Amazing how much time I can blow from doing this!

Anyway, on to what was on last Thursday...

EPISODE 4:
The title of this episode is "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", and
you'll see why in this episode.

Pee-Wee starts the episode off having to check out hsi moving toy shelf
thingy (borded by that happy face behind Chairy). That toy shelf was a
First Season fixture, later to be replaced from Season Two onward with
Clocky. The bits surrounding the toys were are about the same as the
food in the fridge, though not nearly as theme-specific, and more
random in nature. After some groetesque display of mangled toy antics
(the likes of which make me believe these guys would never get on the
Isle of Misfit Toys), Pterri arrives with a piece of foil he said he
got from a baked potato at a restaurant (I wan't to believe he got it
out of the trash there), and Pee-Wee rolls out the foil ball to add it
to. The foil ball was a throwback to what was done in the HBO special,
but unlike the TV show's ball, the HBO foil ball was just a rather
cheap joke, as the ball was only partically seen coming out of a
doorway, indicating they didn't really go to the trouble to construct
such a ball as we see in this show. The foil ball wouldn't last more
than a season, as it was replaced with an even bigger challenge, the
rubber band ball!

Unfortunatly Pterri feels he needs attention, and Pee-Wee had to go
play fetch with him for the duration until he managed to get that darn
mini-dino out of the playhouse easy, and just in time to start up Conky
for today's secret word. Mr. Window managed to phyche Pee-Wee out on
using the word, and apparently Pee-Wee immediately goes into the "Snack
Time" segement.

This is what ELL warned me about, and yes, Pee-Wee does overdo the
salad bit totally! For a moment, I couldn't figure out why would
Pee-Wee put his plates in the fridge, but an explanation clears up the
trouble to ask (still seems like a waste of space for things like
beer). Makes me think of how big the whole salad bar craze had been in
the 80's, the likes of which has simmered down in later years (hardly
hear much of places having salad bars as often).

Pee-Wee-ism: "Mmmmm... Salady!"

AD BREAK

The second act heats up with our hero now inside Magic Screen for
another "Connect-The-Dots" segment, where a tree is created, and a dog
chases a cat up it, forcing Pee-Wee to get a ladder to save it, only to
be pestered by a bear, and onto the comfort of Chairy he dives. Reba
the Mail Lady shows up, and Pee-Wee had to go tell her his cockamamie
story of being chased by a bear, for which she supresses any hostility
towards oru red bow-tied deviant, and forces him to sign multiple forms
in order to recieve a package (ah, the days before barcode scanners and
confirmation numbers). Pee-Wee begins to rip through the package,
making Reba a little concern of what's inside before she immediately
leaves the door (it's not like Pee-Wee's got some hentai in there).

I would like to take this opportunity to waste people's time, and bring
up how much I actually liked Reba on this show, as I felt she was the
only "normal" character of the bunch. She just has the unlucky streak
of having to send mail to the Playhouse constantly, and still finds it
hard to really accept Pee-Wee and the giongs-on that ensues. I think
she learns to live with it in later seasons. She's such a pro!

Anyway, Pee-Wee opens up the package to find that it's a magic set
(though the box itself looks more like something you see a sweater
stuck in from a department store, and we've all gotten them every Xmas
from our aunts and grandmas).

Unfortunately, Pee-Wee will have to put his little magic set on hold,
as Dixie the Cabbie and King Cartoon shows up for another cartoon.
Somehow I just had to notice the thick gloves the king has to wear,
which probably explains his exhausted trip to the playhouse tugging
along a Kodak Pageant to show our cartoons on, a bit inconvenient to
the remote control he'll use from Season Two onward.

Today's cartoon is a Harman-Ising Merrie Melody from 1931, "Smile Darn
Ya, Smile", the second Merrie Melody produced, and one of two or three
to feature two very Disney-like characters, one being Foxy, whose
design looks more like Mickey Mouse with pointy ears and a bushy tail.
Only a shame they don't get to do the song bit in this toon (that being
the same title as the cartoon as well). Not much goes on here other
than Foxy taking his girl on a ride on a trolly, resulting in the
trolly going out of control and it all being a dream when he wakes up,
with the radio insulting him!

Getting back to the Playhosue, Cowboy Curtis comes in to see that
everyone else was all set to watch Pee-Wee make an ass of himself on
stage (of some note is Phil Hartman doing his brief bit as Captain Carl
in this episode, which sadly he was only involved in the first season
of). Tito the Lifeguard makes the introductions and mistakenly states
the line "Prepare to be stupid!" Tito won't make it past the first
season, as he was replaced with Ricardo the Soccer Player. After
showing off some goofy tricks, Pee-Wee does the ultimate act, making
himself dissapear! Everyone is shocked to see Pee-Wee vanish into thin
air.

AD BREAK

Several hours must've past since then, and Pee-Wee apparently loves his
new life as a lost soul, fiddling around with the other guys and
pulling pranks all over the Playhouse. Mrs. Steve shows up and sees a
cake, which is a magnet for her fat body to come crusing to, cuts out a
slice, but takes the rest (God I hate her). Pee-Wee eventually removes
the cake and placed it on the set, leaving her with chocolate cake on
her fat ass as she lumbers out of the playhouse. She would be replaced
with Mrs. Rene from 1987 onward, and these type of gags thankfully
stopped (or have they?)!

Miss Yvonne stops buy, and gets tormented by an invisible Pee-Wee who
decided it was the best opportunity to check out her "fan service".
Yvonne gets so traumatized and flees the Playhouse instantly.

Randy and the others though are concern about Pee-Wee's invisibility,
and Randy insists Pee-Wee can't make himself come back, forcing Pee-Wee
to see if there was a spell in the magic book, only to find out he'd
have to send some cash to the company and wait 6-8 weeks for delivery.

A "Penny" cartoon pops up, with Penny talking about what she and a
friend ate during her birthday party. Pretty far-fetched story, and
wasn't too interesting to talk about.

Unfortunatly, both Conky and Magic Screen had to add up the numbers,
and found that Pee-Wee would stay invisible FOREVER! Pee-Wee gets so
sad, he had to go bawl his eyes out at Jambi, who now has to grant him
a wish he felt he couldn't do due to the implications involved in
mixing magic together. Pee-Wee's body managed toc ome back, but not
his head, forcing him to scare the shit out of the big-headed salesman
who showed up, and Jambi creates him a new head (must have photographic
memory to do that). Now that Pee-Wee's whole, he can now end the show
for good, though I still wonder if he ever had time to bother telling
his pals outside the Playhouse he's back, oh well.

Oh, and the secret word was "Little", wasn't a biggie to bring up
earlier! :-)

EPISODE 5: "Just Another Day"
(a.k.a. this episode is GAY!)

The episode begins, yet again, with Pee-Wee having to check out his
goddamn toy shelf! After that, it's the ants in the ant farm, with one
having to do a stupid cowboy lasso trick. Magic Screen presents
Pee-Wee with a sickly picture of himself, and Conky is booted up to
spit out the secret word of today. That word was "Back". The Magic
Glasses give Pee-Wee a nice stock-footage clip of an exotic (abeit
chutty) dancer for which he goes all spasdic over. Cowboy Curtis shows
up, and has to get a peek at it as well. Curtis had to show Pee-Wee
how to square dance (stock footage provided by Magic Screen), and
Pee-Wee demonstrates "Pogo-ing", which looks more like a punch of guys
in a punk rock mosh pit jumping up and down like idiots (both PW and
Curtis fit right in).

After all that Square and Pogo dancin', both Curtis and Pee-Wee get the
serious case of the munchies, and Jambi provides the entree (this means
Jambi won't show his greeny head again for the rest of the episode if
Pee-Wee did something stupid again), for which the rest of the
Playhouse gang does some silly song right to the end of the first act.

AD BREAK

Pee-Wee decides to give the viewers a trip up the nasal passage to get
a glimpse of what his brain is dreaming of, a clay-based Pee-Wee in the
dream goes through different means of transportation, only to result in
the brain waking up from the dream and I guess going back to work
(whatever that is). More mind-bending of this episode perhaps.

The beatnik puppets are having a coffee break, with Chicky Baby
reciting a poem about "Reality", leaving a bewildered Pee-Wee to get
more perplexed. Thankfully Dixie and the King of Cartoons showed up to
give us something of a lesser intelligence to ponder at, an Ub Iwerks
ComiColor entitled "Old Mother Hubbard", though we're only given a
scene of the dog having to make an ass of himself by getting his head
stuck inside the turkey. You can view this toon in full here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nchAor-eBU
(of course I'm a bit partial to Ub's work during this period, the best
of these I enjoy a bit more was "Balloonland", yet that was one freaky
toon)

On another thought, I couldn't help but noticed how touch Dixie acts in
this episode while showing of her new jacket. I bet she wouldn't be
too impressed if you left her out on the mean streets of any
metropolitan city and gets gang raped! (sorry, dirty thought in my
mind)

Coming back after the toon, Pee-Wee and Conky play chess on Magic
Screen's face, and afterwards, Magic Screen treats Pee-Wee to yet
another "Connect-the-Dots" pattern. This one though is a rather simple
one, a playground jungle gym, for which Pee-Wee had to climb up, and
added extra dots to form a slide to go down from, but lands just a few
feet from Chairy. Knucklehead pops up with yet another lame joke, and
Pee-Wee insructs the kids at home to go get something from the kitchen
to bang on during the commercial break.

AD BREAK

We come back to see what Pee-Wee's intentions where for asking millions
of kids to do those 20 years ago! He's reverted to the antics of a
four year old and has a little jam session with the cooking utensils.
An embarrased Reba shows up to deliver some pen-pal letters to Pee-Wee,
who then wondered how did the mail get from them to him, with Magic
Screen having to clear things up with some stock footage and a rather
creepy voiceover.

There are two pen-pal messages read today....

"Dear Pee-Wee,

My name is Mae Lynn. I am from the People's Republic of China. I know
Kung Fu."

PEE-WEE: "Yeah. I know him, too!"

"I had dinner an hour ago, and now I'm going to eat again. That's a
Chinese joke. We name the years here after animals. I was born in the
year of the tiger.

Your Pal,
Mae Lynn"
(I only wish it was "Lynn Minmay", but oh well) :-)

"Bonjour Pee-Wee,

My name is Michel, and I'm a boy. My parents eat stinky cheese with
each meal. Our breath is three feet long. My country gave you the
Statue of Liberty. Today I saw Brigette Bardot.

Au Revoir. Your Pen-Pal,
Michel"

PEE-WEE: "I have so many friends!"

A Penny cartoon comes up, this time Penny talks about a cousin of her's
who apparently tortures his cat, and Penny tries to find some way to
stop him from doing so. Stupid story as usual. I'm not a big fan of
the earlier Penny's as they aren't as developed as they began in later
years (much like the way the Simpsons started as little shorts on
Tracey Ullman).

After that Pee-Wee has to say "Good-bye" in a grandiose manner (the
part I thought was the most gay of this episode). Then off he goes on
his scooter out the padlocked door thingy, and onto the two-lane
highway of doom while the CBS announcer tells us of the next cartoon
coming up (according to "TVparty.com, it was "The Puppy's Great
Adventure", a Ruby-Spears production worthy of the trash compactor).

EPISODE SIX: "Beauty Makeover"

Again, three in a row, Pee-Wee has to check out his disgusting toy
shelf again! Then Conky spews up the secret word, "Time", and the
episode gets into gear! Jambi wastes Pee-Wee's wish in such a dirty
way, and Pterri shows up to ask PW to play fetich with him. Mr. Kite
decides to make Pterri wet himself after taking his toy, and is asked
to come inside the Playhouse like the baby he is. Thankfully he doses
off as well.

Then Pee-Wee does the Dots big inside Magic Screen, and forms a dog
sled, of which he is tend doing the North Pole bit with sled dogs
moving Pee-Wee's ass through the tundra. And as always, Pee-Wee is
saved by Chairy.

AD BREAK

Pee-Wee decides on making a makeshift helmet out of a shopping bag and
goes nuts! A plasticine Pee-Wee sours through the cosmos, jogs on
Saturn's rings, and discovers life on some moon.

The most beautiful girl in Puppet Land, Miss Yvonne pops in, having
already been escotred by WAY too many guys to the playhouse where she
continues her bit as if she's been hocked up on too much qualudes.
Unfortunately, Miss Yvonne had to bring up how beautiful she can make
somone, and states that the first one to walk through the door will get
a makeover, apparently Mrs. Steve had to show her ugly ass in! After
going through some paintbox-created options for styles, Yvonne decides
to start out with a cucumber mask (literally holes cut in a halved
cucumber).

While noticing the food in the fridge, we're treated to a very
stereotypical egg roll.

Thankfully we're spaired of seeing anything major going on with Mrs.
Steve as Dixie shows up to initiate King Cartoon's arrival.

Today's cartoon is yet another Ub Iwerks Crapsterpiece ComiColor, "The
Three Bears".

Coming back, it looked liked Mrs. Steve is chocking inside the mud
pack! Fast-fwoard effect ensues to get Mrs. Steve ready and out of the
Playhouse for good! Miss Yvonne sure knows how to work her stuff!

AD BREAK

Tito gives Pee-Wee another piece of foil for his ball, and a lucky
penny. A Penny cartoon shows up before we find out what Pee-Wee's idea
was. In this episode, Penny talks about a her favorite rubber duckie.

One thing I never realized before but is rather apparent in these Penny
shorts is how much Nick Park-esque they become, since he and a good
number of the Aardman team actually worked on these bits for the first
season of the show. The hand gestures give it away! You can spot
these names in the end credits.

the bovine Cowntess had to show up to ask for some tea and other crap
from Pee-Wee for her little get-together. The Clubhouse Kids show up
to check out the Dinosaur Family playing tennis inside their hole.

Breaking from this episode, I sorta miss the way they used to dress
those kids in that hippie garb! I think later on they took on styles
resemling what you'd see in a Little Lulu comic!

Pee-Wee then suggests playing "The Quiet Game" (which backfired), then
the "Pretend Game", where the folks at home had to interact with the
group. I can obviously see they didn't have much planned for the rest
of this episode, and are just killing time before the end comes up,
which they did! Pee-Wee managed to get the brats to sleep while he
initiates the ending sequence (though having to wake them up with the
secret word).

There, I got caught up to tonight's episode!

In the word of the Ub Iwerks' ComiColor endings, "Finis!"