TV Eye
Magic Screen
By Belinda Acosta, Fri., July 7, 2006
The secret word for the day is "RETURN"!
Pee-wee's Playhouse is back on TV when it joins the Adult Swim lineup on the Cartoon Network Monday. Yes, I know it's out on DVD (released in 2004), but something about its return (agghhhhhhhh!) to the small screen makes me happy. It reminds me of better days when I was new to Austin, before crappy jobs, crazy boyfriends, and skyrocketing rent. I could still wear heels, money wasn't scarce, and my parents were healthy and able-bodied. Yes, life was good, and there was no better place to start the weekend than dragging myself out of bed on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, visiting Pee-wee (aka Paul Reubens).
A mix of goofy antics and good cheer, Pee-wee's Playhouse has no comparison, in my mind. Set up as a children's show (it aired Saturday mornings on CBS), the off-the-wall humor appealed to adults without being smarmy. In fact, one of the endearing things about Pee-wee's Playhouse is how sweet it could be without being too precious. The show went off the air in 1991 after Paul Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure in Florida during the show's hiatus. CBS promptly dropped Pee-wee's Playhouse from its lineup, and Pee-wee was laid to rest, along with, it seemed, Reubens' career. He later made a living doing voice work for films before showing up in several distinctive roles in front of the camera most notably as the conniving Andrew J. Lansing III in Murphy Brown (1995, CBS) and later in Blow (2001). Even with his critical successes, many still miss his alter ego, making Pee-wee's Playhouse a cult classic.
All 45 episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series (plus eight "lost" episodes) will air Monday through Thursdays, starting July 10, 10pm on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. (Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special is also part of the lineup. Mekka Lekka Hi-Mekka Hiney Ho!)
What Else Is On?
Heads up, Stephen King fans. Eight of the horror king's short stories have been assembled for a four-week anthology series, Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King. Reminiscent of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone, this series is pure King in all his mind-bending, sometimes corny, always curious glory.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes premieres with the superb "Battleground," from King's short-story collection Nightshift. Directed by Brian Henson (of the Muppets' Henson family) from a teleplay by fantasy and horror writer Richard Christian Matheson, it stars William Hurt as Jason Renshaw, a professional assassin who finds himself under siege by some unusual adversaries following a recent job. Totally without dialogue, "Battleground" is an absorbing (and often funny) reflection on the absurdity of violence. Hurt is fantastic as the inscrutable Renshaw, gliding from a frosty killing machine to disoriented quarry without a blip.
Unfortunately, the other films in the series don't match the "Battleground" standard. "Crouch End," starring Claire Forlani and Eion Bailey, is visually intriguing, but the performances are as baffling as the fantastic circumstances the couple find themselves in. "Umney's Last Stand," starring William H. Macy is fun, with its Luigi Pirandello-meets noir-overtones, but the April Smith teleplay lacks confidence in the audience's ability to follow the narrative twist and lapses into annoying tutorial. Things look up again with "The End of the Whole Mess," starring Ron Livingston and Henry Thomas as brothers who join forces to end world violence. The film brings a sincere sense of hope, then ache, to this altruistic fantasy. Okay, the last shot could be deemed cornball or bittersweet, depending on your mood. I've watched the film twice, and I go both ways.
Others in the anthology include "The Road Virus Heads North" (starring Tom Berenger); "The Fifth Quarter" (starring Jeremy Sisto); "Autopsy Room Four" (starring Richard Thomas); and "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" (starring Kim Delaney and Steven Weber).
Nightmares & Dreamscapes premieres with "Battleground" on Wednesday, July 12, at 8pm. "Crouch End" follows at 9pm. The series continues on Wednesdays through Aug. 3 on TNT. Check local listings for encore dates.