The '80s -- Are They the New '70s?

Because drinking games are never as much fun on Saturday mornings, Cartoon Network has had the foresight and wisdom to bring back CBS's Saturday-ayem series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" at 11 p.m., where it belongs, starting July 10.

All 45 original episodes of the campy kids-but-not-really show as well as the "Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" will air weeknights during the "Adult Swim" programming block.

We'll leave it to someone else to get exercised about the airing of "Pee-wee's Playhouse" on a network that heavily promotes itself to children for most of the day, reverting to Adult Swim at night -- though parent Time Warner makes a point of billing Adult Swim as the "late-night sister network" of Cartoon Network.

And someone just may, given that CBS, which aired the show from 1986 to 1991, pulled the plug after star Paul Reubens was arrested at an adult movie house and charged with indecent exposure.

But in fairness to Cartoon Network, let us not forget that in the late '90s, Fox Family Channel reran episodes of "Pee-wee's Playhouse" weekday mornings , alongside daily telecasts of Pat Robertson's pseudo-news show "The 700 Club." Talk about strange bedfellows.

In the late '80s, Pee-wee Herman was a sort of Andy Warhol of television. Among the groupies who came to play on his orgy of double-entendres were Phil Hartman as Captain Carl, Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis, Jimmy Smits as the authorized Conky repairman and S. Epatha Merkerson as Reba the Mail Lady. And his Christmas special attracted the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Little Richard, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dinah Shore, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.

Cartoon Network's announcement wasn't such a huge surprise; a promo recently aired on Adult Swim featuring the beginning of the show's theme song and the words "Remember This?" followed by "Coming July 10."

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HBO has reached a deal with "Deadwood" creator David Milch to close the series with two two-hour flicks instead of a fourth season.

The show's third season is scheduled to debut this Sunday. HBO reportedly had offered Milch a six-episode Season No. 4 instead of the usual 12 episodes.

According to news reports, Milch was not in favor of that because each episode represents one day and he could not figure how out to wrap up the various story lines and meet his profanity quota in just six days.

Apparently the two-hour-flick format frees him of the whole 1 hour = 1 day thing.