Pee-wee's Big Holiday

February 19, 2016 7:53 PM

Pee-Wee Herman is coming back - and he's going on his first vacation.
posted by divabat (43 comments total)

I can't quite explain it, but the makeup job simultaneously does a great job and a horrible job at hiding the fact that Reubens is now sixty three years old!
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:04 PM on February 19, 2016 [11 favorites]

They were filming this down the block from my friend's house last summer, I think. He said he heard the laugh, and I've never been more jealous.
posted by teponaztli at 8:08 PM on February 19, 2016 [9 favorites]

They did cgi on Pee-Wee.

My 7 year old is watching the old movies and Playhouse and I love it so much again.
I even bought a Pee-wee doll on eBay.
posted by k8t at 8:15 PM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

If I recall correctly, he talked a little about this on the Nerdist podcast in 2014.
posted by blurker at 8:31 PM on February 19, 2016

He's got a (web) log, y'know.
posted by Catblack at 8:34 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

These stories almost always contain an aside of "camped out on the millionaire Doris Duke's property, whom he had befriended."

Remember, make friend with rich people if you want to be creative. Seriously

(Also wait large collection of vintage erotica wait)

Anyway! Looking forward, I don't really like the took the whole sense tic and made it darker or more sinister. I genuinely like the cheerful candy colored absurdity of the deal and the underlying lack of malice.
posted by The Whelk at 8:34 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's like I'm in love all over again.
posted by perhapses at 8:44 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

I show each of my kids pee wee's playhouse episodes when they get to a certain age. I'm through like five kids so far and none of them have liked Pee Wee Herman at all. All but one actively hated Pee Wee. I don't know what is wrong with these kids. I loved Pee Wee!!!!
posted by chaz at 8:48 PM on February 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

I was kind of hoping Peewee hopped on the back of Alcide's chopper and they rode off on some Big Gay Adventure and Chill, but we're probably not going to have a society that would be comfortable with that story on Netflix until 2078.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 8:51 PM on February 19, 2016 [9 favorites]

They talk in the trailer like Pee-Wee has never left Fairville. If we can't have continuity in the Pee-Wee Herman franchise, where can we find it? At long last, where can we find it?
posted by chimaera at 8:54 PM on February 19, 2016 [12 favorites]

Netflix? Shit! Why won't they let me pay double for a one off rental when they insist on a monthly fee. Bastards! I must see this movie.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 8:59 PM on February 19, 2016

Doesn't Netflix give you the first month free? Watch it and then cancel the next day.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:42 PM on February 19, 2016

Don't press too hard for continuity, or you'll end up having to remember that Big Top Pee Wee happened.
posted by darksasami at 10:06 PM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm...actually pretty excited for this? I've seen Big Adventure like a million times and this kinda seems to be the same formula. I also really enjoyed the linked article when I read it a few days ago. I've been a Pee-Wee fan since literally lunchbox days, as in my very first kindergarten lunchbox was one of these beauties, and have always rooted for Paul Reubens.
posted by town of cats at 10:59 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

OMG Simone!
posted by chococat at 11:06 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I KNEW SHE LOOKED FAMILIAR. THAT WAS SIMONE.
posted by town of cats at 11:17 PM on February 19, 2016

Pee Wee's Playhouse fans should watch Beauty Is Embarrassing, a film about artist Wayne White that spends a fair amount of time on the period he spent working on the show. Did you know the staff of the show would use the puppets and sets to put on after-hours puppet shows for their own amusement that were EVEN MORE INSANE THAN PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE?
posted by contraption at 12:25 AM on February 20, 2016 [17 favorites]

This makes my day! My family are all Pee Wee fans. Now we will have to get netflix. My favorite quote, as spoken inside the dinosaur: "Everyone has a "Big But". Let's talk about YOUR Big But...."
posted by mermayd at 2:33 AM on February 20, 2016

I'm sorry, I can't read anything because there are STARS AND HEARTS in my eyes and they are making it hard to see anything but PeeWee's mischievous smile.

And I can't listen to anything, because there's this "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" sound somewhere. Am I making that? I think I am.

Oh dear. I'm sorry, everyone. I appear to be fangirling so hard that I've actually self-imploded in glee.

And, yet, I am surrounded by people who do not understand. Who never spent hours upon hours watching PeeWee's Big Adventure as a child, practically wearing out the video cassette, and can still quote immense sections of the film at the prompt of a single line. Who never sat there on a Saturday morning, eyes wide, delighting in PeeWee's Playhouse, terrifying all the adults when they said the Secret Word at any point during that day. Who have their house covered in kitschy delights and loves mid-century design and blames it all on the amazing and beautiful wonder that PeeWee Herman brought to the TV screen.

PeeWee was so goddamn formative on my sense of style, my sense of humour, my...god, everything. And he's coming back, and it's the day before my birthday, and heck yeah I'm going to watch it and be delighted. Even if it's terrible, I'll still be delighted, because it's PeeWee. PeeWee back on my TV.
posted by Katemonkey at 3:14 AM on February 20, 2016 [12 favorites]

Also: Nana's Yarn Barn from USA Today.
posted by Katemonkey at 3:20 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't know what is wrong with these kids. I loved Pee Wee!!!!

Wait, did kids ever like Pee Wee? I thought it was always pretty much stoned college students.
posted by octothorpe at 4:18 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm still a little irritated that this is going to raise awareness of the wonderful Dante Giacosa-penned Fiat 600, one of the few tiny European cars not gentrified into the stratosphere by rich jerks wanting something twee and outré to impress their jerk friends (never mind that, like all the work of Dante Giacosa, it's actually just great and not just cute).

Wait—never mind. Fiat? Fix It Again Tony! Terrible cars. Rusty and Eye-talian. Bee-weeare.

Anyway, Pee-weePee-weePee-wee squee-ee!
posted by sonascope at 4:20 AM on February 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Katemonkey has me thinking about the Bowie thread and the connection we build through the repeated exposure. From my baby boomer perspective, I formed an attachment to his songs in my teens because I replayed them more times than I can comfortably admit to. I am kind of in awe that there's this generation that could replay amazing video, to the same degree, at a developmental stage when there wasn't even the conception of "too many times". Heady stuff.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:10 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Netflix? Shit! Why won't they let me pay double for a one off rental when they insist on a monthly fee. Bastards! I must see this movie.

You can spin your subscription up and down as you see fit.

When Game of Thrones comes out I suspend my Netflix and use HBO Now until it's over, then I cancel that and spin back up Netflix.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:37 AM on February 20, 2016

It's a damn shame that a bunch of prudes got upset Paul Reubens jerked it in a porno theater. Which is further evidence that often the consequences far outweigh the crime. I bought into his defense, "I thought that's what those places were for!" So did I. Not like he was in a matinee playing a Disney movie.

I mourn the loss of decades of Pee-wee all because some puritans needed to have their boot buckles shined (yes, that is a euphemism).

Smoking marijuana won't ruin your life regardless of what people say. Getting arrested for smoking marijuana will though. Masturbating on a porn theater won't make you go blind or ruin your life. Getting arrested for it will. (Ruin your life, not make you go blind.)

Compare Reubens to Charlie Sheen or Josh Duggar. I wouldn't have any problem with my kid wanting to grow up to be Pee-wee or Paul Reubens, but then I would be fine with my kid jerking it in a porn theater (as long as he didn't get caught!).
posted by cjorgensen at 5:39 AM on February 20, 2016 [8 favorites]

I know. Prudes deprived us of decades worth of Paul Reuben's output. What a bunch of pricks. It's sad but I'm glad this movie is happening. Hopefully more after this.
posted by ian1977 at 6:23 AM on February 20, 2016

So, is Pee-Wee's job just a straight-up admission that for all these years he's actually been in hiding as Spongebob Squarepants?
posted by briank at 6:25 AM on February 20, 2016

Pee-wee! I loved Big Adventure and watched Playhouse religiously. Just one of the things I really liked about it was the fact that literally everything in the house was animated. As a longtime crouton-petter and namer of the apparently inanimate, this was the first time I'd seen somebody else do this, and brilliantly, which was both comforting and fantastic.
posted by the sobsister at 7:02 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

A huge part of the puritanism against Paul Reubens had to do with the misconception that Pee Wee was, you know, for kids.

Pee Wee was for stoned college students, as octothorpe said.

He was in Cheech and Chong movies doing coke under the tablecloth at a restaurant, for god's sake.

I'm NOT SORRY!

So, this idea that a children's entertainer got his reputation ruined because he was, you know, just jackin' it in a movie theater, was even more ridiculous. He started off as a comic for adults. Some brilliant/Misguided person saw his routine and thought, "hey, this guy would be great for kids!"
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:39 AM on February 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

I can't wait!!!
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:03 AM on February 20, 2016

Never left Fairville?

I guess he doesn't remember the Alamo!
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:11 AM on February 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

The stars at night are big and bright...
posted by downtohisturtles at 8:18 AM on February 20, 2016

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS
posted by town of cats at 8:28 AM on February 20, 2016 [9 favorites]

My daughter is 6. She hasn't seen any Pee-Wee yet, but when she accidentally stumbles or falls off a chair, she acts normal and confidently proclaims "I meant to do that." It must be genetic.
posted by gnutron at 9:12 AM on February 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I can't quite explain it, but the makeup job simultaneously does a great job and a horrible job at hiding the fact that Reubens is now sixty three years old!

There's some behind the scenes paparazzi shots making a big deal of the makeup. He has a couple of patches glued to his neck and pulled together by and elastic strap from behind; for a mechanical neck lift. I love that it's simple and old-timey, yet works pretty damn well in the circumstances.
posted by bonobothegreat at 10:01 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Paul Reubens: My face was digitally retouched to make me look younger for Pee Wee's Big Holiday. The really interesting part is plainly stating that you shouldn't be surprised this happened, you should be surprised no one ever talks about it, since it happens all the time.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:50 AM on February 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Go for it PeeWee!

His Playhouse performances were marvelous. I loved the movies. He managed to project his rather manic character seemingly without effort--Like Robin Williams, it seemed like what you saw was just the tip of a very complex and awesome character, that he downplayed so that his audience could keep up. Anyhow, the characters in his skits, though zany and off-center, seemed to me like versions of real people; he treated people with care.

The arrest and its aftermath was a clown show. Mr. Reuben wasn't the clown.
posted by mule98J at 10:50 AM on February 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm even more exited now that I see that John Lee from Wonder Showzen is the director. What a great pairing of sensibilities!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:55 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

This looks great. I also get this uncanny valley feeling of PW being both young and old at the same time. He kind of morphs from one scene to another from being 60'ish around the edges to being young PW. It's a bit strange, yet looks like a great bit of entertainment, classic PW. I guess PW can never age so that puts a bit of a cap on the Ruben's career unless, or probably, they end up CGI'ing the entire character at some point.
posted by diode at 11:55 AM on February 20, 2016

I'm not sure how to feel about Pee Wee having a job. Like a normal day job. It feels wrong.
posted by brundlefly at 12:07 PM on February 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

it happens all the time.

one of the main characters in T.C Boyle's TALK TALK is a digital retoucher for films, putting actor's faces on stunt doubles bodies and such- it's well paid if very tedious work and apparently some well known people's bad skin issues can mean a summer house for the right artist.
posted by The Whelk at 12:32 PM on February 20, 2016

I don't know what is wrong with these kids.

My best friend in university after I tried to get him to watch Pee Wee's Playhouse, said, "Why would anyone let their kids watch that show?" Come on guy, it's Saturday morning!

Anyhow, my kids are 15 & 13, and they seem to enjoy it.
posted by sneebler at 11:55 AM on February 21, 2016

Wait, did kids ever like Pee Wee? I thought it was always pretty much stoned college students.

I fucking LOVED peewee as a kid. But to be fair, my mom showed it to me because she had loved it from that category.
posted by emptythought at 2:10 PM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]