"Pee-wee Herman's "Dark" Reboot: Paul Reubens Is Ready to Stage a Comeback"
On creating the Pee-Wee character:
At first, he was conceived as a super-geeky stand-up comedian who cracked extremely blue jokes. But the character evolved, with Reubens drawing inspiration from the children's entertainment of his youth — Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo and Rocky and Bullwinkle in particular. And then one day Reubens slipped into the now-iconic costume — the suit was a loaner from Groundlings founder Gary Austin, the bow tie he grabbed from a pile of accessories backstage — and something inside him clicked.
"It dawned on me that I could actually become Pee-wee Herman," he says. "I could do something that was conceptual art, and the only person who would really know it was conceptual was me."
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Reubens was arrested in the lobby of the XXX South Trail Cinema for indecent exposure
But, Wasn't he just being an artistic nude?
PeeWee always creeped me out as a kid. I never thought he was authentic the way Mister Rogers was, did parents actually think he was sincere? I thought part of the schtick with him was that it was a little bit creepy...
Saturday morning adult television.
Ahh...the old South Trail Cinema in Sarasota. No longer there. But we still slow down and bow our heads when we pass it.
He was funny, but not for everybody. I loved watching him. It was funny and strange- I could not turn away. He creeped my wife out. But given we're in the era of a successful run of BoJack Horseman, I say he's got as good a shot as anything.
He should team up with Harvey Weinstein. I hear he has some free time.
Penis -- the downfall of many. It can be much worse in the animal world, though.
I only saw either of them as an adult but found PeeWee Herman whimsical and fun and Mister Rogers trying too hard, therefore, creepy.
Maybe Louis C.K. could join the act, too. The Three Splooges has a nice ring to it.
I read a mystery years ago called something like The Man Who Cancelled Himself. Parts of it were obviously based on Herman (though I think the book took care to mention Herman as a hollywood person in the milleu the books main character operated in to say "See, it's not him! Don't sue me!").
Anyway the book's plot involved the main character setting up an arrest like Herman's to deliberately get fired under a morals clause since there was no other way to get out of his contract. There was certainly speculation that Herman had done such a thing at the time. (Although if so, it didn't really work out for him apart from a role in a Batman movie..)
Pee Wee is and was, great. Check out the original HBO special from 1980.
What Christy said ...
The cop that arrested Pee Wee was an asshole. X-Rated theaters wouldn't smell that way if it were a rare occurrence. Did that cop make hundreds of arrests per week?
Pee-Wee's Playhouse was one of the best children's shows on TV and plenty of adults watched it too. All ruined because Florida cops would rather arrest men jerking off in porn houses than in fighting actual crime. Around that same time they were also busting nickel-ante poker clubs in retirement homes and making 2 Live Crew heroes of the first amendment.
Police cowardice at the Stoneman Douglas shooting came out of a long tradition of harassing harmless people while ignoring real crime.
I was 13 in 1987. Pee Wee Herman was a Big Deal to me and my friends.
I'm not sure the crime was a crime. Masturbating at a XXX movie house is like being charged for pissing at a urinal. I guess it was the intersectionality that did him in. We expect so much of our children's heroes.....I've read stories about how Roy Rogers and Clayton Moore were actually changed by the adulation that they received from kids. They actually tried to be the characters they played. Reubens' offense was the sort of thing that Pee Wee Herman would do and not what a movie star does. Movie stars call their agents and have them arrange to send a porn star over for an assignation.
Who cares if he jerked off in an adult theater? We never cared. Guys jerk off in lots of odd places. An adult theater is not one of them.
My friends Vince was in the Groundlings about the time Paul Reubens developed the Pee Wee character, same period when Cassandra Peters created her Elvira Mistress of the Dark character. Good times!
Elvira...my daughter's friend's dad is her manager. She went to a haloween party and was like "yea there was this lady there and people were taking pictures with her."
He was funny, but not for everybody. I loved watching him. It was funny and strange- I could not turn away.
For my high school and college friends, too. Big Adventure had cult status and sold out midnight showings. Playhouse had a wonderful crossover demographic of children and young adults, appealing to those who grew up with the G-rated saccharine of Captain Kangaroo...
There were many future stars on Playhouse. Quality has an appeal...
The first appearance of Reubens as Pee Wee on film is in Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. He played a hotel clerk. The voice, costume and mannerisms are all there.
My avatar is an earlier and more perfect "Pee Wee".
Wiki tells me that the unoriginal Pee Wee's "Adventure" movie was based on the movie "Bicycle Thieves", which I saw, so "small world", eh?
I saw a little of his show or movie after his downfall, it didn't seem like something you would show to kids. Many references or hints in the show could be - and almost had to be - interpreted sexually after what had happened to unfortunate Peewee/Paul.
Name two people shot in the head at a theater... Abraham Lincoln and the guy sitting in front of Pee Wee.
Paul Reubens is great. This is brilliant.
Big Adventure was also Tim Burton's feature directorial debut.
Pee Wee's big adventure was also Danny's Elfman's premier as a film score composer.
The postal carrier on Pee-Wee's Play house was S. Epatha Merkerson.
The postal carrier on Pee-Wee's HBO special was the late, great Phil Hartman.
What is it with the Hollywood type guys and the urge to masturbate in public? Why can't these guys be normal and do it in the shower?
Pee-Wee Herman is making a comeback?
Mayor Pete hardest hit.
Phil Hartman joined the Groundlings just after Pee Wee became a thing. It was a great time to squeeze into their 99-seat theatre!
He’s 67? Who’s his dermatologist?
We are going to see Pee-wee's Big Adventure 35th Anniversary Tour with Paul Reubens on March 8th in Dallas. He will come out and tell stories after the movie is shown. Interesting phone and camera policy: "Please Note: *** No cellphones, cameras or recording devices will be allowed at this show. Upon arrival, all phones and smart watches will be secured in Yondr pouches that will be unlocked at the end of the show. Guests maintain possession of their phones throughout the night, and if needed, may access their phones at designated Yondr unlocking stations in the lobby. All guests are encouraged to print their tickets in advance to ensure a smooth entry process. Anyone caught with a cellphone in the venue will be immediately ejected. We appreciate your cooperation in creating a phone-free viewing experience."
Most performers I see have given up on recording bans. The most they will insist on is no "professional" devices. That seems about right.
It will be as big a hit as "Shakes the Clown", the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.
Tequila!
I liked him in that Cheech and Chong movie. That was the first time I saw him, around 1980.
"I could do something that was conceptual art, and the only person who would really know it was conceptual was me."
Conceptual art, a rather dry and pulpy fruit at its peak of ripeness is now well and truly far past its sell-by date, as the multi-hued fuzz growing on its desiccated husk should inform anyone, is misapplied to Pee-Wee Herman.
Pee-Wee was just born too soon. His rendezvous with fate in the Florida movie theater would never have happened in the age of the internet.
I used to watch the Playhouse every day with my daughter. I thought it was whimsical and funny and much more imaginative than most children's TV shows. Since then, I think only SpongeBob came close creatively speaking, but even that show relied a lot on noisy cartoon slapstick.
OK, Cowboy Curtis was an obvious homo with an eye for Pee-Wee, but still. That's not going to bother little kids. (But I was happy that Curtis was just pretend.)
That's some fancy rhetorical derring-do there, Quaestor. Well played sir.
May you never be troubled by multi-hued fuzz.
Dorky then, dorky now.
Big Adventure was a massive cult favorite of my generation- people who were in high school and college when it come out (1985). I personally didn't like it, but I do understand the appeal. As for the arrest- fuck that- what a joke- men masturbate, and they often do in places they shouldn't, but I don't think an adult movie theater is really an inappropriate one, is it? Didn't the police have better things to do?
"Peewee's Big Adventure", the "Citizen Kane" of tongue deeply in cheek parody of "children's" entertainment characters. An early Tim Burton sugar and spice concoction including the quirky Oingo Bongo composer Danny Elfman. Still have a copy of that movie along with a boxed set of "Peewee's Playhouse". I still haven't aged out of this humor!
Just in time for nobody to care.
Way, way back in my youth, many a Saturday morning was spent, um, partaking in a grassy substance, pouring a massive bowl of Lucky Charms and watching Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Watching it years later? Still pretty funny.
I was a huge fan of Pee-Wee Herman - both the movie and the TV series. It had an almost religion-level following in my circle of friends in high school. My sister and I saw the film together in our local movie house and had a blast. And of course the single, "Tequila", got massive radio airplay as a result of it.
Yes, the show was goofy, slightly off-kilter, but very clever. Looking back, Phil Hartman's postman character seemed almost a warm-up for his small, but ever memorable role as the National Park Service tour guide in "So I Married an Axe Murderer'. And wasn't the role of Miss Yvonne taken over by one of gals from the B-52s?
If only he had waited for Al Gore to invent the internet so he could jack off in the privacy of his own home.
Reubens played a vampire in the original film version of "Buffy, Vampire Slayer". His "extended" death scene was hilarious.
I was surprised to run up on Reubens in Blow, with Johnny Depp. I recognized him immediately but wasn't expecting to see him in the movie, at the time. He plays Derek Foreal, one of George Jung's (Depp) drug dealing associates. Powerful movie and very sad to me.
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