quare-dance footage for yet another scene.
The frenetic energy that goes into the
making of "Pee-wee's Playhouse” comes
ut in the final result. Skits, bits and gags
■xplode across the screen—some of them
featuring Pee-wee (a.k.a. actor Paul Reu
i>ens) and other live actors and many of
them employing an astonishing range of
mimation and special effects. One se
quence begins with Pee-wee gett ingacall on
his "picture phone.” A puppet quizmaster
asks, "Why do cows wear bells?” Stumped,
Pee-wee races across the playhouse floor to
ask a life-size cow puppet. When she gives
him the right answer—"Because their
horns don't work”—Pee-wee wins a Hawai
ian dinner. This prompts him to daydream
about surfing, and we see his image "hang
10” while superimposed on stock footage.
And this brief sequence is sandwiched
amongclay-animation short films, a classic
cartoon, shtik by a demented marionette
and much, much more.
"Each show,” says Stephen Johnson, "is
like a crazv-quilt pattern. Hopefully, when
you stand back, you can see the whole pic
ture.” Some shows have a theme, like the
rainy day in which the "Playhouse" gang
must entertain themselves indoors But
moreoften theshow hurtles from skit tofea
ture to scene. "Each show is jam-packed,”
says Johnson, who describes his job as "ere
JOHN DI KE KWH
'It's his playhouse': Pee-wee Herman on (he set
action and animation. He co
directed'with David Byrne!the
Talking Heads video for "Road
to Nowhere” and also directed
Peter Gabriel's "Sledgeham
mer" video.
Thanks to his video work and
the "Playhouse," Johnson is
getting a lot of offers from
rock stars iGabriel again! and
film companies (Warner Bros
wants a meeting' But Johnson
doesn’t have time: "When we
were shooting the live stuir. I
was either in bed or directing
Now I'm either sleeping or in
the editing room." And even if
he does sag a little here and
there—neatly dressed in a
white shirt, buttoned to the top.
and black jeans, but with a few
strands of his brown ponytail
coming loose—Johnson can’t
afford to collapse He's got
three more production sites to
ating the environment that allows Pee-wee
to be Pee-wee, It’s his playhouse and his
world,and hehastobeeomfortablein it.”
Organizing the program—where both
animate and inanimate objects move and
talk—seems mind-boggling, if not impossi
ble. But Johnson is used to combining live
visit this afternoon—to see composers,
sound mixers, more video urtists and edi
tors. He’s got two days to finish a show and
u lot of the crazy-quilt pieces to stitch to
gether Stephen Johnson pops a wild-cher
ry Life Saver into his mouth and moves on
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