Pee-wee's Playhouse

Pee-wee's Playhouse was a half-hour CBS USA TV Saturday morning "children's show" starring Pee-wee Herman (played by Paul Reubens) that aired from 1986 until 1991 and was enormously popular with both children and adults. The show returned in reruns from 1998 to 1999 on Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family). All 45 episodes (plus the Christmas Special) are now on DVD by Image Entertainment.

Related Topics:
CBS - Pee-wee Herman - Paul Reubens - 1986 - 1991 - 1998 - 1999 - ABC Family - DVD - Image Entertainment

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The Pee-wee Herman character was created by comedian Paul Reubens. One commentator described the character as combining "a transgressive sexuality, unabashed materialism, obsessive neatness and a sly anti-authoritarian pose, dressed up in a distinctive costume of white shoes, white socks, red bowtie, tight plaid suit, rouge and lipstick".

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Pee-wee first appeared as a cameo character in a revue that was staged while Reubens was a member of the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe The Groundlings. He then developed a live stage show starring Pee-wee, and when it became successful he sold it to TV, and it was filmed as an (adult) comedy special. He then teamed with young director Tim Burton in 1985 and they made the comedy film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. It became one of the year's surprise hits, and was also hugely profitable -- it cost a relatively modest US$8 million to make, but took US$45 million at the box office.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - The Groundlings - Tim Burton - Pee-wee's Big Adventure

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Thanks to the movie's runaway success, in 1986 CBS offered Reubens a Saturday-morning TV timeslot, total creative control and a huge budget of US$325,000 per episode (a figure usually reserved for prime-time sitcoms). The result was one of the most original children's shows ever made, combining live action, video effects, animation, puppetry and vintage cartoons.

Related Topics:
CBS - Sitcom

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At the beginning of each show, viewers were told the day's "secret word" and were instructed to "scream real loud" every time a character on the show said the word, which was given to Pee-wee by his robot friend, Conky. But he often was the sucker for his own tricks, as he accidentally said the secret word and everyone practically screams in his face. Also, throughout the series, Pee-wee demanded quiet and silence from the characters and perhaps the viewers (see below).

Related Topics:
Robot - Conky - Quiet - Silence

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The show was notorious for its campy undertones and double entendre.

Related Topics:
Camp - Double entendre

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As soon as it first aired, Pee-wee's Playhouse fascinated media theorists and commentators, many of whom championed the show as a postmodernist hodgepodge of queer characters and situations which appeared to soar in the face of domineering racist, sexist, and heterosexist presumptions. In its first season, the show won six Emmys as well as other awards.

Related Topics:
Postmodernist - Queer - Racist - Sexist - Heterosexist - Emmy

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"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 in Rolling Stone.

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Many now well-known T.V. and Film actors received their major break on the show, including the late Phil Hartman, as "Kaptain Karl;" Laurence Fishburne, as "Cowboy Curtis;" Jimmy Smits, as "Your authorized conky repairman;", Lynne Stewart as "the most beautiful woman in Puppetland," Miss Yvonne; S. Epatha Merkerson, as "Reba the Mail Lady"; Natasha Lyonne as one of the children, Opal; and Sandra Bernhard as Rhonda the Picturephone Operator.

Related Topics:
Phil Hartman - Laurence Fishburne - Jimmy Smits - Lynne Stewart - Miss Yvonne - S. Epatha Merkerson - Natasha Lyonne - Sandra Bernhard

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The music for the show was provided by artists including Mark Mothersbaugh, Todd Rundgren, Danny Elfman, Mitchell Froom, Van Dyke Parks, George Clinton and Dweezil Zappa.

Related Topics:
Mark Mothersbaugh - Todd Rundgren - Danny Elfman - Mitchell Froom - Van Dyke Parks - George Clinton - Dweezil Zappa

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The opening prelude theme is an interpolation of Martin Denny's "Quiet Village". Although credited to "Ellen Shaw", the show's jaunty theme song was in fact performed by Cyndi Lauper.

Related Topics:
Martin Denny - Cyndi Lauper

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