Johann Carlo

This half-hour CBS-TV Saturday morning live-action "children's show" aired from 1986 until 1991 and was enormously popular with both children and adults. The program won six Emmy Awards and a host of other accolades during its first season. Incorporating clips from vintage cartoons and old educational films, newly produced 3-D animation, hand puppets, marionettes, and a cast of endearingly eccentric characters led by a gray-suited and red-bow-tied Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens), Pee-wee's Playhouse might best be described as a flamboyant take off on the genre of children's educational TV-a sort of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood meets MTV. The childlike Pee-wee each week welcomed viewers into his technicolor fantasy-land, and led them through a regimen of crafts and games, cartoon clips, "secret words," and "educational" adventures via his Magic Screen. Yet, in stark contrast to the high moral seriousness of its predecessors, Pee-wee's Playhouse was marked from its outset by a campy sensibility and frequent use of double entendre, allowing different types of viewers to enjoy the show in many different ways.

Chicago police lieutenant Mike Torello wages an epic battle against organized crime in Michael Mann's arresting combination of cops and robbers, prime time soap, and film noir.