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As children urged their parents to empty their wallets for toys based on their favorite Saturday morning cartoons, some parents began paying closer attention to children’s programming, and many didn’t like what they saw. Critics described the networks’ lineups as being filled with “program–length commercials” for merchandising like Pound Puppies, G.I. Joe, and Care Bears. Peggy Charren, the founder and president of Action for Children’s Television, claimed that Saturday morning tv was “filled with do–goody nonsense” and she urged networks to introduce shows with more educational value. With the scrutiny of children’s television increasing, President Ronald Reagan established National Children’s Television Awareness Week that October, a month after the new season of Saturday morning programming debuted. Television as we knew it would be forever changed.

Into the Saturday morning television war zone stepped Pee–wee Herman, the man–child in a too–small gray suit of armor, a soldier of a new era of creative children’s programming. WhilePee–wee’s Playhousewas hardly the first show to blend animation, puppetry, and liveaction — pbs’sSesame Streethad crossed that bridge almost 20 years earlier — it added a subversive, hipster sensibility to the format, providing a gust of fresh air to a tired timeslot reserved for the stale ideas of network execs.

Playhouse’s impact was immediate. TheWashington Postdescribed the program as “utterly magical, beautifully realized, and veritably giddy with plaintive charm.” The show gained the respect of parent advocacy groups and critics alike for being the lone Saturday morning children’s show that was not completely animated. In the weeks following its debut,Playhousewas frequently cited as being not only the best new show of the season, but the best program on Saturday morning, period.

As William S. Burroughs once said, “In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents.” This was certainly true forPlayhouse. The show not only provided a generation of children with something wildly entertaining to watch as they ate their sugared cereal, but it also became symbolic of a national changing of the guard. Just as cassette players had replaced turntables, the new and inventive consumed the old and traditional. Video killed the radio star.Pee–wee’s PlayhousekilledThe Smurfs.

In fact, it was the popularization of a new and inventive technology that introduced me to Pee–wee Herman. In 1985, my grandpa purchased his first vcr and began taping everything he was remotely interested in that aired on pay–cable networks. By 1986, the surprise success of the filmPee–wee’s Big Adventureensured that it would be placed in heavy rotation on hbo, often coupled with 1981’sThe Pee–wee Herman Showspecial, which had regained attention as Pee–wee became a household name. My grandpa would sit down with me, before I could even form complete sentences, to watch Pee–wee double features. My parents were aware of my interest and they turned the television toPee–wee’s Playhouseon Saturday mornings. I watched religiously, often screaming the secret word at the top of my lungs whenever it flashed on the screen and jumping up and down in my footed pajamas. I owned the pull–string doll, which now sounds more like one of the Chipmunks, and it traveled with me to family gatherings, on long car rides, to birthday parties, and everywhere else my parents would let me carry it. One of my cousins had a few episodes on tape that I begged her to watch with me whenever I went over to visit. There are home movies of me imitating Pee–wee’s laugh and obnoxiously asking my family the quintessential rhetorical question, “I know you are, but what am I?”

When I started working on this book, I believed myself to be the biggest Pee–wee fan around. However, during the two years I spent working on this project, I found thousands of fans all over the world who have kept their love for Pee–wee alive. Birgit Schuetze, a fan from Germany, spent close to $3,000 to fly to the States to see Pee–wee Herman on Broadway last year. Perry Shall of Philadelphia has a full–sleeve tattoo of thePlayhousecharacters on his arm, with a large illustration of Jambi the Genie on his chest. Ben Zurawski of Chicago, an artist who makes replicas ofPlayhousecharacters, coordinated with the producers of the recent stage show at Club Nokia in Los Angeles to propose to his girlfriend Summer Violett, also a fan, on thePlayhouseset.

Fans like Birgit, Perry, Ben, and Summer are not alone. There has been overwhelming support for Peewee on social networking sites, with over half a million people linked with him on Twitter alone. Thousands of fans have shown up to see Paul Reubens, the man behind Pee–wee’s make up, at public appearances throughout the years with requests for him to sign 15–year–old merchandise and say some of Pee–wee’s signature lines. These are the fans who caused Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim reruns ofPlayhouseto average nearly 1.5 million viewers a night in 2004, and who have defended Reubens throughout his various personal and professional struggles.