Pee-wee Herman
Encyclopedia
Pee-wee Herman is a comic
fictional character
created and portrayed by American
comedian
Paul Reubens
. He is best known for his two television series and film series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special
in 1981. As the stage performance gained further popularity, Reubens took the character to motion picture with Pee-wee's Big Adventure
in 1985, toning down the adult innuendo for the appeal of children. This paved the way for Pee-wee's Playhouse
, an Emmy Award winning children's series that ran on CBS from 1986-1991. Another film, Big Top Pee-wee
, was released in 1988.
Reubens's arrest on July 26, 1991 caused a media frenzy over the actor and his Pee-wee Herman character. Reubens, who had begun to grow tired of portraying the character, used the media attention to shelve his alter ego during the 1990s, then gradually resurrected it during the following decade. It was at that time that Reubens addressed plans to write a new Pee-wee film, Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie. In June 2007, Reubens appeared as Pee-wee Herman for the first time since 1991 at Spike TV
's Guys' Choice Awards
.
-based improvisational comedy team The Groundlings
and remained a member for six years, working with Bob McClurg
, John Paragon, Susan Barnes, and Phil Hartman
. Hartman and Reubens became friends, often writing and working on material together. Reubens wrote sketches and developed his improvisational skills. He also forged a significant friendship and working relationship with Hartman, with whom he developed the Pee-wee Herman character.
In 1977, The Groundlings staged a performance in which its members created characters that one might see in a comedy club. Reubens decided to play a guy that everyone immediately knew would never make it as a comic, partly because Reubens couldn't remember jokes in real life - he had trouble remembering punch lines and couldn't properly piece information in sequential order. Saying that Pee-wee Herman was born that night, his distinctive guttural "Ha Ha," followed by a low "Heh Heh Heh," laugh became the character's catch phrase
, as has his insult comeback "I know you are, but what am I?"
Pee-wee Herman's signature grey glen plaid
suit
was originally a custom
-made suit that Reubens had borrowed from the Groundlings director, Gary Austin
; the small red bow tie
was given to him by an acquaintance. Pee-wee's later checkered clothing and persona were largely lifted from manic 1950s children's TV host Pinky Lee
. Also incorporated into the look were short black hair, pale skin with red rouge
, and red lipstick.
The inspiration for the name came from a Pee-weiny herman brand miniature harmonica
and the surname of an energetic boy Reubens knew from his youth. Reubens thought the name Pee-wee Herman was a name that sounded too real to be made up, and like a real name a parent would give a child that they didn't really care about.
was awarded to Pee-wee Herman rather than Paul Reubens.
In both Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Pee-wee's Playhouse, the character surrounds himself with strange inventions and decorations and has no visible means of support, whereas Big Top Pee-wee depicts him as a farmer/inventor. During a June 1984 segment on Late Night with David Letterman
, Pee-wee said that he has a sister named Hermione (who was a girl scout), his mother's name is Honny Herman, and his father's name is Herman Herman. He went on to say that everyone in his family has a first name that begins with an "H" except for him. This was again stated during a 1988 special which elaborated that Pee-wee was raised in Florida.
Pee-wee is commonly portrayed like an impatient and fun-loving child with dainty, effeminate
mannerisms and quirky
facial expressions. His age has never been explicitly stated; although, he once proclaimed on The Pee-wee Herman Show, "I'm the luckiest boy in the world." David Letterman
once said of the character, "What makes me laugh...is that it has the external structure of a bratty little precocious kid, but you know it's being controlled by the incubus — the manifestation of evil itself." While the character is typically cheerful and flamboyant, Pee-wee has indeed displayed an aggressive side, including his vicious pool battle with Francis in Pee-wee's Big Adventure
. He also played vengeful tricks in the aforementioned film and occasionally threw childish tantrums on Pee-wee's Playhouse
.
for the 1980-1981 season but wasn't accepted into the cast. Instead, he started a stage show with the Herman character, which made one of his first appearances in the 1980 film Cheech & Chong's Next Movie
. He first plays a rude receptionist
in the film, spewing obscenities at police and being arrested. The character is later introduced as Pee-wee Herman, approaching the stage just before disputing with the film's title characters again. Shortly after the film, Reubens took Pee-wee to the real stage. Originally, Reubens imbued Pee-wee with sexuality that was later toned down as the character made the transition from raucous night club to children's television (though innuendo was still apparent, particularly between the Cowboy Curtis and Miss Yvonne characters). The stage show was popularized by HBO when The Pee-wee Herman Show
aired in 1981.
The show featured the writing and acting of Groundlings alumni Phil Hartman
and John Paragon, who would both reprise their characters on Pee-wee's Playhouse
. The Pee-wee Herman Show played for five sellout months at The Roxy Theatre
in L.A., whereupon HBO filmed it and aired it as a special on September 11, 1981.
Following the success of The Pee-wee Herman Show, in the early and mid 1980s Reubens made several guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman
as Pee-wee Herman. These performances gave Pee-wee an even bigger following than he had with his HBO special. In 1983, Pee-wee Herman traveled the United States
with The Pee-wee Herman Show, making highly publicized stops at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and Caroline's
in New York City
. Reubens also appeared on an episode of the popular television show Mork & Mindy in 1981.
In 1984 Pee-wee Herman sold out New York City's Carnegie Hall
. Reubens went on to say that it was his appearances on David Letterman's show that made Pee-wee a star.
set, Reubens noticed that most of the people rode around on bicycles, and asked when he would get his. Warner Bros. presented him with a refurbished 1940s Schwinn; Reubens then abandoned the Pee-wee Herman script he was writing in favor of one about Herman's love for his bike and his efforts to locate it once it was stolen. Hartman, Reubens, and Michael Varhol
co-wrote the script for Pee-wee's Big Adventure
, which would be directed by a young Tim Burton
and scored by Danny Elfman
. It was released August 9, 1985 and, while receiving mixed reviews, performed well at the box office and would become a cult film
. Reubens was the originator of the "Pee-wee dance" in the movie, and he had performed it publicly many times prior to making the film.
Pee-wee hosted the 198th episode
of Saturday Night Live
on November 23, 1985. Phil Hartman, who would become an SNL cast member the following year
, was credited for writing the "Pee-wee Herman Thanksgiving
Special" sketch and appeared as a pilgrim
in it.
The following year, Pee-wee (along with Hartman) found a home on the small screen with the Saturday morning children's program, Pee-wee's Playhouse
, on the American CBS
network for the next five years (Shirley Stoler
, Johann Carlo
, Gilbert Lewis, and Roland Rodriguez only appeared for the first 13 episodes before their characters were dropped or recast). In the case of Lewis, he was fired and a new actor, William Marshall
, was hired to play the King of Cartoons. The show starred Pee-wee living in his wild and wacky Playhouse, full of talking chairs, animals, robots, and other puppet
and human characters. The show became a hit, and during its time on the air, Pee-wee's Playhouse garnered 22 Emmy Award
s.
Pee-wee also became the first guest on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers on its October 9, 1986 premiere. The following year, he made a cameo appearance in the film Back to the Beach
. Reubens also filmed an insert for Sesame Street
as Pee-wee, reciting his own version of the alphabet. In 1988, a sequel to Pee-wee's Big Adventure was filmed entitled Big Top Pee-wee
. That same year "Pee-wee" was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
and starred in Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special. The program included various celebrity guests, including Oprah Winfrey
, Cher
, Whoopi Goldberg
, Little Richard
, and the aforementioned Joan Rivers
among others.
for masturbating
publicly in an adult theater. Detectives would periodically visit pornographic theatres and observe the audience, arresting those engaged in indecent exposure. The arrest was widely covered and both the character Pee-wee and Reubens became the subject of ridicule. CBS stopped airing Playhouse and Disney-MGM Studios
suspended from its studio tour a video that showed Pee-wee explaining how voice-over tracks were made and Toys-R-Us removed Pee-wee toys from its stores. However, his voice work in Disney's Star Tours
was not replaced. Despite the negative publicity, many artists who knew Reubens, such as Cyndi Lauper
, Annette Funicello
, Zsa Zsa Gabor
, and Valeria Golino
, spoke out in his support. Bill Cosby
defended Reubens, saying "Whatever (Reubens has) done, this is being blown all out of proportion." Other people who knew Reubens, such as Playhouses production designer Gary Panter
, S. Epatha Merkerson
, and Big Top Pee-wee director Randal Kleiser
, also spoke out against the way Reubens was being treated by the media. Reubens's fans also organized rallies of support after CBS canceled the scheduled reruns, with several dozens of "Pee-weeites" picketing in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The general public also appeared to sympathise with Reubens—the TV newsmagazine
A Current Affair received "tens of thousands" of responses to a Pee-wee telephone survey, with callers supporting Reubens with a nine to one majority. He remained in a state of shock for weeks, and was haunted by the arrest for several years refusing to give interviews or appear on talk shows.
At the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards
Reubens made his first appearance after the arrest. Taking the stage in costume as Pee-wee, he asked the audience, "Heard any good jokes lately?" and received a standing ovation. Reubens responded with, "Ha, that's so funny I forgot to laugh!" Pee-wee appeared once more in 1992, when he participated in a Grand Ole Opry
tribute to Minnie Pearl
. Reubens then avoided interviews and according to a 1991 Rolling Stone
article had indeed become weary of the character and wanted to explore new territory.
, Reubens appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1999 in one of his very first interviews not as Pee-wee. It was also on that interview that Reubens first announced plans to start writing a new Pee-wee movie. In a 2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly
, Reubens also mentioned his hope that Hollywood has not seen the last of Pee-wee. Reubens later stated a strong possibility of a Pee-wee's Playhouse movie on an NPR interview with Terry Gross
on December 27, 2004. A third Pee-wee movie was also suggested. Both, said Reubens, are actively being worked on, but no dates or official announcements were made as of this date.
In 1998, Fox Family
aired reruns of Pee-wee's Playhouse. On July 10, 2006, Cartoon Network
began airing Pee-wee’s Playhouse during its Adult Swim
lineup. The show's 45 original episodes were planned to air on the block Monday to Thursday at 11 P.M. ET
starting on that date. Later on in August 2006, Adult Swim started airing Pee-wee's Playhouse at 12:00 A.M. ET.
In October 2006, Reubens made a public appearance, dressed as Pee-wee at Chiller Theatre Expo, an east-coast fan convention, with Pee-wee's Playhouse
co-star, Lynne Marie Stewart
. There he signed pictures and other memorabilia, and posed for photographs with fans.
At Spike TV
's 2007 Guys' Choice Awards
in June, Reubens appeared on TV as the Pee-wee Herman character for the first time since 1992. On August 5, 2007 at a showing of Pee-wee's Big Adventure in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
, Reubens made an appearance on stage before the show, bringing with him almost the entire cast of the film to the uproarious applause and standing ovation. E.G. Daily (Dotty), Judd Omen
(Mickey), Diane Salinger
(Simone), Daryl Keith Roach (Chuck, the bike shop owner), and Mark Holton
(Francis) were all present.
On Jan 15, 2011, Reubens appeared on Saturday Night Live
as Pee-wee in an extended and well received segment depicting Andy Samberg
and Pee-wee getting drunk, taking a ride on a mechanical bull, doing the tequila dance and ambushing Anderson Cooper
in an alley way with a chair.
allegedly greenlighted by Paramount Pictures. Reubens's third scripted movie, written at the same time as his adult-oriented Pee-wee script, was announced in late summer 2006. He first announced he had finished the script on Late Show with David Letterman
, and later revealed further details to Time magazine
reporter Dennis Van Tine. Filming was expected to start in early 2007. According to IMDb, it is expected for a release in 2011 because of delays.
According to Reubens, the story will focus on the characters from the television show
finally leaving the playhouse and venturing off into Puppetland and beyond (the playhouse characters had rarely left their home in the TV series). The characters from the playhouse will be on an epic adventure to look for a missing character from the playhouse. Reubens stated this will be a "road" movie similar to Pee-wee's Big Adventure
.
Reubens has said that, although he feels confident that he can still portray Pee-wee himself, he would optimally cast Johnny Depp
if needed. He even claims that he has spoken to Depp himself and that the actor asked for time to think about it.
During the 2011 Comic-Con in San Diego, Reubens told MTV
that he hopes to have Justin Bieber
make a cameo appearance toward the end of the movie. He also stated that filming of the movie has not started yet, but hopes to begin filming in the next couple of months.
interview stated that this isn't actually true. He called it a "Valley of the Dolls
Pee-wee" because "it has things certainly inspired by, if not outright lifted from, that movie." Reubens described the film's plot to MTV:
It was because of the adult situations of this script that Reubens sat down and starting writing the Playhouse movie script. At first, Reubens was going to do the adult Pee-wee movie first, but within a few months, Reubens announced that it was very likely that the Playhouse movie would be made first.
A third idea came about to make a reality-based Pee-wee film like those in the 1980s. In 2010, Reubens announced he is working on making this version with Judd Apatow
, who wrote and directed the films Knocked Up
and The 40-Year-Old Virgin
.
magazine that there are indeed negotiations under way for the Pee-wee Herman stage show to return.
In late 2009, Reubens began promoting his new live stage show. He appeared in character as Pee-wee on late night programs including Jimmy Kimmel Live
, The Jay Leno Show
, and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
. Pee-wee would also return for a cameo on the penultimate episode of Tonight with Conan O'Brien
as host and during O'Brien's stop at Radio City Music Hall
in New York City for The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour
.
Original plans for a November 2009 stage debut were scrapped when demand for tickets prompted a move to a larger theater. The "Pee-wee Herman Stage Show: The Return" opened on January 12, 2010 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California
for a limited four-week schedule. The show will move to Broadway
at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on November 11, 2010. Much like the original stage show, the new production revolves around Pee-wee's desire to fly. It boasts 11 actors, 20 puppets and marks the show's first production since 1982. The show has employed many of the same set artists and the musical composer from Pee-wee's original stage show as well as some of the original cast members, including Lynne Stewart as Miss Yvonne, John Moody as Mailman Mike and John Paragon as Jambi the Genie. Reubens cited his desire to make a film version of Pee-wee's Playhouse as reasoning for the show and expressed a desire to "introduce Pee-wee to the new generation that didn't know about it."
Pee-wee's 2010 stage show has received positive reviews from various Los Angeles
-based publications including The Orange County Register
, Los Angeles Times
and The Hollywood Reporter
.
To promote his Broadway show, Pee-wee Herman guest starred on the November 1, 2010 edition of WWE Raw
at the Nassau Coliseum
. During the program, he participated in backstage antics and had an in-ring confrontation with The Miz
and Alex Riley. Pee-wee won a Slammy Award for Guest Star Shining Moment of the Year on December 13, 2010 for his appearance. Pee-wee Herman returned to WWE at Wrestlemania 27 in a segment with The Rock and Gene Okerlund
in which he admitted to being John Cena
's number one fan.
The Pee-wee Herman character has received various honors, particularly during his peak fame in the late 1980s. During the original run of Pee-wee's Playhouse, the series garnered 22 Emmy Award
s. Pee-wee Herman was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
in 1988. Under the category of motion pictures, it can be found at 6562 Hollywood Blvd. The character also appeared on three covers of Rolling Stone
, including issue 493 (February 1987), 614 (October 1991) with a cover story of "Who Killed Pee-wee Herman?," and finally 619/620 (December 1991) for the 1991 Yearbook.
In the 1986 film Flight of the Navigator
, directed by Randal Kleiser
, who had also directed Big Top Pee-wee
, Pee-wee's characteristic laugh is uttered several times by the Trimaxian Drone (Max), after he "contracted" emotions and 1980's knowledge from David. This persona, speaking in altered pitch similar to Pee-wee, persists for the rest of the movie, a stark contrast to Max's original HAL 9000-esque tone
Shortly after Reubens's 1991 arrest, Jim Carrey
impersonated Pee-wee Herman on the FOX
sketch comedy series In Living Color
. Later, rapper Eminem
would imitate Herman in the song "Just Lose It
", copying his trademark laugh and even dressing as the character in the music video.
While the Pee-wee Herman character had not originally been intended for a child audience, during the mid-1980s Rubens started forming him into the best role model he possibly could, making of his TV program a morally positive show that cared about issues like racial diversity, the four food groups
, and the dangers of making prank calls, but did so in a manner not overly preachy. Reubens was also careful about what should be associated with Pee-wee. Being a heavy smoker, he went to great lengths never to be photographed with a cigarette in his mouth; he even refused to endorse candy bars and other kinds of junk food
, while trying to develop his own sugar-free cereal "Ralston Purina Pee-wee Chow cereal," a project that died after a blind test. During this time, he began successfully building a Pee-wee franchise with toys, clothes, and other items generating more than $25 million at its peak in 1988. Reubens also published a book as Pee-wee in 1989 called Travels with Pee-wee.
In early 2007, Nike SB released a style of sneakers called Grey/Heather Dunk High Pro SB that use a grey and white color scheme with red detail inspired by the colors of Pee-wee's trademark suit and an illustration on the insole suggesting Reubens's theater arrest.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
created and portrayed by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor...
. He is best known for his two television series and film series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special
The Pee-wee Herman Show
The Pee-wee Herman Show is a stage show developed by Paul Reubens in 1980. It marks the first significant appearance of his comedic fictional character, Pee-wee Herman, five years before Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and six years before Pee-wee's Playhouse...
in 1981. As the stage performance gained further popularity, Reubens took the character to motion picture with Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his full-length debut and starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. Reubens also co-wrote the script with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Supporting roles are played by Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane...
in 1985, toning down the adult innuendo for the appeal of children. This paved the way for Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
, an Emmy Award winning children's series that ran on CBS from 1986-1991. Another film, Big Top Pee-wee
Big Top Pee-wee
Big Top Pee-wee is the 1988 American family comedy sequel to the 1985 film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, Penelope Ann Miller, Valeria Golino, and Kris Kristofferson. The original music score is composed by Danny Elfman. The film is marketed with the tagline...
, was released in 1988.
Reubens's arrest on July 26, 1991 caused a media frenzy over the actor and his Pee-wee Herman character. Reubens, who had begun to grow tired of portraying the character, used the media attention to shelve his alter ego during the 1990s, then gradually resurrected it during the following decade. It was at that time that Reubens addressed plans to write a new Pee-wee film, Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie. In June 2007, Reubens appeared as Pee-wee Herman for the first time since 1991 at Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
's Guys' Choice Awards
Spike Guys' Choice Awards
The Spike Guys' Choice Awards is an awards show produced by the Viacom cable channel Spike and held since 2007. It is patterned after Viacom's MTV Movie Awards...
.
Origin
In the 1970s, Reubens joined the Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
-based improvisational comedy team The Groundlings
The Groundlings
The Groundlings are an improvisational comedy troupe based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin to produce sketches and improvised scenes...
and remained a member for six years, working with Bob McClurg
Bob McClurg
Bob McClurg is an American actor. He joined the Los Angeles-based improvisational comedy team The Groundlings and remained a member for six years, working with John Paragon, Susan Barnes, Phil Hartman and Paul Reubens.-Filmography:...
, John Paragon, Susan Barnes, and Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
. Hartman and Reubens became friends, often writing and working on material together. Reubens wrote sketches and developed his improvisational skills. He also forged a significant friendship and working relationship with Hartman, with whom he developed the Pee-wee Herman character.
In 1977, The Groundlings staged a performance in which its members created characters that one might see in a comedy club. Reubens decided to play a guy that everyone immediately knew would never make it as a comic, partly because Reubens couldn't remember jokes in real life - he had trouble remembering punch lines and couldn't properly piece information in sequential order. Saying that Pee-wee Herman was born that night, his distinctive guttural "Ha Ha," followed by a low "Heh Heh Heh," laugh became the character's catch phrase
Catch phrase
A catchphrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...
, as has his insult comeback "I know you are, but what am I?"
Pee-wee Herman's signature grey glen plaid
Glen plaid
Glen plaid or Glenurquhart check is a woollen fabric with a woven twill design of small and large checks...
suit
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
was originally a custom
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
-made suit that Reubens had borrowed from the Groundlings director, Gary Austin
Gary Austin
Gary Austin is an American comedian, improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director. He has written two solo shows, "Church" and "Oil," and has performed them coast to coast...
; the small red bow tie
Bow tie
The bow tie is a type of men's necktie. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops. Ready-tied bow ties are available, in which the distinctive bow is sewn into shape and the band around the neck incorporates a clip....
was given to him by an acquaintance. Pee-wee's later checkered clothing and persona were largely lifted from manic 1950s children's TV host Pinky Lee
Pinky Lee
Pincus Leff , better known as Pinky Lee, was an American burlesque comic and host of a children's television program, The Pinky Lee Show, in the early 1950s.-Biography:...
. Also incorporated into the look were short black hair, pale skin with red rouge
Rouge (cosmetics)
Rouge , also called blush or blusher , is a cosmetic typically used by women to redden the cheeks so as to provide a more youthful appearance, and to emphasize the cheekbones....
, and red lipstick.
The inspiration for the name came from a Pee-weiny herman brand miniature harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
and the surname of an energetic boy Reubens knew from his youth. Reubens thought the name Pee-wee Herman was a name that sounded too real to be made up, and like a real name a parent would give a child that they didn't really care about.
Character background and personality
Throughout his film and television programs, Pee-wee Herman's background has remained relatively ambiguous. During interviews, he has been portrayed as though he is a real life stand-up comedian who expanded his career by playing himself in his films and TV series. This is echoed by the fact that a star on the Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
was awarded to Pee-wee Herman rather than Paul Reubens.
In both Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Pee-wee's Playhouse, the character surrounds himself with strange inventions and decorations and has no visible means of support, whereas Big Top Pee-wee depicts him as a farmer/inventor. During a June 1984 segment on Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
, Pee-wee said that he has a sister named Hermione (who was a girl scout), his mother's name is Honny Herman, and his father's name is Herman Herman. He went on to say that everyone in his family has a first name that begins with an "H" except for him. This was again stated during a 1988 special which elaborated that Pee-wee was raised in Florida.
Pee-wee is commonly portrayed like an impatient and fun-loving child with dainty, effeminate
Effeminacy
Effeminacy describes traits in a human male, that are more often associated with traditional feminine nature, behaviour, mannerisms, style or gender roles rather than masculine nature, behaviour, mannerisms, style or roles....
mannerisms and quirky
Eccentricity (behavior)
In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...
facial expressions. His age has never been explicitly stated; although, he once proclaimed on The Pee-wee Herman Show, "I'm the luckiest boy in the world." David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
once said of the character, "What makes me laugh...is that it has the external structure of a bratty little precocious kid, but you know it's being controlled by the incubus — the manifestation of evil itself." While the character is typically cheerful and flamboyant, Pee-wee has indeed displayed an aggressive side, including his vicious pool battle with Francis in Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his full-length debut and starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. Reubens also co-wrote the script with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Supporting roles are played by Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane...
. He also played vengeful tricks in the aforementioned film and occasionally threw childish tantrums on Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
.
The Pee-wee Herman Show
Paul Reubens auditioned for Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
for the 1980-1981 season but wasn't accepted into the cast. Instead, he started a stage show with the Herman character, which made one of his first appearances in the 1980 film Cheech & Chong's Next Movie
Cheech & Chong's Next Movie
Cheech & Chong's Next Movie is the second feature-length film by Cheech and Chong, released in 1980. It was directed by Tommy Chong.-Plot:...
. He first plays a rude receptionist
Receptionist
A receptionist is an employee taking an office/administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting area such as a lobby or front office desk of an organization or business...
in the film, spewing obscenities at police and being arrested. The character is later introduced as Pee-wee Herman, approaching the stage just before disputing with the film's title characters again. Shortly after the film, Reubens took Pee-wee to the real stage. Originally, Reubens imbued Pee-wee with sexuality that was later toned down as the character made the transition from raucous night club to children's television (though innuendo was still apparent, particularly between the Cowboy Curtis and Miss Yvonne characters). The stage show was popularized by HBO when The Pee-wee Herman Show
The Pee-wee Herman Show
The Pee-wee Herman Show is a stage show developed by Paul Reubens in 1980. It marks the first significant appearance of his comedic fictional character, Pee-wee Herman, five years before Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and six years before Pee-wee's Playhouse...
aired in 1981.
The show featured the writing and acting of Groundlings alumni Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
and John Paragon, who would both reprise their characters on Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
. The Pee-wee Herman Show played for five sellout months at The Roxy Theatre
The Roxy Theatre
The Roxy Theatre is a famous nightclub, on the Sunset Strip, in West Hollywood, California. The Roxy is owned by Lou Adler and Adler's son, Nic, who operates the club.- History :...
in L.A., whereupon HBO filmed it and aired it as a special on September 11, 1981.
Following the success of The Pee-wee Herman Show, in the early and mid 1980s Reubens made several guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
as Pee-wee Herman. These performances gave Pee-wee an even bigger following than he had with his HBO special. In 1983, Pee-wee Herman traveled the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with The Pee-wee Herman Show, making highly publicized stops at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and Caroline's
Caroline's
Carolines on Broadway is a venue for stand-up comedy located in Times Square in New York City on Broadway between 49th and 50th Street. It is one of the most established, famous, and recognized stand-up comedy clubs in the United States. Its marketing slogan is "America's Premiere Comedy...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Reubens also appeared on an episode of the popular television show Mork & Mindy in 1981.
In 1984 Pee-wee Herman sold out New York City's Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. Reubens went on to say that it was his appearances on David Letterman's show that made Pee-wee a star.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
While on a Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
set, Reubens noticed that most of the people rode around on bicycles, and asked when he would get his. Warner Bros. presented him with a refurbished 1940s Schwinn; Reubens then abandoned the Pee-wee Herman script he was writing in favor of one about Herman's love for his bike and his efforts to locate it once it was stolen. Hartman, Reubens, and Michael Varhol
Michael Varhol
Michael Varhol is a screenwriter and film producer. He is most notable for his work on Pee-wee's Big Adventure and The Big Picture.-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...
co-wrote the script for Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his full-length debut and starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. Reubens also co-wrote the script with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Supporting roles are played by Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane...
, which would be directed by a young Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
and scored by Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...
. It was released August 9, 1985 and, while receiving mixed reviews, performed well at the box office and would become a cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
. Reubens was the originator of the "Pee-wee dance" in the movie, and he had performed it publicly many times prior to making the film.
Pee-wee hosted the 198th episode
Saturday Night Live (Season 11)
Saturday Night Live aired its 11th season during the 1985-1986 television season on NBC. The season started on November 9, 1985 and ended on May 24, 1986, 18 episodes were produced....
of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
on November 23, 1985. Phil Hartman, who would become an SNL cast member the following year
Saturday Night Live (Season 12)
Saturday Night Live aired its twelfth season during the 1986-1987 television season on NBC. The 12th season started on October 11, 1986, the 11th anniversary of the show's first episode, and ended on May 23, 1987....
, was credited for writing the "Pee-wee Herman Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
Special" sketch and appeared as a pilgrim
Pilgrim
A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...
in it.
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
, on the American CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
network for the next five years (Shirley Stoler
Shirley Stoler
Shirley Stoler was an American actress best known for her roles in The Honeymoon Killers and Lina Wertmuller's Seven Beauties.-Career:...
, Johann Carlo
Johann Carlo
-Life and career:Carlo was born in Buffalo, New York. She made her Broadway debut in 1983, appearing alongside Kate Nelligan as Louise in David Hare's Plenty. In 1991, she returned to Broadway for Richard Jones' La Bête. She was commissioned by the Whitney Museum to write, direct and perform in the...
, Gilbert Lewis, and Roland Rodriguez only appeared for the first 13 episodes before their characters were dropped or recast). In the case of Lewis, he was fired and a new actor, William Marshall
William H. Marshall
William Horace Marshall was an American actor, director, and opera singer. He is best known for his title role in the 1972 blaxploitation classic Blacula and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream , as the "King of Cartoons" on the 1980s television show Pee-wee's Playhouse beginning with its second...
, was hired to play the King of Cartoons. The show starred Pee-wee living in his wild and wacky Playhouse, full of talking chairs, animals, robots, and other puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
and human characters. The show became a hit, and during its time on the air, Pee-wee's Playhouse garnered 22 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s.
Pee-wee also became the first guest on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers on its October 9, 1986 premiere. The following year, he made a cameo appearance in the film Back to the Beach
Back to the Beach
Back to the Beach is a 1987 comedy film starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, directed by Lyndall Hobbs. The original music score is composed by Steve Dorff. The film generated a total domestic gross of $13,110,903...
. Reubens also filmed an insert for Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
as Pee-wee, reciting his own version of the alphabet. In 1988, a sequel to Pee-wee's Big Adventure was filmed entitled Big Top Pee-wee
Big Top Pee-wee
Big Top Pee-wee is the 1988 American family comedy sequel to the 1985 film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, Penelope Ann Miller, Valeria Golino, and Kris Kristofferson. The original music score is composed by Danny Elfman. The film is marketed with the tagline...
. That same year "Pee-wee" was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
and starred in Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special. The program included various celebrity guests, including Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
, Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, and the aforementioned Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
among others.
1991 arrest
In July 1991, while visiting relatives, Reubens was arrested in Sarasota, FloridaSarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...
for masturbating
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
publicly in an adult theater. Detectives would periodically visit pornographic theatres and observe the audience, arresting those engaged in indecent exposure. The arrest was widely covered and both the character Pee-wee and Reubens became the subject of ridicule. CBS stopped airing Playhouse and Disney-MGM Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
suspended from its studio tour a video that showed Pee-wee explaining how voice-over tracks were made and Toys-R-Us removed Pee-wee toys from its stores. However, his voice work in Disney's Star Tours
Star Tours
Star Tours is a motion simulator attraction currently operating at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris. The ride is based on the successful Star Wars film series created by George Lucas, making it the first Disney attraction based on a non-Disney produced film.The first...
was not replaced. Despite the negative publicity, many artists who knew Reubens, such as Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, Annette Funicello
Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...
, Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...
, and Valeria Golino
Valeria Golino
Valeria Golino is an Italian-Greek film and television actress. She is best known to English language audiences for the 1988 film Rain Man, and the Hot Shots! films...
, spoke out in his support. Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
defended Reubens, saying "Whatever (Reubens has) done, this is being blown all out of proportion." Other people who knew Reubens, such as Playhouses production designer Gary Panter
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
, S. Epatha Merkerson
S. Epatha Merkerson
S. Epatha Merkerson is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has won a Golden Globe, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Obie Award and four NAACP Image Awards. She has also received two Tony Award nominations...
, and Big Top Pee-wee director Randal Kleiser
Randal Kleiser
John Randal Kleiser is an American film director and producer, perhaps best known for directing the 1978 musical film Grease.-Life and career:...
, also spoke out against the way Reubens was being treated by the media. Reubens's fans also organized rallies of support after CBS canceled the scheduled reruns, with several dozens of "Pee-weeites" picketing in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The general public also appeared to sympathise with Reubens—the TV newsmagazine
Newsmagazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...
A Current Affair received "tens of thousands" of responses to a Pee-wee telephone survey, with callers supporting Reubens with a nine to one majority. He remained in a state of shock for weeks, and was haunted by the arrest for several years refusing to give interviews or appear on talk shows.
At the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards
1991 MTV Video Music Awards
The 1991 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 5, 1991, honoring the best music videos from June 2, 1990, to June 15, 1991. The show was hosted by Arsenio Hall at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles....
Reubens made his first appearance after the arrest. Taking the stage in costume as Pee-wee, he asked the audience, "Heard any good jokes lately?" and received a standing ovation. Reubens responded with, "Ha, that's so funny I forgot to laugh!" Pee-wee appeared once more in 1992, when he participated in a Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
tribute to Minnie Pearl
Minnie Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
. Reubens then avoided interviews and according to a 1991 Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
article had indeed become weary of the character and wanted to explore new territory.
1999–present
Appearances and television reruns
During the filming of Mystery MenMystery Men
Mystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It stars William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who...
, Reubens appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1999 in one of his very first interviews not as Pee-wee. It was also on that interview that Reubens first announced plans to start writing a new Pee-wee movie. In a 2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, Reubens also mentioned his hope that Hollywood has not seen the last of Pee-wee. Reubens later stated a strong possibility of a Pee-wee's Playhouse movie on an NPR interview with Terry Gross
Terry Gross
Terry Gross is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by National Public Radio....
on December 27, 2004. A third Pee-wee movie was also suggested. Both, said Reubens, are actively being worked on, but no dates or official announcements were made as of this date.
In 1998, Fox Family
Fox Family
Fox Family may refer to:* The Fox Family, a 2006 South Korean film* Fox Family, a former name of American television cable network ABC Family...
aired reruns of Pee-wee's Playhouse. On July 10, 2006, Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
began airing Pee-wee’s Playhouse during its Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
lineup. The show's 45 original episodes were planned to air on the block Monday to Thursday at 11 P.M. ET
North American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
starting on that date. Later on in August 2006, Adult Swim started airing Pee-wee's Playhouse at 12:00 A.M. ET.
In October 2006, Reubens made a public appearance, dressed as Pee-wee at Chiller Theatre Expo, an east-coast fan convention, with Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
co-star, Lynne Marie Stewart
Lynne Marie Stewart
Lynne Marie Stewart is an American film and television actress, best known for her performance as Miss Yvonne, the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppet Land. She originated the role in the 1981 stage show The Pee-wee Herman Show and on the CBS television show Pee Wee's Playhouse...
. There he signed pictures and other memorabilia, and posed for photographs with fans.
At Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
's 2007 Guys' Choice Awards
Spike Guys' Choice Awards
The Spike Guys' Choice Awards is an awards show produced by the Viacom cable channel Spike and held since 2007. It is patterned after Viacom's MTV Movie Awards...
in June, Reubens appeared on TV as the Pee-wee Herman character for the first time since 1992. On August 5, 2007 at a showing of Pee-wee's Big Adventure in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
, Reubens made an appearance on stage before the show, bringing with him almost the entire cast of the film to the uproarious applause and standing ovation. E.G. Daily (Dotty), Judd Omen
Judd Omen
Judd Omen is an American film and television actor. He is most notable for his role as Mickey Morrelli, the convict in Pee-wee's Big Adventure . He also had supporting roles in Red Dawn and Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch...
(Mickey), Diane Salinger
Diane Salinger
Diane Louise Salinger is an American actress, voice actress, and comedienne.-Filmography:* Creature as Melanie Bryce * Pee-wee's Big Adventure as Simone * The Morning After as Isabel Harding...
(Simone), Daryl Keith Roach (Chuck, the bike shop owner), and Mark Holton
Mark Holton
Mark Holton is an American actor.-Career:Holton's most famous roles may be that of Francis Buxton, Pee-Wee Herman's nemesis, in the 1985 blockbuster Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and Joe Charbonic in Bille August's Convicted, starring Connie Nielsen and Aidan Quinn. Other notable 1980s roles were as...
(Francis) were all present.
On Jan 15, 2011, Reubens appeared on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
as Pee-wee in an extended and well received segment depicting Andy Samberg
Andy Samberg
David Andrew "Andy" Samberg is an American actor, comedian, rapper and writer best known as a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live...
and Pee-wee getting drunk, taking a ride on a mechanical bull, doing the tequila dance and ambushing Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
in an alley way with a chair.
Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie
Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie is a proposed filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
allegedly greenlighted by Paramount Pictures. Reubens's third scripted movie, written at the same time as his adult-oriented Pee-wee script, was announced in late summer 2006. He first announced he had finished the script on Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
, and later revealed further details to Time magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
reporter Dennis Van Tine. Filming was expected to start in early 2007. According to IMDb, it is expected for a release in 2011 because of delays.
According to Reubens, the story will focus on the characters from the television show
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
finally leaving the playhouse and venturing off into Puppetland and beyond (the playhouse characters had rarely left their home in the TV series). The characters from the playhouse will be on an epic adventure to look for a missing character from the playhouse. Reubens stated this will be a "road" movie similar to Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his full-length debut and starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. Reubens also co-wrote the script with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Supporting roles are played by Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane...
.
Reubens has said that, although he feels confident that he can still portray Pee-wee himself, he would optimally cast Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
if needed. He even claims that he has spoken to Depp himself and that the actor asked for time to think about it.
During the 2011 Comic-Con in San Diego, Reubens told MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
that he hopes to have Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian pop/R&B singer, songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager...
make a cameo appearance toward the end of the movie. He also stated that filming of the movie has not started yet, but hopes to begin filming in the next couple of months.
The Pee-wee Herman Story
Years before working on his Playhouse movie script, Reubens had written a script for "the dark Pee-wee film," but "not really very dark," entitled The Pee-wee Herman Story. At a Groundlings reunion in 1999, Reubens even joked about the rating of the movie being "probably PG-13 or even R" but in a 2007 MTVMTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
interview stated that this isn't actually true. He called it a "Valley of the Dolls
Valley of the Dolls
Valley of the Dolls is a novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966. The "dolls" within the title is a slang term for downers, barbiturates used as sleep aids....
Pee-wee" because "it has things certainly inspired by, if not outright lifted from, that movie." Reubens described the film's plot to MTV:
- "It's basically the story of Pee-wee Herman becoming famous as a singer. He has a hit single and gets brought out to Hollywood to make musical movies, kind of like they did with ElvisElvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. It all kind of goes downhill from there for Pee-wee. He turns into a monster. He does everything wrong and becomes a big jerk."
It was because of the adult situations of this script that Reubens sat down and starting writing the Playhouse movie script. At first, Reubens was going to do the adult Pee-wee movie first, but within a few months, Reubens announced that it was very likely that the Playhouse movie would be made first.
A third idea came about to make a reality-based Pee-wee film like those in the 1980s. In 2010, Reubens announced he is working on making this version with Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is well known for his work in comedy films, especially for films he has been involved with throughout the latter half of the 2000s. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the...
, who wrote and directed the films Knocked Up
Knocked Up
Knocked Up is a 2007 American romantic comedy drama film co-produced, written, and directed by Judd Apatow. Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, and Leslie Mann, the film follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between Rogen's slacker character and Heigl's just-promoted...
and The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a 2005 American buddy comedy film about a middle-aged man's journey to finally have sex. The film was written and directed by Judd Apatow and co-written by its lead star, Steve Carell, though the film itself features a great deal of improvised dialogue...
.
The Pee-wee Herman Stage Show: The Return
Paul Reubens confirmed in a January 2009 interview with SwindleSwindle Magazine
Swindle was a bi-monthly arts and culture publication founded in 2004 by artist Shepard Fairey. Swindle has not been published since 2009 and is, in effect, folded....
magazine that there are indeed negotiations under way for the Pee-wee Herman stage show to return.
In late 2009, Reubens began promoting his new live stage show. He appeared in character as Pee-wee on late night programs including Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
, The Jay Leno Show
The Jay Leno Show
The Jay Leno Show is an American comedy show created by and starring Jay Leno, that aired from September 14, 2009 to February 9, 2010 on NBC following the May 29, 2009 conclusion of Leno's first tenure as host of The Tonight Show...
, and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 as part of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise...
. Pee-wee would also return for a cameo on the penultimate episode of Tonight with Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
as host and during O'Brien's stop at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
in New York City for The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour
The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour
The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour was a comedy tour featuring Conan O'Brien. The title of the tour is a reference to the 2010 Tonight Show host and timeslot conflict which resulted in O'Brien resigning from his position as host of The Tonight Show in January 2010...
.
Original plans for a November 2009 stage debut were scrapped when demand for tickets prompted a move to a larger theater. The "Pee-wee Herman Stage Show: The Return" opened on January 12, 2010 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
for a limited four-week schedule. The show will move to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on November 11, 2010. Much like the original stage show, the new production revolves around Pee-wee's desire to fly. It boasts 11 actors, 20 puppets and marks the show's first production since 1982. The show has employed many of the same set artists and the musical composer from Pee-wee's original stage show as well as some of the original cast members, including Lynne Stewart as Miss Yvonne, John Moody as Mailman Mike and John Paragon as Jambi the Genie. Reubens cited his desire to make a film version of Pee-wee's Playhouse as reasoning for the show and expressed a desire to "introduce Pee-wee to the new generation that didn't know about it."
Pee-wee's 2010 stage show has received positive reviews from various Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
-based publications including The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register is a daily newspaper published in Santa Ana, California. The Register is the flagship publication of Freedom Communications, Inc., which publishes 28 daily newspapers, 23 weekly newspapers, Coast magazine, and several related Internet sites.The Register is notable for its...
, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
.
To promote his Broadway show, Pee-wee Herman guest starred on the November 1, 2010 edition of WWE Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
at the Nassau Coliseum
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, United States. Home to the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League, the Coliseum is located approximately east of New York City on Long Island...
. During the program, he participated in backstage antics and had an in-ring confrontation with The Miz
Mike Mizanin
Michael "Mike" Gregory Mizanin is an American professional wrestler and reality television personality better known by his nickname and ring name The Miz. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment on its Raw brand...
and Alex Riley. Pee-wee won a Slammy Award for Guest Star Shining Moment of the Year on December 13, 2010 for his appearance. Pee-wee Herman returned to WWE at Wrestlemania 27 in a segment with The Rock and Gene Okerlund
Gene Okerlund
Eugene "Mean Gene" Okerlund is a semi-retired American professional wrestling interviewer and announcer. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by Hulk Hogan...
in which he admitted to being John Cena
John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, rapper, and television personality. He is currently signed to WWE as a member of its WWE Raw brand....
's number one fan.
Honors and pop culture references
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s. Pee-wee Herman was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
in 1988. Under the category of motion pictures, it can be found at 6562 Hollywood Blvd. The character also appeared on three covers of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, including issue 493 (February 1987), 614 (October 1991) with a cover story of "Who Killed Pee-wee Herman?," and finally 619/620 (December 1991) for the 1991 Yearbook.
In the 1986 film Flight of the Navigator
Flight of the Navigator
Flight of the Navigator is a 1986 Disney science fiction film directed by Randal Kleiser and written by Mark H. Baker and Michael Burton, about a 12-year-old boy named David who is abducted by an alien space craft and finds himself caught in a world which has changed around him...
, directed by Randal Kleiser
Randal Kleiser
John Randal Kleiser is an American film director and producer, perhaps best known for directing the 1978 musical film Grease.-Life and career:...
, who had also directed Big Top Pee-wee
Big Top Pee-wee
Big Top Pee-wee is the 1988 American family comedy sequel to the 1985 film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, Penelope Ann Miller, Valeria Golino, and Kris Kristofferson. The original music score is composed by Danny Elfman. The film is marketed with the tagline...
, Pee-wee's characteristic laugh is uttered several times by the Trimaxian Drone (Max), after he "contracted" emotions and 1980's knowledge from David. This persona, speaking in altered pitch similar to Pee-wee, persists for the rest of the movie, a stark contrast to Max's original HAL 9000-esque tone
Shortly after Reubens's 1991 arrest, Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
impersonated Pee-wee Herman on the FOX
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
sketch comedy series In Living Color
In Living Color
In Living Color is an American sketch comedy television series, which originally ran on the Fox Network from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Brothers Keenen and Damon Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in association with 20th Century...
. Later, rapper Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
would imitate Herman in the song "Just Lose It
Just Lose It
"Just Lose It" is the first single from Eminem's fifth studio album Encore and was later included on his 2005 compilation album, Curtain Call: The Hits. The song caused controversy as its lyrics and music video parodies Michael Jackson, who was being accused of child molestation at the time. The...
", copying his trademark laugh and even dressing as the character in the music video.
While the Pee-wee Herman character had not originally been intended for a child audience, during the mid-1980s Rubens started forming him into the best role model he possibly could, making of his TV program a morally positive show that cared about issues like racial diversity, the four food groups
Food guide pyramid
A food guide pyramid is a triangular or pyramid-shaped nutrition guide divided into sections to show the recommended intake for each food group. The first food pyramid was published in Sweden in 1974. The most widely known food pyramid was introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture...
, and the dangers of making prank calls, but did so in a manner not overly preachy. Reubens was also careful about what should be associated with Pee-wee. Being a heavy smoker, he went to great lengths never to be photographed with a cigarette in his mouth; he even refused to endorse candy bars and other kinds of junk food
Junk food
Junk food is an informal term applied to some foods that are perceived to have little or no nutritional value ; to products with nutritional value, but which also have ingredients considered unhealthy when regularly eaten; or to those considered unhealthy to consume at all...
, while trying to develop his own sugar-free cereal "Ralston Purina Pee-wee Chow cereal," a project that died after a blind test. During this time, he began successfully building a Pee-wee franchise with toys, clothes, and other items generating more than $25 million at its peak in 1988. Reubens also published a book as Pee-wee in 1989 called Travels with Pee-wee.
In early 2007, Nike SB released a style of sneakers called Grey/Heather Dunk High Pro SB that use a grey and white color scheme with red detail inspired by the colors of Pee-wee's trademark suit and an illustration on the insole suggesting Reubens's theater arrest.
External links
- Official website
- 2004 Interview, KCRWKCRWKCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. The general manager of KCRW is Jennifer Ferro...
's The Treatment - 2005 Interview, KCRW's The Treatment
- 2006 Interview, The A.V. ClubThe A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
- 2004 Interview, WHYY-FMWHYY-FMWHYY-FM is an NPR member station serving the Delaware Valley area, which is the metro area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is located in Philadelphia. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.-History:...
's Fresh Air