Pee-wee Herman

Pee-wee Herman is a comedy character created and portrayed by the American comedian Paul Reubens. He starred in films and television 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 to 1991. Another film, Big Top Pee-wee, was released in 1988.

Because of negative media attention following a scandal in 1991, Reubens decided to shelve his alter ego during the 1990s, but 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 at the Spike TV's Guys' Choice Awards for the first time on television since 1992. After a lengthy hiatus, a third film, Pee-wee's Big Holiday, was released by Netflix in 2016 and was the last time Reubens portrayed the character before his death in 2023.

Origin

In the 1970s, Reubens joined the Los Angeles–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 close friends, often writing and working on material together. Reubens wrote sketches, developed his improvisational skills and, with Hartman, he developed the Pee-wee Herman character.

In 1977, The Groundlings staged a performance in which its members created characters 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 could not remember jokes in real life – he had trouble remembering punch lines and could not properly piece information in sequential order. 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 did his insult comeback, "I know you are, but what am I?"

Pee-wee Herman's signature gray 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-wee 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.

Sometime in 1979, Reubens debuted his character on the television show The Dating Game, appearing three times.

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 Fame 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 July 1983 segment on Late Night with David Letterman, Pee-wee said 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 as 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. Reubens said that he felt Pee-wee "resets" after each adventure, his experiences only changing him slightly, and compared him to Dorothy Gale at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

1980–1992

The Pee-wee Herman Show

Paul Reubens auditioned for Saturday Night Live for the 1980–81 season but was not 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 Los Angeles, 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.

In 1984, Pee-wee Herman sold out New York City's Carnegie Hall. Reubens said his appearances on David Letterman's show made Pee-wee a star.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

While on the Warner Bros. lot, 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 had been writing, which was to have been a retelling of Pollyanna. He began writing 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, basing the story loosely on Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief. The film was directed by Tim Burton, his feature film debut, and scored by Danny Elfman. It was released on August 9, 1985, and, while receiving mixed reviews, performed well at the box office and became 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.

Pee-wee's Playhouse

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 appeared only for the first 13 episodes before their characters were dropped or recast). 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 15 Emmy Awards.