Deleted Pee-Wee Herman Scenes You've Probably Never Seen
The comedy world lost a giant when Paul Reubens, best known for playing permanent man-child Pee-wee Herman in various films and TV shows, passed away at the age of 70. While he had numerous other roles to his name, including playing a vampire on multiple occasions, he'll forever be affiliated with Pee-wee. This was a stage character he developed in the 1980s before spinning it out into a feature film that came out in 1985 called "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," which eventually paved the way for the Emmy award-winning "Pee-wee's Playhouse."
Many people grew up watching Pee-wee get into various escapades, but it's possible even the most ardent fans haven't seen everything the character has done. The DVD and other home releases for "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" contain several deleted scenes. Anyone who's only seen the film in theaters or on TV may have never seen the moment where Pee-wee meets Amazing Larry (Lou Cutell) at the magic shop. In the final movie, audiences meet Amazing Larry out of context with a brightly colored mohawk.
The deleted scene explains that Pee-wee and Amazing Larry wanted to find a way to jazz up his act to bring in a younger crowd since he's older. In a way, deleting the scene makes the moment all the more hilarious because it comes out of nowhere, and viewers are left to wonder what happened to this guy. Another deleted scene features Pee-wee getting in a car with Boone the bear, during which he has a nightmare of him at a circus featuring Francis (Mark Holton). It's another surreal sequence for which "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" has become famous.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure holds more surprises
Another deleted scene that's more humorous than anything else sees the bikers visiting Pee-wee in the hospital. While nothing is physically wrong with him, he's depressed, so the bikers go to cheer him up by bringing him chocolates and flowers. The bikers are a great component of the movie and how they take such a liking to Pee-wee. No doubt viewers would've loved to see more of them, but at the end of the day, it makes sense why this moment was left on the cutting room floor.
However, one moment that was deleted that would've tied up some loose ends is an extended chase at Warner Bros., where the audience would've seen the payoff to Pee-wee getting the boomerang bow tie earlier in the film. Toward the beginning of the movie, Pee-wee purchases a loud horn for his bike as well as three items from Mario's Joke Shop. These include trick gum, headlight glasses, and a red boomerang bow tie. He uses each of these items in the final film, completing the Chekhov's gun arc, except for the bow tie. Most viewers never had the chance to see it in action, but the deleted scene ties up that loose end.
Pee-wee's Playhouse has a surreal deleted animation
Tracking down deleted scenes from movies and TV shows in the 1980s is no easy feat. While there are undoubtedly many segments that didn't make it into "Pee-wee's Playhouse," there's one that managed to make its way to YouTube, courtesy of Caseen Gaines. The scene is called "Mutant Toys," and it consists of roughly 30 seconds of animation filled with weird-looking toys, from a dinosaur on a train to an octopus head on what looks like a dog's body. There's no audio to accompany the scene, but it seems like the toys are playing a crude form of baseball together as they toss a bouncy ball back and forth.
Such animations were commonplace on "Pee-wee's Playhouse." Most of the time, the King of Cartoons (Gilbert Lewis) would introduce them. In many instances, the cartoons were simply meant to be wacky, which looks like the case here. It's a shame "Mutant Toys" didn't make it into the show, as it looks like it would've been a blast. All these deleted scenes showcase the singular sense of humor Pee-wee Herman mastered, and considering how there were so many funny bits in everything he did, some gems just had to be left out.