Why Did Pee-Wee's Playhouse Look so Cool?
Paul Reubens, who is best known for his long-time character Pee-Wee Herman, died on July 30. After having a hit movie, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985, he premiered his TV show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in 1986.
The set, as you can see, combined Memphis design touches with deliberately campy elements (like the tufting buttons on the shiny upholstery on the door), childhood elementary school decor, and a powerful post-modern vibe. That style was in the air at the time, and somehow CBS let him go for it.
The art director for the show was one of my favorite artists, Gary Panter. I like Gary Panter so much that I once commissioned a drawing from him.
Panter apparently has mixed feelings about his time on the show.TV didn’t agree with him professionally. In an interview with William Van Meter published on Artnet, he said,
I don’t really want on my gravestone ‘Designed Pee-wee’s Playhouse.’ It was a dream come true. And that’s one thing that drove me and Paul apart was he kept wanting to work on projects. At a certain point, I just said, let’s just be friends, you know? And he had a hard time accepting that.
Panter had been working with Reubens for years before the TV show. He designed the set and posters for Reuben’s first stage show in L.A., where Panter was deeply embedded in the nascent punk rock scene. They were friends and Panter co-wrote the script for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure with Reubens. (That version of the script did not get made, though.)
When he was hired, he brought along a former artistic collaborator from Texas, Ric Heitzman. I can’t say I am familiar with Heitzman’s art, but it does seem appropriate to the show.
But if you remember one thing about the look of Pee Wee’s Playhouse, you probably remember all the puppets. I think these were all designed by Wayne White, another artist I’ve been a fan of for a long time. I became familiar with his work when he built a giant George Jones puppet head at the late, lamented Rice Gallery in 2009. White did lots of artsy puppet shows prior to Pee Wee’s Playhouse, so he was ideal for the job.
These concept drawings were published in Wayne White: Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I so Richly Deserve.
This drawing by Gary Panter of the set was auctioned by Heritage Auctions, from whom I swiped this image.
Pee Wee Herman was great and I’m sorry he’s gone. His whole vibe was enjoyable, and that included his delightful visual sense, exemplified by the sets of Gary Panter and Ric Heitzman and Wayne White’s puppets.
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