12/25/24--END CREDITS

NOTES: The credits include a spoof acknowledgment for "The Pee-Wee's Playhouse Collector's Case" providing accommodations. No such collector's case exists; the illustration is from the Thermos lunchbox, and I put the Matchbox logo over the Thermos logo. It's a riff on the end credit for the Los Angeles Registry Hotel, which sadly went bankrupt shortly after the special aired.

"Don't Salt the Fries" is a cryptic phrase from the computer game System Shock, which I am a huge fan of.

12/24/25 third post

 

NOTES: I will die on the hill that Pee-Wee's Playhouse ought to have ended with the Christmas Special, and that the remainder of Seasons 4 and 5 are diminishing returns. Getting to ride with Santa is just such a perfect conclusion for the character of Pee-Wee Herman--one last childhood wish, finally fulfilled. That's why I emphasized that his withdrawing the long list is a grown-up decision: it's the first step in developing maturity and thinking outside of oneself. 

The paraphrase of Clement C. Moore takes care to include Rudolph. The yuletide roster is not complete without him.

Far from being a reference to E.T. or The Nightmare Before Christmas, the end panel owes much more to Chicago's CTA buses, which from November to January occasionally display a picture of Santa and his reindeer on the front marquee. It always brings a smile to my face.

12/24/24 second post

 

12/24/24

 

NOTES: 

Pee-Wee looks a little creepy with the lighting from above. Pee-Wee.EXE. 

I knew I was going to replicate that moment from the outset of this project, but can't remember if it was before or after the Pterri material, because I did this in the same way as with Pterri--with two shots, one from 3/4 and one from the side. Here, it was a simple matter of rendering the heads in about 50% transparency and then flipping the copies so that they'd face different angles. 

"Mr. Claus" is my way of demonstrating that he's taking this seriously. The "What more do you want?!" line is now a last little bit of weakening resistance. His tune changes instantly when he learns he's got to help Santa: running the words together without spaces or punctuation illustrates that he's blindsided and utterly elated.

There was never any question of a dark ending in which he opts for the Christmas list. That would have been a little too much--it would have involved Santa not being entirely clear on the consequences of the choice, and it always came across as him actively hoping that Pee-Wee would take the short-term option just to spring the trap on him. 

12/23/24 second post

NOTES: And here is that final remnant of the earliest idea for the remake. I really couldn't stand the original Santa and how apologetic he was at being unable to fulfill Pee-Wee's list. Here he is based on Bobsheaux's review of the Christmas Special--he and Raven were immensely scathing to the point where I couldn't help but agree! Thus Santa became the audience surrogate to the adults watching who want to give this pixilated manchild a stern talking-to, a kind of badly disappointed teacher who lets loose on misbehaving students because he loves them and wants them to do well.

I'm not really sure if he was angrier at the outset and then softened throughout the drafts. I do know that allowing Pee-Wee the choice of list-or-no-list was always there...Goofus and Gallant from Highlights for Children was a major influence. 

Santa was marvelous because I could generate emotion simply from angling his hat and putting him at different angles. Look at him front-on, and he's happy. Put him at an angle, and he's sad. Lower his hat a little, and he's angry.

 

12/23/24

 

NOTES: The first thing I did for this special was cast Santa. During Christmas of 2023, I didn't know if there was even a Santa figurine, so I did what anyone would do: turn to Facebook for help. A kind fellow pointed me toward such a figure from Big Bad Toy Store, a classical Caucasian Santa who looked kinda like Jerry Garcia, and which turned out to be out of stock. So I went back and found another one that was in stock, and bought it without looking at it properly.

The figure arrived at my house a few weeks later, and, to my surprise, Santa turned out to be African-American. This made the perfectionist in me panic just a little, as I wanted my photobook to hew as close to the original as possible. After the panic subsided, I took another look at him and reflected that he looked an awful lot like James Earl Jones, and then said, "Oh, well, in this version of it, they managed to get him as Santa." 

The biggest surprise was how this Santa informed the writing, as you will see.

12/22/24 third post

 

NOTES: I had to break the earlier page up into this third post just to render some text a little more legible.