To Tell The Tooth

Series Name
Season 3, Episode 2
Air date	Fall 1989
Written by	John Paragon
Directed by	John Paragon & Paul Reubens
Episode Guide
previous Reba Eats and Pterri Runs	next Dr. Pee Wee and the Del Rubios

To Tell The Tooth is the 2nd and last episode of Pee-Wee's Playhouse season 3.

Episode Plot

Pee-wee smells Randy's "morning breath". Pee-wee talks about the importance caring for one's teeth. Pee-wee tells him he should brush his teeth every morning and not only is it good for your breath, but it's also good for your teeth and gums. Pee-Wee then shows us that today's secret word is it. Randy gets Pterri to say the secret word, and when Pterri refuses, Randy shouts "Aw, c'mon, just say it!", which makes everyone scream.

Pee-Wee gets a call on the Picture Phone. It was Jambi who's on vacation to Mount Rushmore. Pee-Wee plays a geography game with Globey. Then Pee-Wee goes to the refrigerator for a snack. He gets a carrot and explains that carrots are good for your eyesight. When Pee-Wee takes a bite of the carrot, he gets a very painful toothache and tries everything to get it to stop hurting.

After playing Connect the dots with Magic Screen, his tooth hurts again. Globey asks if his tooth is sensitive to hot or cold. Conky brings in a serving tray with two plastic cups filled with hot water in a red cup and cold water in a blue cup. Pee-Wee takes a sip of the hot water first, and his tooth aches immediately. Then Pee-Wee takes a sip of the cold water, his tooth aches after a few seconds (likely from the tooth's reaction to the cold water). Globey tells Pee-Wee to go ask a dentist, but Pee-Wee tries to get the toothache off his mind, but the pain keeps driving him crazy. Then Clockey tries to make him feel better with a Penny cartoon.

After the Penny cartoon, Pee-Wee is lying on the floor in pain until Cowntess shows up with a plate of corn on the cob. When Pee-Wee takes a bite of it, his tooth hurts even more and he goes to Jambi's box so he can wish for his tooth to stop aching, but there's an answering machine in the box, saying that Jambi's not here right now. Pee-wee suddenly realizes he forgot that Jambi's still on vacation. Randy attempts the oldest trick in the book: A string tied to Pee-Wee's tooth and the other end tied to the door, but fails when Miss Yvonne arrives and closes the door, sending Pee-Wee flying until he bumps into the door.

Miss Yvonne talks Pee-wee into going to the dentist, but he is afraid to go, so after some convincing from everyone Miss Yvonne goes with him; it turns out that Pee-wee, in his adult age, had one final baby tooth that needed to come out.

Characters

• Pee Wee Herman
• Floory
• Randy
• Conky
• Pterri
• Dirty Dog
• Cool Cat
• Chicky Baby
• Jambi
• Globey
• The Food from the Refrigerator
• The Dinosaur Family (cameo)
• Magic Screen
• Chairry
• Dog Chair
• Billy Baloney (cameo)
• Clocky
• Penny
• Cowntess
• Miss Yvonne
• Molar (debut)
• Flowers
• Ants (cameo)
• King of Cartoons
• Mr. Kite
• Mr. Window
• Fish

Trivia

• The episode's title is a play on the game show To Tell the Truth.
• This is the first episode in which the secret word is spelled with just two letters, as there are no episodes in the first two seasons (Pee-wee's Playhouse #1 DVD Box Set) that do so.
• Miss Yvonne visits in this episode.
• When Miss Yvonne closes the door and Pee-wee is accidentally dragged through the playhouse, it is obvious that it is not Paul Reubens being dragged to the door but a life-size stuffed dummy for insurance reasons.
• There is a Penny cartoon, but the opening for the cartoon is not shown due to time constraint. Clocky also doesn't directly announce it.
• Pee-wee's fear of pain during his dentist visit is actually quite rational. For some, one's pain threshold is actually pretty high. However, Yvonne's is very low for an unexplained reason.
• Conky does something that a home robot would do; he carries a drink tray.
• First time Jambi is seen outside his box.
• Only time Jambi's answering machine is seen.
• After Miss Yvonne says, "If you are good to your teeth, your teeth will be good to you," Pee-wee says, "Déjà vu!" because he said it earlier to Randy. A similar occurrence happened in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, when Mickey, the criminal that Pee-wee hitchhikes with, tells him the exact same thing Pee-wee told Dottie, "I'm a loner, a rebel", and Pee-wee has the same response.
• When Pee-wee passes Mount Rushmore at the end, Jambi is still seen in place of Abraham Lincoln's head.

Notes

• Secret word: it
• Connect-the-dots: rocket
• Snack: carrot
• Wish: Pee-wee tries to wish that his tooth would stop hurting, but Jambi is not there and an answering machine is in his box instead.
• King of Cartoons: An Elephant Never Forgets (1935)
• Magic Screen: Mo Lar's PSA on dentists (1950s)