A better kind of child’s play

WHEN it was announced Monday that Paul Reubens died at age 70, fans around the world mourned an artist.

But they were even more devastated by the passing of their dear old friend Pee-wee Herman.

That bow-tied ’80s fixture was too goofy to be true, but also remarkably real to us because of the actor’s intense commitment to his zany character. And that’s exactly how Reubens, the man who created and performed as Pee-wee, wanted it.

“I thought Pee-wee Herman worked better if [audiences] didn’t know that I was an actor,” he said in 2004 on “Dateline.” “So I went out of my way to try and get the public to think that that was a real person.”

That shrewd trick is part of what made him one of the most brilliant kids entertainers ever — one the routinely boring genre barely deserved.

When he parlayed his meant-foradults Pee-wee stage show from LA into the 1985 movie “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” — which put director Tim Burton on the map — and then the family-friendly CBS series “Peewee’s Playhouse” starting in 1986, he brought an innovative spirit that those nice daytime programs rarely see. The result was true art and genuine entertainment.

Children’s TV, as fed-up parents well know, tends to be either educational, like “Sesame Street,” or feelgood and hug-y, like “Peppa Pig.” Compare that aggressive wholesomeness with the surreal first episode of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” when a sea captain phones Pee-wee while his ship is dramatically sinking. “Mayday, Pee-wee! I’m lost! Lost at sea!” he screams.

Pee-wee, speaking into a soup can on a string, hollers back: “Say it, don’t spray it, Captain Carl!”

Not many cut-and-paste family movies today have a scene more strangely awesome than the “breakfast machine” beginning of “Big Adventure,” or one half as memorable as the “Tequila” dance.

Parents loved Pee-wee, too, and college kids gathered to watch him in their dorms. When a stage version came to Broadway in 2010, ticket-buyers of all ages went in costume.

You see, Pee-wee didn’t do so much preaching or teaching — he entertained everybody.

These days we take for granted that Pixar, DreamWorks and Disney aim to please viewers of all ages. But we definitely wouldn’t have had “SpongeBob SquarePants” without Pee-wee Herman. The not-so-secret word of the day is “sad.”