Pee-Wee's Playhouse
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Pee-Wee's Playhouse
Pee-Wee's Playhouse
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in: Episodes, Season 5 Episodes, Pee-Wee's Playhouse,
and 2 more

Playhouse for Sale

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Series Name
Season 5, Episode 10
6
Air date November 17, 1990
Written by John Paragon
Directed by John Paragon & Paul Reubens
Episode Guide
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Playhouse for Sale is the 10th and last episode of the fifth season, and the 45th and final episode of the entire series.

Episode Plot[]

Pee-Wee is out of the house for a while, so Miss Yvonne shows us today's secret "you-know-what" is word. The entire Playhouse is in shock, however, when they notice a "For Sale" sign in front of the Playhouse. Miss Yvonne nearly goes hysterical to the point of bawling. Everyone has flashbacks of the good times they shared in the playhouse. Pee-Wee returns with some glue and wonders what everyone is upset about. Miss Yvonne angrily shows him the sign. He tells everyone that the playhouse is NOT for sale. He sees a sign with the word "Lemonade" which fell off the sign and puts under the words "For Sale" merging into "Lemonade For Sale", as it turns out he's actually selling lemonade - the first part fell off. He then says that he'll be right back, and tells us that "The Playhouse will always be here, for everyone to play in, forever and ever and ever." And on that, he has his word, to which everyone screams for one last time.

So ends the Pee-Wee's Playhouse series.

Characters[]

Since this is the final episode, it’s all the characters’ last appearances:

Trivia[]

  • This is the second clip show after "I Remember Curtis".
  • Pee-wee visits at the end of this episode, though he only appears in flashbacks of the previous episodes.
  • This is the final episode of the series.
    • It was commonly thought that Pee-wee's Playhouse got canceled due to Reubens' 1991 indecent exposure arrest, which took place on July 26, 1991; in reality the show was already retired as Reubens, claiming an overworked crew (a single episode took 10 sixteen-hour days to shoot) and fear of decline of quantity and quality in material in this episode and the preceding ones, had decided against a sixth season consisting of 20 more episodes (bumping the show up to 65 episodes as per the original deal, which would have made its episode count tied with The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and the later Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog). However, the popularity of the show had put it into syndication, which CBS revoked on July 29, 1991 (three days later) when the arrest was made public. Pee-wee's Playhouse aired from September 13, 1986, until November 17, 1990. Additionally, the show cost $350,000 per episode to produce, which was $10,000 more than the Saturday morning animated cartoons of the day. Althogether, the show had a production budget of (in 1980s/1990s cash) $15,750,000. Additionally, Vic Trevino, Suzanne Kent, William Marshall, S. Epatha Merkerson and Laurence Fishburne's characters were already written out of the series by this time. Reubens had originally agreed to do two more seasons after the third, and when CBS asked Reubens about the possibility of a sixth season he again declined, wanting to take a sabbatical for a little while. Reubens and his castmates (Reubens especially) had been suffering from burnout from playing their characters full-time, and Reubens had been warning that Pee-wee was temporary and that he had other ideas he would like to work on. The parties agreed to end the show after five seasons, which included 45 episodes and a Christmas Special (though Pee-wee says that "The Playhouse will always be here, for everyone to play in, forever and ever and ever."). The series was also canceled because of poor ratings for the fourth and fifth seasons. Playhouse garnered 15 Emmy Awards, all of them in the Creative Arts Emmy Award category. This was therefore not intended to be a series-ending episode, but due to the rising cost for salaries, the grueling production schedule for actors and characters, and the rising costs to produce new episodes, he chose to end the series on this episode.
    • These fears of material quality decline are confirmed when stock footage of Conky from season 2 is played over his stammering from Camping Out, an episode produced earlier in the fifth season.
  • Episodes such as Heat Wave, Front Page Pee Wee and Ice Cream Soup are not included in flashback footage.
  • Miss Yvonne finally stands up to Pee-wee's possessiveness of the Playhouse in this episode, when she says "How could you even think of selling the Playhouse without first consulting us?! It belongs to all of us! You just remember that, Pee-wee, it's all our Playhouse!".
    • Thus, Pee-wee finally realizes that the Playhouse isn't just his, but that everyone can play and live in it and that it is therefore community property.
  • The ballet dance that Miss Yvonne does in the original Pee-Wee Herman stage show is performed again in this episode, complete with the exact music. (Though Jay Cotton is uncredited for writing it.)
  • A deleted bit from Chairry-Tee Drive is used where Ricardo's entry is announced by Mr. Window and he enters through the front door.
  • Reba and Ricardo are mentioned by name during the flashbacks whilst Mrs. Rene and Cowboy Curtis are not.
  • This is the final time that lemonade is mentioned as a drink for snack time.
  • Ricardo's lines from Pajama Party were re-recorded by Vic Trevino, and his "so help me God" lines were cut.
  • Reba reappears in the form of stock footage from the breakfast scene in Reba Eats and Pterri Runs.
  • Mrs. Rene and Ricardo reappear in the form of stock footage from the episodes Chairry-Tee Drive and Pajama Party.
  • Yvonne kisses Herman on the cheek in this episode, which is their final act of "ship tease" in the series.
  • Secret word: Word
  • Connect the Dots: none
  • Snack: lemonade (planned)
  • Wish: none
  • In the flashbacks, several lines by certain characters were recorded differently.
  • Conky's stammering from Camping Out was reused again for this episode.
  • This is the only episode where Conky is already turned on and is not unplugged and powered up by anyone.
  • When Miss Yvonne tells us the instructions of the secret word, she replaces the word "word" with "you-know-what", due to the secret word being "word".
  • Miss Yvonne obtains the secret word from Conky in this episode.
  • The secret word is said and screamed at 6 times.
  • At the end of Pee-wee's tape message for Miss Yvonne, he says, "This message will self-destruct", and the tape smokes. This was a reference to the TV series Mission: Impossible, whose theme is heard in a soundalike after it self-destructs.
  • Singer and actress Charlotte Crossley sings a cover of Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were" from the film of the same name during a montage (although it is incorrectly listed in the credits as "Memories").
  • The Puppet Band quote the parlor song "Home! Sweet Home!" when they are relieved that Pee-wee isn't selling the playhouse, "Be it ever so humble / There's no place like home!"
  • When Pee-wee gets his scooter out, an instrumental version of the Theme Song is heard.

Notes[]

Flashbacks seen in this episode include: Reba having breakfast with Pee-wee and his friends, and Pee-wee looking for Pterri - from "Reba Eats and Pterri Runs". Floory being discovered - from "Open House". The clothing drive - from "Chairry-Tee Drive". Randy almost setting the Playhouse on fire - from "Fire in the Playhouse". Pee-wee getting married to a bowl of fruit salad - from "Pajama Party".

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