Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special still airs right before Die Hard at my house every Christmas Eve, followed by as much of the Star Wars Christmas Special as I can take.
Why, yes, I was born in the 1980s. Why do you ask?
Big Adventure is a masterpiece on par with the best of Charlie Chaplin of the Marx Brothers, with Pee-Wee as complex and complete of a creation as The Tramp or Harpo.
As a kid in the 80’s I used to get up super early on Saturdays to catch the cartoons. I’d always make sure to tape Pee-Wee’s Playhouse for my siblings, who were teenagers at the time and thus tended to sleep in. Being so much older than me, my siblings and I never had a lot of crossover in our interests. Pee-Wee was always one thing we could all agree on, though. So I’d watch Playhouse at least twice every Saturday…once on my own and then again with my brother and sister. Great times.
I was a weird kid and Pee-Wee not only showed that being weird was okay, but that it could be celebrated. Thanks for that, Paul Reubens.