Original Concept Drawings and Storyboards for PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE and the CHRISTMAS AT PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE Special
Small archive of production materials from the classic cult children's TV show, PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE, including the prime-time Christmas special — all executed by the show's Emmy award-winning production designer.
Very good plus.
Price: $6,500.00
Original Concept Drawings and Storyboards for PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE and the CHRISTMAS AT PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE Special
"PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE stands as one of the oddest, most audacious, most unclassifiable shows in television history." — The New York Times
Over thirty original working drawings, both color and black-and-white, primarily for the recurring "Magic Screen" segments of the "To Tell The Tooth" episode of PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE (S3.E2) and the 1988 special, CHRISTMAS AT PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE. (Also present are four panels for the title sequence of the Christmas special, including a sketch of the holiday-decorated playhouse.) Many drawings have handwritten notes (e.g. "For keying cut to front shot", "Animated Penguins, Eskimos, Walrus", "Speed to full frame", "Busting through Snow Drift", "Off Screen", "Cut", etc.). The PLAYHOUSE segment shows Pee-Wee in a rocket ship; the Christmas special features Pee-Wee and guest-star Magic Johnson riding in a sleigh. (Other guests on that episode included Cher, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Dinah Shore, Joan Rivers, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Little Richard, Charo, K.D. Lang, the Del Rubio triplets, and Grace Jones.)
The materials were created by PLAYHOUSE production designer Ric Heitzman (all in his distinctive style, one initialed "R.H. 88"), who also voiced such series characters as Mr. Window, Cool Cat, and the Salesman. In 1987 Heitzman won the Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the show, and he was nominated the following year for a Primetime Emmy for CHRISTMAS AT PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE.
The show remains beloved; TV GUIDE chose it as among the best cult shows of all time, and TIME listed it in 2007 as one of the top 100 TV shows of any kind. Blending a countercultural ethos with a surreal playfulness, iconic primary-color design, and a sly open-mindedness, PLAYHOUSE was, in the words of Pee-Wee-creator Paul Rubeuns, ''very Norman Rockwell [...] but it was my Norman Rockwell version of the '50s, which was more all-inclusive.''
Rare primary materials from one of the greatest children's TV programs ever produced.
Read more: Genzlinger, "Paul Reubens, Creator of Pee-wee Herman, Is Dead at 70," New York Times, July 31, 2023; Weiner, "Pee-wee's Big Comeback," New York Times, Feb. 10, 2016.
The Object
n.p. [Hollywood]: n.p. [Pee-Wee Pictures / BRB Productions], [1988]. Containing: 1) Original 4-panel penciled storyboard for the title sequence of CHRISTMAS AT PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE. 14'' x 17''. 2) 22 original single-panel storyboard drawings, most in color, for the "Magic Screen" sequence of CHRISTMAS AT PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE. 7'' x 8.5'' each. With: Xeroxed sheet of four of the panels (reduced), with holograph production notes. 3) 15 hand-drawn storyboard panels on seven leaves for the "Magic Screen" sequence of the "To Tell The Tooth" episode of PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE (S3.E2). Most 14'' x 10''. Some with untrimmed perforations from notebook removal. Minor wear here and there. Else clean and sound overall.
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