The show that revitalized the essence of Saturday Morning was a landmark show that became one of the biggest hits to ever grace children's television during the mid-1980's all the way into the early part of the 1990's was a show called "Pee Wee's Playhouse". What can you say about a Saturday Morning show that was so "hip" and "innovative" that when it came out it astutely mined another nostagic mother lode: kids' variety shows with live hosts,a genre with roots stretching all the way back to the origins of television,and it was a comeback for the variety show format which disappeared during the 1970's and early 1980's. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was an invention of such staggering originality and creative genius that it quickly drew a substantial audience of adults and kids. Paul Reubens' established comic persona was amusing enough,but the show surrounded him with a remarkable set and fantastic special and visual effects. It was so good that even its first two seasons was a ratings winner: it garnered more Peabody and Emmy awards not to mention every educational and children's programming award in the history of the show's astounding five year-run on CBS. For its astounding and critical success,Reubens was not only the star of the show,but its creator,co-producer and co-writer not to mention executive in charge of production. In other words,he had full control of his own series,which was shown on Saturday Mornings. The show was a subversive delight and helped break down entrenched network resistance to original creative kidvid:meaning it shows what could be done if creative minds with a distinctive vision were able to put that vision on the screen without the interference of network flacks or having network executives take full control.
The show itself was a thrill to watch,with Reubens' characterization of Pee-Wee taking over in which the opening of the show started each day by an assortment of toys and creatures living in the house,most of whom were puppets. Then Pee-Wee would start up his robot friend who divulged the secret word of the day,when emitted from someone's mouth,prompted the cast to scream briefly. Then there were the assortment of memorable characters ranging from Jambi The Genie(John Paragon),Miss Yvonne(Lynne Stewart),Cowboy Curtis(Laurence Fishburne), Reba,the mail lady(S. Epatha Merkerson),Captain Carl(Phil Hartman),to Tito,the lifeguard(Roland Rodriguez),Opal(Natasha Lyonne),Dixie,the lady courier(Johann Carlo)to the King Of Cartoons(played by two actors: earlier episodes by Gilbert Lewis and the later on by William Marshall of "Blacula" fame). "Pee-Wee's Playhouse was so good that it spawned an hour-long Christmas special in prime-time called what else "Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special"(airdate:12/21/1988)with the array of special guest stars including Annette Funicello,Magic Johnson,Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey to name a few. Getting back to Pee-Wee's Playhouse,the show produced over 100 episodes running from the premiere episode on September 13,1986 to the final episode on July 20,1991 on CBS-TV. The show at the end of season five came to an sudden end when it's star was caught doing something he should have not done(Paul Reubens arrested for public exposure on himself in a Florida adult theater). Because of this incident,CBS immediately pulled the plug on this show. Getting back to the cast members of this very successful children's show from the 1980's,ONLY Laurence Fishburne,Natasha Lyonne,John Paragon,Lynne Stewart and even S.Epatha Merkerson went on to bigger and better things after there success on this show. Pee-Wee's Playhouse should have stay on the air another couple of years as I am concerned since it was among one of the finest programs ever associated with Saturday Mornings and we thank Paul Reubens for that accomplishment.
