Critical reception As soon as it first aired, ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' fascinated media theorists and commentators, many of whom championed the show as a
postmodernist hodgepodge of characters and situations that appeared to thumb its nose at the racist and
sexist presumptions of dominant culture. For example, Pee-wee's friends, both human and not, were of diverse cultural and racial origins. In a review of the first season for
The New York Times,
John J. O'Connor called it "undoubtedly this season's most imaginative and disarming new series". O'Connor lauded the show's mixed-media format and commented that the Saturday morning kids' programming of "low-cost, dreary and occasionally questionable cartoons will never be the same" after
Pee-wee.
Captain Kangaroo's
Bob Keeshan 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 to encourage them to be creative and to question things," Reubens told an interviewer in
Rolling Stone. In 2007, ''Pee-wee's Playhouse
was named to Time'' magazine's list of the 100 Best TV Shows. On November 1, 2011, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the show, a book by Caseen Gaines called ''Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon'', was released by
ECW Press. In the wake of Reubens' death from cancer in 2023, John Jurgensen of
The Wall Street Journal wrote: "Pee-wee Herman wasn't originally meant for kids. So when Paul Reubens did make a Saturday-morning TV show for them, his signature character came in a package shaped by
underground art,
punk rock and
improv comedy. As
MTV was to cable and
The Simpsons would soon be to prime-time, ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' was a disrupter of the TV domain for kids. The show's psychedelic absurdism also attracted an audience of teens, college students and savvy parents of the show's target viewers. With his wild remix of the kids' shows that he grew up with as a
baby boomer, Reubens put a stamp on
Generation X."
Awards and nominations •
14th Daytime Emmy Awards – 1987 • Outstanding Makeup – Sharon Ilson (won) • Outstanding Hairstyling – Sally Hershberger and Eric Gregg (won) • Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design –
Gary Panter, Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr., Nancy Deren, Wayne White, and Ric Heitzman (won) • Outstanding Film Sound Mixing – Rolf Pardula and Ken Hahn • Outstanding Videotape Editing – Paul Dougherty, Doug Jines, Joe Castellano, Les Kaye, and Howard Silver • Outstanding Graphics and Title Design – Prudence Fenton and
Phil Trumbo (won) •
15th Daytime Emmy Awards – 1988 • Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design – Gary Panter, Wayne White, Ric Heitzman, Jeremy Railton,
James Higginson, and Paul Reubens (won) • Outstanding Makeup –
Ve Neill (won) • Outstanding Videotape Editing – John Ward Nielson for "Playhouse in Outer Space" •
16th Daytime Emmy Awards – 1989 • Outstanding Hairstyling –
Yolanda Toussieng Jerry Masone for "To Tell The Tooth" (won, tied with
The Oprah Winfrey Show) • Outstanding Videotape Editing – Charles Randazzo, Peter W. Moyer, David Pincus, and Steve Purcell for "To Tell The Tooth" (won) • Outstanding Film Sound Editing – Steve Kirklys, Steve Michael, Peter Cole, Ken Dahlinger, Greg Teall, and John Walker for "To Tell The Tooth" (won, tied with
Muppet Babies) •
18th Daytime Emmy Awards – 1991 • Outstanding Graphics and Title Design – Paul Reubens, Prudence Fenton, and Dorne Huebler (won) • Outstanding Film Sound Editing – Peter Cole, Chris Trent, Glenn A. Jordan, Steve Kirklys, Ken Dahlinger, and John Walker (won) • Outstanding Film Sound Mixing – Bo Harwood, Peter Cole, Chris Trent, and Troy Smith (won) ==Episodes==