Enjoy ‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special’ Restored in 4K on YT

Enjoy ‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special’ Restored in 4K on YT

by Alex Billington
December 26, 2023
Source: YouTube

“Gee, Pee-wee, do you think you asked for enough?” There’s not many new updates at this time of the year (the grey zone between Christmas & New Years) but this is a fun video to feature. Actor / comedian Paul Reubens passed away earlier in 2023 at the age of 70. In remembrance of his work, the Pee-wee Herman YT channel uploaded a pristine, 4K quality copy of his iconic Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special that aired on CBS in 1988. If you’re not familiar with this X-Mas special, wondering why it’s being brought up again, there’s an entire Vulture article discussing its legacy within entertainment. “One of the strangest, most glorious, most improbable, most confident pieces of entertainment to appear on [TV].” Special guests include Frankie Avalon, Charo, The Del Rubio Triplets, Annette Funicello, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Whoopi Goldberg, Magic Johnson, Grace Jones, Little Richard, Joan Rivers, Dinah Shore, & Oprah Winfrey. Enjoy the laughs.

Thanks to Kottke for the tip on this video. Full intro via YouTube: “‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special’ as you’ve never seen it before — Beautifully restored, remastered and in high definition! […] Pee-wee gets into the spirit of the season with lots of singing, dancing and other holiday fun with his Playhouse pals and more than a dozen celebrity guest stars as you’ve never seen them before. Everything is going great for Pee-wee… until his Christmas wish list becomes so long that there won’t be enough presents for all the other kids in the world! When Santa Claus pleads for help, Pee-wee reluctantly learns a lesson about the true meaning of Christmas.” The Vulture article looking back on this sums it up: “What’s so brilliant about it as a piece of queer art is that it is presented so earnestly, and the iconography they’re playing with is Americana. It plays as camp to our modern view of over-the-top earnestness.” RIP Ruebens. His Playhouse will live on forever…

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