Pee-Wee's Playhouse
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Penny1
Penny

"Hi./Hello. My name is Penny." - Penny's typical introduction.

Penny is a minor character in the television series Pee-Wee's Playhouse. She is the lead character of the segments of the show. She is voiced by Anna Seidman.

Roles[]

In Pee-Wee's Playhouse[]

Penny appears frequently in the show and has a segment of each episode dedicated to her, known simply as Penny animations or Penny cartoons. These are short segments that will show Penny discussing various topics and express certain interests, while the animation would show literal depictions of the things she talks about.

She does not ever appear in person 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.

Outside of Pee-Wee's Playhouse[]

Penny has also appeared in commercials and public service announcements discussing serious problems; Ms. Seidman again provides her voice. The most well known of these is her public service announcements against drugs, as she spends the commercial discussing the effects and consequences of drugs before finally instructing viewers to avoid them.

Appearance[]

Penny is a fairly young girl with a cute attitude and rounded cheeks. She has blonde hair that is typically tied in pigtails, In some ways, though she has her hair in other styles. She has two copper pennies in place of the irises in her eyes, from which she gets her name. Her outfits are different in most of her appearances, but she is usually wearing a short dress with either a pointed collar or a bowtie.

Personality[]

Penny is typically kind and friendly when she appears in her animations, having fun and feeling comfortable talking about different things with the audiences as well as the residents of the Playhouse. Despite, Penny can also take certain things seriously and command authority when talking about real problems. Furthermore, she can get very upset about certain topics and even be aggressive in complaining about them, such as unfair situations she and others are often placed in and mentions to require changing.

Behind the Scenes[]

In the first season, the Penny cartoons were animated by Aardman Animations, known at the time for the British children's series Morph as well as the claymation segments of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" video, and would later gain fame for such beloved projects as Creature Comforts, Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep. Beginning in the second season, the Penny shorts were directed and animated by Craig Bartlett, the creator of the popular Nickelodeon series Hey Arnold!. He was inspired to add an additional female character to the show, specifically a little girl. Penny was voiced by Anna Seidman, whose creativity often lead to her improvising a majority of the dialogue for the animations, while the animation would be built and based around her descriptions. Anna would alter play Penny for PSAs that were made as part of Paul Reubens' plea agreement in 1991.

Trivia[]

  • One of her animations revealed that her house's living room was the size of a ballroom, showing that Penny's family is very rich.
  • She has also said she wished she had an identical twin sister.
    • This sister had bit her on the stomach during her infancy, Penny explaining this is the reason she is skinny while the twin is fat.
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