Serendipity in Pee Wee’s Playhouse

There’s no telling what hip adults will do for entertainment. These days, it seems, those who are really in the know spend their Saturday nights not out dancing at an underground bar or dining at a chi-chi restaurant, but at home--watching taped versions of a Saturday morning children’s TV show.

If you find this hard to believe, then you haven’t tuned in to “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” the frantically creative and surreal half-hour show which airs on KCBS-TV, Channel 2, at 10 a.m. Saturdays--a time when many Valley adults are still tucked snugly in bed.

“I see the whole show as more performance art, rather than a kids’ show,” says a Burbank man. “With all the people involved in it, like Gary Panter and Mark Mothersba, it’s an incredible thing to want to collect. I like watching it at night . . . mainly because I don’t get up early enough, but also it’s really bright, it’s really cheery. It stands out against the darkness.”

“I think it’s incredible,” gushes a production secretary. “It’s probably the most creative thing I’ve seen in a long time, as far as all the props, the art work, the ideas.” She, too, prefers to watch the show at night, “because then I can have a few friends over and we all watch it together,” she says.

Revolving around a character called “Pee Wee Herman”--adult comic actor Paul Reubens--”Pee Wee’s Playhouse” may be the biggest joke ever pulled over on network television. “Pee Wee gets away with absurdity,” says one woman. “He ends up not giving any lessons at all, which makes it very funny from the adult perspective.”

And, yet, if they ever get up at the same time, adults and children can probably enjoy the show together. “Children enjoy it on an entirely different level,” says a Sherman Oaks-based actor and writer who worked on the show. “For instance, my little niece likes ‘chairy,’ the talking chair.”