quick, King. Better safe than sorry.
King: Will do, Dixie. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and...monsters, if there is any.[pause] Let the cartoon...begin.[turns on the projector]
Pee-wee: Randy, did you steal Mrs. Steve's apples?
Randy: No. I didn't steal 'em.
Mrs. Steve: You did so. I saw you with my own two eyes.
Randy: Did not.
Mrs. Steve: Did so.
Randy: Did not.
Mrs. Steve: Did so.
Randy: Did not!
Mrs. Steve: Did so!
Pee-wee: STOOOOOOOP!!![they stop] Randy, if you didn't steal Mrs. Steve's apples,[extracts apple cores from beneath the bed] then what are these?!
Randy: I didn't steal 'em. I just sorta took 'em. Besides, what's the big deal? They were just some crummy crabapples.
Pee-wee: Those "crummy crabapples" belonged to Mrs. Steve. You shouldn't steal stuff that doesn't belong to you.
Mrs. Steve: That's right! I demand an apology from you, young man.
Randy: Eh...
Pee-wee: Go on, Randy. Say you're sorry.
Randy: All right. I'm sorry.
Mrs. Steve: Sorry isn't going to put those apples back on my tree. I want you to promise me you'll never do that again.
Randy: I promise, Mrs. Steve. I had no idea that taking your delicious apples was going to upset you so. I'm awfully sorry. Can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me? Please?
Mrs. Steve: Well, I suppose I can forgive you this one time. But if it ever happens again, I'm calling the police, and you go to prison with all the other apple stealers![casually] Thank you, Pee-wee.[exits]
Randy:[snickers] I had my fingers crossed.[snickers again, but groans] Oooohhh...My stomach hurts.
Pee-Wee:[sarcastically] Gee, I'm sorry what happened to you, Randy. I thought we were going to make some delicious apple pie!
[Randy groans and lies down on the floor; Pee-Wee chuckles]
[Pee-wee gazes into the fish tank and presses his face against the glass]
Fish 1: Hey, Pee-wee!
Fish 2: Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer.
[When Ricardo removes the teepee, Cowboy Curtis removes the cloth from the floor and sees that part of it awakens, much to his surprise]
Cowboy Curtis: WHOO-WHEE!!!
[Pee-wee has overheard his whoop and runs to investigate]
Ricardo: Wow!
Cowboy Curtis: Hey! Lookie here, Pee-wee!
Pee-wee:[runs up to the living piece of floor] Gosh! Who are you?!
Floory: Uh, my name is Floory.
Pee-wee, Ricardo, and Cowboy Curtis: Hello, Floory.
Floory: Hello, everybody.
Pee-wee: How long have you been here?
Floory: I've been here forever. You just didn't notice me, 'cause I was underneath your teepee.
Pee-wee: Well, why didn't you say somethin'?
Floory: Uhhh...I don't know. I guess I just didn't think of it.
Pee-wee: Well, from now on, I'm gonna keep my teepee over there, so you can play with us.
Floory: Thanks, Pee-wee.
Pee-wee: Gee. You never know where you're gonna meet a new friend, huh?
Cowboy Curtis: Sure does make ya think.
Jambi:[after a sip of tea] Mmm. This tea is so good, I wish I had another cup.[reacts] Wish?! Did I say wish?![grants the wish, and a second cup of tea appears; he takes a sip from both cups] Ahh!
Ricardo: I brought some huge rubber bands for your rubber-band ball, Pee-wee. Shall I put 'em on for you?
Pee-wee:[snapping] Sure. Go ahead. I can't do anything, anyways. I'm sick! You know, sometimes when you're sick, you don't feel like putting rubber bands on your rubber-band ball! YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE DOING ANYTHING AT ALL!!![calmly] I'm awfully sorry, Ricardo. You see, sometimes when we're sick, we snap at people when we don't mean to. Our emotions are awfully close to the surface. You understand, don't you?
Ricardo: Oh, sure, I do, Pee-wee.
Ricardo: Hey, how 'bout something to eat, Pee-wee? I made some soup especially for you.[Pee-wee mumbles quietly] What?
Pee-wee:[snaps again] I said YES!! YES! I'll have some soup! OKAY?!?!
Ricardo:[confused] ¿Para que me mortifico? ¿Vengo a verlo, le traigo sopa, y para que?
I'd had the stage show originally, so I was much more interested in doing something closer to that, something live-action. So when they suggested doing a cartoon, I said "I'm not really interested in that; let's do a real kid's show." I was a big Howdy-Doody freak growing up — I was actually on one show when I was a kid, in the audience — and was more interested in doing something like that. Howdy-Doody, Captain Kangaroo, a lot of the local kids shows that were on a long time ago — those were the influences.
I've never agreed with people when they've said that last part, actually. When we were doing the midnight show back in the early Eighties, we'd do a kid's matinee show as well. I never felt like anything was changed, really. It was a bit slicker. It was made for Saturday-morning TV. But it wasn't like the character changed. Everything was like a toilet joke, but it wasn't like we gave the censors a lot to worry about. When you're writing a show for six-year-olds, you know, pee-pee and poo-poo…that's your bread and butter.
But if you're a kid and you understand a joke that may have been quote-unquote risqué or an innuendo that might have made it in to a Playhouse episode, then you learned it from your parents or the schoolyard. I didn't teach them that.
I was involved in pretty much every aspect of it. I'd hired the design team and came up with conception of stuff overall. I mean, someone designed and built Chairy, obviously, but it was my idea.
The team was basically Gary Panter and two associate production designers he brought in, and these guys were really, truly brilliant. We talked every day about where things would be laid out — where was the kitchen, where was the window, where did the genie live? Then they drew hundreds upon hundreds of sketches of what everything would like, and I'd basically weigh in. I don't think there's one aspect of what you see on the show where I didn't have the ability to say, "I don't like the way this looks" or "Let's redo that."
The magic screen was originally about the size of a double-door entrance…it was gigantic! [Laughs] I think the door was a different color, too. But yeah, I was involved in every minute detail.
I worked really closely with [series composer and Devo founder] Mark Mothersbaugh on the music for every episode, but the theme was a little different. It's essentially in two parts: there's the actual theme and the music that leads up to the theme. You know, that Martin Denny-esque lounge music as you watch the beaver gnaw on the wood, and everything sort of winds around as you eventually end up at the playhouse's door. Mark, the director of our first season Stephen R. Johnson and I talked a lot about the feeling that bit of music was supposed to evoke — the words "dream-like" and "hypnotic" were used a lot. I wanted kids to feel like they were being drawn into this world.
You might find this hard to believe, but I got virtually no feedback the whole time we were making the show! In the ensuing years, since we stopped making it, I've met hundreds of fans, from little kids to grown-ups who watched it as kids when the show was originally on. But I was so busy with the making of it that I just didn't have much of life outside of the show. I was very rarely in situations where I'd meet fans. It was staggering when I finally did start to hear all that stuff, because I just didn't have an outside picture of it all.
What I think a lot of people didn't realize was, this wasn't a goof on kids' shows. I felt like it was a mission and this was what I was supposed to do; I considered it important work. I always sort of thought that this would have a positive effect on kids. And they picked up on that, I think. [Pause] I've spent a lot of time rewatching these episodes during the restoration process for this set, and I'm still really proud of what we all did.
