Ice Cream Soup

Ice Cream Soup is the first episode of Season 1 of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, and the series premiere of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. It was first broadcast on CBS in the United States on September 13, 1986.

Episode Plot

Pee-Wee looks at his toys. On today's show, the secret word is "door". Pee-Wee tries the secret word on Magic Screen and asks her what the red thing is. Magic Screen says it's the door. Everyone screams. Mr. Window informs Pee-wee of guest arrivals, avoiding mentioning the secret word by using the term "red padded entrance" instead. Pee-wee corrects him... and everyone screams. The Playhouse Gang arrives. Elvis gives him foil for Pee-Wee's foil ball. Pee-Wee takes out a big foil ball and puts the foil Elvis gives in it. Then the Playhouse Gang looks inside the dinosaur hole. Red Dino & Purple Dino don't share their breakfast. The Playhouse Gang wants to go swimming in the pool and bump into Cowboy Curtis, who arrives at the playhouse. Curtis played with the Magic Lasso.

An offscreen alarm rings. Curtis and Pee-Wee pull Mrs. Steve in the playhouse. Mrs. Steve says she was just passing by the door. Everyone screams. Angered, Mrs. Steve snaps at everyone (causing them to fall quiet), asking what the screaming is for and calling the playhouse a madhouse, and snootily declares she's going to the pool. Pee-wee mocks her behind her back. The 2 fish call Mrs. Steve a "whale of a gal" as a result and start laughing.

The Picturephone rings and Herman excuses himself to go answer it. Cowboy Curtis leaves. Pee-Wee answers the Picturephone. It's Captain Carl and he is lost at sea. Pee-Wee calls Conky, Magic Screen, and Globey over to the Picturephone for help. The three agree to help, with Conky legitimately saying "ready to assist you" to his friend. It is revealed in this scene that Conky has a built-in RADAR system. Globey says Carl was right under his nose, two miles off the coast of the Sandwich Islands.. The three friends tell him to say to Carl to turn right. Pee-Wee says to Carl "make a right". And Carl does. Carl thanks everyone for helping him make it out of that situation alive and says the secret word, causing even Conky to scream. "SANDWICH HO!", Carl shouts.

In the next scene, it is time for 'Letter of the Day' Pee-wee saids What's todays letter? Magic screen said todays secret letter is A. Then she says, Watch, Pee-wee (Electronic "shimmering") And getting in Magic Screen's Screen And a Blue planet with a big A and a little a on it, Next Girl and Boy chanting A and he said A. Its time for Connect the dots Jumping into Magic Screen, Pee-Wee makes a car. However, he doesn't know how to drive and crashes, hurling himself out of Magic Screen.

Pee-Wee lands on Chairry and meets Miss Yvonne, the most beautiful lady in Puppetland. She and Pee-Wee goes to Puppetland. They they meet Dirty Dog, Cool Cat, and Chicky Baby. They say they are going to the pool as well.

Pee-Wee and Miss Yvonne saw Tito, the playhouse lifeguard who will appear for the rest of the season. Then Miss Yvonne hits the pool with Tito, converting her dress into a bathing suit.

Next, Pee-Wee meets the Cowntess. The Cowntess wonders where everyone is. Pee-Wee says they're at the pool. Then the Cowntess hits the pool too. Then Pee-Wee dances.

Dixie plays here trumpet to let the King of Cartoons in. Everyone watches "The Fresh Vegetable Mystery"(1939).

While Pee-Wee was watching the cartoon, he used a potato and stuck pencils in it. Then Jambi asks Pee-Wee is he's ready to make today's wish. But Pee-Wee says no and will take a prediction in its place for now. Its the number of the day. Its the number 1, In baker number one penny one bird one windup toy one cow one belly button one wedding cake Knock Knock Joke: Knock knock! Who's there? Dwayne. Dwayne who? Dwayne the bathtub. I'm dwowning!

Someone is at the door. Pee-Wee opens it and sees a SALESMAN! Pee-Wee screams and closes the door. Penny Cartoon: Penny's Big Rat

Pee-Wee is making Ice Cream Soup for snack time. Pterri watches. The first ingredient is of course ice cream. The next one is chocolate syrup. Then Pee-Wee mixes the ingredients all up the make Ice Cream Soup.

Here comes Randy, the playhouse bully! He calls Pterri "Pa-terri". Pee-Wee corrects him that it's pronounced "Teri" and the "p" is silent. Then Randy scares Pterri and sees the Ice Cream Soup. "You need more chocolate syrup than that," he says. He squirts more chocolate syrup in the Ice Cream Soup, practically ruining it! Pee-Wee begins to cry. However, Conky suggests to fix it by adding more ice cream, saying that all problems have their solutions.

It starts to rain. After the pool, everyone eats Ice Cream Soup. Then Jambi asks that Pee-Wee is ready to make his wish. Everyone pitches in and makes a few suggestions; Curtis mentions a team of horses and female lifeguard, Conky even suggests labor-saving electronic devices and Miss Yvonne mentions an air-conditioned movie trailer. Pee-Wee says yes and wishes that the viewing audience can return next week.

Pee-Wee rides the Scooter Eject through the door before the credits roll.

Notes

Almost everybody else visits in this episode, except Reba, who doesn't appear in this episode.
This is the first and only time that Conky says "ready to assist you" and does something other than give the Secret Word. Here, we discover that Conky has a RADAR system.
The first season's opening credits consisted of Herman doing various things in his playhouse, and he walks over to the ant farm, and it shows an alarm clock made of ants.
- We also discover the close friendship that Conky and Herman have.
Pee-Wee utters the first spoken line of this episode and of the entire series as this: "Hmmmmm, what should we do now?".
Captain Carl appears on the picture phone, where he needs Pee-wee's help to get the Captain to the Sandwich Islands.
First time Pee-wee plays with his toy shelf.
This is the only episode of the series where the credits are handwritten.
This episode marks the first instance of ship tease between Herman and Yvonne.
This is the only episode in which Mr. Window doesn't announce who's coming to the playhouse.
First time Pee-wee shows his foil ball.
Featured Cartoon: The Fresh Vegetable Mystery (1939)
The secret word was said and screamed at five times in this episode.
This is the first episode in which Pee-wee used his wish at the end of this episode. He would later use it in Rainy Day, Now You See Me, Now You Don't, School and Tango Time.
When the Playhouse Gang visits, the APM background music song, "Tomfoolery", plays in the background.
This is the only time in which Pee-wee's corrected Randy's mispronunciation of one of Pee-wee's friend's names, therefore the P in Pterri's name was silent.
The first time a Playhouse door rings where somebody other than the Salesman comes. The Salesman does not ring, but knocks in this episode.
Penny is portrayed by Anna Seidman. The creativity of her character, often lead to her improvising a majority of the dialogue for the claymations, while the claymation would be built and based around her descriptions. She also had a segment of each show dedicated to her, known as the Penny claymations, which they were created by Nick Park (for the 1st season only) and Craig Bartlett (for Seasons 2-5). She was the only character ever to not appear on live-action television due to being a clay animated character, and is rarely acknowledged by the majority of the cast outside of the transitions both into and out of her segments.
The Silver Fish is portrayed by Ric Heitzman, and the Gold Fish is portrayed by George McGrath.
The Dinosaur Family is portrayed by the following: George McGrath (Red Dinosaur) Alison Mork (Light Blue Dinosaur) Ric Heitzman (Blue Dinosaur) Gregory Harrison (Pink Dinosaur).
When the Salesman comes to the door, he says, "I'm going door to door to make you this incredible offer! I'm sure you're wondering by now just what it is I..." "Door" is the secret word, but only Pee-wee screams, and only because of the Salesman.
For the show's first season, the show began filming in New York City, that summer in a warehouse that was actually a converted loft; where right about it was also a sweatshop with small Asian ladies sewing garments. The elevator was so loud - it wasn't a proper soundstage - and Paul Reubens and his staff had to stop the elevator service while they were doing sound takes. There was no air conditioning, so eventually they had to bring in one of those trucks from the airport with a hose through the window. It was pretty funky.
Most of the cartoons the King presented (on both projector and/or film) were directed by Ub Iwerks, who was one of the people that worked with Walt Disney in creating Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and, later on, Mickey Mouse. Due to possible legal battles with The Walt Disney Company, however, Paul Reubens had absolutely not opted to use clips from these cartoons, though many of the cartoons that he received for editing, such as Sinking in the Bathtub, Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! and Piano Tooners, are very equivalent in animation and comedic style to a Mickey or Oswald cartoon (Piano Tooners, remarkably, features mice that strongly resemble Mickey in appearance, complete with black fur, round ears, white three-fingered gloves and white shoes, while Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! is a remake of Trolley Troubles, a Disney short featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in whose creation Hugh Harman had once been involved). During the show's run, most of the cartoons that were shown from the "Golden Age" of animation. However, they were not featured with their respective titles, nor credited, and generally only brief clips were shown. As Reubens stated in a 2004 radio interview, almost all of the cartoons they obtained were in the public domain.
Dixie wears a dark blue jacket, with a yellow hat, in a few episodes that doesn't match together, before in Just Another Day, she would later wear a yellow jacket that matches her yellow hat, afterwards, with the exception of Party, when she was all dressed up in a light peach dress with diamonds.
This is the premiere episode.

Quotes

Pee-Wee: (first speaking lines in the series) "Hmmmmm, what should we do now?"

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Mr. Window: "Hey, Pee-wee, someone's at the... uh... red-padded entrance."
Pee-wee: "Oh, you mean the door?"
(Everyone screams)

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Pee-Wee: "Someone's at the d--..." (realizes he almost says the secret word, and giggles. He then opens the door; he sees a large man at the door)
Salesman: "I'm going door to ddoor to make you an incredible offer!"
Pee-Wee: (terrified) "AHHH! SALESMAN!"

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Captain Carl: "Thanks a million, Pee-Wee! You saved me from death's door!" (everyone screams when Carl says "door")

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Pee-wee: (crying) "It's ruined!"
Conky: "Aw, don't be upset, Pee-Wee. All problem have solutions."
Pee-wee: "What should I do?"
Conky: "Well, now that there's too much chocolate syrup in your ice cream soup, you can add more ice cream."
Pee-wee: (feels better) "Aw, thanks, Conky."

Home Videos

Volume 13

Trivia

This episode premiered April 9, 2020 on T.H.E. Television Network.