Paul Reubens

In 1978, Reubens developed the comic persona of Pee-Wee Herman, a childlike, squeaky-voiced kiddie show host reminiscent of Pinky Lee (with a little Soupy Sales thrown in). Soon "The Pee-Wee Herman Show" became a nightclub act unto itself; this multi-layered skewing of the whole children's entertainment ethic included a huge supporting cast, deliberately repulsive puppets, bizarre props, and, of course, Pee-Wee himself, who cavorted about the set like a baby speed freak. Reubens, who for all intents and purposes was Pee-Wee Herman at this point, was given frequent TV exposure thanks to Late Night With David Letterman and the home-video version of The Pee-Wee Herman Show. With former Groundling Phil Hartman, Pee-Wee/Reubens co-scripted the 1985 film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Though it was the inaugural project of director Tim Burton, it was not Pee-Wee's first film (he'd already shown up in The Blues Brothers [1980] and Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams [1981]). A surrealistic reworking of the classic Italian film The Bicycle Thief, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was a tad too bizarre for its distributor Warner Bros. The studio chose to release the film slowly on a regional basis -- but when the box-offices began to bulge, Warners gave the film a major big-city push. Audiences immediately understood that Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was meant to be a nine-year-old's notion of the Perfect World; critics, to whom nothing is ever simple, insisted upon reading all sorts of motivation and subtext into the film, and suddenly Pee-Wee Herman was the darling of the wine-and-cheese crowd. In 1986, Pee-Wee launched a Saturday morning kid's show, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, which immediately scored a hit, attracting as many adults as children (some of those adults began renting the original Pee-Wee Herman Show for their children, assuming that it would be as "safe" as the Saturday morning program -- only to be amazed at how raunchy the earlier Pee-Wee could be). The performer's popularity peaked in 1988, at which time his second film, Big Top Pee-Wee, was released. This film was not as cohesive nor as funny as the first, and it was a disappointment for both Reubens and his fans. The actor began announcing plans to "kill" his alter-ego and become Paul Reubens again in public. But the death of "Pee-Wee" came not as a suicide, but more of a crime of passion when Reubens was arrested in 1991 for indecent exposure at a screening of a porno movie. Backlash from the incident -- including the pulling of Pee-Wee merchandise off the shelves of stores and CBS' immediate cancellation of his Saturday morning show -- effectively forced the performer to abandon the Pee-Wee character. Since his fateful night at the movies, Reubens has appeared as the Penguin's father in Batman Returns (1992), a hand-me-down Dracula in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), and a voice in Tim Burton's animated feature The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Reubens also became a semi-regular guest on the CBS television sitcom Murphy Brown. As time went on the public either forgot or forgave Reubens for his past indiscretions, and after a series of small film roles lead to larger roles in such films as Blow (2000), Reubens' past (as well as the Pee-Wee Herman alter-ego that made him famous) faded, giving the public a chance to reacquaint themselves with the actor outside of the context of his once-famous persona. In 2001 Reubens' popularity experienced something of a revival as he returned to television as the host of the popular computer trivia game turned game show You Don't Know Jack. Interviews with Reubens even hinted at a resurrection of Pee-Wee Herman in the form of a proposed trilogy in which the character, after becoming a popular celebrity, would struggle with the ill-effects of fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide