Pee-Wee’s Playhouse

Stay tuned for B -Way's Playhouse. That sounds

like fun. It's time for the Telecast brought

to you by the Geekcast Radio Network. host for

the show, Optimus Solo. As you said, I'm your

host, Optimus Solo, and I would like to say hello

and welcome to the 30th episode of the Telecast

brought to you by the Geekcast Radio Network.

Today, I have with me two guest hosts for the

first time in a while. First off, introducing

back on the show TFG1 Mike. Hello. Hello. And

also, Back on the show is Steve Megatron Phillips.

Hello. Hello. And today the three of us will

be talking about. And before we get too far into

our discussion, here's a quick bit of background

information on the show. It debuted in 1986,

ran for five seasons until 1990. It was a 30

-minute show, lasted 45 episodes, and it aired

on CBS. For those of you that don't know, Pee

Wee's Playhouse was a live -action Saturday morning

children's program designed as an educational

yet entertaining and artistic show for children.

Its conception was greatly influenced by 1950s

shows that Paul Rubin's watched as a child, like

Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Mickey Mouse Club,

Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, and some shows

like that. So, starting off with Mr. TFG1 Mike,

what do you remember about Pee Wee's Playhouse

from your childhood? Um, I remember really liking

it and getting into it. It's... Pee Wee's Playhouse

was... At least from my memory, it was... It

wasn't like the kid shows of today where they're

like... You know, hey, what object do we need?

Point to your TV and tell us type of thing. But

it was similar to those like, you know, like

Blue's Clues, like, you know, Dora the Explorer,

but it was just wacky and off the wall. It's,

for me, it was pretty much Beakman's world without

the science because it was that crazy. It was

definitely unique. Yeah, you think? I mean, there

was nothing else. That's what its appeal was

for me is that it was like nothing else that

was on TV at that time. You know, I mean as close

to kind of what we talked about in last episode,

Hey Vern, it's Ernest and some stuff like that,

you know, maybe harkening back to olden days

of like, you can't do that on television. It's

just something completely randomly weird and

something you'd never seen before. And as a kid,

that's kind of cool because you're, you know,

you see your cookie cutter cartoons or you see

your, you know, cookie cutter educational type

stuff. And this was bizarro. Oh yes, very much

so. Steve, what do you remember about Pee Wee?

A lot. This show was one of my most favorite

kid shows growing up, as long as it was on. Not

only did I get to actually catch the tail end

of it on TV, I got to see the rest on reruns,

but the playhouse was just cool because there

were voices for everything, the couch, the window.

You know, his drawing board, he had a freaking

map on the wall that was a clock and you had

a cowl that would just randomly appear. I mean,

everything about the show was goofy. Yeah. And

did any of you have any of the toys for it? I

might have had a Pee Wee Herman doll, but I didn't

have I don't think I had any actual other toys

other than that. I'm pretty sure I remember one

of my sister's friends having some type of Playhouse

playset. Oh, I'm sure they made one, yeah. I'm

pretty sure I had it. Just seems like it would

be one of the best playsets ever. The one thing

I remember about watching this show was, you

know, for those of you who have listened to us

here at GeekCast Radio for the last three years

now, Well, you know Steve has always perfected

his Megatron voice for Beast Wars Megatron as

a kid I was imitating Pee -wee and I could as

a kid I could do a almost near perfect Pee -wee

Herman impression. I can't do it now, but That's

one of those ones you do before puberty hits.

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah Yeah, I mean I just I

have only fond memories of this. I know my sister

and I watched this a lot. She was really into

it. As a kid, I couldn't really separate the

show from the movies that all kind of ran together

for me. Yeah, it so did. But it was just cool

to have a bunch of different things to see him

in, whether it be the movies, the show, or whatever.

Kind of getting into the who's who, and we'll

talk about some of the characters as we remember

some of this stuff. First and foremost, I always

remember Cowboy Curtis Just because it was Laurence

Fishburne, I don't know I mean I did recognize

him even in the show as somebody that I'd seen

elsewhere but as a kid I wouldn't have known

his name or anything like that, but I Just thought

it was cool to have you know, the african -american

cowboy guy and it was just the the Jerry curl

mullet and you know So that was one of my favorite

characters outside of obviously Paul Rubin's

and and right as Peewee What about you guys?

What were some of the characters that kind of

stuck out for you? Steve I loved conkey That

that was what I just I mean I love robots anyway,

but I I love the the quirks to that character

I loved Captain Carl, which at the time I didn't

realize I was actually watching Phil Hartman,

which I love damn near everything he does but

Going back and watching some of these clips.

I was like wow that is hilarious like I love

that character and You know of course you got

cowboy Curtis and the king of cartoons That that

was awesome I I love most of most of the The

quirky characters that were you know in the show

like magic screen John B The And they had goofy

names to like clocky and you know, just yeah

stuff stuff kind of just globy and You know things

that were very descriptive of what they are,

right? But I remember a lot of it I remember

Jambi as well being one of my favorite characters,

a little genie head. Like you said, Magic Screen

and Cherry and Terry the pterodactyl. The puppet

band was kind of cool. It was a good mix of characters.

You had a little bit of everything. What about

you, Mike? Going back, and I have not watched

this show in years, and going back and finding

clips on YouTube, which we'll talk about later,

as far as what's on that. When I first saw Captain

Carl again, I was like, hey, is that Dennis Quaid?

I was more so paying attention to the voice,

and it didn't even sound like the Phil Hartman

that I knew. But that's awesome. You know, you

guys already mentioned Cowboy Curtis. One thing

that surprises me about this show, you have Lieutenant

Van Buren as Reba the, Reba the mail lady, you

have Esipathe and Markerson before Law and Order.

Yeah. When I saw that in the script, I was like,

what? Yeah. As far as the, um, as far as the

puppets and the objects, I liked Magic Screen.

I liked Mr. Window. I liked Clocky. I liked Conkey.

Going back and watching it outside of Paul Rubin's,

let's just say, other activities after this show

aired. Going back and watching this, I can't

help but thinking that Cherry is molesting him

every time he sits in her. I did always think

that was kind of weird because he's sitting on

her. Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like, God,

you've got to be kidding me. Yeah, I mean, it

was a little bit strange as a kid seeing that.

But, you know, there's definitely some cool...

I like Made Extreme just because it was like

an Etch -A -Sketch. Yeah, essentially, yes. You

know, obviously most kids had one of those that

they could play with. I don't know, each one

just had its certain things, like there were

certain traditional things that each one would

do or each one would say. And as a kid, anything

that like recurring... You know, it has routine,

usually you are drawn to it. Yeah. And a couple

of times when the actual Pee Wee's Playhouse

gang or whatever would come over, those kids,

those actual kids would come over and like, can

we look in your mouse hole? And I'm thinking,

oh, it's going to be a family of mice. No, it's

a family of frigging dinosaurs living in a mouse

hole. I mean, this almost, and I don't want to

sound insulting to Fraggle Rock, but with Pee

Wee and all his stuff in the playhouse and then

the mouse hole with the dinosaurs in it, it's

almost like the Fraggles and the Doozers, where

you have two very different societies coexisting

together. Yeah. I also remember Penny. I didn't

remember until I was rewatching the episodes,

which was a claymation blonde girl with pennies

for her eyes. As soon as I saw that, I was like,

oh my goodness, I remember that so much. Brought

out that feeling that you had from like some

of those shows when we were really young Kids

like the educational shows that would do claymation

and stuff like that so I remember penny as well

and of course the I'm gonna get the names wrong,

but who was the little? Puppet guy like the bully.

Oh Man, I wish I knew Randy Randy the bully and

he would always be causing all kinds of chaos

and I just wanted to throw him across the room.

I did not like him. You know going, oh wow, looking

at some of the other ones down the list here,

Conkey's Repairman, Johnny Wilson, Jimmy Smits,

I mean come on, you know. Yeah, Sandra Bernhard

from Roseanne I think. Yeah, Sandra Bernhard

as Rhonda. Yeah, you definitely had some famous

people showing up, you know, at different stages

of their career. With you know, Laurence Fishburne

and Hartman and Jimmy Smits and like you said

a path of Marcus and and There's a lot of love

different people showing up. Yeah, very cool

Anybody that you guys just couldn't stand or

didn't like or anybody we haven't brought up

Not really as a kid I liked all the characters

that I saw Where my disdain for the show is gonna

come in as an adult here in a bit So I didn't

necessarily like the talking cow as much and

and I didn't necessarily like the humongous salesman

No, I didn't like those two really that much

Most of the other ones I like those for those,

you know those two along with with the bully

We're probably my three least favorites Randy

and the salesman and the cow. Yeah Steve, anything

else that you didn't like or anybody we didn't

bring up? Um, not really anybody. I mean, I think

that we've pretty much covered the main ones.

I don't think I have any other dislikes besides

the three we mentioned. Alrighty then. That means

it's time for our next segment, which is... That's

right, it's time for the good, the bad, and the

ugly of Pee Wee's Playhouse. And like always,

we will start with the intro and the theme song,

Mike. As a kid, I liked it. I thought it was

very unique compared to anything else I was watching

at the time. As an adult, I can't fucking stand

it. Really? As an adult, I would rank it as one

of the worst theme songs ever. Boo! I disagree.

I don't necessarily like the first half of it

or the first part, like the introduction part

where it's kind of like weird and jungle -y and

whatnot. I like that part where it gets me is

when they start singing. Oh, see, that's when

I love it. Oh, my head hurts. No, that's the

best part. No, it's not. Steve, what do you think?

I love the theme song. I can sit there and listen

to that on loop. And you know, it's also cool

the visuals were cool for it and getting to see

him come in and do his thing and just the fact

that it was like a You could hear little bits

of everybody singing It just it was very very

catchy now The first part was weird to me the

first like 30 seconds is kind of weird because

you would never know what show you're watching

If I played the first 30 seconds for a kid that

was growing up in the 80s They'd be like what

show is this but then obviously as soon as it

hits people be like, oh, I didn't know that first

part existed But I don't know. I think you're

out of your mind Mike's it's well, it's fine,

you know, we're all entitled to our opinions

I'm saying it's like, you know Shut up the way

shut up the way that You know, now that you're

talking about the first part, how it's coming

up to the house, the way I look at it is it's

similar to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, where you're

going down the street, you know, through the

town or wherever else. Same thing here. You're

going through some random jungle and then you

come to this oasis and here's Pee -wee's Playhouse.

I'm going to try to keep track of how many shows

you're going to reference that this has similarities

to. Shut up. Yeah, Fraggle Rock and Mr. Rogers

so far. And no, you had a Beekman too, I think.

Yep, Beekman too. Next, I want to just kind of

talk a little bit about the format being that

You know, you have this person who basically

lives in, not necessarily lives, but plays in

this fantastic playhouse situated in Puppet Land,

which was obviously known as Pee Wee's Playhouse.

So, you know, this isn't where he lives. It's

not depicted as somewhere where he stays because

he comes to it at the beginning of every episode.

He leaves it at the end of every episode. So

this is just kind of like his play, you know,

place to play, which is obviously filled with

all these different things. Toys, gadgets, puppet

characters, you know, everything like that. So

as far as like, that type of setting and then

the kind of quick segments as far as jumping

around from You know talking with this set of

characters to doing this little animation to

watching an old -fashioned cartoon to like doing

that What did you think of the actual? Format

of the show Steve and and how they had it set

up and the whole idea of just having a show based

around somebody's playhouse I For one, I just

I love the show the how they they I loved having

all the different skits because mostly as a child,

your attention span is next to nothing. So if

they can hit you with one point and then hurry

up and go on to the next point really quickly,

it's more conducive to do to keep the child entertained,

meaning that they'll want to sit there and watch

more of it for a longer period of time. So now

I can still sit there and watch it. I can watch

an whole episode. I can't sit there and watch

a marathon of it in a row, but I still I love

the fact that you know You've got the neighbors

and then you might have a puppet skit or you

might have somebody You know on the magic screen

or you might have one of the claymation elements

I mean, it's just there's so many different things

in there that you never know what you're gonna

watch during the course of the show and and for

a kid who doesn't want to spend the day at a

house full of play things. To me, I just wanted

to be at Pee Wee's Playhouse. Where is this place?

Can I come visit it? Because as a kid, I mean,

it's just got everything. You got pets, you got

friends, you got toys, you got cartoons. I mean,

you had everything. You had objects that were

going to talk to you. I mean, it was like every

kid's dream to have a playhouse like this that

they could visit. And it's something unique that

I don't think we had ever seen before As far

as the actual setting of a kid's show like we've

had we've had in people's houses where they're

where they actually live You know, we've had

them at schools. We've had them, you know at

all different places But to have it at an actual

playhouse that's just used during the day that

you don't stay at is to me very unique Well,

and still they haven't really done that since

yeah The only thing that I can think of that

they've done they've maybe done there might have

been like few cartoons that have tried it But

nothing like live -action like this Mike, what

do you think not since this? Right nothing live

-action since this or before it to me Oh no,

yeah. I mean, you know, as we've said, and as

I've brought up and I'll bring it up again, you

know, you've had stuff like, you know, Mr. Rogers

is the closest thing that's similar to this as

far as someone going into a house that is not

where they live, and you know, just spending

the day playing around. Yeah, and I think this

show was unique for its time, and I don't think

that there's... in a way to bring this show back.

There's no personality right now in Hollywood

or any actors that I know of that could really

bring this show back. Or this, not this specific

show, but this type of show. The stuff that it

captured. It was just timeless. Outside of Paul

Rubin's, of course. He's a little old now though.

I mean, you know once you turn vampire and Buffy

the vampire slayer in 92 You don't go back from

that You only you would bring up a Buffy reference

Going into some of the recurring gags devices

themes that we had etc Obviously every show one

part and these are the things that you know strike

memories in me as a kid You know like oh, I remember

this because it happened over and over again

But the the secret word as far as every day he

would come in and he would tell Everybody the

audience and the crew what the secret word was

and if they ever heard it You know you're supposed

to scream it aloud and wave your hands around

and go crazy What did you think about the secret

word Mike? Do you remember that part at all?

Oh, yeah. As a kid, I thought it was exciting

watching it back over the last week or so. It

drove me nuts. As a kid, though, you were just

trying to pick out or you try to predict when

they were going to say it because they set it

up. Yeah. Nowadays, it's so obvious because,

you know, window would say, oh, hey, someone's

at the door. or a couple times they'd catch themselves

or not say it or they'd try to trick each other

into saying it, which was kind of a fun game.

What about you, Steve? I thought it was quite

entertaining and yeah, it is very predictable

when they're going to do it. You can just see

it as an adult. It's not anything, you know,

it's very obvious. And I can agree to some extent

while watching it it does get a little annoying

hearing people go You know just randomly throughout

the show, but For a kid that's you know that

would that would be hilarious Yeah The next one

was probably my one of my favorite parts of all

of peewees playhouse because People would visit

him or people would bring him stuff and instead

of bringing him like a toy or some other type

of present or food or candy or something a lot

of times they would bring him a piece of foil

and then out would come the giant foil ball and

he'd be like oh let's see how big the giant foil

ball is today and it would roll out and it's

like the size of a freaking I don't even it's

like a size of a human being um it's probably

the size of about a few if you you know mush

together about 20 basketballs yeah And then he

adds the little foil to it and then rolls it

back for some reason. I loved that. I loved that.

As a kid, me and my friends didn't do the tin

foil thing, but we did rubber band balls. Oh

my god. My friends had a rubber band ball three

times the size of my head. Nice. Yeah, I mean

it's just it's just fun and to see the size that

that foil ball was was just ridiculous I mean

obviously it wasn't probably all foil, but it

was pretty impressive and I just liked how it

rolled in and rolled back out Steve what do you

think about foil ball? I thought that was quite

entertaining honestly Did you ever try to recreate

one? No, I never cared to do that. I liked the

fact that it was on the show and then you could

hear it rumbling through like somebody attached

a microphone to it as it rolled, but I never

cared to actually try. Yeah. That would be the

only issue with the foil ball when it's rolling

because you have to make sure you roll it on

a certain side without rolling over and just

squishing the microphone. They could have done

the sound outside of the actual ball. That's

true. But yeah, I mean, it was just something,

again, like a unique recurring gag that it was

like fun to see every once in a while. Another

thing I want to talk about is we kind of talked

about the format a little bit, and we talked

about some of the characters, but what did you

guys think of the whole idea of having not only

voiced objects, but having the human characters

come in and out and stuff like that and just

having this variety of different types of characters.

Did you have a preference as far as like objects

versus the human characters or, you know, as

a kid, did they all coexist in the same world

accurately or did you think someone else? Yeah,

for me, they kind of all blended together because,

you know, it was just one of those things where

sometimes you would have Cowboy Curtis, sometimes

you would have... You know the dinosaurs or you

know something like that and sometimes it would

just be you know, cherry and conky and and all

those people what really kind of got to me as

a as a kid and even now is When he would go into

the photo booth and see the sea captain or or

something like that because it was like Now granted

this is 1986 to 1990, you know technology wasn't

at its peak But the picture just looked like

crap on the inside of the photo booth. Yeah,

I'll give you that. Are you talking about the

actual picture phone? No, I'm talking about inside

the photo booth when he was talking to Captain

Carl. OK, gotcha. Yeah, you know, I had to deal

with what it was in 1980s, but I understand your

point there. Yeah. What about you, Steve? Did

you have a preference as human characters over

the objects, or did they all coexist accurately

for you? They were all pretty... I didn't really

have a personal preference. There were certain

human characters I could have done without, and

certain puppet -muppet things that I could do

without as well. So, I mean, it was kind of an

even mixed lot there. Yeah. Personally, I enjoyed

the voice characters because it was cool seeing

things like chairs and clocks and stuff like

that talking. I only really liked one or two

of the human characters and some of the other

ones just annoyed me. I also thought it was cool

whenever he went to visit his toys. Yeah, that

was funny. That segment was something I had completely

forgotten, but he would go over to his toy shelf,

which was basically you had these shelves of

toys that were rotating around. Going you know

from side to side and and and then he would visit

the toys instead of actually playing with the

toys It would like go into like the world of

the toys and them like Doing all their stuff.

It was just kind of like a wacky. I don't know

how to describe it It was just It wasn't what

you expect because usually if someone's gonna

go to their toys, they're going to take a toy

You know, they're gonna put their hands on it

They're physically gonna do something with it

and instead he went to his toys and not like

was the observer yeah, and I thought that was

kind of wacky, as it should be. Then they had

the picture phone and the magic screen, which

we talked about. But the reason I wanted to bring

up the magic screen again was one of my most

repeated things probably, my sister and I repeated

two things from the show a whole lot. And one

of them was the connect the dots. Oh, yeah. La,

la, la, la. Connect the dots. La, la, la, la,

la. Yeah, we used to do that all the time. Whenever

we would have a workbook or something that had

a Connect the Dots or when we were at school

and somebody gave us a Connect the Dots immediately,

we would have to bust out that Peewee Connect

the Dots song type thing. Yeah. And the other

thing, which I don't have down here, but we even

probably repeated more than the Connect the Dots,

was with our floating head of a genie. Oh, yeah.

With his mecha -leka -hi mecha -hiny -ho. Yeah.

Those two lines the connect the dots and the

mech like I'm like a heinie hoe I Probably wore

out and annoyed some people with leave that hose

heinie alone What did you guys think about the

way he left each day It was great You know riding

through the riding through the woods on your

bike, you know, be careful of the big bad wolf

Well, I thought it was crazy for that first part

when he's actually in the boy house and the bike

is like in the wall or in the type thing and

he gets on it and then it just kind of like shoots

him through the playhouse and then all of a sudden

he's like randomly like you even as a kid you

know this is like totally fake but he's like

just got this like random bike going through

different environments and yeah the thing about

the bike though for me was the bike was so awesome

and magical on on the exits because that would

eventually transition into Big Adventure the

first movie where his bike got stolen. Yeah.

You know, his bike is one of - That came out

before this, though, didn't it? I'd have to look

it up. Pretty sure. But yeah, I know what you're

saying, that the bike - If it came out before

the show, I saw the movie after I had seen Pee

Wees Playhouse. Gotcha. So - The show - Pee Wee's

Big Adventure was 1985. So a year early, yeah.

I had seen it probably late 86, early 87 when

I saw the actual movie. But the thing about the

bike is though, especially with that movie and

even here in Pee Wee's Playhouse, it's one of,

if not his most prized possession because that's

how he gets around. Was was like I always could

never understand why he would want to leave the

playhouse I'm and I knew he had to because that's

not where he lived, but I was like no Why would

you leave? Stay there and how far away do you

live? It's okay. He'll be back tomorrow because

this was syndicated right this was Mornings right

it was on. Oh, it was only so okay. Yeah Saturday

morning. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right I thought

it wasn't but uh it seemed like he lived a far

distance away Yeah, he was on that bike for a

while going through all kinds of different places

Any other segments or recurring things or quotes

or you know something that you remember from

watching this that I didn't bring out Mike Steve

Not really already that means it's time for our

next segment which is Things that make you go

hmm That's right. It's time for things you might

not know about Pee Wee's Playhouse First off

in 2004 and in 2007 when TV Guide did its top

cult shows ever Pee Wee's Playhouse ranked number

10 the one year and number 12 the other year

and That makes sense to me. I mean there was

definitely a cult following for this show and

still is today Second thing you might not know

is that in this entire run, Pee Wee's Playhouse

won 15 different Emmys as well as other awards

and it was nominated for like 30 or 40 some different

awards. So it was definitely an award show magnet.

Captain Kangaroo's Bob Keishin hailed the show's

awesome production values adding, with the possible

exception of the Muppets, you can't find such

creativity anywhere on TV. I'm just trying to

illustrate that it's okay to be different. Not

that it's good, not that it's bad, but that it's

all right. I'm trying to tell kids to have a

good time and encourage them to be creative and

to question things is what Paul Rubin's told

an interviewer in Rolling Stone. So a couple

quotes from Bob Keishen and Paul Rubin's there.

And the third thing that you might not know is

that the fourth and the fifth seasons were filmed

back -to -back without the usual break between

seasons So they were all done right after each

other and CBS offered Rubin's a deal for a sixth

season But he actually turned it down saying

that he was exhausted and tired from the first

five seasons So that is technically why? Peewees

Playhouse came to an end because Paul Rubin's

did not want to continue, not because it's like

our usual where the company or the channel actually

access it. Right. Well, you know, see the thing

is like, and then again, I am going to reference

this again, because it was such a departure for

me seeing this from him. Playing a vampire in

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is just a regular

guest bit acting role in that 1992 movie, that's

a lot different than having to be up here and

all excited and yanyanyany, you know, that's

a lot different because yeah, I'm sure something,

you know, the way he acted on PeeWee's Playhouse,

that probably took a toll on him and I don't

blame him for not continuing on with it. No,

I mean, I could see it being a having to be at

that level of energy and whatnot couldn't all

the time pretty easily be a tiring thing. So

it makes sense. And, you know, After five seasons

or so, I mean it probably also got to the point

where it had run its course as far as I mean

I know they were very creative and they could

have probably come up with new stuff But you

know most shows don't last more than five seasons.

Mm -hmm. So If they're smart, they don't last

more than five seasons. Otherwise they let it

die. They overstay their welcome Unless you're

a really good show. Yeah So that does it for

what you might not know about Pee -wee Herman

and Pee Wee's playhouse, but how about where

are they now? As far as Paul Reubens goes, obviously

we had the scandalous, whatever, you know, incidents

that we won't get into too much. But as far as

what he's doing these days, let's see, in the

last couple of years, we've seen him guest star

on the WWE. We have seen him appear on Saturday

Night Live as Pee Wee. Yeah We have had rumors

of him returning to be peewee Hmm he's done Broadway

though doing yeah, he did Broadway peewee and

He said that he's working on a new peewee Herman

feature film Yes now I know he approached the

original individuals that did help him on Pee

Wee's Big Adventure, me and Tim Burton. And he

also talked to Johnny Depp about having him portray

Pee Wee. But both of them declined. So he's still

kind of trying to figure it out. It seems like

he is gung ho about revisiting it you know for

a long time he was probably trying to distance

himself for it but it seems like it's come to

the point where he embraces it and he's he seems

to be the one kind of spearheading an attempt

to bring Pee Wee back to the public in some way

shape or form right and that doesn't surprise

me actually because i mean we are in an age right

now where everybody wants revivals yeah everybody

wants what we already had well it's because what

they're doing is It's right. You see what people

like as a kid and now that they're adults and

have their own kids It's trying to appeal to

that to it makes sense. I mean It's not just

bringing it back to bring it back. It's bringing

it back because they want to capitalize on. Oh,

right. No, no, I agree but But uh, it'd be interesting

to see if he could pull it off or obviously he

was looking for somebody It seemed like he was

looking for somebody else to play the role So

it might just be something as far as trying to

be able to find someone who can pull that off

effectively You know Johnny Depp, it wasn't a

bad choice for him to go to as far as being someone

crazy and wacky But I think he almost is too

old to play that role, too Oh, yeah, they'd almost

need like a up -and -coming actor in their late

20s early 30s and or have a voice actor that

could More accurately portray all the look and

still do the voice, you know So I mean they would

they would almost have to go that route Oh, and

we should also obviously mention that he also

has a voiceover career, most notably as Batman

the Brave and the Bold and some other stuff.

So he is definitely still in the business doing

what he does. As far as some of the other characters,

obviously Laurence Fishburne, most recently we

probably know him from CSI. Mm -hmm, but he did

announce this past year that he's gonna that

he left CSI and it's gonna go back to Movies

and theater and try to do that route instead

of TV He has been cast in the role of Perry White

in the new Christopher Nolan Superman reboot

Man of Steel and it's gonna be the first time

that the character has ever been played by an

African American actor Yeah, so that's kind of

interesting. I actually have a family member

that's working on that movie which is kind of

cool. But yeah, so that's what Laurence Fishburne's

doing these days. Lin -Marie Stewart most recently

appeared in Law and Order SVU, Arrested Development,

and the 2011 film Bridesmaids, as well as It's

Always Sunny in Philadelphia. On a sad note,

obviously, unfortunately, Phil Hartman and both

he and William Marshall, who did some of the

voices and whatnot, have both passed on. John

Paragon, who was John B. the Genie, returned

to do John B. the Genie in the Broadway outing

of the Pee Wee Herman stage show. So he's still

kicking. And obviously, yes, Fathom Mercousen

was on Law and Order forever. Yeah, seven seasons.

She is apparently, her character is also the

longest running African American character in

the history of television. Yeah, probably, yeah.

I mean, that's according to what I'm reading

here. So that's kind of interesting. As for most

of the other ones, I mean, most of the other

ones were just doing voices or roles for Pee

Wee and didn't continue or didn't do stuff elsewhere.

So it would be pretty hard to track down what

they're doing now. So interesting to see if we

get a Pee Wee revival. But I guess we'll have

to wait and see. For now, we're going to take

a quick break and... Go to some commercials,

some Geekcast radio ads, and maybe a few Pee

Wee Herman nostalgic sort of clips. So stick

with us and we'll be right back. Hi, John B.

Hiya, Pee Wee. Are you ready to make today's

wish? No, but I'll take a prediction. All right.

I predict we'll be back right after this. You

can now hear our show on Stitcher Smart Radio.

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Stitcher Smart Radio. The smart way to listen

to radio. Hi, this is John Delancey and you are

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. To keep

the playhouse open! Yeah! I'm right in the middle

of cleaning up this thing! Kiwi can make anything

an adventure! Even this! Your dads are gonna

miss all the fun! What fun? Vacuuming! It's like

Christmas every week at Kiwi's Playhouse! Hey

guys, it's Optimus Solo from GeekCast Radio Network's

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for what the topic should be. Head on over to

geetcastradio .com and click on the Telecast

tab at the top of the page. Once there you can

find our complete Season 1 schedule with all

35 episodes. Please look this over, because we

would hate for you to cast your vote for a show

that is already on our schedule. Once you've

done this, just scroll to the section titled

Listener's Choice and click on the Comments button.

All that's left for you to do now is to cast

your vote through a comment. For example, you

might say, Hey, I see that Nick Arcade is not

in your Season 1 lineup, so I'd like to cast

a vote for Nick Arcade to be the Listener's Choice

episode. It's that simple, so please go cast

your vote for your favorite show and stay tuned

for episode 34 to see which show becomes our

very first Listener's Choice. That does it for

now. This has been Optimus Solo from the Telecast.

It's Saturdays! Hey, I'm Gary. I'm Greg. I'm

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Radio Network's new show, The Telecast, with

some important information on our theme song

contest. The rules for this contest are pretty

simple. In Season 1 of The Telecast, we will

be covering 33 classic hit shows from the 80s

and 90s. Obviously all of these shows had theme

songs that sometimes can be the most memorable

part of a show. This contest is going to test

your memory on those theme songs. How is that

you may ask? Well, because we have taken 32 of

those classic theme songs and smashed them into

one three -minute clip. Your job is to identify

the order in which these 32 shows appear in that

three -minute clip. Also, you must be able to

identify which one of the 33 shows was left out

of the clip. Some of the show should be fairly

easy for you to identify while others may be

a bit trickier. For a list of all of the shows

in season 1 and more information on the contest,

visit the telecast page at geekcastradio .com.

Also remember to tune in to every episode of

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that show's theme song in its entirety at the

beginning of the show as well as the 3 minute

contest song towards the end of the show. This

has been Optimus Solo from the telecast saying

good luck and happy listening. Now back to the

show. Do you see how your patience paid off?

Alright, thanks for sticking with us through

that commercial break and you might be wondering

to yourself how you can watch some Pee Wees Playhouse

now. Well, you have a couple different choices.

First of all on DVD, Image Entertainment has

released all 45 episodes of Pee Wees Playhouse

on DVD. You can get Pee Wee's Playhouse number

one which has 23 episodes you can get number

two that has 22 episodes or you can get the complete

collection which includes all of them plus the

Christmas special and there is some bonus features

on some of those that include lost episodes or

lost shows so there is some bonus stuff that

might be worth it but you definitely can go the

DVD route you cannot go the Netflix route No,

not available on Netflix on iTunes you can get

all the seasons They range from about 1199 to

1699 depending on which season you're gonna be

getting or you can get them episodically at 199

apiece So they're all available on iTunes as

far as YouTube What did you find on YouTube Mike?

I found maybe five or six out of searching and

I searched it like four or five different ways.

I searched it P dash we Playhouse and searched

it with just P space we Playhouse and I only

found maybe seven or eight five or six seven

or eight something like that and I watched those

honestly The quality sucks on every single one

that I saw because it's usually people that have

taped it off a TV or Just really really poor

quality if I was gonna get this to to watch it

again I would get that complete collection DVD

set Yeah, the one episode that was good for me

was the I think it was the pilot episode maybe

It was pretty good quality as far as pretty clear

on YouTube But yeah, some of the other ones are

kind of hit -and -miss Steve. Did you watch any

on YouTube? What's a little bit on YouTube? They're

not super quality But they they aren't The few

that are on there aren't horribly bad either

but Like you guys said there's not a whole heck

of a lot on there Yeah, so I mean you can go

iTunes if you want or you can go DVD if you want

to actually own it and you can get like Some

bonus features and real high quality if you want

to see like one episode and that's it You can

go to YouTube and just a little make sure you

make sure you search for the original first You

know kind of pilot episode because that's probably

the best quality you're gonna find on YouTube

And if that's all you need then that then you're

good if you want more than that You'd probably

should go to get the DVDs or I'm not a big fan

of buying the stuff on iTunes But I suppose some

people are It honestly depends, and that's a

topic we can do another time about buying stuff

on iTunes, but if it's something that is right

there and you only want a refresher course for

maybe one episode, two bucks an episode is not

that bad. Yeah, and that seems to be pretty standard.

I mean, that's what you can get when you buy

an episode on Amazon that offers that now, too.

They're usually almost always $1 .99. So you

can go that route. IGN replacement crew ratings.

I'll go first here. I definitely loved this show

as a child It was something like we said that

was completely unique that you couldn't see anywhere

else That was just crazy fun. It was only on

once a week when I was watching it So it was

something that didn't get overdone and you could

look forward to watching it every Saturday much

like Hey, Vern, it's Ernest, which when I was

watching it was also only on on Saturdays So

I definitely loved it as a kid I don't know if

I necessarily need to own it on DVD It's kind

of one of those the ones that I would think about

but it's more so something that I would probably

just watch if I found it on TV or You know on

YouTube or this or that so I'm gonna give this

one a three out of four Mike um if you're a DVD

collector, and you you know you'll You know,

you want a complete series on DVD, you maybe

watch five or six episodes and then just shelve

it. Sure, buy this on DVD. For me, I give it

a two. I loved it as a kid, it was awesome, but

nowadays I just can't stomach watching it. It's,

you know, it's not god -awful, it's not the worst

thing I've ever seen, but I just... I've grown

out of that phase of enjoying that wonderment

and uniqueness that this show has, so I give

it a two. Steve. I'd give it a three. I'd still

watch it. I wouldn't own it per se, but I'd still

watch it if I could see it somewhere other than

online. Yeah, for me it wasn't painful watching

it. No, you know Mike Mike seems to have a little

bit of pain when he watches it now, but he's

also the same one that doesn't like Ren and Stimpy

or GI Joe season 2 or He -Man in in space, which

those are all I Never said I didn't like GI Joe

deep series. I hate Sigma six. That's Okay, you're

all right then but it just wasn't it just wasn't

it wasn't painful to me I could watch an episode

or two of this without any qualms or without

being bored or without being hurt or in pain.

But I can understand how some people wouldn't

be able to. It's probably a little bit too crazy

now as an adult. But I still would watch it if

I ran across it on TV. So any last words for

you, Mike? You know, if it gets a revival, that'll

be great. Whether it's in movie form or TV form,

that'll be just another thing that can kill Barney.

You know that would be awesome to have it back

on TV so kids can see it again. I don't think

The problem with this show is that I Hate to

say this but the problem with the show is Paul

Rubens is the star He is pee -wee fucking Herman

you can't get someone to replace him Acting that

that the way that he did he had that unique way

of acting for that role And while it's all well

and good, if he wants to bring it back himself

and he wants to do it himself, I just don't think

it's going to be as popular if you recast. The

only way I could see it. I mean, I could see

it if you found like the perfect person, but

it almost seems to me that it would make more

sense to do it in an animated form. That could

work. Yeah, I could see that. But he wouldn't

be too old to do that. Or there's enough mimickers

out there that could. that could do the voice

part, that I could see that, and it could be

somewhat of a fun little cartoon version, but

I don't know if it would be successful or not,

but as far as trying to get around the Paul Rubin's

obstacle, that could be an option. Right. Yeah.

What about you, Steve? I could see a revival

coming to it, but it would just really depend

on how they did it. Yeah, I do it right. They

would have to really Stick close. I mean for

the most part they can use all the original props

or just update them and add new ones right and

get away with get rid of ones like the stupid

neighbor and you know the cowl and you know,

maybe Because the cows like a mr. Ed knockoff.

I mean that yes but They would have to get people

that either appeared similar and look and could

act it, but they'd also not have to update it

too much to where they're wearing saggy pants

and a pimp suit. So, yeah, it's going to be it

would be something that would either be really

good or really, really, really bad. Mm hmm. It

could go either way unless Rubens is directly

involved. Right. All right. Well, I'd like to

take this chance to thank both Steve and Mike

for joining me today and obviously thanking all

of you listeners for listening and tuning in.

If you want to leave us feedback on the show,

there's a couple ways you can do this. Obviously

we read our latest iTunes review last episode

and we haven't gotten any since then, so please

go to iTunes, listen, review, rate us, give us

comments so that we can improve for you. You

can also go to GeekCastRadio .com where you can

comment on all of our different podcasts, not

just the telecast, or you can call the voicemail

line 502 -526 -588. just tell us which show you're

leaving the message for and give us something

to call you. And obviously if you want to keep

up to date with all things GeekCast related,

the best way to do that is to become a fan of

us on Facebook by going to Facebook .com slash

GeekCastRadioNetwork and Mike will give you updates

on everything that is going on at GeekCastRadioNetwork.

Alright, so that does it for now. We hope we

succeeded in entertaining you, informing you,

and most importantly, unleashing the geek in

you on this episode of the Telecast, and we hope

that you will tune in for our next episode when

we start our final block of shows. It's gonna

have a musical theme, and we're gonna start with

Sharon, Lois, and Bram on The Elephant Show.

For now, I am your host, Optimus Solo, with Steve

Megatron Phillips. See you after you're on mic.

And we will see you next time on another episode

of The Telecast.