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Peewee's Playhouse will begin it's run on Cartoon Network's " Adult Swim": line-up tonight.
On the one hand, I am absolutly thrilled. PPH was one of my absolute favorite shows when I was little. I watched PeeWee's Big Adventure constantly.
But, on the otherhand, this really aggravates me. Cartoon Network has been showing more and more non-cartoon material, which totally defeats the purpose of the network.
-------------------- "I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, EVIL stuff... and I want in."- Homer Simpson Posts: 2161 | From: Delaware | Registered: Aug 2005
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I don't see the point AT ALL of showing a live-action show intended for an age range of 3-5 during a time slot entitled "Adult Swim". Looks like this'll be another show I'll be skipping, along with all the "Boondocks" reruns.
Posts: 213 | From: Point of Rocks, MD | Registered: Aug 2005
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Makes more sense than when they started showing Saved By The Bell! (spanked by Elbe!)
However, I agree... live-action shows on CARTOON network just ... there's something really wrong about that.
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Who cares if they show live action every once in a while? If nobody watches it then it's Adult Swim's problem, not CN's, because the two are now rated separately by Nielsen.
Posts: 86 | From: Georgia | Registered: Jun 2005
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This is kind of like when MTV started changing its programming from music to the ADHD, all-teeny bopper network. Luckily we still had VH-1 showing all music and music-related programming. Then that went away too.
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Technically, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are programmed separately. They are like two separate networks, though acting cooperatively, and sharing the same slot on your cable dial.
That said, CN's "cartoon-inspired movie" is the real cop-out. Like when American Movie Classics started showing stuff from just a few years ago... that wasn't even considered good at the time. Like "G.I. Jane".
quote:posted by Dancing Dragon: I don't see the point AT ALL of showing a live-action show intended for an age range of 3-5 during a time slot entitled "Adult Swim".
So what you're saying is: talking chair = juvenile; talking french fries = mature. Okay then.
In a way, PWPH was the forerunner of the Dadaist absurdity that is the staple of AS's programming.
Posts: 389 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Aug 2005
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I am very happy they'll be playing Pee-Wee's Playhouse, but I am a little depressed that the only way it can be shown is late on an "adult" programming block due to Paul Reuben's indiscretions. I think it would appeal to today's kids as much as it appealed to me when it was on, but it won't be given a chance to.
Posts: 550 | From: Springboro, OH | Registered: Feb 2006
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It's probably totally different, but it reminds me of when Nick at Nite stopped showing Mary Tyler Moore and Dick van Dyke and all those classics and started showing Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Stuff I like -> stuff I don't like. I know the programming schedule has nothing to do with me, but a target audience who likes one kind of show doesn't necessarily like way different stuff, is the point. How'd it go from anime/futurama to pee-wee/sbtb?
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I'm interested in seeing it. The SO thinks that Peewee's Playhouse was great and used to watch it in college, I however was just in the process of leaving childhood at the time the show came out, so I found it dumb and too "kiddy" for my tastes. I was FAR too mature at the age of 8 to watch such a show. I loved "Peewee's Big Adventure" but the show always just seemed dumb to me. I wonder if I will be able to appreciate it the way that SO does now that I'm older? I saw a commercial for it on Adult Swim yesterday that consisted of Peewee doing things with a giant pair of underpants, and I have to say that I was rolling.
On the subject of Adult Swim playing non-cartoons, I have to say that I don't particularly care about that actually. I think that the Adult Swim team is just great and whatever they decide to play is cool with me. I think of Adult Swim more as just being a really fun slot of television to watch, and I never really think of it in terms of being "cartoons". Tom Goes to the Mayor is one of my favorites and it contains plenty of non-cartoon moments.
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quote: Originally Posted by Dancing Dragon: I don't see the point AT ALL of showing a live-action show intended for an age range of 3-5 during a time slot entitled "Adult Swim". Looks like this'll be another show I'll be skipping, along with all the "Boondocks" reruns.
Its been years since I've seen it, but wasn't Pee Wee's Playhouse full of more adult humor, intended to go over the kids' heads but give an older crowd a sly chuckle? I know Paul Reuben developed the character for an adult audience doing improv comedy. I'd imagine it might still be very entertaining for the generation that grew up watching it, if for entirely different reasons.
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I know someone who was in college in the 80's who said Pee-Wee's Playhouse was not really intended for kids. Wasn't it a bit controversial when it came out because of the adult humor that went over kids' heads? (Much like Shrek.) I was a kid at the time but I never watched it because I thought Pee-Wee was lame. I'd be interested to see it now and find out what all the fuss was about.
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quote:Originally posted by Spindely Fingers: Its been years since I've seen it, but wasn't Pee Wee's Playhouse full of more adult humor, intended to go over the kids' heads but give an older crowd a sly chuckle? I know Paul Reuben developed the character for an adult audience doing improv comedy. I'd imagine it might still be very entertaining for the generation that grew up watching it, if for entirely different reasons.
That's how I always took it. I loved PWPH, I always assumed it was a kid's show that was really meant for adults...that was kind of the whole point of it for me.
I could be confused here, but does anyone remember Paul Ruebens doing a stand up type show as Pee Wee before PWPH ever existed, and sort of doing a forerunner of PWPH with a lot of the same characters? I could be totally wrong, but I remember something like that, and the jokes and gags were even more obviously adult oriented.
ETA: fixing quote tags EATA: Uh...I really should have read the entire passage I quoted, where the stand up character I was asking about is mentioned. Reading is funDUHmental.
Posts: 154 | From: NewCastle, DE | Registered: Apr 2006
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Rhiandmoi
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posted
I remember a very PeeWee Hermenesque Paul Reubens being in one of the Cheech and Chong movies. And according to wikipedia PeeWee Herman was a character in a stage show that Paul Reubens developed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peewee_Herman
-------------------- I think that hyperbole is the single greatest factor contributing to the decline of society. - My friend Pat.
quote:Originally posted by DougW: I could be confused here, but does anyone remember Paul Ruebens doing a stand up type show as Pee Wee before PWPH ever existed, and sort of doing a forerunner of PWPH with a lot of the same characters? I could be totally wrong, but I remember something like that, and the jokes and gags were even more obviously adult oriented.
Yes, I've even seen a broadcast of it on TV at one point between his height of popularity and the arrest. At that time, I thought it was something he did after PWPH, but I learned later it was where the character of PeeWee was born. Much of the humor of the stage show was that the other characters (Miss Yvonne, a sailor? I think, etc) were adults, and made a lot of sexual innuendo, but it went entirely over PeeWee's, the perpetual child's, head. He was never anything other than the innocent, silly, boy in a bowtie.
Posts: 550 | From: Springboro, OH | Registered: Feb 2006
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Y'know, judging from the commercials I've seen for this show, this does seem like something that would fit with adult swim, at least more than SBTB anyway.
I do remember watching Pee-Wee's Big Adventure when I was young and liking it even though I was freaked out by that truck driver scene. Eh, maybe I'll watch it out of pure curiousity.
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Pee-Wee does have cartoons mixed in. Like "Penny" and the little dinosaur family that lives in the wall and the King of Cartoons. I think it fits better than "Saved by the Bell" for that reason alone.
Great, now I'm going to be thinking of my friend, his uncanny Pee-Wee impression, and the "Giant Underpants" sketch for the rest of the night.
-------------------- "But about the reindeer...what kind of a nose shines? How did he get it? Maybe it's not a reindeer after all. It could be something else." Posts: 2216 | From: Winston-Salem, NC | Registered: Nov 2003
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Does anyone know the "real" story regarding Reuben's arrest a few years ago for allegedly having child pornography? I know that Reubens defense was that it was vintage erotica, but beyond that, I have zero knowledge of the case, let alone whatever truth there was to either side's claims.
Posts: 2711 | From: Texas | Registered: Sep 2002
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I'm OK with Pee Wee's playhouse on adult swim. Origianlly, it was an HBO show with an adult theme. I'm NOT OK with "Saved by the Bell". It's as moronic as ECW ( or whatever) on the SCI FI Channel!
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All I can think of is Laurence Fishburne as (Cowboy Curtis) in the "Pajama Party" episode: "Actually, Pee-Wee, I like to sleep in the nude..."
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I thought there was another Cowboy Curtis quote...it was something like, "You know what they say, big feet, big shoes." Obviously an adult joke.
I loved Peewee's Playhouse for the absurdity. When Adult Swim starts playing The Late Mr. Pete Show, I will be impressed. (And I'll probably be the only one.)
Posts: 483 | From: California | Registered: Dec 2004
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Sara at home
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Thanks. I forgot.
ETA: Update. I still giggle like a four year old at "Meka Leka Hi Meka Hiney Ho" He said "Hiney ho!"
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Well, after seeing it, I remember why I didn't watch the show when I was a kid. I had brain cells.
Seriously, though, it's just as freaky as H.R. Puffenstuff, something I can't enjoy even for the camp factor. I guess Pee-Wee's still one of pop-culture things I just don't "get".
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Joe Bentley
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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quote:Originally posted by Little Red Cervette: Seriously, though, it's just as freaky as H.R. Puffenstuff, something I can't enjoy even for the camp factor. I guess Pee-Wee's still one of pop-culture things I just don't "get".
Count me in on that too Cervus.
I guess I just lack the ability that it seems every other Generation Xer has to enjoy things "ironically" whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.
-------------------- "Existence has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long." - Rorschach, The Watchmen Posts: 8929 | From: Norfolk, Virginia | Registered: Jun 2002
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Some memories about the original Pee-Wee Herman Show (stage version) can be found here and here on Mark Evanier's website (the man knows everything).
I don't believe I ever saw the show, but appropos to the discussion, I remember some talk on some public radio show many years ago, talking about how children's programming had changed over the years: particularly the difference between such efforts as Jay Ward's work (Rocky and Bullwinkle, George of the Jungle, etc) and the various cartoons of the 70's and 80's which were frequently barely-animated toy commercials. The theory put forth was that it had a lot to do with the fact that when those earlier shows were made, in the early 1960's and thereabouts, most families had only one television set; so if you were making a show for kids, it behooved you to put something in it the adults would enjoy, too. (My particular revelation on this was the old Adam West Batman series. When it first was broadcast, I was about six years old, and thought it was terrific stuff, watching a hero beat up bad guys and get out of elaborate traps. It wasn't until I watched reruns years later that I realized just how hilarious the show was; at the younger age, I had no idea it was meant to be funny.) However, by the mid 1970's or so, most families had multiple televisions, so you didn't have to put in this adult appeal.
So if Pee-Wee's Playhouse managed to be something that appealed to young kids and stick in more subtle humor for the adults, then it's an inspired throwback to the earlier days of television. (If it merely was an adult program themed as a kids' show, it may still be very worthwhile, but not quite in the same way.)
Although some do find the "Playhouse" itself creepy and so rife with hidden meaning that they write articles with titles like "The Playhouse of the Signifier," "Pee-wee Herman: The Homosexual Subtext" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Pee-wee: Consumerism and Sexual Terror" the show itself is a thing of pure celebration.
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Peewee's Playhouse actually was supposed to be a show for adults when the idea was being kicked around. Through sheer misunderstanding, it became a kid's show. A really strange, surreal kid's show.
And, Cervus and Joe Bentley, the reason I like (and liked) PWPH is because it was so bizarre. I've always had a really weird imagination, so the show was perfect for me. Plus, it features lots of claymation. In fact, re-watching it, I think PWPH heavily contributed to my being such a big claymation junkie today.
-------------------- "I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, EVIL stuff... and I want in."- Homer Simpson Posts: 2161 | From: Delaware | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by snopes: Pee-wee's Back in the Limelight
Although some do find the "Playhouse" itself creepy and so rife with hidden meaning that they write articles with titles like "The Playhouse of the Signifier," "Pee-wee Herman: The Homosexual Subtext" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Pee-wee: Consumerism and Sexual Terror" the show itself is a thing of pure celebration.
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My husband and I watched Pee Wee's Playhouse faithfully back when it was on. Some of the expressions from that show are still in use in the family.
Anybody else remember Pee Wee's Christmas Show? Best. (ok one of the best!) Christmas. Show. Ever.
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Sara at home
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Got the DVD of the Christmas Show. It's part of our tradition.
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Ooh same here! We showed it to a few friends in England who thought it was great. I'm not sure what kind of sense of humour you need to enjoy Pee Wee but I'm lucky I know so many people who "get it" too.
-------------------- If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation. - Jean Kerr Posts: 18428 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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So the SO and I watched it last night and I was disappointed that they didn't leave in the little opening claymation sequence before the theme song which shows you going through a jungle and pans all around the outside of the playhouse. The SO didn't remember that sequence, but I know they used to do that, please someone confirm that I'm not crazy? It was actually an episode that I remember watching, with the ice cream soup, and I still say that it wasn't NEARLY soupy enough to be proper ice cream soup.
Fairly funny though, and certainly fun. I love the claymation bits, and Pee-wee's reaction to the salesman had me giggling for quite a while. I'm looking forward to seeing other episodes.
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My mother loved this show, so we finally got her seasons 1 and 2 on DVD last Christmas. The show is hilarious. Randy (the mean puppet) is great. I wish we got the Cartoon Network up in Canada.
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I loved "Peewee's Big Adventure" but the show always just seemed dumb to me. I wonder if I will be able to appreciate it the way that SO does now that I'm older? I saw a commercial for it on Adult Swim yesterday that consisted of Peewee doing things with a giant pair of underpants, and I have to say that I was rolling. ![[lol]](graemlins/lol.gif)
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I think of Adult Swim more as just being a really fun slot of television to watch, and I never really think of it in terms of being "cartoons". Tom Goes to the Mayor is one of my favorites and it contains plenty of non-cartoon moments.
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It's as moronic as ECW ( or whatever) on the SCI FI Channel!![[fish]](graemlins/fish.gif)
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