Paul Reubens was an American actor and comedian, widely known for creating and portraying the character Pee-wee Herman.
Philip Edward Hartman was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States when he was ten years old. After graduating from California State University, Northridge with a degree in graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands including Poco and America. In 1975, Hartman joined the comedy group the Groundlings, where he helped Paul Reubens develop his character, Pee-wee Herman. Hartman co-wrote the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made recurring appearances as Captain Carl on Reubens' show Pee-wee's Playhouse.
The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improvisational theater techniques were taught by Del Close and other members of the Second City, located in Chicago and later St. Louis. They used these techniques to produce sketches and improvised scenes. Its name is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, Scene II: "...to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise." In 1975 the troupe purchased and moved into its current location on Melrose Avenue.
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American comedy children's television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's popular stage show and the TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more adult humor.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his feature-film directing debut. It is the first installment of the Pee-wee Herman trilogy. Starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol, along with E.G. Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger, and Judd Omen. Described as a "parody" or "farce version" of the 1948 Italian classic Bicycle Thieves, it tells the story of Pee-wee's nationwide search for his stolen bicycle.
Pee-wee Herman is a comedy character created and portrayed by the American comedian Paul Reubens. He starred in films and television series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special in 1981. As the stage performance gained further popularity, Reubens took the character to motion picture with Pee-wee's Big Adventure in 1985, toning down the adult innuendo for the appeal of children. This paved the way for Pee-wee's Playhouse, an Emmy Award-winning children's series that ran on CBS from 1986 to 1991. Another film, Big Top Pee-wee, was released in 1988.
Big Top Pee-wee is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Randal Kleiser. It is the second installment of the Pee-wee Herman trilogy and a standalone sequel to Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), the film stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman with Susan Tyrrell, Kris Kristofferson, Penelope Ann Miller, and Valeria Golino in supporting roles. The original music score is composed by Danny Elfman. It was released on July 22, 1988, and grossed $15 million against a $20 million budget. Another standalone sequel, Pee-wee's Big Holiday, was released in 2016.
William Horace Marshall was an American actor, director and opera singer. He played the title role in the 1972 blaxploitation classic Blacula and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream (1973), and appeared as the King of Cartoons on the 1980s television show Pee-wee's Playhouse and as Dr. Richard Daystrom on the Star Trek television series. He was 6‘5” tall and was known for his bass voice.
Lynne Marie Stewart is an American actress, widely known for her performance as Miss Yvonne, the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppet Land. She originated the role in the 1981 stage show The Pee-wee Herman Show, continuing it on the CBS television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, the 2010 Los Angeles stage revival, and the Broadway production which opened in November 2010 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
Edith Marie McClurg is an American actress and comedian. She has played supporting roles in the films Carrie (1976), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), and Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988), and bit parts in Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980), Mr. Mom (1983), Back to School (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), A River Runs Through It (1992), Natural Born Killers (1994), and Flubber (1997).
Joshua Dylan Meyers is an American actor and comedian, known for being a cast member of the sketch comedy series MADtv and playing Randy Pearson in the eighth and final season of That '70s Show. He is the younger brother of former SNL cast member and Late Night host Seth Meyers.
Prudence Fenton is an American film, television and music video producer. She won a Grammy for producing and co-creating the music video for Peter Gabriel's 1992 single "Steam".
James "Osie" Johnson was a jazz drummer, arranger and singer.
John Dixon Paragon was an American actor, writer and director. He was best known for his work on the television series Pee-wee's Playhouse, where he portrayed Jambi the Genie and voiced Pterri the Pterodactyl. He was also a writer and director on a number of episodes.
Knucklehead may refer to:
Bert Jacobus Martinus Selen is a Dutch music producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter based in Los Angeles. His scoring work includes the primetime Internationally Syndicated TV show "Rules of Engagement",(Sony/CBS), "Fast Layne" ,"Raven's Home", "K.C. Undercover", "Lab Rats" (Disney), "Lab Rats: Elite Force" (Disney), "Mystery Girls" and “Power Rangers Dino Fury”. His music has been featured in a variety of TV shows, including: "Parks and Recreation" (NBC), “NCIS Los Angeles” (CBS), "The Mentalist" (CBS), “Gossip Girl” (CW), “Awkward” (MTV), “Finding Carter” (MTV), Trailers: “Danny Collins”, Advertising: “American Music Awards”, Verizon, Vogue, Logitech, Head & Shoulders, as well as in Video Games “WET” Stage productions “The Pee-Wee Herman show on Broadway” (HBO), and “Pee-Wee Herman live at the Nokia Theatre”.
Kevin D. Carlson is an American puppeteer, best known for his role of Mr. Potato Head in The Mr. Potato Head Show and the title character in The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth.
The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Series was an Emmy award honoring writing in children's television programming. Since the award's inception, writing in children's series and specials competed in the same category. However, starting in 1985, separate categories were created for series and specials. In November 2021, it was announced that all Daytime Emmy categories honoring children's programming will be retired in favor of a separate Children's & Family Emmy Awards ceremony that will be held starting in 2022.
Pee-wee's Big Holiday is a 2016 American adventure comedy film directed by John Lee and written by Paul Reubens and Paul Rust. The film stars Reubens as Pee-wee Herman and Joe Manganiello as himself. The film was released on March 18, 2016, on Netflix. It is the second standalone sequel to Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) and Big Top Pee-wee (1988), the third and final film of the Pee-wee Herman trilogy, and Paul Reubens' final feature film role before his death, seven years later in 2023.
