Thanks to design, ‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse’ is seared into our collective memory

When I close my eyes and think about the 1980s, Pee-wee’s Playhouse is more or less what I see. The colorful walls. The outlandish patterns. The strange proportions, and the anthropomorphic furniture. Even as a child, I knew deep down that the world was more subdued and shoulder-padded than Pee-wee’s kaleidoscopic universe let on, but it was formative all the same.



Decades after Paul Reubens, who died on Sunday at 70 years old, first brought Pee-wee’s Playhouse to air, the show’s oddball aesthetic still prevails in our collective memory. It’s a testament to the design brilliance of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and to the full-throated trust he had in his team of creative geniuses.