Pee-wee's Playhouse

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Pee-wee's Playhouse
1989 promotional art by Gary Panter
Creator	Paul Reubens
Presenter	Pee-wee Herman
Starring	Paul Reubens, Laurence Fishburne, Phil Hartman, Lynne Marie Stewart, S. Epatha Merkerson, Gilbert Lewis, William H. Marshall, Roland Rodriguez, Vic Trevino, Shirley Stoler, Suzanne Kent, Johann Carlo
Voices	John Paragon, Alison Mork, George McGrath, Ric Heitzman, Kevin Carlson, Gregory Harrison, Wayne White, Paul Reubens, Avriel Hillman, Tito Larriva
Theme Music Composer	Mark Mothersbaugh, Les Baxter
Composer	Mark Mothersbaugh, Todd Rundgren, The Residents, et al.
Producer	Paul Reubens, Richard Abramson
Seasons / Series	5
Episodes	45 episodes, with 2 specials
Runtime	23-24 minutes per episode
Network	CBS
Picture Format	NTSC
First Aired	September 13th 1986 – November 17th 1990

Pee-wee's Playhouse was an American children's television series starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, living in his colorful Playhouse, full of talking chairs, animals, gadgets and various other puppet and human characters. The series became a success, running for five seasons from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991.

Designed to be both educational and entertaining, the series was noted for its creative design (handled by a troupe of artists which included Gary Panter), its blend of live-action footage with chroma key and stop-motion animation, and for its music, which was provided by musicians such as Mark Mothersbaugh, Todd Rundgren, Danny Elfman and (from the second season) The Residents.

History

Background

Comedian Paul Reubens developed the child-like Pee-wee Herman character with Phil Hartman in the late 1970s, during their time in the Los Angeles improv comedy troupe The Groundlings. The character made his television debut in 1979 with an appearance on the program The Dating Game.

Following an unsuccessful audition for Saturday Night Live in 1980, Reubens took the character to the stage with a midnight stage show The Pee-wee Herman Show; the stage show became a success, with one performance at the Roxy Theater being taped and aired by HBO in 1981. The stage show was similar in style to the later Pee-wee's Playhouse TV series, but featured more adult humor.

The stage show was followed by a feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, in 1985. The film became a surprise success, taking in $40 million at the box office (having cost only $7 million to make), and was followed by two stand-alone sequels, Big Top Pee-wee and Pee-wee's Big Holiday, released in 1988 and 2016 respectively.

The show

Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman in Pee-wee's Playhouse

In 1986, CBS signed Reubens to produce, direct and star in a live-action Saturday morning children's program, Pee-wee's Playhouse. The series was given a budget of $325,000 per episode, comparable to a half-hour prime-time sitcom, and Reubens was allowed full creative control (although CBS would request a number of changes over the years).

Reubens intended Pee-wee's Playhouse as an educational yet entertaining and artistic show for children, heavily influenced by children's shows Reubens had watched as a child in the 1950s such as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, The Mickey Mouse Club, Captain Kangaroo, and Howdy Doody. Reubens, having decided to make Pee-wee a positive role model, sought to make a moral program that would teach children the ethics of reciprocity.

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 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, Laurence Fishburne, and S. Epatha Merkerson.

The creative design of the show was concocted by a troupe of artists including Wayne White, Gary Panter, Craig Bartlett, Nick Park, Richard Goleszowski, Gregory Harrison, Ric Heitzman, and Phil Trumbo. Several artistic filmmaking techniques are featured on the program including chroma key, stop-motion animation, and clay animation.

The show quickly acquired a dual audience of kids and adults. Reubens believed that children liked Pee-wee's Playhouse because it was fast-paced, colorful, and "never talked down to them", while parents liked it because it reminded them of the past.

At the start of season two, the show moved from its New York City warehouse studio to facilities at the Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, creating changes in personnel, a more relaxed work atmosphere, and a new set. The show moved again in 1989 during its fourth season, to Culver Studios, also in Los Angeles.

Music

The music for Pee-wee's Playhouse was performed by a diverse set of musicians, including Mark Mothersbaugh (on hiatus from Devo), Todd Rundgren and Danny Elfman (who had provided the score for the films Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Big Top Pee-wee), as well as Mitchell Froom, Van Dyke Parks, George S. Clinton, and Dweezil Zappa with Scott Thunes.

Mothersbaugh, who had never scored a TV show before Pee-wee's Playhouse, would later go on to compose music for other children's shows such as Rugrats and Yo Gabba Gabba!. He described the process of composing music for Pee-wee's Playhouse in a 2006 interview:

"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."

No official soundtrack album was ever released for the show, with Warner Bros. Records eventually dropping their option to release a soundtrack in 1990.

The Residents' contributions

Beginning with the first episode of the second season, "Open House", The Residents contributed music to a total of five episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse (as well as "[two or three] TV commercials" for Pee-wee Herman toys).

To date, The Residents' music for Pee-wee's Playhouse has not been officially released, however the music featured in "Open House" has circulated widely among fans due to its release on a number of bootlegs.

Season 2

• Episode 1: "Open House"
• Episode 9: "Playhouse in Outer Space"
• Episode 10: "Pajama Party"

Season 3

• Episode 2: "To Tell the Tooth"

Season 5

• Episode 3: "Front Page Pee-wee"

See also

• List of soundtracks and scores by The Residents
• "Open House"

External links and references

• Pee-wee Herman official website
• Pee-wee's Playhouse at Wikipedia
• Pee-wee Herman at Wikipedia
• Pee-wee's Playhouse at IMDb