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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: October 6th, 2015.
Director: Various
Cast: Paul Reubens, John Paragon, Frankie Avalon, Charo, K.D. Lang, Oprah Winfrey, Grace Jones, Magic Johnson, Whoopi Goldberg, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Annette Funicello, Joan Rivers, Dinah Shore, Laurence Fishburne, William Marshall, Little Richard, Cher
Year: 1988
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The Movie:
Pee-Wee Herman, Paul Reubens' claim to fame before that unfortunate incident in an adult theater more or less buried his career (at least for a while - he's just been cast as The Penguin's dad in Fox's Gotham!), had his own kids television show that many of us, myself included, watched religiously when it was originally broadcast from 1986 until it was 'yanked' (ha!) off the air in 1991. I was probably a little too old to be watching kids shows at that point in my life, but only just barely, and seeing as I knew most of the other acne clad pre-teen students at my school were tuning in too, I could get away with it without too much of a hassle. In fact, it wasn't uncommon for the entire class on Monday morning to break out screaming if the teacher uttered what Pee-Wee declared on Saturday morning to be the secret word. Ah, those were the days.
At any rate, this forty-eight minute Christmas episode from 1988 begins with Pee-Wee making up his Christmas list (which is, of course, the size of War And Peace). He sends it off to Santa Clause and then gets a visit from a few friends, including Miss Yvonne, Cowboy Curtis (a young Lawrence Fishburne, looking very strange in his cowboy gear), and of course The King Of Cartoons (played by Blacula himself, William Marshall). Once that's done with, it's time for the mandatory celebrity guest appearances, and what a selection we have! Pee-Wee goes sledding with Magic Johnson, plays Pií±ata with Charo, watches K. D. Lang dance around and sing with that Puppet Band and more (leading to appearances from Frankie and Annette, Joan Rivers, Little Richard, Dinah Shore and, for some strange reason, Grace Jones). That's not even touching on the phone calls the guy gets. First Whoopie Goldberg gives him a ring to wish him season's greetings, and then Oprah calls him up (no seriously, Oprah really does call Pee-Wee). Oh and at one point Cher shows up.
With all the merry making going on, you'd think that Pee-Wee would get distracted and forget all about his Christmas list but no sir… that is just not the case. He's super stoked when Santa Clause shows up but his joy soon turns to sadness when the bearded one tells Pee-Wee that after filling his Christmas list he doesn't have any toys for any of the other good girls and boys in the world. Begrudgingly, and under pressure from his celebrity guests, Pee-Wee decides to do the right thing and give Santa back all the toys he asked for so that the other kids can have them. Santa rewards him by letting him help him deliver the toys, and off they go in the flying sled to make it all happen.
Aside from the obvious whacked out antics of Mr. Herman, this special really holds up well and plays better now as an adult then it did when I first saw it back in the days when I really wanted to be able to grow facial hair but couldn't. A lot of that has to do with all of the bizarre celebrity cameo appearances. When you take into account the fact that a lot of those famous folk have gone through some pretty interesting changes in the fifteen years or so since this special aired, seeing Magic Johnson and Pee-Wee sledding or seeing Pee-Wee and Oprah talking on the video phone, well… this all takes on a very strange new kind of 'wow is this ever in bad taste' kind of feel. Sure, at the time it was all innocent fun but there are just way too many jokes to make about way too many of the participants for it to stay that way - even if it really should (unless it's just me and I have an unusually perverse sense of humor).
Celebrity gossip aside, this isn't a bad little special at all, in fact, it's a lot of fun if you can keep your mind out of the tabloid gutter. It's full of some cool jokes, the Playhouse is a great set for it all to go down and the show's design work is nicely spotlighted throughout. On top of that it moves at a lighting quick pace and is consistently off the wall and quite funny. There's also a nice message here, fitting for a holiday special.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Seeing as this was a television special before it was a home video, it makes perfect sense for the image to be displayed fullframe, and that is its original aspect ratio. Image quality of Shout! Factory's AVC encoded 1080i (yup) transfer is very good. There's virtually no dirt or debris visible on the picture at any given time. Colors are bright and strong and nicely reproduce the bizarre 'art deco gone wrong' color scheme of the Playhouse. It's interlaced, but it looks pretty good otherwise.
The English language DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo mix on this disc is pretty decent with a few moments where some mild channel separation is present. Dialogue is always easy to understand and there aren't any problems with hiss or distortion to note. There are a couple of times where things sound a tiny bit flat, but other than that, for a television special recorded close to twenty years ago, this sounds pretty good and at times even demonstrates a reasonable amount of depth. Optional English subtitles are provided.
Aside from scene selection, Shout! Factory has given viewers the option of watching the special with one of two different commentary tracks. The first track features Pee-Wee himself, Paul Reubens, as well as co-writer John Paragon, animation producer Prudence Fenton, and Lynne Marie Stewert, the actress who played Miss Yvonne. This is a lively track and the cast members in particular have a lot to say about how things went over. Everyone seems to be having a good time looking back on their work and while nothing here is going to come as an Earth shattering surprise to anyone, there are plenty of fun anecdotes and stories to be told about the Christmas special and about the series in general.
The second commentary features the puppeteers who worked on the special: Alison Mork, Wayne White, Ric Heitzman, Kevin Carlson, George McGrath, and John Paragon again. This track is just as lively as the first one, with a bit more of a technical focus. Again, everyone is pretty jovial and having a good time here. The puppeteers have an obviously very different working experience than the performers and writers do, so this commentary track serves as a nice contrast to the other one in that there isn't (thankfully) a whole lot of repeated information.
The disc also includes a ten minute long featurette called A Very Merry Christmas Special. This piece interviews some of the designers, the art director, the writer, the cinematographer as well as some of the cast members like Lynne Marie Stewart, Kevin Carlson and a few others. They talk about the celebrity cameos, about the design work and about how this was the first time that the show ventured outside of the actual Playhouse. Interesting stuff.
The Final Word:
The Shout! Factory Blu-ray release of Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special looks and sounds pretty good and the commentary tracks were an unexpected surprise in the extra features department. If you enjoy Reubens' most famous character and his always on type of humor, or just want to watch a Christmas Special with an inordinate amount of oddly chosen celebrity guest stars, then this Bu-ray is the one for you (unless you have the complete series boxed set - this appears to be the same as what was included there). Fun stuff.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
