Fire In the Playhouse
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| “Fire In the Playhouse” | |
|---|---|
| Pee-wee's Playhouse episode | |
 |
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| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 2 |
| Guest stars | Stephen Parr |
| Written by | John Paragon |
| Directed by | Paul Reubens John Paragon |
| Production no. | 402 |
| Original airdate | September 16, 1989 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Dr. Pee-wee and the Del Rubios" | "Love That Story" |
Fire In the Playhouse is the 27th episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Randy accidentally starts a fire when he raises the temperature on the oven too high. And there's more heat when Miss Yvonne meets Fireman Frank!
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Magic Glasses
Pee-wee is seen running around the Playhouse wearing his Magic Glasses, screaming and laughing crazily. He finally stops in front of the camera. He discovers that the audience has arrived already. The viewers see why Pee-wee was screaming. The lenses of the glasses reveal a ride on a roller coaster. The tracks race and zoom around, then enter a dark tunnel. Suddenly, everything stops. "Hey, what happened?" Pee-wee asks.
[edit] Guess Who
Miss Yvonne has covered the lenses of the glasses. She nods to the audience to tell them that she's here. "Guess who," she says to Pee-wee. So Pee-wee does some guessing as follows:
- PEE-WEE: "Uh, Ricardo?"
- MISS YVONNE: "No."
- PEE-WEE: "Reba?"
- MISS YVONNE: "No."
- PEE-WEE: "Cowboy Curtis."
- MISS YVONNE: "No."
- PEE-WEE: "Uh, is it Mrs. Steve?"
- MISS YVONNE: "No, guess again."
- PEE-WEE: "Uh, King of Cartoons."
- MISS YVONNE: "Wrong."
- PEE-WEE: "Well, can't be Jambi. He doesn't have any hands. I give up."
- MISS YVONNE: "You can't give up."
- PEE-WEE: "Well then, gimme a hint."
- MISS YVONNE: "Use your nose."
Pee-wee takes a whiff of the air with his nose, then says excitedly, "Oh, now I know who it is! I recognize that smell anywhere. It's Cowntess!" "Pee-wee!" Miss Yvonne says. Pee-wee turns and looks at her, taking off his glasses as he does. "I was just kidding, Miss Yvonne," he says. "I knew it was you all the time!" Miss Yvonne calls him a tease and Pee-wee just chuckles and says, "I know you are, but what am I?" He then asks her if she wants to know what the secret word is. "More than anything!" she says excitedly.
[edit] Where's the Penny
So Pee-wee unplugs Conky from the wall and switches him on to bring him to life. He says to Pee-wee that he's ready to assist him and Miss Yvonne. Pee-wee asks him what the secret word is. A piece of cardstock, much smaller than usual, pops out of Conky's midsection. Pee-wee takes it and shows it to the audience. It reads ONE. Pee-wee reminds the viewers of what to do whenever anyone says the secret word for the rest of the day. He then tries it out on Miss Yvonne: "Oh, Miss Yvonne, would you like to see a trick?" "If you'd like to show me one," she replies. Everyone, of course, screams.
He takes out a penny and says mysteriously: "Keep your eye on the penny." He mysteriously passes the coin back and forth between his hands and sometimes passes it behind his back, while Miss Yvonne watches. He then holds up two balled fists. "Pick a hand," he says. "That one," Yvonne says, pointing to his right hand. Everyone screams. Pee-wee opens his hand, only to show nothing. "Nope, it was in this one," he says, pointing to his left hand. Everyone screams again. He opens his hand to show the penny in it. He then tells the audience to keep an eye on another type of penny: a Penny cartoon. This Penny cartoon is about her and her Aunt Nancy.
[edit] Interpretations
When the Penny cartoon ends, the audience sees Miss Yvonne in Puppetland, greeting the Puppetland Band. They greet her. They tell her that they've been looking for an interpretive dancer, a type of dancer that acts out words as the band sings them. She says that she can do that. She is then in a sexy skintight black leotard outfit, black skintight pants, and barefoot, dancing to words that the band says. Dirty Dog and Cool Cat perform the slow jazz music while Chicky Baby sings and Miss Yvonne interprets:
- I walk up the stairs
- And open the door
- The sunshine lives in a tornado
- A movie of when I was a baby
- Hammers away like a telephone call
- From an old, old, old elephant
- Birds and racecar drivers
- Hop and freeze
- While I eat my lunch sittin' down
Miss Yvonne does everything perfectly, afterwhich the band applauds her and Conky gives her a bouquet of flowers.
[edit] Meditating
Meanwhile, Pee-wee is sitting on Chairry, wearing a headband and a long necklace with a peace sign on the end. His eyes are closed and he's making a long deep sound. Chairry asks him what he's doing and he says that he's meditating. He says that it's a form of relaxation. He frees his mind of all thoughts and lets his mind become a blank. The fish in the aquarium watch. "So, what else is new?" one of the fish asks. The other fish says, "Pee-wee's mind is always a blank!" They both laugh. Pee-wee continues his explanation of meditating: he breathes in and out repeatedly until he's relaxed, at peace and at one. Everyone screams, since he said the secret word. Pee-wee then falls fast asleep in Chairry.
[edit] Super Pee-wee
Pterri and Globey watch as Pee-wee sleeps on Chairry, as an instrumental version of Rock-a-bye Baby plays in the background. Pterri wonders what Pee-wee is doing. Globey says, "Pee-wee is meditating." "Well, it sounds like he's sleeping on the job," Pterri replies. Globey says that Pee-wee must be dreaming. Pterri says that he wishes he knew what Pee-wee was dreaming about. Jambi then opens up his box. "Wish? Did somebody say 'wish'?" he says. Pterri says that he did, mispronouncing Jambi's name as "Zombie". Pterri that explains that he and Globey wish to know what the sleeping Pee-wee is dreaming about. "Ooh, that ought to be weird," Jambi says. Then he tells the pterodactyl and the globe to repeat after him in Jambese: "Mekka-lekka-hi-mekka-hiney-ho." The two repeat what Jambi said. Then Jambi says an incantation: "Spirits of the Playhouse, kick and scream. Let's look in on Pee-wee's dream!" He then grants the wish and the viewers also get to see what Pee-wee is dreaming about...
The skyline of New York is shown as Pee-wee, dressed in a superhero-type outfit reminiscent of Superman, flies onscreen. "I'm Super Pee-wee!" he says. He then flies off around the world. He first flies through London, England. "I see London!" he says. He bumps against Big Ben as he flies on. Then he passes by the Eiffel Tower. "I see France!" he says. Then he flies through Moscow, Russia. "I see Moscow's underpants!" he says.
He then hears the sound of Miss Yvonne calling for help. "Call for help!" he says. "Someone's in distress! This is a job for Super Pee-wee!" Away he goes... to the playhouse. Super Pee-wee lands in the playhouse to see Miss Yvonne pinned under a barbell, wearing a sexy pink exercise dress. Roosevelt the dog is barking repeatedly for help. Curiously, Yvonne's breasts bend the barbell into breast shapes right in the middle. She explains that she was doing her morning exercises, but she never realized how heavy the weights were. She then asks to Super Pee-wee to fly around the world and get help. Pee-wee laughs gloatingly and says that he doesn't need help; he's Super Pee-wee! "But Super Pee-wee, this is a 10,000-lb. barbell," Yvonne protests. "You'll need 50 men to lift it. It's much too heavy for just one!" Apparently, secret words also apply to dream sequences, as everyone screams. Super Pee-wee says nothing is too heavy for him, as he has the strength of fifty men, if not more. He picks up the barbell like it was just a twig and tosses it aside. He then helps Miss Yvonne to her feet. She thanks him. Super Pee-wee then examines her with his laser vision to make sure her bones aren't broken. Fortunately, they aren't. "Floral print, baby," he quips.
"Oh, Super Pee-wee, I don't know how to thank you," says Yvonne. "Here, let me try." They then embrace each other in a romantic way. Pee-wee is about to kiss her, when Globey pulls on his pant leg, saying, "Pee-wee, wake up, I'm hungry!" "Go away, Globey," Super Pee-wee says. He then keeps saying repeatedly that he doesn't want to wake up. The audience then goes back to reality, with Pee-wee still wearing the headband and peace sign. "I don't wanna wake up..." he says sleepily. Globey is pulling on his pant leg, saying, "Wake up, Pee-wee, it's snack time and I want one!" Everyone screams, waking Pee-wee up.
Pee-wee looks around, saying that he must have fallen asleep. "Tell me about it," Globey says. "You were in it, Globey," Pee-wee says. He then hears Roosevelt barking. "And you were in it, too, Roosevelt!" Pee-wee agrees. Yvonne then leans in. "What about me, Pee-wee?" she asks. "Uh... no, you weren't in it, Miss Yvonne, sorry," Pee-wee says.
[edit] Snack Time: PB&J
Pterri then says that he is hungry. "Me, too," says Chairry. "Me, three," says Globey. "Me, floor," says Floory. Pee-wee says that he gets the message and formally invites Miss Yvonne to join him for Snack Time. "Why, thank you... Super Pee-wee," she says. Yvonne walks to the kitchen. Pee-wee does several puzzled double-takes to the audience before joining her, implying that she knew about the man-child's dreams all along.
The audience then sees Pee-wee and Miss Yvonne in the kitchen. This week, they would be making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So Pee-wee goes to the refrigerator to get the peanut butter and jelly jars. He watches as the food inside play in a "Wheel of Fortune"-style game show called "Wheel of Pizza". The three contestants are foods with the word "egg" in their names: a regular egg, an eggroll and an eggplant. The word displayed is "_-E-A-B-U-T N-U-T-T-E-R." The eggplant guesses the letter P. The letter P appears where the blank space was. The word is "PEABUT NUTTER". Then the food realize the mistake and switch the positions of the N and the B, forming the word PEANUT BUTTER. Pee-wee then takes the jars of peanut butter and jelly and puts them on the counter.
Now he needs to get the bread. He opens up the breadbox, only to find no bread at all. He says that they would have to have the PB&J without the bread. He takes a spoon, digs into the jar of peanut butter and asks Miss Yvonne to hold out her hand. He is just about to place the scoop of peanut butter on the spoon into her hand when Miss Yvonne says that she has a better idea: let's make some bread. "How do you do that?" Pee-wee asks. She says, "It's easy; all we need is milk, water, shortening or lard, butter, sugar, salt, yeast and all-purpose flour." Pee-wee says that that's a coincidence, because he suddenly has all those ingredients right in front of him.
Later, Miss Yvonne is putting the final touches on the bread. "There we are, all done," she says. Pee-wee says that the bread looks rather doughy, though. She says that's because they haven't baked it yet; she will just pop it into the oven at 350 degrees and they will have fresh, homemade bread in no time. While Miss Yvonne places the oven, Pee-wee says to the audience that if they want to have fresh homemade bread, just call up Yvonne and she'll come over and make it for them. Yvonne laughs and says that it's better if the audience just had someone help them follow the recipe on their own in the cookbook. "Just kidding," Pee-wee says.
[edit] The King of Cartoons
Then the flowers sing for the arrival of the King of Cartoons. Pee-wee and Miss Yvonne dance to their singing and the king arrives. He says good morning to everyone. He then sniffs the air and comments that there is a wonderful smell in the playhouse. "Oh, thank you, Your Majesty," Yvonne says. "I think he was talking about the bread, Miss Yvonne," says Pee-wee.
The king comments that there is nothing like the smell of fresh homemade bread baking in the oven. He says that when he was just a little Prince of Cartoons, his mother, the first Queen of Cartoons, would bake fresh homemade bread every morning at breakfast time for him and his sister, the Princess of Cartoons. He then says that this reminds him of another story that happened the day before yesterday.
However, the viewers don't get to hear the story. Instead, they then see Pterri on the kitchen counter, looking at the cookbook. Randy then comes down. He asks Pterri if the bread is ready yet. Pterri says, "No, and I'm so hungry, my beak is watering!" Randy then says that bread will bake faster in a hotter oven. Pterri says that it doesn't say so in the recipe. Randy just says, "What do they know, anyway?" Randy then goes over to the oven and turns the temperature from 350 degrees to 700 degrees! Randy does this because he claims that at 700 degrees instead of 350, the bread will be ready in half the time. Pterri says that Pee-wee says that no one is supposed to touch the oven. Randy just says, "Now you tell me. Too late!" He gloats and then rises.
The King of Cartoons, meanwhile, continues on and on about his life story to Pee-wee and Miss Yvonne. He says that he then would go to see his uncle, the Duke of Cartoons. On the way, he would say hello to his cousin, the Earl of Cartoons. Pee-wee interrupts him and says, "Pardon me, Your Majesty, as much as I'd love nothing more than to hear your life story, I think the boys and girls out there would really just want to see a cartoon." "Yes," Miss Yvonne agrees. "Very well, then," the king says dejectedly. So he shows a cartoon on the Playhouse TV with his remote control.
[edit] Fire!!!
When the cartoon ends and the King departs, Miss Yvonne is seen playing golf in the playhouse. She gently hits the ball with a putter and the ball rolls toward a small paper cup (used for the hole), but she misses. She groans. Pee-wee comments that she hits like a girl. "Naturally," she says sweetly. Now it's Pee-wee's turn. He hits the ball with the putter and the ball rolls right into the cup. "Hole in one!" Pee-wee shouts triumphantly. Everyone screams.
Then Pterri flies by, screaming, even though no one else is now. "Pterri, that's enough screaming of the secret word," Pee-wee tries to say. "No, Pee-wee, look!" Pterri shouts. He points toward the kitchen where there is smoke billowing! A fire bell rings and everyone runs around, panicking. "Fire! Fire!" everyone yells. "THERE'S A FIRE IN THE PLAYHOUSE!!" Pee-wee shouts.
[edit] Fire Safety
The fire department finally arrives minutes later to assess the situation. They finish up their business at the playhouse shortly thereafter. One of the firemen, named Frank, explains that luckily, there wasn't a fire at all, just a lot of smoke. But that, too, is just as dangerous as flames. Frank holds out the source of the smoke: the bread from the oven. Miss Yvonne is just shocked at this, and Frank says that's a shame, because he likes homemade bread. Yvonne offers to put the recipe on a card, along with her phone number. Pee-wee asks what could have made the bread burn like that. Frank explains that just about anything will burn at 700 degrees. But Yvonne protests that she turned the temperature up only to 350. Pee-wee agrees on this one. Frank says that someone must have turned it up.
Randy comes down. He asks if the bread is ready yet. "No, Randy, the bread is burned because somebody turned the temperature way up on the oven!" Pee-wee says. "Got any ideas on who might've done something stupid like that?!" "Uh... me?" Randy says. Frank looks dejected and angry. "Randy, you know you're not supposed to touch the oven," Pee-wee says. Randy says he's sorry about the bread; he even offers to go to the bakery and get another one. Everyone screams at the secret word. Pee-wee says that he doesn't care about the bread anymore, but he does care about the safety and protection of everyone in the playhouse. Frank says that if that's the case, he needs to make sure the playhouse is fire-safe. Pee-wee asks how to do that.
Frank then explains the answers not only to Pee-wee, but to the audience as well. Each of the instructions on fire safety is explained with demonstrations from the playhouse crew. For one thing, Frank explains, one should conduct fire drills to make sure everyone knows where and how to exit a house, school, or other area quickly in the event of a fire. They should also have smoke detectors placed throughout the home to warn of the presence of smoke and/or fire. Pee-wee installs a smoke detector while Miss Yvonne swooningly tells Frank that she has a smoke detector in her bedroom over her bed. Frank then explains to the audience to make sure the detectors are in good working order by checking them once a month. He also says to replace dangerous, frayed electrical cords and not overload sockets. Finally, he says to remove rubbish, make sure all flammable liquids are stored in cupboards away from heat, and never, never play with matches.
Pee-wee then asks Frank if there's anything else he can do to make sure the playhouse is fire-safe. Frank says that a list of these and other safety tips are available at his local fire department. He then gives him his phone number and tells him to make sure to keep it always by his phone. Pee-wee takes the number. Miss Yvonne then gives Frank her phone number (tucked in her dress) and tells him to make sure to keep it by his telephone. Frank awkwardly and confusedly says, "Thanks." Pee-wee looks disgusted and jealous.
Pee-wee goes to place the fire department phone number in the Picturephone booth and then he goes to his scooter's place. He turns the crank on the statue arm and the hidden door rises, releasing his red scooter. He mounts the scooter and puts on the helmet. Pee-wee notices Frank and Miss Yvonne and tries to get their attention so he can say good-bye to them. Finally, he gets their attention and they say good-bye to him. He then says, "Ready for countdown, Conky..." "Three... two..." Conky says. Then Pee-wee shouts, "One!" Everyone screams one last time. Pee-wee then 'scoots' out, and the supposedly locked door swings open, and he flies out of the playhouse, passing Mount Rushmore on his way, as usual. The end credits roll.
[edit] Trivia
- The refrigerator game show, "Wheel of Pizza", is an obvious parody of Wheel of Fortune. The version with Pat Sajak and Vanna White (both of whom parodied in this scene) actually was on television in the same decade as Playhouse.
- The featured cartoon is The Stork Market (1949).
- This episode mentions Mrs. Steve, but not Dixie, Captain Carl or Tito.
- While playing the penny game with Miss Yvonne, Pee-wee hums the music of The Sabre Dance.
- Super Pee-wee (an obvious parody of Superman) could also be a spoof on Super Grover, a skit shown on Sesame Street showing Grover as a superhero. However, Super Pee-wee doesn't cause problems.
- It may also be a reference to The Pee-wee Herman Show, which ends with Jambi granting Pee-wee's wish to fly, Superman-style.
- This is one of the only times where you get to see Yvonne wearing clothes that are not gaudy, big-skirted dresses.
