Monday, August 10, 2009

THE RETURN OF PEE-WEE HERMAN


Paul Reubens has talked about bring the character Pee-Wee Herman back for years but honestly, I never thought it would happen. Today Paul Reubens confirmed he is bringing Pee-Wee back to life on stage in Hollywood with a limited engagement starting November 8, 2009 at The Music Box. /Film has the press release:

The Pee-wee Herman Show” debuted at The Groundlings Theatre in 1981, then moved to the Roxy Theatre on Sunset Strip for five sold out months. Taped as part of HBO’s On Location series, the show catapulted Pee-wee into the national consciousness. It lead to Pee-wee’s many appearances on “Late Night With David Letterman,” followed by a 22-city tour that included Carnegie Hall. In 1985, Warner Brothers brought Pee-wee to the big screen with “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”, Tim Burton’s feature film debut. Co-written by Reubens, it featured Danny Elfman’s first original film score.

The CBS television series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” premiered in 1986. During its five seasons, the show garnered 22 Emmy Awards. Pee-wee’s second film, “Big Top Pee-wee” was released in 1988. While “The Pee-wee Herman Show”, and “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” were an homage to an earlier generation’s television classics – “Howdy Doody,” "The Mickey Mouse Club", ” “Captain Kangaroo,” “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie,” and “The Shari Lewis Show” – Pee-wee himself became one of the most original and beloved stars in all of television history and late-century American culture.

By the late 90s, even fashion was not immune to the style of Pee-wee as fashion designers like Christopher Bailey, Ennio Capasa, Miuccia Prada, Viktor & Rolf, and Thom Browne imitated the high armholes, short inseams, and tight cut suits that Pee-wee made as his trademark. In 2007, Nike created a version of the Nike SB sneaker loosely inspired by Pee-wee.

When Cartoon Network aired the series in 2006, 1.5 million viewers watched every night; the next year TV Guide named the “Playhouse” among the top 10 cult classics of all time. All of the episodes of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” have been issued on DVD (and iTunes) and are consistently best sellers. And as Pee-wee was influenced by the television classics that came before him, it is hard to imagine that “Blue’s Clues” or “SpongeBob Square Pants” would be quite the same without him.

It's hard to believe Pee-Wee is coming back after all these years. This is great news. I've been a Pee-Wee Herman fan since the beginning. I wish I lived near Hollywood so I could attend the show. If you're lucky enough to attend the production, take a picture, it'll last longer!

Tickets go on sale Tuesday, August 11 at 8 am at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and by phone 800-745-3000.

2 comments:

Keith said...

That's really cool. I always really liked Pee-Wee.

Keith said...

I know! I'm hoping this will lead to another Pee-Wee movie.

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