''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is an American television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's popular stage show and the TV special '' The Pee-wee Herman Show'', produced for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, 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 on '' TV Guide''s Top Cult Shows Ever, respectively.

Development

The Pee-wee Herman character was developed by Reubens into a live stage show titled '' The Pee-wee Herman Show'' in 1980. It features many characters that would go on to appear in ''Playhouse'', including Captain Carl, Jambi the Genie, Miss Yvonne, Pterri the Pterodactyl, and Clocky. While enjoying continuous popularity with the show, Reubens teamed with young director Tim Burton in 1985 to make the comedy film '' Pee-wee's Big Adventure''. It became one of the year's surprise hits, costing a relatively modest $6 million to make but taking in $45 million at the box office. After seeing the success of ''Pee-wee's Big Adventure'', the CBS network approached Reubens with an ill-received cartoon series proposal. 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 of per episode (comparable to that of a half-hour prime-time sitcom), and full creative control although CBS did request a few minor changes over the years. Reubens assembled a supporting troupe that included ex- Groundlings and cast members from ''The Pee-wee Herman Show'', including Phil Hartman, John Paragon,

Lynne Marie Stewart Lynne Marie Stewart (born December 14, 1946) is an American actress, best known for her performance as Miss Yvonne, the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppet Land. She originated the role in the 1981 stage show ''The Pee-wee Herman Show'', continuing it ...

, Laurence Fishburne, and

S. Epatha Merkerson Sharon Epatha Merkerson (born November 28, 1952) is a film, stage, and television actor. Known by her stage name S. Epatha Merkerson, she has received numerous high-profile accolades for her work, including an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...

. Production began in New York City in the summer of 1986 in a converted loft on Broadway, which one of the show's writers, George McGrath, described as a " sweatshop". Reubens moved the production to Los Angeles for season two in 1987, resulting in a new set and a more relaxed work atmosphere. The creative design of the show was concocted by a troupe of artists including Wayne White, Gary Panter, Craig Bartlett, Nick Park,

Richard Goleszowski Richard Starzak, previously known as Richard "Golly" Goleszowski, is an English animator, screenwriter, and film director. Life and career Starzak was born in Suffolk in 1959 and grew up in Ipswich, attending Northgate Grammar School. After co ...

, Gregory Harrison, Ric Heitzman, and Phil 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!" 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 think Mike Kelley said, and it's right, that it's kind of like the Googie style – it's like those LA types of coffee shops and stuff but kind of psychedelic, over-the-top." Several artistic filmmaking techniques are featured on the program including chroma key,

stop-motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

, and clay animation. ''Pee-Wee's Playhouse'' was designed as an educational yet entertaining and artistic show for children. Its conception was greatly influenced by 1950s shows Reubens had watched as a child, like '' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'', '' The Mickey Mouse Club'', '' Captain Kangaroo'', and '' Howdy Doody''. The show quickly acquired a dual audience of kids and adults. Reubens, always trying to make Pee-wee a positive role model, sought to make a significantly moral show that would teach children the ethics of reciprocity. 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.

Production

At the start of season two, the show moved from its New York City warehouse studio to facilities at the Hollywood Center Studios, creating changes in personnel and a change to the set that allowed the show to take advantage of the additional space. The show changed production facilities again in 1989 during its fourth season, this time at the Culver Studios, also in Los Angeles.

Format

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, Pterri the baby

Pteranodon ''Pteranodon'' (); from Ancient Greek (''pteron'', "wing") and (''anodon'', "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with ''P. longiceps'' having a wingspan of . They lived during the late Cr ...

), and Jambi ( John Paragon), a disembodied genie's head who lives in a jeweled box. The Playhouse is visited by a regular cast of human characters, including Miss Yvonne (

), Reba The Mail Lady (

), Captain Carl ( Phil Hartman), Cowboy Curtis ( Laurence Fishburne), and a small group of children, The Playhouse Gang. Although primarily a live-action comedy, each episode includes segments featuring puppetry, video animation, and prepared sequences using

Chroma-key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...

and stock footage (for example when Pee-wee jumps into the Magic Screen), as well as inserted clay animation sequences (some made by Aardman Animations, who would later make '' Wallace & Gromit'') and excerpts from cartoons from the

Golden Age of American animation The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the late 1960s, where theatrical animated shorts began losing popularity to the ...

and in the public domain, usually presented by the character "The King of Cartoons". Each episode features specially written soundtrack music by rock and pop musicians such as Mark Mothersbaugh (

Devo Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...

), Todd Rundgren, Mitchell Froom, and

The Residents The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, ''Meet the Residents'' (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music vi ...

. The show's theme song performance is credited to "Ellen Shaw", though in her autobiography, Cyndi Lauper admits to being the actual singer. 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 5 seasons and 45 episodes. The last original episode aired on November 17, 1990. In July 1991, Reubens was arrested for exposing himself in a Sarasota, Florida, adult movie theater, prompting CBS to immediately stop airing its ''Playhouse'' re-runs, which were originally intended to air until late 1991. The show was replaced by reruns of ''

The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy ''The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy'' is an American animated television series that aired on CBS from September 17, 1988 to September 1, 1990. Based on the dolls Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Ann, Andy by Johnny Gruelle, the series was produced d ...

''.

Soundtracks

The music for the show was provided by a diverse set of musicians, including Mark Mothersbaugh,

, Todd Rundgren,

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered internation ...

(who provided the score for both of the ''Pee-wee'' movies), Mitchell Froom, Van Dyke Parks,

George S. Clinton George Stanley Clinton, Jr. (born June 17, 1947) is an American composer, songwriter, arranger, and session musician. Biography Clinton was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His musical career began in Nashville while earning degrees in music and ...

, and Dweezil Zappa with

Scott Thunes Scott Thunes (pronounced "TOO-nis") (born January 20, 1960) is a bass player, formerly with Frank Zappa, Wayne Kramer, Steve Vai, Andy Prieboy, Mike Keneally, Fear, The Waterboys, Big Bang Beat, and others. Thunes was raised in San Anselmo, ...

(spelled 'Tunis' in the credits). Mothersbaugh, who later went on to become a fixture in composing music for children's shows like '' Rugrats'', joined the show on hiatus from recording with

. The opening prelude theme is an interpretation of Les Baxter's " Quiet Village". The theme song, which originally followed the prelude, was performed by Cyndi Lauper (credited as "Ellen Shaw"), imitating

Betty Boop Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick.Pointer (2017) She originally appeared in the ''Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleischer ...

. For the final season in 1990, a new version of the prelude theme was recorded, and the opening theme was slightly edited.

Cast and crew

Many now-well-known TV and film actors appeared on the show, including

Sandra Bernhard Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, singer, comedian and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures. She is perhaps b ...

, Laurence Fishburne, Phil Hartman, Natasha Lyonne,

, Jimmy Smits, and Lynne Stewart. Future heavy metal musician and filmmaker

Rob Zombie Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings; January 12, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and voice actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have be ...

was a production assistant, and future filmmaker John Singleton was a security guard. Season 3 (which consisted of only three episodes) included an all-star Christmas special featuring the regular cast, with appearances by

Annette Funicello Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She was one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the orig ...

, Frankie Avalon,

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

, Dinah Shore, Joan Rivers, Zsa Zsa Gabor,

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

, Whoopi Goldberg,

Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the " ...

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

, Charo,

k.d. lang Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop (music), pop and country music, country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical perfor ...

, the

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, and

Grace Jones Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a model, singer and actress. Born in Jamaica, she and her family moved to Syracuse, New York, when she was a teenager. Jones began her modelling career in New York state, then in Paris, working for ...

Humans

Puppet and object characters

Reception

Critical reception

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 characters and situations that appeared to thumb its nose at the racist and

sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...

presumptions of dominant culture. For example, Pee-wee's friends, both human and not, were of diverse cultural and racial origins. In its entire run, ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' won 15

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s, as well as other awards. '' Captain Kangaroos Bob Keeshan hailed the show's "awesome production values," adding, "with the possible exception of the Muppets, you can't find such creativity anywhere on TV." "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''. On November 1, 2011, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the show, a book by Caseen Gaines called ''Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon'', was released by

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholarly book ...

Awards and nominations

14th Daytime Emmy Awards The 14th Daytime Emmy Awards were held on Tuesday, June 30, 1987 to commemorate excellence in daytime programming from the previous year (1986). Telecast from 3-5 p.m. on ABC, the ceremony preempted ''General Hospital''. Winners in each category ...

– 1987 ** Outstanding Makeup – Sharon Ilson (won) ** Outstanding Hairstyling – Sally Hershberger and Eric Gregg (won) ** Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design – Gary Panter, Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr., Nancy Deren, Wayne White, and Ric Heitzman (won) ** Outstanding Film Sound Mixing – Rolf Pardula and Ken Hahn ** Outstanding Videotape Editing – Paul Dougherty, Doug Jines, Joe Castellano, Les Kaye, and Howard Silver ** Outstanding Graphics and Title Design – Prudence Fenton and Phil Trumbo (won) *

15th Daytime Emmy Awards The 15th Daytime Emmy Awards were held on Wednesday, June 29, 1988, to commemorate excellence in daytime programming from March 6, 1987-March 5, 1988 and aired on CBS. The ceremony was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Airing fr ...

– 1988 ** Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design – Gary Panter, Wayne White, Ric Heitzman,

Jeremy Railton Jeremy may refer to: * Jeremy (given name), a given name * Jérémy, a French given name * ''Jeremy'' (film), a 1973 film * "Jeremy" (song), a song by Pearl Jam * Jeremy (snail), a left-coiled garden snail that died in 2017 * ''Jeremy'', a 1919 ...

, James Higginson, and Paul Reubens (won) ** Outstanding Makeup – Ve Neill (won) ** Outstanding Videotape Editing – John Ward Nielson for "Playhouse in Outer Space" *

16th Daytime Emmy Awards The 16th Daytime Emmy Awards were held on Thursday, June 29, 1989, on NBC to commemorate excellence in daytime programming from March 6, 1988-March 5, 1989. The awards aired from 3-5 p.m. EST, preempting '' Santa Barbara''. Again this year, the a ...

– 1989 ** Outstanding Hairstyling –

Yolanda Toussieng Yolanda Toussieng (born 1949) is a two-time Oscar-winning makeup artist. Her first win came at the 1993 Academy Awards for Best Makeup for the film ''Mrs. Doubtfire'', which she shared with Greg Cannom and Ve Neill. The second win was at 1994 ...

Jerry Masone for "To Tell The Tooth" (won, tied with '' The Oprah Winfrey Show'') ** Outstanding Videotape Editing – Charles Randazzo, Peter W. Moyer, David Pincus, and Steve Purcell for "To Tell The Tooth" (won) ** Outstanding Film Sound Editing – Steve Kirklys, Steve Michael, Peter Cole, Ken Dahlinger, Greg Teall, and John Walker for "To Tell The Tooth" (won, tied with '' Muppet Babies'') *

18th Daytime Emmy Awards The 18th Daytime Emmy Awards were held on Thursday, June 27, 1991, on CBS, to commemorate excellence in American daytime programming from the previous year (1990). The awards were hosted by ''The Price Is Right'' host Bob Barker. For the first ti ...

– 1991 ** Outstanding Graphics and Title Design – Paul Reubens, Prudence Fenton, and Dorne Huebler (won) ** Outstanding Film Sound Editing – Peter Cole, Chris Trent, Glenn A. Jordan, Steve Kirklys, Ken Dahlinger, and John Walker (won) ** Outstanding Film Sound Mixing – Bo Harwood, Peter Cole, Chris Trent, and Troy Smith (won)

Episodes

Home media

Hi-Tops Video releases

* Vol. 1: "Ice Cream Soup" * Vol. 2: "Luau for Two" * Vol. 3: "Rainy Day" / "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" / "Cowboy Fun (Just Another Day)" * Vol. 4: "Beauty Makeover" * Vol. 5: "Restaurant" * Vol. 6: "Ants in Your Pants" * Vol. 7: "Monster in the Playhouse" * Festival of Fun: "The Gang's All Here" / "Stolen Apples" / "Party" / "The Cowboy and the Cowntess" / "Monster in the Playhouse" * Vol. 8: "Open House" * Vol. 9: "Puppy in the Playhouse" * Vol. 10: "Pajama Party" * Vol. 11: "Pee-wee's Store" * Vol. 12: "Pee-wee Catches a Cold" * Vol. 13: "Tons of Fun" * "Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" * Vol. 14: "School" * Vol. 15: "Why Wasn't I Invited?"

Hi-Tops Video LaserDisc releases

* Fun-o-Rama: "Ice Cream Soup" / "Luau for Two" / "Rainy Day" / "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" * Potpourri: "Just Another Day" / "Beauty Makeover" / "The Restaurant" / "Ants in Your Pants" * "Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" (also released by MGM/UA Home Video in 1996)

MGM/UA Home Video releases

* Vol. 1: "Open House" / "Pee-wee Catches a Cold" * Vol. 2: "I Remember Curtis" / "Conky's Breakdown" * Vol. 3: "Store" / "Playhouse in Outer Space" * Vol. 4: "Pajama Party" / "To Tell the Tooth" * Vol. 5: "The Gang's All Here" / "Party" * Vol. 6: "Luau for Two" / "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" * Vol. 7: "Fire in the Playhouse" / "Love That Story" * Vol. 8: "Sick? Did Somebody Say Sick?" / "Miss Yvonne's Visit" * "Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" * Vol. 9: "Dr. Pee-wee and the Del Rubios" / "Rebarella" * Vol. 10: "Let's Play Office" / "Mystery" * Vol. 11: "Front Page Pee-wee" / "Tango Time" * Vol. 12: "Playhouse Day" / "Accidental Playhouse" * Vol. 13: "Ice Cream Soup" / "Puppy in the Playhouse" * Vol. 14: "The Cowboy and the Cowntess" / "Reba Eats and Pterri Runs" * Vol. 15: "Tons of Fun" / "School" * Vol. 16: "Why Wasn't I Invited?" / "Ants in Your Pants"

DVD releases

Image Entertainment has released all 45 episodes of ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' on DVD as NTSC Region 0 discs.

Blu-ray releases

On July 3, 2013,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

announced that they had acquired the rights to the entire series from Paul Reubens, which was released on Blu-ray on October 21, 2014. In addition, the entire series was digitally remastered from the original 16 mm film elements and original audio tracks. As of March 24, 2022, this title is out-of-print.

References

External links

Official site for ''Pee-wee's Playhouse''
*
''Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse'' – Book Website
* ttp://www.peewee.com/broadway/tickets.html The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway {{DEFAULTSORT:Pee-wee's Playhouse 1986 American television series debuts 1990 American television series endings 1980s American children's comedy television series 1990s American children's comedy television series American children's education television series American television series with live action and animation American television shows featuring puppetry CBS original programming English-language television shows Genies in television Pee-wee Herman