The summer of 1988 ushered in an odd lot of male screen heartthrobs. They came in all shapes and sizes, saddled with such monikers as Roger Rabbit, Crocodile Dundee, Dirty Harry and Johnny Five.  It was the perfect summer for Pee-wee Herman to lose his virginity.

After winning raves for his feature film debut in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) and high ratings and numerous Emmys® for his innovative Saturday morning kids’ show, Pee-wee’s Playhouse (1986-1990), Pee-wee toyed with romance in his second feature film, Big Top Pee-wee (1988), and raised the hackles of small-minded media mavens.  Film critics Siskel and Ebert turned their thumbs way down, inexplicably targeting the film’s dearth of “magic,” while studio bosses agonized over Pee-wee’s extended kissing scene (devised as a humorous nod to legendary Hollywood film kisses).  Naysayers feared the film would traumatize Pee-wee’s young fans and turn off adults previously captivated by his innocence and iconic pop persona.

Neither fear seems to have been warranted. The media flap over “Big Flop Pee-wee” paled in comparison to the dicey legal battles yet to come for actor, comedian, director, producer and performance artist Paul Reubens and his creation and alter ego, Pee-wee Herman.  Reubens’ 1991 arrest for indecent exposure in an adult movie theater and spurious targeting by politically-motivated law enforcers and the media raised troubling questions about the moral fiber of the man behind Pee-wee Herman.

Pee-wee Herman on tour, circa 1984. Photo by HBO/Pee-wee Herman Productions, Inc.

Who was “Pee-wee Herman” anyway, and why did audiences, at various intervals, either adore him or condemn him?  And why did Paul Reubens “hide behind” his alter ego, keeping his own identity hidden and private life under wraps until his arrests and the gossip-fueled press cast shade upon his motives, sexual predilections and storied career?

“I felt a freedom in having an alter ago…It’s not me…I’m choosing a path for somebody else.”–Paul Reubens.

With more than 40 hours of riveting on-camera interviews with Reubens filmed just prior to his unexpected death in 2023 at age 70 and a thousand hours of archival family and behind-the scenes TV and film footage and countless photographs from Reubens’ extensive personal collection at his disposal, film director Matt Wolf has fashioned a fascinating posthumous feature-length documentary, Pee-wee as Himself.  The film gives Paul Reubens the chance to come out from the shadows, tell his own life story, debunk fake news and innuendo, and set the record straight.

Pee-wee as Himself debuts in two parts airing back-to-back on HBO tonight, Friday, May 23, 2025, 8:00 p.m. – 11:20 p.m. ET/PT (see below for details).  Be advised…You don’t have to be a Pee-wee fan to be gripped by this “in-your-face” revelatory bio and pop culture trip down memory lane.  The colorful period film and TV clips and photos that trace Pee-wee’s provenance and Reubens’ extraordinary talent are glorious and there are surprises and some tears as well if you stick with it to its touching climax.

Paul Reubens’ early headshot. Photo by HBO/Tony Whitman.

As a student who found his calling in the avant-garde theater milieu of CalArts and as a member of the renowned L.A. improv theater group, The Groundlings, Paul Reubens channeled his youthful creative talents and showbiz aspirations (stand-up comic, circus performer) into a career as a performance artist.  Driven by his 1950’s childhood fascination with such kids’ TV shows as “Howdy Doody,” “Captain Kangaroo” and “The Mickey Mouse Club”; the crazy antics of Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel; and nostalgic movies starring Hayley Mills, Reubens’ path to Pee-wee, at first off the grid on stage in Los Angeles and ultimately as creator and star of Pee-wee’s Playhouse on Saturday morning TV, was circuitous.  Pee-wee defied easy categorization.

Pee-wee’s Playhouse

By rights, Pee-wee’s Playhouse was conceived by Reubens predominantly for kids.  “I took my job as having a children’s show so seriously,” recalled Reubens.  But no self-respecting adult interested in pop culture, creative TV programming, or the art of animation would have missed it.

Children loved Pee-wee unconditionally, and why not?  Pee-wee was anarchic. He wore his primly-pressed grey suits and red bow ties a tad too small, his hair neatly close-cropped, and his lips slightly rouged.  A throwback to such child-men stars of the silent cinema as Harry Langdon, Pee-wee looked all grown up but acted young.  As a result, he could be forgiven his wicked little laugh, his ability to convincingly converse with puppets and all manner of animated and inanimate objects, and his herky jerky way of registering glee.  He made being “different” acceptable and turned “nerdy” into an art form.

Pee-wee’s magical playhouse was set in a tropical paradise.  There were no parents to stifle his imagination, to redecorate sensibly, or to clean up the artful chaos that reigned there.  His playhouse was a study in pop culture excess.

Everything normal folks would consider inanimate became animated in Pee-wee’s playhouse.  His refrigerator jumped with roly-poly chops; fruits and veggies frolicked in “beauty” contests, circus acts or lessons in the four basic food groups. His globe and clock, his big over-stuffed chair, and even his floorboards had personalities all their own.  A miniature dinosaur clan lived in his mouse hole, his window box sprouted a singing trio of posies, and his ant farm (a marvel of silhouette animation) spelled out “good morning” as Pee-wee greeted each brand new day.

On the PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE set. “I felt like I could just give this beautiful, incredible gift to kids.”–Paul Reubens.  Photo by HBO/Pee-wee Herman Productions, Inc.

What made this all so magical?… a variety of glorious animation techniques, from cut-out, clay and puppet animation to pixillation and computer- generated imagery.  This technical wizardry set the show heads above standard Saturday morning TV fare at the time.  Even the cartoons introduced by the King of Cartoons (William Marshall) were worth watching on Pee-wee’s Playhouse, since they were vintage black-and-white and color classics rarely seen outside of revival theaters and film festivals.

Although Pee-wee’s toys and human and animal pals were his favorite focus, he never missed a chance to impart a lesson of some sort to his young viewers. “I loved looking into the camera and talking directly to the kids,” said Reubens.

Each week, a secret word was highlighted, and lessons relevant to social, physical or mental well-being were somewhere to be found. The nature of sharing, friendship, feeling wanted, caring for a pet or even for American history, for that matter, were well integrated into the action that unfolded in Pee-wee’s playhouse.

Pee-wee synthesized the best shticks of Jerry Lewis, Pinky Lee, Soupy Sales and Howdy Doody; but unlike his predecessors, Pee-wee had new age multimedia at his disposal and made the most of it.  Not afraid to experiment, Pee-wee patterned his playhouse universe on the philosophy that technology was the breeding ground for magic.

Pee-wee’s Feature Film Debut

In the playhouse, Pee-wee did exhibit a normal schoolboy attraction to Miss Yvonne (Lynne Stewart), billed as the most beautiful woman in puppetland.  While Pee-wee’s blush was as sexy as the show ever got, it did set the stage for Pee-wee’s mildly flirtatious behavior in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, his feature film debut in 1985.

Pee-wee Herman and director Tim Burton on the Alamo set of PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Photo by HBO/Pee-wee Herman Productions, Inc.

In Big Adventure, Pee-wee retained his childish innocence and good cheer even as he was stripped of his most prized possession…his bicycle.  Not an ordinary bike, Pee-wee’s spiffy red, Schwinn two-wheeler boasted gadgetry that would make a preteen James Bond drool.  As directed by Tim (“Beetlejuice”) Burton and cowritten by Paul Reubens (Pee-wee), Pee-wee’s celluloid universe was bizarre to say the least.  Saturated with bright colors, his home and hometown looked like they dropped off of a kitschy 1950’s picture postcard.

Still a boy at heart but pedaling toward puberty, Pee-wee caught the eye of cute bike shop proprietress Dottie (Elizabeth Daily) who tried innocently to get him to take her to a drive-in.  Initially disinterested, Pee-wee took a riotous detour to the Alamo and then to Hollywood to reclaim his stolen bike.  Along the way, he cozied up to a pretty waitress named Simone (Diane Salinger), who, inspired by Pee-wee’s example, dumped her Neanderthal boyfriend and hopped a bus to Paris.

Campy fun, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure became an underground hit with young adults who loved its off-the-wall humor.

Pee-wee Joins the Circus

While puberty was essentially a pain-in-the-neck for bicycle-lover Pee-wee in Big Adventure, it did give him more exposure to girls, which stood him in good stead in his next film, Big Top Pee-wee (1988).

Much more than his Saturday morning TV show or Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Big Top Pee-wee allowed Pee-wee and director Randal (“Grease”) Kleiser to concoct a fantasy world so Edenlike and unthreatening that Pee-wee’s nascent manhood seemed to flow naturally from his environment.

As the master of a lush, pastoral farm that could only exist in storybooks, Pee-wee became a gentleman farmer–same suit, same bow tie, same flannel pjs and bunny slippers–who had a sweet connection to his barnyard flock.  During the film’s opening moments, Pee-wee awakened to a brand new day with “talking pig” Vance at his side and the rest of the barnyard gang snug in their beds in the barn.  All finally convened over a picnic breakfast of flapjacks (flapped by the animals), freshly picked fruit, and chocolate milk squeezed a la cow.

Pee-wee and his pig, Vance, mix it up in BIG TOP PEE-WEE. “I wanted kids to learn about being a nonconformist.”–Paul Reubens.

Pee-wee became engaged to Winnie (Penelope Ann Miller), the town’s beautiful but prissy schoolmarm, who kept him at arm’s length despite his attempts to move a little closer. Their sweetly comical relationship was nipped in the bud, however, when Pee-wee’s eyes wandered over trapeze artist Gina Piccolapupula (Valeria Golina).  Fiery Gina flew with a circus that crash landed on Pee-wee’s farm during a hurricane.

The circus, full of wild and crazy performers (a wolf boy; half-man, half-woman; bearded lady; and mermaid, among others) and jungle animals, provided many colorful, charming moments, as did Pee-wee’s attempt to master a circus act on his own.  “I was always obsessed with circus movies,” recalled Reubens.

These wonderful sequences, rooted in Reubens’ idyllic childhood spent hanging with Ringling Brothers circus performers wintering in his Sarasota hometown, amplified by the gorgeous set design and cinematography, as well as sequences featuring Pee-wee’s secret scientific experiments in his state-of-the-art greenhouse, were overshadowed at the time by grouchy pundits knocking his first screen kiss (with Gina) and implications of his slip-slide into puberty and “third base.”

Pee-wee Herman may have stepped on a few toes with Big Top Pee-wee, but he deserved a chance to grow up…at least a wee bit.

It’s Never Easy to Say Goodbye

Paul Reubens deserved a chance to be heard and publicly exonerated as well.  He has been served admirably by the 40 hours of interviews he agreed to film sometimes grudgingly with director Matt Wolf, while secretly fighting cancer before his death in 2023.  I wholeheartedly recommend Pee-wee as Himself, not only for diehard Pee-wee Herman fans, but also for young people and art, performance and film students struggling for validation as artists and human beings.

“More than anything, the reason I wanted to make a documentary was to let people see who I really am and how painful and difficult it was to be labeled something that I wasn’t,” said Paul Reubens in audio recorded the day before he died. “I wanted somehow for people to understand that my whole career, everything I did and wrote was based in love and my desire to entertain and bring glee and creativity to young people and everyone.”

Pee-Wee as Himself, debuts on HBO tonight, Friday, May 23, 2025.  Part 1:  8:00 – 9:40 p.m. ET/PT. Part 2: 9:40 – 11;20 p.m. ET/PT. (Check listings for repeat screenings on HBO in the days and weeks ahead, availability on HBO On Demand and HBO Max for streaming.)  –Judith Trojan

Who’s who and what’s what? Paul Reubens greets his alter ego, Pee-wee Herman. Photo by Dennis Keeley/HBO.

Big Top Pee-wee (82 min., 1988.  Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube TV, Pluto TV).

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (92 min., 1985.  HBO On Demand, HBO Max, Hulu, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime).

Pee-wee’s Playhouse (45 episodes, 5 seasons, 1986-1990. Peacock, some seasons on Netflix, Pluto, Roku, Tubi, Shout!TV).

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway (89 min., 2011.  HBO On Demand, HBO Max).–J.T.