Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse

by Caseen Gaines

  “Like a lot of people, we grew up watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” Sean Johnson explains. “We used to watch the show and annoy our parents by screaming whenever someone said the secret word. So, to work on this show was amazing. It’s so boring to say it was a dream come true, but it really was.”

  The Swazzle puppeteers in rehearsals [© Swazzle Inc.]

  Pee-wee Learns to Fly

  On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, a sold-out audience of thousands packed into Club Nokia, many with Pee-wee Herman dolls in hand and red bowties around their necks. For those who grew up watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse in the 1980s, this was the must-see event of the year, and everyone approaching the venue could sense the anticipation and excitement in the air.

  As the crowd gathered inside, the cast and crew prepared for the show ahead, the culmination of many sleepless nights and long rehearsals during the day. For those who had been involved in the original show, this night marked what they hoped would be a triumphant return to a concept that had been developed nearly 30 years earlier. If they were lucky, it would be a testament to all the hard work and dedication they had shown in the early ’80s to create an event that would transcend the small Groundling Theatre and become an internationally recognized phenomenon. As the cast and crew, new and old, huddled together before the show, everyone hoped for the best and waited for the unknown.

  As showtime neared, they all took their places backstage. Puppeteers Carla Rudy and Erik Kuska took their places near one of the video monitors behind the set and thus experienced the first seconds of Pee-wee’s return firsthand.

  “I had done tons of shows and thought this was a cool gig, but that was initially all I thought of it,” Rudy says. “But when it was the first performance and Pee-wee walked out against the curtain in that lone spotlight, it was like a rock concert. There were cheers upon cheers and it didn’t stop. That experience just brought tears to our eyes. It affects you in such a deeply profound way, and that’s when I understood how important this show was to so many people.”

  Kuska, who also grew up watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse, shares his sentiments.

  “We didn’t realize it at first, but that wave of applause and love started twenty-five years ago,” he says. “When Pee-wee went away, we all just went about our lives holding it in, but finally there was a chance to have that release opening night and it repeated every performance. Each audience had their own moment to go back to when they were on the living room floor watching Pee-wee, yelling, and eating Cap’n Crunch cereal. It was just amazing to experience that.”

  As with the children’s show, the reaction was mixed among those who worked on the original production and had received complimentary tickets from Paul for the new production. Monica Ganas, who played Mrs. Jelly Donut in 1981 cast, was pleased with the show.

  “What struck me was how different it was from other shows currently out there,” she said. “Everybody left with this big grin on their faces.” For Ganas, the experience of seeing a show she had once been in was unique.

  [© Swazzle Inc.]

  “The show was different enough where it didn’t feel like déjà vu,” she says. “But there was a kind of sentimental aspect to seeing it.”

  For Dawna Kaufmann, who had first approached Reubens with the idea of doing a live kiddie-show for adults, the experience at Club Nokia was a disappointment.

  “When we did the show, we charged people ten dollars to get in,” she says. “They did the same show that we did at the Groundling, with a couple of little changes, and charged people a hundred and twenty-five dollars to see it. It was lazy. When you increase the ticket prices and charge people twenty-five dollars to park, you have a commitment to give people one hell of a show. Paul just didn’t do that.”

  [© Swazzle Inc.]

  Nonetheless, the Club Nokia engagement was considered a rousing success and earned rave reviews from Entertainment Weekly, Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter, which paved the way for a comeback that can only be described as anything but pee-wee in size. After watching the final matinee performance with his wife, Hollywood funnyman Judd Apatow, the director of Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, spoke to Reubens about the possibility of bringing Pee-wee Herman back to the big screen.

  “He told me that he had never seen his wife laugh so hard before,” Reubens says. “I think that convinced him to approach me to do this.”

  Reubens already had two scripts lying in wait, but Apatow hired a young writer named Paul Rust to cowrite a new script with the actor that would see Pee-wee embarking on a road-trip adventure. Even though his other scripts have been once again put on the backburner, Reubens and his long list of collaborators remain hopeful that Pee-wee’s Playhouse: The Movie will find its way to theaters eventually.

  According to Reubens, Chris Rock, a documented Big Adventure fan, has given his word that he will play the villainous El Chunky Boobabi if the film gets made. During a 2006 Entertainment Weekly interview, Laurence Fishburne and S. Epatha Merkerson — who played Cowboy Curtis and Reba the Mail Lady, respectively — expressed interest in reprising their roles in a Playhouse film. Suzanne Kent, who played Mrs. Rene, would also be interested in appearing, if the opportunity came around.

  Fan Ariel Eby meets Pee-wee after The Pee-wee Herman Show [© Ariel Eby]

  “Paul spoke about the movie to me a while ago,” Kent says, “but I haven’t asked him about it since. I trust that he knows what I can do. He knows who I am. He knows my talent and I’m sure that if I’m needed, he will let me know.”

  Playhouse animator Kent Burton also hopes his services are needed for a Playhouse film and that the dinosaur family would be included.

  “A Playhouse film would be perfect because if you have ninety minutes to play with, there could be three dinosaur bits instead of one,” Burton says. “So, I have my fingers crossed.”

  Of course, a film that takes the puppet characters out of the playhouse would provide an opportunity for their operators to come back as well.

  “If we’re so lucky, we’ll be a part of the movie,” Sean Johnson says. “And hopefully we’ll be working alongside Alison Mork and Kevin Carlson and the originals from the TV show, too.”

  For Mork, a spot in a Playhouse film may be all but guaranteed.

  “When Paul let Alison and I know we weren’t going to be a part of the stage show, he gave us his personal guarantee that we would be in the Playhouse movie,” George McGrath says.

  At the time of writing, production on Pee-wee’s Playhouse: The Movie has once again reached a standstill, but Suzanne Kent is confident that the film will see the light of day.

  “Paul has always been the kind of guy that makes whatever project he wants to do happen,” she says. “It may not be exactly when he wants, but it will happen.”

  [© Swazzle Inc.]

  On May 20, 2010, it was announced that The Pee-wee Herman Show would be heading to Broadway for a six-week engagement at the new Stephen Sondheim Theatre on West 43rd Street. The news ended months of speculation among Pee-wee fans that the show might tour the country or even take up residency in Las Vegas. Most of the show’s Los Angeles cast was rehired for the New York run, but Lori Alan was unable to make the move and so she was replaced by Lexy Fridell. With the exception of Haley Jenkins, the entire Swazzle team was replaced by local puppeteers.

  [© Swazzle Inc.]

  In the weeks before the Broadway run, Reubens went on a media publicity blitz. He reminisced about Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special with Whoopi Goldberg on The View; reenacted the Big Adventure Large Marge sequence and was interviewed while riding a bicycle on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; conducted the world’s largest Tequila dance from Sturgis, South Dakota, on a taped segment of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; and took a tour of Manhattan with Regis Philbin, who wore a matching Pee-wee suit. Once, the idea of a comeback for Paul Reubens had seemed farfetched to say the le
ast, but now it was obvious that Reubens had rewritten the ending of Pee-wee’s story into a happy one.

  Fan Christina Henriquez approaches the Stephen Sondheim Theatre to watch The Pee-wee Herman Show [© Christina Henriquez]

  In the cold evening of October 26, 2010, three generations of Pee-wee fans filed into the Stephen Sondheim Theatre to witness the Broadway debut. As some checked out the new merchandise, others headed to the bar for a pre-show alcoholic beverage, a marked departure from the juice boxes they’d consumed while watching Pee-wee decades earlier.

  Finally, the audience moved into the auditorium and took their seats. As the lights dimmed in the theater to signal that the show was starting, a hush fell over the crowd, and then, as the lone spotlight hit the curtain, the crowd erupted into applause that only grew more frenzied when Pee-wee emerged from behind the curtain and stepped into the light. His first few lines were inaudible as the crowd screamed, whistled, and many chanted, “Pee-wee! Pee-wee! Pee-wee!”

  [© Swazzle Inc.]

  This scene repeated throughout the evening, with fits of madness taking over otherwise mature adults when Miss Yvonne, Cowboy Curtis, and Jambi each appeared on stage for the first time. At the declaration of the secret word, which was “fun,” the crowd screamed even before they were told to, and throughout the 90-minute show no one missed a chance to let their inner-child exclaim whenever the secret word was said.

  In The Pee-wee Herman Show’s final minutes, the stage lights surged as Miss Yvonne, Cowboy Curtis, Sergio the Repairman, Fireman Phineas, Mailman Mike, the King of Cartoons, a man dressed in a bear mascot suit, and over a dozen puppets joined Jambi the Genie in repeating the magic words — mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho, mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho, mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho. Before they were prompted, the congregation of over a thousand enthusiastic devotees joined in the methodical chant. Within moments, the stage went completely dark, with occasional flashes of lightening created by two large strobe lights built into the stage and loud thunderclaps controlled by a soundboard in the rear of the Broadway playhouse.

  [© Swazzle Inc.]

  “It’s working, it’s working!” Jambi exclaimed. “Everyone in the audience repeat after me. Mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho.”

  The group of former Saturday morning spectators of Pee-wee’s world was now an integral component in making their hero’s wish to fly come true. At first, the words were interspersed with giggles from the sold-out crowd, but by the third repetition, the chant reverberated with strength and deliberation throughout the theater. Mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho, mekka lekka hi mekka hiney ho!

  Within moments, Pee-wee’s familiar nasal cry voice pierced the darkness as a spotlight slowly illuminated his body, which appeared to be in mid-flight with the assistance of expensive machinery, special lighting, and a puppet body. The onlookers laughed, applauded, and “screamed real loud” with excitement.

  “I’m Pee-wee Herman,” he said. “I’m the luckiest boy in the world.”

  Fan Rob Michael Hugel meets Pee-wee in New York [© Rob Michael Hugel]

  With that, he waved goodbye to the boys and girls of varying ages and continued his flight off stage, leaving the audience behind just as he had at the end of his original live production, at the end of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, in the opening dream sequence of Big Top Pee-wee, at the end of every Playhouse episode, and before his decades-long hiatus.

  The audience began applauding wildly. As the sound grew, an elementary school–aged boy jumped out of his seat and turned his head to try and catch a last glimpse of the flying 58-year-old man who seems perennially ageless. He asked a woman sitting next to him where Pee-wee was going.

  The woman, who wore a vintage black-and-white sweatshirt emblazoned with a cartoon headshot of Pee-wee, looked back at her young escort. She handed him the pull-string doll dressed in a gray suit she was holding and leaned forward to pick up the bag of merchandise she had purchased in the lobby before the show began.

  “He’ll be back,” she said as the boy extended his arm to make the doll fly through the air. “Pee-wee Herman isn’t going anywhere.”

  [© Eric Reichbaum]

  7: Appraising the Playhouse

  While Pee-wee’s Playhouse was an undeniable television phenomenon during the show’s run, the task of developing a children’s show out of a late-night live production for adults required a measure of brazenness. The concept was original, but as any seasoned television executive will tell you, originality doesn’t always lead to success.

  [© Ken Sax]

  “When Judy Price green-lit the show, we all told her we knew it was going to be a hit,” says Steve Oakes, supervising producer of the first season. “She just sort of rolled her eyes and said, ‘Guys, I love what you’re doing, but I wish I knew which shows were going to be a hit. How about you do your best and we’ll see?’”

  Much to Price’s delight, Oakes’ instincts were correct — the show was a hit. While many had accurately predicted the show would be a success, several others involved with the show’s first season harbored doubts about whether it would resonate with the public.

  “I have to confess,” says animation director Phil Trumbo. “When edits were being put together of the show, I’d see some of them and think, ‘Wow, this is just too weird. It’s just too funky, it’s just too loose.’ I didn’t know if anyone was going to get it.”

  However, within a few weeks of the show’s debut, millions of viewers had “got it.” For some, the visuals were enough to captivate their attention. Others found themselves laughing at the show’s mature yet childlike sense of humor. However, for many, Playhouse was worth watching simply for the host himself, a blank slate onto which people projected their perceptions of what either an uninhibited adult or physically overdeveloped child could be if he had enough money to furnish his own playhouse to his heart’s desire.

  [© Ken Sax]

  Pee-wee Herman is a truly polarizing character, and people find him to be either hilarious or irritating, depending on their vantage point. He’s virtually impossible to just like. You either love him or hate him. This was true during the time of the show’s run and continues to be today.

  “Over the years I have gotten a lot of unsolicited opinions on Pee-wee,” says writer George McGrath. “When the show aired on Adult Swim, there was a violent reaction against him from their target audience, teenage boys. The stuff they wrote on the Cartoon Network website was surprisingly hateful. At the same time, I put the theme song on YouTube a few years ago and get comments almost every day, with most of the positive ones about warm childhood memories of watching the show. The negative ones are not about the show so much as they are about Paul.”

  It’s difficult to pinpont what caused Pee-wee’s Playhouse to leave an indelible imprint on our popular culture. When questioned in interviews, Paul Reubens declines to analyze the show’s success, and he leaves that responsibility to others. To that end, here is what several people involved in the show’s production have said about why Pee-wee Herman and his playhouse have stood the test of time in our shared consciousness.

  [© Ken Sax]

  Gary Austin, founder of the Groundlings: “I imagine the strongest group of people still interested is adults who were kids during the Playhouse years. I have a good friend who was a kid during that time and is desperately hoping that I can find a way for him and Paul to meet. Our heroes make such an impact and we carry that with us throughout our lives.”

  Steve Binder, producer of the second and third season of Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special: “The quality speaks for itself. The episodes are funny. It was a great discovery when the programmers of children’s television learned that they didn’t need to order sixty-five episodes of a show. Kids wanted to see their favorite episodes over and over again. The Playhouse will always attract an audience with the original episodes that were produced. They
’re funny and smart. Many shows are dated because of the material or the costumes, but that’s not a problem with Pee-wee.”

  Kent Burton animates the Dinosaur Family [© Richard Kent Burton]

  Kent Burton, animator for the first, fourth, and fifth seasons of Pee-wee’s Playhouse: “Whenever someone finds out I worked this show, they say to me, ‘You know, that was the only time I ever got up early on Saturday morning,’ and I’m talking about grown-up people with families. I’ve heard that so many times I can’t count them all. ‘I used to set the alarm for that show.’ I think the show’s remained popular because it has such a wide range. I mean, it could go in any direction. Think about the humor. Paul had a way of being childish, but at the same time, a lot of his humor was made for adults. It was edgy and not always politically correct. They could pull some things and not really be insulting, even though in some ways it was, because it was done in such a kid’s style.”

  Johann Carlo and Pee-wee [© John Duke Kisch / CBS]

  Johann Carlo, Dixie on the first season of Pee-wee’s Playhouse: “I think Paul hit on something very primal. We all have a kid inside us and, because of that, the show was so personal. There’s that old cliché about the more personal something is, the more universal it is. We could all relate to it and imagine how much fun it would be to step into Pee-wee’s shoes. He’s the king of his domain and has all of his guests. We all want to have a playhouse where we’re in charge and can do whatever we wanted. There was no adult supervision. The adults like Miss Yvonne were all like kids. When you’re young, all you want is to be a grown-up, but you still want to be a kid. Pee-wee’s Playhouse was a whole world just like that.”