CLIP OF THE MOMENT: PEE WEE HERMAN ON "TWILIGHT THEATER" (1982)

This is a segment from the NBC late night tv special "Twilight Theater". As far as I can remember there were 2 episodes several months apart that appeared in the time slot where Saturday Night Live usually was. I believe SNL was in repeat stage between seasons maybe and I suspect that NBC was giving "Twilight Theater" a trial run as a possible replacement program for SNL? I remember that the first episode was hosted by Roddy McDowell and had a lot of "hip" music stuff and was slightly-underground-leaning-ish, at least for a network tv program in 1982. It might not seem like a big deal now, but in pre-MTV days seeing, for example, a Devo music video ("Beautiful World") on tv was a big deal! They also had a skit revolving around a Barnes and Barnes song - "Party in my Pants" featuring Rosemary Clooney and a few New Wave icons (Spazz Attack anyone?) -, a Tom Tom Club video ("Genius of Love"), The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra and other cool stuff. Including probably the very first ever tv appearance by our beloved Pee Wee Herman, predating his own tv show and even those early "Late Night with David Letterman" appearances". The skit, called "The Pee Wee Herman Show", features Steve Martin in a brief cameo spot who, if I remember correctly, also appeared in a few other skits on the show. It also features Gary Panter's "Clocky" and opening credit artwork, and has the same kind of atmosphere and theme song as Pee Wee's live stage show that was taped and turned into the HBO "Pee Wee Herman Show" 1-off special. I don't recall much about the second "Twilight Theater" episode except that it wasn't quite as cool.

Note: This was taped by myself when I was in high school on my Dad's Betamax. The picture and sound are a bit rough but all things considered it's a miracle it survived.

"Will Pee Wee ever see Joe again?" Enjoy!