After a failed audition for
Saturday Night Live in 1980, Paul Reubens developed
The Pee-wee Herman Show for the
Groundlings sketch comedy theater in Los Angeles, which led to an
HBO special in 1981 and several appearances on
Late Night with David Letterman.
Steve Martin introduced his manager
Bill McEuen to Reubens, who subsequently signed him on as a client and convinced him to go on an American tour. Reubens's tour of 22 cities was billed as
The Pee-wee Herman Party and included sold-out shows at New York's
Carnegie Hall and Los Angeles's
Universal Amphitheater, where Warner Bros. executives greenlit a full-length Pee-wee Herman film. After writing a tentative screenplay, according to producer
Richard Gilbert Abramson, Warner Bros. had approved a director for the film but it was a choice that neither he, McEuen or Reubens felt was appropriate for the project. Taking inspiration from
Sylvester Stallone, who refused to cede creative control to studios, Reubens turned down Warner Bros.'s choice for the director, and the studio then told him to find someone "approvable, available, and affordable" within a week. Having left
Walt Disney Productions, and with
Frankenweenie (1984) receiving positive reviews within film studios,
Tim Burton was seeking a full-length film to direct. When Reubens and the producers of ''Pee-wee's Big Adventure'' saw Burton's work on
Frankenweenie, they decided to hire him. Burton felt that he connected with Reubens's personality and the humor of the
Pee-wee Herman Show. Reubens had heard about Burton at a party the same night that he had gotten permission from the studio to get an extension on his director search. "I screened
Frankenweenie and I spoke to
Shelley Duvall, who was a friend of mine who was in (the film)," Reubens explained. "I knew Tim was the director about 15 seconds into
Frankenweenie, like the second or third shot of it. I was looking at the wallpaper in this bedroom and the lighting and just going, 'This is the guy who has style and understands art direction.' Those were two really important things for me and my baby, I guess, and you know it just happened to luckily all work out." After hiring Burton, Reubens,
Phil Hartman and
Michael Varhol revised the script. They read
Syd Field's 1979 book
Screenplay and adhered to the book's screenwriting advice: "It's a 90-minute film, it's a 90-page script," Reubens explained. "On page 30 I lose my bike, on page 60 I find it. It's literally exactly what they said to do in the book[...] There should be like a
MacGuffin kind of a thing, something you're looking for, and I was like, 'Okay, my bike. The film has been described as a "parody" or "farce version" of the 1948 Italian classic
Bicycle Thieves.
Casting The film features several of Reubens' fellow cast members from the improvisational comedy troupe
the Groundlings who had previously appeared in
The Pee-wee Herman Show, namely
Phil Hartman,
Lynne Marie Stewart,
John Paragon and John Moody.
Jan Hooks was also a fellow Groundling, and both she and Hartman would go on to become cast members of
Saturday Night Live in 1986. The filmmakers initially wanted
Louie Anderson, a rising stand-up comedian at the time, for the role of Francis. Actor
Mark Holton later theorized that his own shorter stature and affordability influenced the decision to cast him in the role.
Diane Salinger had been an actual waitress as a teenager. While she hailed from Delaware, she adopted a southern accent for the role of Simone, which she developed just minutes before her audition. After being cast, Salinger, a
Shakespearean-trained actress, almost rejected the role, due to a scene in the script that involved Pee-wee's dog, Spec, licking its behind and then Pee-wee's mouth. The scene did not make it into the finished film. Hartman, Stewart and Paragon would also later appear on Reubens' TV series ''
Pee-wee's Playhouse. Stewart would also appear in the films Big Top Pee-wee (1988) and Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016), as well as the 2010 Broadway revival of The Pee-wee Herman Show
. Salinger would also appear in Pee-wee's Big Holiday''.
Filming roadside attraction. Filming began in January 1985 and adhered largely to the script, with little improvisation or extra shooting required.and
Port Hueneme in California, as well as
San Antonio,
Texas. While the exterior of the Alamo was real, interior shots were filmed at the
Mission San Fernando Rey de España in
Mission Hills, Los Angeles. While there wasn't a basement at the Alamo during filming, there now are two. Reubens later toured the basement of the Alamo in 2011 while serving as a guest judge on
Top Chef: Texas. Fourteen vintage-style
Schwinn DX bikes, dating from 1946 to 1953, were commissioned and built for the film, customized to the specifications of Reubens, Burton and production designer David Snyder, rigged with special effects by prop master Steven Levine. In 2025, the Alamo announced they had officially acquired one of the original, screen-used stunt bikes from the film, and that it would be on permanent display at the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum. In August 2025, Reubens' own copy of the bike was donated to the
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Hollywood, which he had bequeathed to them as part of his legal
trust. All three had previously worked together on Burton's short film
Vincent (1982). ==Music==