Inside Pee-wee’s Playhouse
By Caseen Gaines (ECW Press)
An unauthorized and underwhelming chronicle of Pee-wee’s Playhouse from its stage origins to its TV success and recent stage revival. It’s full of clumsy phrases like “couldn’t agree more” and “News that Pee-wee Herman was coming out of retirement was astonishing.” This is a fanboy’s book, and indeed there are photos of the starstruck author standing next to some of the show’s designers.
Gaines has done his homework. There are interviews with dozens of Playhouse participants. Notably missing is Paul Reubens, Pee-wee himself, who is apparently working on his own book. I hope Reubens realizes how much greater the story is than simply the Pee-wee Playhouse series. The Pee-wee Herman phenomenon says a lot about where America was in the 1980s. There’s no point in downplaying, as Gaines does, Reuben’s pre-Pee-wee turns as a Groundlings troupe members and a frequent Gong Show contestant. Or, for that matter, Reubens’ arrest for exposing himself in an adult cinema. “The Incident” only takes up four pages in Inside Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and the author seems embarrassed to even deal with it, mainly driving home the point that the Playhouse series had already ended its run and was not cancelled, as rumors had it, due to “The Incident.”
The character’s numerous talk show and MTV appearances are more valuable than anything done on the formulaic Saturday morning series.
If you can overlook the gushy writing, and if you happen to agree that Pee-wee’s Playhouse was the sun around which all other Herman and Reuben endeavors orbited, well, here’s the overview and in-depth episode guide you seek.