“Pee-wee’s Playhouse” was an anomaly.
It premiered a year after the surprise box office success of Tim Burton’s “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” and, like “The Pee-wee Herman Show” before it, seemed to be strictly kids’ stuff.
But Paul Reubens’ overgrown child act uniquely appealed to the inner brat in all of us.
It wasn’t like Looney Tunes, where artists snuck in adult-skewing references, nor was it a full-on, off-color parody of the kiddie show format that you’d find on “Saturday Night Live.” It was honestly, disarmingly, good clean fun.
Its target audience could enjoy it over a bowl of Frosted Flakes, while college students and beyond could enjoy it over a bowl of Frosted Flakes preceded by a bowl of …
something else.A weekly half-hour dose of Pee-wee was bliss in 1986.
I’d just started junior high, which is when your action figures are immediately consigned to the attic, so admitting…
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