Remember When: Twisted Sister Cameoed in the Movie ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’

In August 1985, a movie came along that launched the careers of two revered talents—director/screenwriter Tim Burton and comic actor Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman. The comedy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was unlike any other that people had seen at that point. The gleeful man-child who was Pee-wee discovered his heavily accessorized bicycle had been stolen, so he embarked on a cross-country trip to track it down. It meant that much to him. Along the way, he encountered all sorts of kooky, crazy, even creepy sorts, from the sinister presence of truck driver Large Marge to the biker gang that threatened to pummel Pee-wee until he charmed them with his “Tequila” dance.

The movie also featured a number of memorable cameos, some credited and some uncredited. These included Burton himself, Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark), Milton Berle, James Brolin, Morgan Fairchild, and New York hard rockers Twisted Sister. This latter cameo drew a lot of amused surprise from audiences because no one expected them to show in a movie like this. The group was still riding high off of the success of their triple-Platinum 1984 album Stay Hungry and their hit videos for “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.” But they were not cast simply for their popularity.

“Watching Insanity Come to Life”

“Doing Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was a life changer for me and not for the reasons you would think,” Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider told TV Insider this year. “I met Paul [Reubens] at an MTV New Year’s Eve party. We saw each other backstage. We had mutual admiration. This was when Paul was a college circuit comedy club guy. He asked us to do a cameo. Being on that set, with Tim Burton by the way, that was his first major picture. Watching insanity come to life. Having just done the Twisted Sister music videos, which were insanity brought to life, I got [to] thinking I wanted to write movies and screenplays.”

The meeting with Reubens was fortuitous as the film began shooting on January 8, 1985, and wrapped on March 15. That entire experience encouraged Snider to write “screenplays, shows, and theatrical shows.” He has done acting and voice work since then as well. His first feature was the 1998 horror film Strangeland, which he wrote and co-starred in, and was based on the song “Horror-Teria” from Stay Hungry.

“My new company Defiant Artists will soon be making a major announcement,” Snider continued. “I’m teaming up with a major Hollywood studio to do three to five movies a year starting next year. It all started on that set. That day watching Pee-wee being chased by Santa and Godzilla, [I’m] going, ‘Man I can think of anything and someone can bring it to life.’”

A Very Memorable Cameo

For a climactic moment near the end of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Burton came up with a crazy chase sequence that delighted movie buffs with its many references. Pee-wee finds his beloved bike on a set at the Warner Bros. lot and rides off with it, precipitating a pursuit by studio security that sees them pass through many sets, including ones for a beach movie, Christmas picture, and Godzilla film. At one point, PeeWee is barreling down towards a slowly moving convertible that is being used by Twisted Sister to film a fictitious video for the song “Burn in Hell.” Snider is perched atop the car’s hood with his bandmates playing in the seats behind him. But when they see Pee-wee racing towards them, followed by a security guard in a prop speedboat on wheels pulling a sleigh with St. Nick and Godzilla inside, they all jump out of the car. Pee-wee avoids them, but the speedboat hits the convertible and Godzilla goes flying into the grill. It’s a hilarious sequence of events.

Given the massive popularity of Twisted Sister at the time, many audience members laughed when they appeared on screen. Chalk one up for Tim Burton for recognizing a good gag with the right subjects. There’s also one other aspect that only Twisted fans would recognize: While the group became famous for two upbeat anthems, the darker “Burn in Hell” was more typical of their style. It’s amusing that they picked that song to highlight in a PG-rated, seemingly family friendly movie. (Although admittedly, it had some racy innuendo.) Of course, the song was a perfect fit with Burton’s penchant for horror imagery, and it added another layer of subtext for those in the know. Regardless of how deep one wants to go, it was a very memorable cameo.

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Photo by Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock