| Pee-wee's Playhouse | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Children's television series Nonsensical comedy |
| Created by | Paul Reubens |
| Directed by | Wayne Orr John Paragon |
| Presented by | Pee-wee Herman |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer |
|
| Opening theme | Mark Mothersbaugh |
| Ending theme | Mark Mothersbaugh |
| Composers |
|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 45 (plus a Christmas special)(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producers | Paul Reubens Richard Abramson |
| Production locations |
|
| Camera setup |
|
| Running time | 23–24 minutes |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 13, 1986 (1986-09-13) – November 17, 1990 (1990-11-17) |
| Related | |
| The Pee-wee Herman Show | |
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an Americancomedychildren's television series starringPaul Reubens as the childlikePee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings onCBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's popular stage show and the TV specialThe Pee-wee Herman Show, produced forHBO, which was similar in style but featured much more adult humor.
In 2004 and 2007,Pee-wee's Playhouse was ranked No. 10 and No. 12 onTV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever, respectively.[2][3][4] It was also named toTime's list of the 100 Best TV Shows in 2007.[5]
The Pee-wee Herman character was developed by Reubens into a live stage show titledThe Pee-wee Herman Show in 1980. It features many characters that would go on to appear inPlayhouse, including Captain Carl, Jambi the Genie, Miss Yvonne, Pterri the Pterodactyl, and Clocky. While enjoying continuous popularity with the show, Reubens teamed with young directorTim Burton in 1985 to make the comedy filmPee-wee's Big Adventure. It became one of the year's surprise hits, costing a relatively modest $7 million to make but taking in $40 million at the box office.[6][7]
After seeing the success ofPee-wee's Big Adventure, theCBS network approached Reubens with an ill-receivedcartoon series proposal.[8] In 1986, CBS agreed to sign Reubens to act, produce, and direct his own live-action Saturday morning children's program,Pee-wee's Playhouse, with a budget ofUS$325,000 per episode (comparable to that of a half-hour prime-time sitcom),[9] and full creative control, although CBS did request a few minor changes over the years.[10]
Reubens assembled a supporting troupe that included ex-Groundlings and cast members fromThe Pee-wee Herman Show, includingPhil Hartman,John Paragon,Lynne Marie Stewart,Laurence Fishburne, andS. Epatha Merkerson. Production began in New York City in the summer of 1986 in a converted loft onBroadway, which one of the show's writers, George McGrath, described as a "sweatshop".[1] Reubens moved the production to Los Angeles for season two in 1987, resulting in a new set and a more relaxed work atmosphere.[11]
The creative design of the show was concocted by a troupe of artists includingWayne White,Gary Panter,Craig Bartlett,Nick Park,Richard Goleszowski, Gregory Harrison,Ric Heitzman, andPhil Trumbo. The first day of production, right as Panter began reading the scripts to find out where everything would be situated, set workers hurriedly asked him, "Where's the plans? All the carpenters are standing here ready to build everything." Panter responded, "You just have to give us 15 minutes to design this thing!"[12] When asked about the styles that went into the set design, Panter said, "This was like the hippie dream .... It was a show made by artists .... We put art history all over the show. It's really like .... I thinkMike Kelley said, and it's right, that it's kind of like theGoogie style – it's like those LA types of coffee shops and stuff but kind ofpsychedelic, over-the-top."[13] Several artistic filmmaking techniques are featured on the program includingchroma key,stop-motion animation, andclay animation.
Pee-Wee's Playhouse was designed as an educational yet entertaining and artistic show for children. Its conception was greatly influenced by shows Reubens had watched as a child, likeThe Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,The Mickey Mouse Club,Captain Kangaroo, andHowdy Doody. The show quickly acquired a dual audience of kids and adults.[14][15][16] This proved especially important to CBS in the late 1980s whenpeople meters were introduced; the vice president of rival networkABC, which had targeted its cartoons toward preschoolers, observed that ABC "got killed" in the ratings byPee-Wee's Playhouse because ABC's younger audience could not operate the people meters. In 1988, ABC would shift its programming to shows that would draw both children and adults, helping to begin that network's recovery.[17][18]
Reubens, always trying to make Pee-wee a positive role model, sought to make a significantly moral show that would teach children theethics of reciprocity.[16] Reubens believed that children liked the Playhouse because it was fast-paced, colorful, and "never talked down to them", while parents liked the Playhouse because it reminded them of the past.[16]
At the start of season two, the show moved from its New York City warehouse studio to facilities at theHollywood Center Studios, creating changes in personnel and a change to the set that allowed the show to take advantage of the additional space.[19] The show changed production facilities again in 1989 during its fourth season, this time at theCulver Studios, also in Los Angeles.[citation needed]
The premise of the show is that host Pee-wee Herman plays in the fantastic Playhouse in Puppetland. The house is filled with toys, gadgets, talking furniture, and appliances (such as Magic Screen and Chairry), puppet characters (such as Conky the Robot and Pterri the babyPteranodon), and Jambi (John Paragon), a disembodiedgenie's head who lives in a jeweled box. The Playhouse is visited by a regular cast of human characters, including Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart), Reba the Mail Lady (S. Epatha Merkerson), Captain Carl (Phil Hartman), Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne), and a group of children called The Playhouse Gang.
Although primarily a live-action comedy, each episode includes segments featuring puppetry, video animation, and prepared sequences usingChroma key and stock footage (for example when Pee-wee jumps into the Magic Screen), as well as insertedclay animation sequences (some made byAardman Animations, who would later makeWallace & Gromit) and excerpts from cartoons from theGolden Age of American animation and in thepublic domain, usually presented by the character "The King of Cartoons".[8] Each episode features specially written soundtrack music by rock and pop musicians such asMark Mothersbaugh (Devo),Todd Rundgren,Mitchell Froom, andThe Residents. The show's theme song performance is credited to "Ellen Shaw", though in her autobiography,Cyndi Lauper admits to being the actual singer.[20]
The show has many recurring gags, themes, and devices. Each episode usually contained a running gag particular to that episode, or a specific event or dilemma that sends Pee-wee into an emotional frenzy. At the beginning of each episode, viewers are told the day's "secret word" (often issued by Conky the Robot) and are instructed to "scream real loud" every time a character says the word.
CBS and Reubens mutually agreed to end the show at the end of the 1990–91 season after five seasons and 45 episodes.[21] The last original episode aired on November 17, 1990. In July 1991, Reubens was arrested for exposing himself in aSarasota, Florida, adult movie theater,[22] prompting CBS to immediately stop airing itsPlayhouse re-runs, which were originally intended to air until September 1991.[23][24][25] The show was replaced by reruns ofThe Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy.
The music for the show was provided by a diverse set of musicians, includingMark Mothersbaugh,The Residents,Todd Rundgren,Danny Elfman (who provided the score for both of thePee-wee movies),Mitchell Froom,Van Dyke Parks,George S. Clinton, andDweezil Zappa withScott Thunes (spelled 'Tunis' in the credits).
Mothersbaugh, who later went on to become a fixture in composing music for children's shows likeRugrats, joined the show while on hiatus from recording withDevo.[26] Said Mothersbaugh in 2006:
Paul Reubens asked me to doPee-wee's Playhouse, and I had some time, so I was like, yeah, let's do it.Pee-wee's Playhouse was really chaotic. They'd send me the tape from New York on Tuesday. I'd watch it Tuesday night; Wednesday I'd write the music. Thursday I'd record the music, it'd go out Thursday night to them, they'd have Friday to cut it into the picture, and then Saturday we'd watch it on TV. And it was like really fast, and instead of writing an album once a year I was writing an album's worth of music once a week, and it was really exciting. It was a new experience and it was a different creative process.[27]
The opening prelude theme is an interpretation ofLes Baxter's "Quiet Village". The theme song, which originally followed the prelude, was performed byCyndi Lauper (credited as "Ellen Shaw"), imitatingBetty Boop.[20] For the final season in 1990, a new version of the prelude theme was recorded, and the opening theme was slightly edited.
Many now-well-known TV and film actors appeared on the show, includingSandra Bernhard,Laurence Fishburne,Phil Hartman,Natasha Lyonne,S. Epatha Merkerson,Jimmy Smits, andLynne Stewart.[28] Futureheavy metal musician and filmmakerRob Zombie was a production assistant,[29] and future filmmakerJohn Singleton was a security guard and production assistant.[30]
The Christmas special episode, "Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special", aired between seasons 2 and 3 and included the regular cast, along with appearances byAnnette Funicello,Frankie Avalon,Magic Johnson,Dinah Shore,Joan Rivers,Zsa Zsa Gabor,Oprah Winfrey,Whoopi Goldberg,Little Richard,Cher,Charo,k.d. lang, theDel Rubio triplets, andGrace Jones.[31][32]
| Character | Played by | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pee-wee Herman | Paul Reubens | The childlike "host". Pee-wee is portrayed as an impatient and fun-loving man with dainty mannerisms and quirky facial expressions. He is typically cheerful and flamboyant, with occasional childish temper tantrums. |
| Cowboy Curtis | Laurence Fishburne | A "cowboy" in the 1950s pop culture sense with aJheri curlmullet. |
| Captain Carl | Phil Hartman | A gritty, unshavensea captain with a gruff voice, but a somewhat shy demeanor, he shows Pee-wee interesting things from the ocean. His tolerance for Pee-wee's antics is often tested whenever he stopped by. Captain Carl is more adult-oriented in the HBO special and Miss Yvonne appears to have deep feelings for him. The character was dropped after season one. |
| Miss Yvonne | Lynne Marie Stewart | A woman obsessed with beauty and cosmetics, who often flirts with Pee-wee and many of the other male characters on the show. Miss Yvonne is given the title "the most beautiful woman in Puppetland" by the puppet characters (especially Mr. Window who would usually introduce her). She wears a large brownbouffant-style wig that she doesn't like getting wet, gaudy dresses, and heels. |
| Reba the Mail Lady | S. Epatha Merkerson | Amail carrier who is often confused by the nature of the playhouse. |
| The King of Cartoons | Gilbert Lewis (first season) William H. Marshall (subsequent seasons) | Aking who rules Cartoonland who shows a brief cartoon clip during his segment with his catch phrase "Let the cartoon begin!" In the first season, the King of Cartoons would show the cartoon on his projector. In the second season, he would show the cartoon on Pee-wee's television which he got Pee-wee as a housewarming gift following the remodeling of the Playhouse. |
| Tito | Roland Rodriguez | The playhouselifeguard, he usually enters the house during a group activity. The character was dropped after season one. |
| Ricardo | Vic Trevino | A soccer star with an apparent medical background. |
| Mrs. Steve | Shirley Stoler | A frequent visitor to the playhouse during the first season, she enjoyed eating and "snooping around" when Pee-wee was not seen. The character was dropped after season one. |
| Mrs. Rene | Suzanne Kent | A Jewish neighbor of Pee-wee's who served as a replacement for Mrs. Steve after the first season. She is the polar opposite of Mrs. Steve, being much more tolerant and fun-loving. |
| Dixie | Johann Carlo | A no-nonsensetaxi driver, she introduces the King of Cartoons in the first season by playing her trumpet. The character was dropped after season one and the King's introduction is done by the three flowers. |
| The Playhouse Gang (first version) | Opal:Natasha Lyonne Elvis:Shaun Weiss Cher: Diane Yang | Three children who interact with Pee-wee during the first season and resembledhippies. |
| The Playhouse Gang (second version) | Fabian: Vaughn Tyree Jelks Li'l Punkin:Alisan Porter Rapunzel: Stephanie Walski | A second group of three children who interact with Pee-wee in two episodes of the second season. |
| Roosevelt | An unnamed dog actor | Pee-wee's dog. Pee-wee can understand what he says. One of its trainers was Paul's real-life younger brother Luke Rubenfeld. |
| Character | Voiced and puppeteered by where applicable | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Jambi | John Paragon | A blue-faced (later green)genie who lives as a disembodied head in a jeweled box, he usually appears once per show to grant Pee-wee a wish, often with unexpected results. To power his magic, he makes the group and audience chant "Mecca lecca hi, mecca hiney ho." |
| Chairry | Alison Mork | A bluish-green armchair with eyes on the chair back, a mouth between the seat cushions, and armrests that flap around, she occasionally hugs Pee-wee when he sits on her. |
| Magic Screen | Alison Mork | A screen on wheels that slightly resembles anEtch-A-Sketch, she shows films and Pee-wee would frequently jump into the screen to interact with a fantasy land inside that would also include Pee-wee connecting the dots there. |
| Pterri | John Paragon (seasons 1, 3–5) George McGrath (season 2) | A greenpteranodon and one of Pee-wee's closest friends, he usually acts like a sensitive young child. |
| Mr. Window | Ric Heitzman | The window to the left of the playhouse door when inside the playhouse, he has googly eyes and talks by moving his yellow window pane up and down. His role on the show is to introduce other characters. |
| Clockey | Kevin Carlson | A yellow and red clock shaped like a map of the United States, he often introduces cartoons. |
| Conky 2000 | Gregory Harrison (season 1);[33] Kevin Carlson (subsequent seasons) | The playhouse robot who gives Pee-wee the "secret word" each week and serves as a computer element. He spoke with astutter, and is made from various parts of old electronics, including old camera attachments for eyes, aboombox for a chest, aphonograph for a torso, and acash register for the head. |
| Globey | George McGrath | A spinningglobe with a pair of arms at the base and a large face in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Globey speaks with a French accent and often helps Pee-wee out with geography, language, astronomy, or history questions. |
| Puppet Band | Dirty Dog:Wayne White Cool Cat: Ric Heitzman Chicky Baby: Alison Mork | Three animal puppets who comprise a 1950s-stylejazz combo and live in a corridor of the Playhouse resembling a street alley. It consists of Dirty Dog on guitar, Cool Cat on bongos, and Chicky Baby on vocals. They normally speak in rhyme, parodyingBeat generation poetry. |
| Mr. Kite | Wayne White | A pinkkite, he occasionally appears in one of the playhouse windows for weather advisories and occasional visitor announcements. |
| Randy | Wayne White | The main antagonist. A red-headedmarionette who serves as the playhouse bully, usually making life miserable for everyone. Sometimes, Pee-wee would have to set him straight as seen when Randy tried cigarettes and once tried to take over the show while Pee-wee was out getting groceries. |
| Billy Baloney | Paul Reubens | A ventriloquist dummy, he slightly resembles Randy in appearance (but blonde) which Pee-wee himself operates on occasion. |
| Dog Chair | George McGrath | A whitechaise longue, which is similar to Chairry but resembling the face of a dog. |
| The Ants | Miscellaneous | Occasionally, Pee-wee would check on hisformicarium; a short close-up animated sequence shows the ants engaged in some human activity. |
| The Dinosaur Family | Red Dinosaur: George McGrath Light Blue Dinosaur: Alison Mork Blue Dinosaur: Ric Heitzman Pink Dinosaur: Kevin Carlson | A den of miniature clay-animation anthropomorphic dinosaurs, they live in a mouse hole in the playhouse. The Red Dinosaur resembles an anthropomorphicTriceratops, the Light Blue Dinosaur resembles aStyracosaurus, and the Blue and Pink Dinosaurs havePteranodon-like heads. |
| Food | Miscellaneous | The contents of Pee-wee's refrigerator, these clay-animation food items dance and juggle. One episode had them assisting Ricardo in telling Pee-wee and the viewers about the different food groups. In two episodes, they have been shown watching something in their movie theater when Pee-wee looks for something inside the refrigerator which often causes a mustached egg roll to turn around and quote "Hey, what are you doing"?! The other foods then starts to clamor at him as Pee-wee obtains the item and shuts the door. |
| Three Flowers | Ric Heitzman George McGrath Wayne White Alison Mork | These three flowers live in a flowerbed in a window on the right side of the playhouse door. After Dixie was retired from the show after season 1, they took over the King of Cartoons’s introduction for the rest of the series. |
| Fish | George McGrath did the voices for both fish, when they laughed in unison, Alison Mork provided the additional fish laugh. | Two fish who live in the playhouse aquarium. |
| Penny | Anna Seidman, others | Aclay animation short featuring a blonde girl withpennies for eyes, who described some situations in her life and daily activities. Note: Penny was created byNick Park, the creator of Aardman’sWallace & Gromit. |
| Knucklehead | Gregory Harrison (season 1) Kevin Carlson (season 2) | A large image of a side view of a hand fist, with "googly eyes" and lipstick who tells badknock-knock jokes. |
| Cowntess | George McGrath | A life-sized, talkingHolstein cattle that speaks in an elegant accent. |
| Salesman | Ric Heitzman | A full-bodied cartoonish salesman, dressed in the same tacky suit as Pee-wee’s, he rings the doorbell and exclaims "I'm going door-to-door to make you this incredible offer!" A horror music would play during this time as Pee-wee would frantically shut the door quoting "salesman" in a mortifying voice. In the salesman's final appearance in the episode "Party", Pee-wee actually asked him what the incredible offer was and got free foil from him which Pee-wee used to add to his foil ball. |
| Floory | Kevin Carlson | A section of the playhouse floor that stands up and talks. He was discovered by Pee-wee and his friends following the playhouse remodeling in season two. To continue interacting with Floory, Pee-wee moved the teepee that originally covered him to another spot in the playhouse. |
| Chandelier | Alison Mork | A talkingchandelier who has a French accent. |
| Magic Glasses | Wayne White | A pair of glasses attached to a hat that has a monkey's head and arms on them. Pee-wee puts them on him and sees various things through them. While the Magic Glasses often says "Put me on Pee-wee", it has occasionally said other things as seen in "Party" when it suggested that Pee-wee invites Reba to his party. |
| Exercise Belt | Ric Hetizman | A vintagevibrating belt machine. |
| Toys | Miscellaneous | These are Pee-wee's strange toys he keeps in a smiley face-shaped window, with movable shelves inside. By season 2, the toys were moved to another part of the Playhouse during the remodeling and Clocky was put in their original place. They remained to be unseen until the Christmas special. |
| El Hombre | Tito Larriva | A Spanish-language cartoon about a superhero who stops crime, thwarts strangers, saves people's lives and rights any other wrongs. Six different clay animation shorts are featured on this show. |
As soon as it first aired,Pee-wee's Playhouse fascinated media theorists and commentators, many of whom championed the show as apostmodernist hodgepodge of characters and situations that appeared to thumb its nose at the racist andsexist presumptions of dominant culture.[34][35] For example, Pee-wee's friends, both human and not, were of diverse cultural and racial origins.[36] In a review of the first season forThe New York Times,John J. O'Connor called it "undoubtedly this season's most imaginative and disarming new series".[37] O'Connor lauded the show's mixed-media format and commented that the Saturday morning kids' programming of "low-cost, dreary and occasionally questionable cartoons will never be the same" afterPee-wee.[37] Of Pee-wee, O'Connor said, "He whips up a tightly contained world in which anything is possible as long as it doesn't hurt anyone", and "He's sweetly looney and unpredictable, gentle yet always tip-toeing on the edge of devastating absurdity. He is a one-man force battling the plague of boredom that has settled on Saturday-morning programming for children."[37] The show's subversiveness and its "apparent outbreak of playful queerness during the politically reactionary Reagan-Bush/Moral Majority years was a key factor of many adults' enjoyment of the show".[38]Captain Kangaroo'sBob Keeshan hailed the show's "awesome production values", adding, "with the possible exception ofthe Muppets, you can't find such creativity anywhere on TV."[39]
"I'm just trying to illustrate that it's okay to be different — not that it's good, not that it's bad, but that it's all right. I'm trying to tell kids to have a good time and to encourage them to be creative and to question things," Reubens told an interviewer inRolling Stone.[40]
In 2007,Pee-wee's Playhouse was named toTime magazine's list of the 100 Best TV Shows.[5]
On November 1, 2011, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the show, a book by Caseen Gaines calledInside Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon, was released byECW Press.[41]
In the wake of Reubens' death from cancer in 2023, John Jurgensen ofThe Wall Street Journal wrote: "Pee-wee Herman wasn't originally meant for kids. So when Paul Reubens did make a Saturday-morning TV show for them, his signature character came in a package shaped byunderground art,punk rock andimprov comedy. AsMTV was to cable andThe Simpsons would soon be to prime-time,Pee-wee's Playhouse was a disrupter of the TV domain for kids. The show's psychedelic absurdism also attracted an audience of teens, college students and savvy parents of the show's target viewers. With his wild remix of the kids' shows that he grew up with as ababy boomer, Reubens put a stamp onGeneration X."[42]
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 13 | September 13, 1986 (1986-09-13) | December 6, 1986 (1986-12-06) | |
| 2 | 10 | September 19, 1987 (1987-09-19) | November 21, 1987 (1987-11-21) | |
| Christmas special | December 21, 1988 (1988-12-21) | |||
| 3 | 2 | Spring 1989 | Fall 1989 | |
| 4 | 10 | September 16, 1989 (1989-09-16) | November 18, 1989 (1989-11-18) | |
| 5 | 10 | September 15, 1990 (1990-09-15) | November 17, 1990 (1990-11-17) | |
Image Entertainment first released all 45 episodes ofPee-wee's Playhouse on DVD in 2004. The DVDs were marketed as containing "8 Lost shows" (meaning episodes that hadn't been released on video before). However, "Stolen Apples" had been first released on VHS from Hi-Tops Video in 1988 on the "Festival of Fun" tape.
On July 3, 2013,Shout! Factory announced that they had acquired the rights to the entire series from Paul Reubens, which was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 21, 2014, the release went out of print several years later. Shout! Factory reissued the complete series Blu-ray on August 27th 2024. In addition, the entire series was digitally reconstructed from the original 16 mm film elements and original audio tracks, with some special effects recreated digitally.[47][48][49][50][51] The restored episodes have also been made available on streaming platforms in May 2024.[52]
| DVD name | Ep # | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pee-wee's Playhouse #1 | 23 | November 16, 2004 | Includes all episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 |
| Pee-wee's Playhouse #2 | 22 | November 16, 2004 | Includes all episodes from Seasons 3 to 5 |
| Pee Wee's Playhouse: Christmas Special | 1 | October 19, 2004 | |
| Pee Wee's Playhouse: The Complete Collection | 45 + 1 | October 19, 2010 | Includes all episodes from Seasons 1 to 5 plus the Christmas Special |
| Pee-wee's Playhouse: Seasons 1 and 2 (Special Edition) | 23 | October 21, 2014 | Includes all episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 (Remastered) |
| Pee-wee's Playhouse: Seasons 3 to 5 (Special Edition) | 23 | March 10, 2015 | Includes all episodes from Seasons 3 to 5 plus the Christmas Special (Remastered) |
| Blu-ray name | Ep # | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Complete Series | 45 + Special | October 21, 2014 August 27th 2024 (reissue) | Includes all 45 episodes plus the Christmas Special (Remastered) |
