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popculturebuffet · 10 months

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Pee-Wee's Playhouse: Monster in the Playhouse Review

In Loving Memory of Paul Rubens 1952-2023 The loss of Paul Rubens this week.. was one of the most devistating celebrity death's i've experienced, up there with Bowie and Adam West. It's just one of those deaths that really gnaws as your soul a bit, to see some one who brought such joy to your life gone in an instant. With Paul it hurt more because he's been such a constant: My family LOVED Pee Wees Big Adventure and I saw it PLENTY as a kid, a truly iconic and fun film that really showcased what paul could do. As I grew up, he was in Mystery Men, one of my faviorite superhero films to this day and a great part of it as the gaseous gladiator The Spleen.

Ironically it wasn't till I was in college and beyond I got to see Peewee's Very own children show and paul's masterwork Peewee's Playhouse, the classic 80's childrens show that had plenty of whimsy for it's target audience of young children.. but plenty of charm, puppetry, a stacked cast, and some all time great set design that made it a classic. It's no wonder my young niece and nephew glommed onto it as kids back when Netflix had it nor mourned him alongside the rest of us.

So while I intend to do more of Paul's work later when I can, faster if someone comissions them, I figured this was the best place to start and to honor him in the moment: my faviorite episode of his show. You'll find out why and if you hadn't really heard of paul rubens find out why he was so awesome under the cut.

Pee-Wee Herman started as a character Rubens made for the stage, with his stage show The PeeWee Herman show. The character was a hit from the get go and said hit lead a young filmaker by the name of Tim Burton to come calling. Thus Pee-Wee's Big Adventure Was born. I was honestly suprised to find the movie came first, as the show has none of it's cast, just the human muppet at the center. It does make sense though as the two works show off the two diffrent but equally awesome ways to play with Pee-Wee. Pee-Wee as a character.. is a giant cartoon. He's very clearly a grown man, but acts like a ten year old, lives in a bonkers house no matter the verison of him, and dosen't care how weird he comes off to everyone.. and thus charms most people simply by being himself. It's why the character resonates with me so much: Pee-Wee is who he is and he's not self concious about it. he's not really lambasted by most characters for being weird and those who do are usually jerks. When something bad happens to him it's usually because he brought it on himself.

So as a giant cartoon there's two ways to play him: you either plop him into the mundane world and see everyone else bounce off the loveable weirdo, or you meet him on his level and have a world of childlike wonder and total insanity. The movie went for the former, allowing rubens to be as unrestrained as he wants while still being a charming guy, and the show, being meant for kids but not talking down to them, could be as weird as rubens could get.

Playhouse has the trappings of a preschool show: most of the cast is hammy, everythings weird and ther'es a lot of loud stuff to keep attention like the secret word. But it's done in a way that's also gentle, calming and just dang fun to watch: it comes off as what a young kid would THINK being an adult was where you can be a cowboy or pretty for a job, have to deal with horrifying salesman and get to have a ptreodactyl as a pet. It's this nice chill fantasy world that's diverse, where only three people are dicks and one of them, pee wee, ususally learns not to be and that tries to teach kids to be excellent to one another.

And while I picked this episode as a personal favorite.. it really encapsulates a lot of what makes this series great and it's philosphy well. Monster in the House follows Pee Wee on what starts as a pretty normal day, he checks on his ants who are gorgeously animated in this nice construction paper style with black on yellow. It REALLY looks cool. Also cool is a season 1 exclusive feature: his toys. His toys... are basically sids toys from toy story, some horrifying mashups, in this case an octopus cowboy with a thousand eyes and a Frankenstein head on a standard dolly, that still has doll hair. It made me realize something about the show: it REALLY loves it''s animation. While the puppetry is awesome, we'll get to that, we have bits like the dinosaur family, the toys and the ants, the penny cartoons, all vastly different styles, all gorgeous. They even bring in some retro shorts via the king of cartoons. It also speaks to the shows tone: it's really freefloating: While there's usually some through line to anchor the episodes shenangians, it has this nice, serene atmosphere, a childhood memory brought to form where you'll often play or do other stuff amidst the hustle and bustle of your life. It's a vibe I haven't really seen in any other show or felt anything close to and it's glorious. There just.. isn't another show that FEELS like this.

Helping with that is the puppetry. I've been covering muppets here lately and Paul really has a lot of the same philosphy's as Jim Henson. It's really sad the two never did something together: Pee Wee did a segment or two for sesame street and not only won an honrary muppet award but was a guest in muppet magazine where we got just.. the most wholesome image ever

But both have this gentle nature that belies the manic content they make, injecting an earnestness into the madness. Peewee has a talking chair, a dog who is also a chair and looks utterly horrifying, a globe, his own robot, a tetradactyl.. all puppets.. but all feel really. Terry is like the son PeeWee never had, CHairy is one of his best friends and in a nice touch i'd never noticed before her eyes and hands usually move when she's in frame even if she's not the focus of the scene. There's also clearly something going on between them but I feel a memorial is a poor place to talk about chair on human romance. The puppets feel real even whent hey can be limited, and all have unique looks. Even chairy and dog chair despite being both animate chairs look and feel different, chairy coming off as pee wee's shy best friend and dog chair being an utter nightmare that's also adorable.

It's the giant gaping mouth. Just... I love a good dog but when you make one that could swallow me whole and very likely my soul at the same time you loose me. Except for Clifford. he's a good boy. You eat those souls clifford, you get bigger and stronger boy. That's a good red dog. Good boy.

So before we get to the plot we need to get the secret word. For those less familiar Pee Wee unplugs and turns on his robot buddy Conky, whose just a delight. And honestly all this reviewing thomas the tank engine effed me up a bit as I was horrified at first that Pee Wee turns Conky off at all.. but then realized they cleverly tucked the reason WHY Conky is plugged in and has to be turned on into the show: he needs to be recharged. Pee Wee would love to have him on all the time, but he dosen't want his friend to run out of battery. It's simply how the bot sleeps.

So he has honky print it out the word and whenever somebody says the secret word "scream real loud". it's a LOT of fun as any time it happens the whole playhouse joins in. Pure hell for parents but something so charmign you can forgive it. It's also sweet when Reba the Mail Lady, one of peewee's friends and his well mail lady, is so deligthed to have said it by accident. It's really sweet

The plot kicks off proper when Mrs. Steve shows up. Mrs Steve is a season 1 exclusive... and unlike others like Tito or Captain Carl who likely got cycled out because production moved and they simply coudln't move with it, Mrs. Steve feels like she got shuffled out because she just doesn't fit the shows tone well. The show DOES have an outright antagonist in randy, but he's more a harmless doofy bully no one takes seriously and who at most sets peewee astray by getting into his head. Mrs. Steve on the other hand is that kind of asshole we've all had: she gets into everyone's business, complains constantly and unlike most of the cast dosen't really jibe with the weirdness that is the playhouse. I don't mind someone say having a straight reaction to peewees nonsense but detesting it just dosen't work. She DOES work well enough for the episodes she's in, I just think longterm it was a wise decision to phase her out. Her actress does a great job though.

In this case there's a monster in the neighborhood. I mean you'd THINK given Mrs Steve sees Dog Chair and Season 1 globey on a regular basis she'd be used to monsters but apparently not. She's warning everyone. Pee Wee doesn't believe but everyone else does. Even the king of cartoons has to be talked into doing his job. I also just.. love the fact that in season one the king whose only job is showing up to show children cartoons has a new york style cabbie. It's so peewee.

Naturally though for this universe there IS a monster, as just when peewee clams everyone down by turning off the lights,a nice calming little bit of letting fear go.. the monster shows up. And Roger , he's named later.. has a fucking awesome design. It's clearly someone in a suit though how I don't know. THey might be hunched over by they CAN jump.

It's such a unique design. Admitely I love cyclopic monsters, so i'm defintely bisased but the nice touches like his weird foot, the little tubes or the side mouth are great.

I also love Pee Wee's response to Chairy Pointing out he said monsters weren't real "So I was wrong, sue me". With Roger just making monster sounds Pee Wee has no idea how to deal with him, realizes he's hungry and makes him a sandwitch which is fun. I also love Roger looking inside peewees fridge to see his food doing thier usual capering and how he just opens and shuts it like a kid would. And as it turns out.. that's what roger is. When PeeWee can't get him to go he WISHES he could understand him. And naturally ...

Since he's not being forced to this bit though the real jambi gladly grants the wish. With the wish granted, long lived Jambi we find out Roger.. is actually a child. He's kind, has a nicely innocent voice and simply wanted to play. He didn't mean anything by his stomping, and was just confused why Peewee was scared of him jsut because he was a monster. It's a nice message about not hating something you don't understand just because it's diffrent. Not subtle, but it's also not so over the head that it dosen't work. Roger may look weird.. but so does the rest of the house. Unsurprisingly PeeWee is huge in monsterland. So PeeWee apologizes and makes a new friend and everythigns good. The episode ends with pee wee getting a call on his picture phone.. which is one of my faviorite runners as in a nicely peewee touch, he always puts on some background and costume before answering. We get Roger's mom whose upset he was missing, ssays the secret word (a touch I really love) but invites peewee back for spagetthi because who wasn't. We also get a nice twist on the usual ending. Usually pewee gets on his scooter, heads off and we see him ending. Here Roger JOINS peewee for the trip. They also scare the crap out of mrs steve, always a good time. Monster in the Playhouse is excellent and it's on youtube. It's a great sample of how good the series was, has a nice wholesome legend and as always showcases just what a great performer rubens was. He'll truly be missed and I hope he's somewhere up there, in his own playhouse. Thanks for reading.. and we'll miss you paul.

#paul rubens #peewee herman #peewee's playhouse #monster in the playhouse #chairy #dog chair #terry #roger #mrs steve #reba the mail lady

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