PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE - THE COMPLETE SERIES (CBS 1986-91) Paul Reubens, Phil Hartman, Laurence Fishburne

This half-hour CBS-TV Saturday morning live-action ‘children’s show’ was enormously popular with children and adults alike – winning 22 Daytime Emmy Awards and a host of other accolades. Incorporating clips from vintage cartoons and old educational films, newly produced 3-D animation, hand puppets, marionettes, and a cast of endearingly eccentric characters led by a grey-suited and red-bow-tied Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens). The childlike Pee-wee welcomed viewers into his Technicolor fantasy-land and led them through crafts and games, cartoon clips, secret words, and ‘educational’ adventures via his Magic Screen. Based on The Pee-wee Herman Show, the Saturday morning series was considerably less “adult” than the theatre piece had been, although it incorporated many of the same supporting characters, including lusty seaman Captain Carl (Phil Hartman in his pre-Saturday Night Live days) and the magical genie Jambi (co-writer John Paragon), the latter a disembodied Genie’s head in a box w