Pee-wee's Playhouse
The premise of the show was that host Pee-wee Herman went to play in a fantastic house (situated in Puppetland) known as the Playhouse, which was filled with toys, gadgets, talking furniture and appliances (e.g., Magic Screen and Chairy) and puppet characters such as Conky The Robot, Pterri the baby Pteranodon and Jambi the Genie (John Paragon), a disembodied genie's head who lives in a jeweled box. The Playhouse was also 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 small group of children, The Playhouse Gang.
Although primarily a live-action comedy, each episode included segments featuring puppetry, video animation and prepared sequences using Chroma-key and stock footage, e.g., when Pee-wee jumps into the Magic Screen, as well as inserted clay animation sequences (some made by Richard Goleszowski and Nick Park, creators of Wallace & Gromit) and excerpts from cartoons from the Golden Age of American animation, usually presented by the character "The King of Cartoons". Each episode also featured specially written soundtrack music by noted rock/pop musicians such as Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Todd Rundgren, Mitchell Froom and The Residents. The show's theme song performance was credited to "Ellen Shaw", though in her autobiography, Cyndi Lauper admits to being the actual singer.
Each episode usually contained a running gag particular to that episode, and/or a specific event or dilemma that would send Pee-wee into an emotional frenzy. The show had many recurring gags, themes, and devices. For example, at the beginning of each episode, viewers were told the day's "secret word" (often issued by Conky the Robot) and were instructed to "scream real loud" every time a character on the show said the word. Pee-wee would often say the word himself at the end of the episode, just before launching himself and his little scooter out of the playhouse through a hidden exit. During the closing credits, images of him were chroma-keyed together with footage of various roads and highways to make it appear that he was traveling along them. At the beginning of each episode he is seen travelling into the house, on the same scooter.
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 Fall of that year. The show was replaced by reruns of The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy.
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