Today's Video Link

This morning, we have a lesson on "Lunchroom Manners." Some of you may recall this film from the original Pee-wee Herman Show, especially when it was performed on the stage of the Groundlings Theater over on Melrose Avenue. Others may even recall seeing the film in school. It runs nine and a half minutes and we can all learn much from it.

I am reminded of that first, live Pee-wee Herman Show in 1981 at the Groundlings. Paul Reubens was amazing in the role, so totally consumed by it that it was hard to remember that he was an actor playing a part and the guy really wasn't like that. There was also a wonderful back-up cast that included Phil Hartmann (he later dropped the last "n"), Edie McClurg, John Paragon and Lynne Stewart. Even the art direction of the set was memorable. I think but am not sure it was done by cartoonist Gary Panter, who later designed the Pee-wee's Playhouse show for CBS Saturday morning.

Pee-wee lobbed Tootsie Rolls into the audience (one got me in the eye), showed cartoons (and the public service film of today's video link), chatted with people and puppets…and at the end of the show, he actually learned how to fly. You kind of had to see it but the mood in the room was just magical enough to believe it.

The night I saw it, there were delays so though the festivities were supposed to commence at Midnight, the show didn't begin until around 12:30. It was also a night when clocks were turned ahead so we got out around two hours later at what was technically 3:30 AM…and it still wasn't over. The show didn't end so much as it adjourned to Canter's Delicatessen down on Fairfax. Much of the audience went there as did most of the actors, some of whom remained in character. My date and I got back to my place after 5 AM, feeling not like we'd seen a show but that we'd spent the night in a parallel universe. (There was a thick fog that night which added to the Twilight Zone feel of it all.)

The show later moved to the Roxy Theater on Sunset where it was shorter, done at a respectable hour and nowhere near as special. For one thing, it became a show…whereas on Melrose, there had been that sense of having entered a different world. The Roxy engagement was taped for an HBO Special which is coming out on DVD in July and I guess it's okay if you never saw any other version…but I thought it caught about 25% of the wonderment of what I'd seen at the Groundings.

At one point in the show, Pee-wee shared the following film with us. Take notes. You wouldn't want to be a Mr. Bungle.