So I'm going to ask him if I can make the...
You're going to be asking interview questions
on the talking heads.
I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do it with a straight face.
He's going to know.
Even if I do it with a straight face, he's going to know.
FaceTime Matt Wolf.
Making a FaceTime call to Matt Wolf.
Hey, I just had a quick thought I wanted to run by you.
How do you feel... Or I would like to be able to, like,
have my own set of questions and ask questions of the people,
on the talking head interviews.
Like, could I be there, and like, when you've done your thing,
like I-- or every other question, I could like, ask a question?
I think you already know the answer to that.
What? You don't like that idea?
-No. -Why?
I like the idea of you prepping me on stuff that you think
would be good stories to tell
and for me to get that in the context of the interview.
-I can't ask the questions myself? -No.
Let me do that.
Let me do that, but get your feedback as I'm prepping.
Oh, my God!
What if the documentary wasn't made at all? What would be lost?
Why do I want to make a documentary?
Is that a better way to ask me what you're asking me,
or is that a different question?
Tell me what you think.
You're not a therapist. You don't get to say that kind of stuff.
It's not for me to discover. It's for you to tell me and lead me.
Okay, if you didn't choose to make a documentary
and to utilize your 1,000 hours of footage and tens of thousands of photos,
some of that stuff or most of that stuff would never be seen.
Fine.
If all my stuff wasn't seen ever, I don't care.
Do I? Is that true? Maybe not.
I have been collecting now
for probably at least 50 years since I was a teenager.
I decided that I was gonna get all my stuff out of storage
and move it to one space and make that project
part of the documentary. And, voilà, that's what's happened.
It's completely overwhelming,
the amount of stuff and the scope of seeing it all laid out.
But it's incredible to unpack all that stuff from the past.
People still really don't know me. I mean, friends know me.
But I kind of wanted the public to know me.
I kind of wanted... I think it's time that I...
get to be more known and explain, like, explain myself, I guess.
As Desi used to say to Lucy, you know, "You've got some 'splaining to do."
Like, I feel like people may think that a little bit about me.
Or if they don't, I'd like them to think that,
and I'd like to sort of answer some questions for people
on who I really am and what's my story
and how did it all, like...
shake down.
What's going on?
Look! It's Pee-wee Herman. He's walking on a tightrope
-between the World Trade Center. -Hey, watch this.
-I don't believe it. -Oh, my God!
Danger! Danger!
He's falling!
Live from New York, it's Saturday Night.
There wasn't, like, a moment in the '80s that wasn't really super cool to be me.
I am such a, you know, star-fucker, really.
Hello, I'm Pee-wee Herman.
There's something so exciting and fun about success.
You know, Pee-wee, you are really so sweet.
I know you are, but what am I?
If I went to a party, people wanted to, like,
say hi to me and run up to me and, like, fawn over me.
I took the check that I made from Pee-wee's Big Adventure
and signed the back of it, and that was the down payment on my house.
There were two things about this house that were really interesting
that pushed me over the edge.
One is, I looked over on a hill next to the house and I saw a deer,
a buck with giant antlers.
And for a second, I almost thought I was hallucinating.
I wasn't really aware of there being deer in Los Angeles.
And there was a pool and I walked around to the end of the pool
where the diving board was, and I looked up and I realized
that you could dive off the diving board
and see the Hollywood sign at the same time.
And that's what made me buy it.
At the premiere of Pee-wee's Big Adventure,
an executive from CBS comes up and she says, "You know something?"
"We're very, very interested in doing a children's show with Pee-wee."
I said, "Really?"
And what do you know?
It just happens to be time for your drawing lesson right now.
Come on over here.
I was always thinking I would have a nighttime show.
Now, Pee-wee, there's two things missing from this drawing.
In The Pee-wee Herman Show,
there was all this innuendo and all this kind of like, adult flavor.
I know, I know. Earrings.
No, Pee-wee.
I'd never really thought about being a children's show host,
but the second I heard it, it sounded right.
The idea of impacting kids in the way that television had impacted me
when I was a kid was enormously exciting to me.
I thought this is such a golden opportunity
to be like really influential and widely watched.
CBS suggested a production partner for us
and we saw some of the things that they did
and some of the access to people that they had, stop motion,
photography, and things like that.
Their perception was it would be 90 percent animated and ten percent
Paul Reubens just introducing the animation.
I think the producers tried to put their will on top of it a little bit,
and I quickly found out that Paul was running the show.
At a certain point, I had to go like,
you know, "Get Gary Panter. This is ridiculous."
Paul believed in my art from the beginning.
I'd spent my whole life preparing for this job.
And I went down and they did end up hiring me
'cause Paul kept turning down all of their drawings.
And I wanted Ric Heitzman and Wayne White.
So I made them into our team. We just drew and drew and drew.
We were all basically underground cartoonists.
We'd just go into this little room and smoke weed
and draw pictures all day long, and it was a dream job.
Me and Gary, and Ric made hundreds, maybe thousands of drawings,
because Paul liked to see a lot of alternatives.
He always picked out the weirdest stuff I did.
And I love that, 'cause usually it's the opposite.
You know, everybody was sort of like green and kind of, "Let's put on a show."
And there was like a rickety-ness and an innocence
about the whole thing. And it just felt right.
I met Wayne White as a puppeteer.
He wrote me a letter and said, "You know, if you were in New York
you'd be working on this show for Pee-wee Herman."
Alison.
Even when I auditioned, I knew it was going to be something special.
And as we got into it, that was pretty much confirmed.
I remember the first time I saw Chairry, I'm walking by and I was like,
"Oh, thank God I'm not going to be in that thing."
So I got in there and I puppeteered it. It was a very complicated puppet.
I had a little, little, tiny... It was like a walkie-talkie side monitor
inside of Chairry.
So I could see what was going on.
One of the great things I thought about Pee-wee's Playhouse
is they weren't trying to make them look like Muppets.
They were really more like art school
or cartoonist-style puppets.
Gary was his go-to guy.
Gary was the consciousness of the playhouse.
He was the design guru.
The playhouse is like a toy box, an escape into a pop art world.
It was mind-expanding, in the best sense of the word.
As an art nerd, I was trying to see
what the future was from looking at the past.
I felt like Gary was so visionary and was able, like, to create worlds.
I could just go design the playhouse.
That's why it worked.
If you have that kind of vision,
it unifies the whole world in a way that makes the world real.
The opening sequence was a fly-through.
It wasn't easy. Nothing was instant like it is now.
Twice a day, for seven weeks, we would take a black-and-white video
down to Paul to see.
He would notice a wrong movement,
and then we'd come back in the afternoon, and he would say,
"No, you want to go up at this point, you want to go down at this point."
And every time we did it, it would be better.
I wanted the opening of Pee-wee's Playhouse
to be very kind of like... ooh!
Like...
Like, I just wanted to be drawn right into the TV
and right into this world and have every other element drop away
so that you were just, you know, transfixed.
-Come in and pull yourself up a chair -Like Chairry!
Let the fun begin It's time to let down your hair
Pee-wee's so excited Because all his friends have been invited
-That's you! -Go wacky at Pee-wee's Playhouse
There's a crazy rhythm coming From Puppet Land
-What's that? -Dirty Dog, Cool Cat, Chicky Baby
-are the Puppet Band -Yeah!
He's got a couple of talking fish And a genie who'll grant a wish
Golly, it's cuckoo at Pee-wee's Playhouse
Now we've given you fair warning
It's going to be that kind of morning For being wacky, for getting nutty
Golly, it's cuckoo at Pee-wee's Playhouse
If you're gonna have a kid's show, you better really do something great.
Oh, hello, boys and girls.
Me and Globey, and Magic Screen were just going through
some of our old junk.
-Hello, boys and girls. -Hello, boys and girls.
Look, it’s one of my favorite old records.
-Remember this one, Globey? -Oh, I love that record.
I’ll get it. I’ll get it.
I felt like I could just give this beautiful, incredible gift to kids.
Pee-wee's Playhouse! Pee-wee speaking! Who's this?
-Hi, Pee-wee! -Hi, Pee-wee!
-Hi, kids! Guess what? -What?
I'm having a party, and you're invited!
-Yeah! -Yeah!
They could just jump into the TV and jump into a world that was,
like, really full of beauty and fun.
Hi, Elvis! Hi, Cher!
-Hi, Pee-wee! -Hi, Pee-wee!
We've got a new member!
I think it was almost like I thought I was inside of a cartoon or something.
I don't know why they thought I was an eccentric or would fit in at all.
Yeah, you know, a little tiny Paul Giamatti.
I do remember being on set and that it was the most exciting thing
I'd ever done.
I think it felt like permission to be myself.
Today's secret word is...
"Fun." Today's secret word is "Fun."
How would you guys like to go outside and play with Pterri?
That sounds like fun.
-Good morning, Chairry. -Good morning.
I was so thrilled and so excited that I was going to get
to be Miss Yvonne on camera.
-Good morning, Mr. Window. -Hello, Miss Yvonne.
Good morning, boys and girls.
She always was kind and loving,
and she always wanted everybody to be happy and beautiful.
-Presenting the new Mrs. Steve! -Let me see, let me see.
Okay.
You're right! I am beautiful!
And when you feel beautiful, you are beautiful.
I walk into this audition.
They said, "This is Paul." And I went, "Oh, hey."
And this little, small, skinny guy with long hair,
mustache and goatee, and cutoffs.
He looked like a '60s reject.
I didn't connect that he would be Pee-wee.
-Here you go. -Pen pal letters!
You know, what I love about Reba is that
she was the only normal person in the crew.
Would you like to sit down by the campfire and dry off?
-What campfire? -That one.
Oh, yeah. That one. No. I'll just get wet again anyway.
She's the only one that saw the weirdness in the playhouse.
Okay. Hey, who would like a Tootsie Roll? Okay, right there.
When I first saw Paul as Pee-wee, it was probably like,
1980, '81, at the Groundling Theatre.
And I didn't get it.
I just, I was like, "Who is this little man in this bowtie,
and why is he throwing Tootsie Pops and Tootsie Rolls at people?"
I got a call, you know,
"Pee-wee Herman wants to see you about playing a cowboy."
You know, I'd had no experience with performance art, as it were.
I had no experience with performing for children.
Cowboy Curtis was a different kind of cowboy,
and I think that's because Cowboy Curtis was just as much an outsider
and different as Pee-wee was.
Thank you, Jambi.
Over here, Pee-wee. Put me on.
I wanted kids to learn about being a nonconformist
and what nonconformity was.
You could be somebody who just doesn't conform to, like, society's rules.
It's like you can do the opposite of things.
You can do whatever you want.
I just put in a lot of stuff in Pee-wee's Playhouse
that I thought, "Why not?"
I'm going to put on my mom's high heels and walk around,
because that's what I want to do.
Backwards.
And did I put my mom's high heels on? Yes, I did, okay?
Oh, man. Oh, man. What a moon!
I just felt right from the get-go,
something that I could do that could be very important
and very subliminal would be to just make the show very inclusive
and not comment on it in any way.
Captain Kangaroo, Soupy Sales,
Howdy Doody, you know, none of those shows
did I see myself reflected.
So, that I had the opportunity to be a part of a show
that young Black kids would see and go, "There's an image of me here."
That means a lot to me.
Rising from his tomb to fill the night with horror.
William Marshall had played the title character, Blacula.
Dracula's soul brother.
And to a lot of the Black actors who came in on the show,
he was like a rock star or God.
Boys and girls, Playhouse friends, and cowboys,
and people taking bubble baths...
Let the cartoon begin!
We added a Spanish cartoon called El Hombre,
and I wanted it to look like velvet painting.
And people kept coming to me going like, "You have to subtitle it."
And I go, "Why?"
Penny was out there. She was supposed to be the little feminist.
And we interviewed seven-year-olds and animated to their stories.
Hello, my name's Penny.
I think children should have rights about where they want to move
and how they want to live.
And not about they want to go to sleep at one o'clock in the morning
and like go to school-- not go to school.
I'm saying that the parents shouldn't say, "Well, we're going to take you over here
because we're the parents and we pay the rent."
I was going to try to be educational in a more undercover way
so that you wouldn't really even realize
that there was much going on educationally.
I mean, parents shouldn't rule the life of kids.
It's like they treat children like children, you know?
-Randy, what are you doing? -Nothing. I'm smoking.
-Want a drag? -No, Randy. I don't smoke.
-Smoking is bad for you. -So? It makes me look cool.
No, it doesn't make you look cool, Randy. It makes you look stupid.
You're cool already.
Saturday morning television at that time was not just a little lawless.
It was extremely lawless. It was the Wild West.
We could literally do anything we wanted to do.
-Are you okay, Miss Yvonne? -Yes. Thank you, Pee-wee.
And thank you, big fella.
You know, Pee-wee, when it comes to fixing mechanical things
around the house, it's always best to use a qualified repairman.
He has the right tools, and he knows how to use them.
Johnny, would you mind swinging by my house?
I'm sure there's something there that needs to be fixed.
And if not, we could break something.
I designed things that were meant to go over a kid's head.
And if it didn't, then that meant that the kid
learned something either from you as the parent or from the street.
I thought that having a kids' show on Saturday morning television
immediately to me seemed subversive in a really eccentric,
arty, cool, great way.
Did you wash your hands?
Good boy!
I wanted to add something that I loved about the early Andy Warhol movies
that I thought was very high concept.
I had a dog that came into the playhouse
and we shot him for about two minutes eating this bowl of food.
We're having an indoor picnic in the middle of the night.
I had some leftover fruit salad in the refrigerator.
I just felt like, "Wow, I can be a beacon out there
of going like, 'it's okay to be different. It's okay to be creative.'"
Fruity, I love fruit salad.
-Then why don't you marry it? -Then why don't you marry it?
All right then, I will.
Do you, Pee-wee Herman,
take this fruit salad to be your lawfully wedded wife?
To have and to hold from this day forward, in sickness and in health,
till death do you part, so help you God.
Do you? Do you?
I do.
Not only is being different okay, but let's celebrate it.
Hi. While the cartoon was playing, I took an ordinary potato like this
and stuck some pencils in it.
And I made an animal that looks like this.
I remember the first episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse,
I got a note from the network.
I was being creative. I used my imagination.
You can do this at home, too.
"You can't stick pencils in potatoes." And I said, "Why?"
And they went, "Okay, you can."
I, in five seasons of Pee-wee's Playhouse, probably had, like, five notes.
I dug my heels in and felt like, "This is me. This is what I'm gonna do."
And I was in the right place at the right time.
Boy, this luau sure was great.
I hope all you boys and girls had a lot of fun!
Aloha!
Season one was filmed in a loft in SoHo.
The producers did not want to give all this money to a real stage.
They felt that, you know, it was better to cut corners.
That show was made despite what the production company wanted.
It was crazy to the point where Paul banned them from the set.
Since we were still in production,
I wasn't around when they put the show together.
So I hadn't seen it.
So the first show, we stayed up all night on Friday night.
The show was supposed to air Saturday morning at nine o'clock.
So they're calling me, "Where's the show? Where's the show?"
We finished at about 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning.
I just remember walking over with Rich Abramson to CBS
with the one inch, you know, being carried
and taking it into them and going, "Here, here's for the satellite hookup."
I mean, it was really 20 minutes before it aired.
I was anxious to know, was it okay?
I had really high hopes for it all. And thank God it came out good.
-Knock, knock. -Who's there?
-Dwayne. -Dwayne who?
Dwayne the bathtub. I'm drowning.
Being me, I was on to, "Here's my own notes,
here's what I got to fix, this is what I'm going to do next."
After the show aired
the network called on Monday and said, "The ratings are high."
"The critics love it. This is an unbelievable success."
We've tapped into
some vein of the psyche that needed to emerge at that moment.
It wasn't just the four-year-olds watching it.
It was the college kids, the stoners. It was everybody watching it.
It was like a bomb that was dropped in 1986 on the world of television
that just exploded.
It was pretty much off my radar that I had a hit TV show.
There’s weeks more of work to do. It's not over.
And so I said, "I cannot do it like this anymore."
I wanted to be in Los Angeles in a sound stage
with a full-on professional everything.
And that's what we did.
My alarm just went off alerting me that it's time to do a birthday text.
And today is a heavy birthday day because I have 12 birthdays today,
including my eye doctor.
I send a birthday GIF all day to people about every two or three hours
from sunup to sundown from the time I get up.
Listen, you seem busy.
I'm gonna let you let me run in just a minute.
'Cause I am very busy doing these texts.
My God. Why do I even do this?
I've turned... This has turned into, like, a full...
And now people are texting me back.
"Ha, ha, I love that. I love you so much, Paul."
"How do you ever remember my birthday?"
That's the part I can't figure out. It's like...
Pee-wee Herman chalks up an honor on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
It was a circus on Hollywood Boulevard as hundreds of fans
and members of the media flooded into the street
to see Pee-wee Herman's star unveiled on the Walk of Fame.
Let me say this. I did not get a star on the Walk of Fame.
Pee-wee Herman got a star on the Walk of Fame.
Little bit of irony. Makes sense.
More people knew that name.
I wasn't complaining, I'm not complaining now.
Gives me somewhere to go, something to still have happen,
a Paul Reuben star, I'm just saying, just putting it out there.
Okay, shut up!
Anybody who I stepped on to get to the top
can come down here every day after this and step on me.
Thank you. Thanks.
My entire life was dedicated, 24/7,
to Paul Reubens and to the Pee-wee Herman franchise.
We became good friends because we were together all the time.
And just like good friends, sometimes we fought.
There was certainly a lot of tension between me and Rich at this time.
The production in New York was just relentlessly hard.
And I kind of blamed Rich to some degree.
Paul became very famous pretty quickly,
and I think he got some horrible advice, and he followed it.
I felt the deal that I had made was stacked against me a little bit,
that I had made a deal that wasn't,
like, really the smartest deal I could have made.
I'd thrown my heart and soul into him, and all of a sudden, he goes, "That's it."
And I remember walking from the stage, going, like,
"I'm done. He doesn't want to work with me anymore."
And I left the meeting, picked up a phone, called an attorney,
and we sued each other for a couple of years.
It was devastating. It took me a long time to recover from it.
And, in some ways, I don't know that I ever have.
Paul had conflicts with most everybody he worked with.
That was just his nature.
He was such a perfectionist and so driven to make something that matters.
It takes a lot of negative energy to get there too.
You have to throw people under the bus.
Everything's transactional.
Paul could hold a grudge. He didn't forgive very easily.
These are a few of the things I'd like to do on Saturday Night Live.
I'd like to do Playhouse 90, 90-second dramas that are very intense,
like, "Johnny, Johnny, the cops are here!"
"Shut up, shut up, will you? I'm trying to think!"
That kind of thing.
During this period of time, Phil Hartman was my best friend,
but we worked together for the good of Pee-wee.
When he got on SNL, it was a huge opportunity.
It’s Saturday Night Live with Phil Hartman.
He said, "I'm going on SNL and we're starting."
Hi, Captain Carl.
I didn't want to lose that amazing character, but I did.
We didn't hang out anymore.
And he rose to the top and became one of the stars of SNL.
Good for him.
So, yeah. I kept moving along.
I feel like a character in The Bad and the Beautiful or something.
Like, it was show business.
I'll get my violin.
Hi, Coco.
I was so busy, I had very little social life,
I had very little real outside-of-work life.
There were so many things going on professionally and creatively
that I needed somebody who could handle all the other stuff.
I would say, right off the bat, I was way more involved
in beginning to landscape the property.
I planted all those trees with Paul and all that cactus.
Okay. Well, I still think you could go to... How about Acapulco?
Hey. Like, don’t lift anything heavy or move too much, man.
-These guys be loose, John. Don’t worry. -Yeah, let Art to it.
I mean, he's really good. He's a very good gardener.
He can grow things from pieces of sticks.
I thought like, "Oh, here's somebody that, you know, likes the same things."
Any kind of spirituality that I have has to do with nature.
We were very much attracted to plants and animals of the world,
but particularly around where he is there. We feed the birds and squirrels.
We've developed quite a lot of wild animals.
-Don't go too much now. -Come on now, sweetie. Come on.
Let's move a little towards me.
I mean, Paul's the kind of person that rescues spiders.
It's like living out in the woods, you know,
even though it's right in the heart of Hollywood.
You probably don’t even have enough light in here.
Now, jump in.
Warren Montgomery started to work with me
kind of as like an on-set assistant and he did security.
I just kind of knew who he was and I wasn't a fan.
I was too macho to be a Pee-wee Herman fan.
I mean, I was young and I was athletic. I came off strong.
I think Paul liked that.
You're not fighting off women trying to rip his clothes off
like he's Elvis Presley.
Even though I think in his mind,
he felt that that's what was taking place at the time, but...
As time went on,
I would say that I became more like ground control.
In the beginning, it was like me going like, "I need to make sure I keep my job."
And then he had to make sure to keep me.
Sometimes, it would be nice
to have an assistant where you say, "Would you go and do this?"
And they go, "Yes, I'll go and do that."
Instead of spinning around and, you know,
giving me a whole bunch of attitude about something.
Allison has worked for me for almost 40 years.
It's in many ways like having a wife.
We were like a surrogate family.
Warren and Allison were like a little bit of a barrier,
not to keep people away, but to keep people at bay a little bit
or to just keep situations under control.
At the same time, I had many, many secretive relationships.
Probably lots of people who are high-profile people who,
like, had something to lose
over being identified as gay may have done the same thing.
Hey, now. Stop it just for a second.
I do remember at the time thinking to myself,
"This will be interesting to see what effect this has."
I was conscious enough to know being closeted
would have some kind of an effect on me.
I just was like, "Okay, put your blinders on."
"You're not having any kind of traditional relationship."
"You're going to just pursue your career." And I led an extremely private life.
Are you starting to trust me?
No. I don't think... I think you're missing the point
if you think I'm going to start to trust you,
it's not going to happen. No, I'm that person.
I'm not a trusting person.
So, I don't think I'll ever trust you.
-I don't totally believe you. -Ever. Never.
I do think there is an element of trust between us.
What do I have to do to prove to you I don't trust you?
You're right. There's a tiny bit. A tiny bit.
I don't want this to go to your head
and I don't want you to feel in any way, shape or form that I trust you.
I don't think we would be here if you didn't have a tiny bit of trust.
You made one documentary I liked, out of what? Six?
Do I feel like I'm in control of this process by being interviewed?
Yes and no. I mean, you have the questions.
A lot of the questions you have because of stuff I told you,
so I have control there.
I could choose what to...
I could pick and choose what to tell you to ask me
or stories to tell you and stories to leave out.
I feel like I'm gonna come out at the other end of this whole process
and be like, "I told everybody, I could have directed this documentary."
At Bonnie's.
All right, then we shall.
I was excited about the possibility of making another movie.
Top floor, rex.
On Big Adventure, I feel like I didn't get recognition for my creative role.
And I wasn't going to let that happen again.
I was always obsessed with circus movies,
and I was excited about the possibility of making my own.
Immediately, the circus seemed like a good world and a good backdrop.
Well, what about this? What if Gina’s doing an act?
I hired George McGrath from season one of Pee-wee's Playhouse
to co-write the movie with me.
And we screened a lot of circus movies and then sat down
to try to figure out what was mine.
The circus is rooted in reality,
and yet it's a world of make-believe, of fantasy, of flash and magic.
I've had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to just go do my thing.
I had made a movie. I had a hit TV show.
The studio pretty much said, "Go with God. Do what you want."
Yeah.
Somebody came forward and started to campaign to direct the movie,
a director named Randal Kleiser, who was a very talented filmmaker.
He had made a little movie called Grease.
I was officially producing the movie,
which I hadn't been doing on Big Adventure.
And I was very, very involved as a producer.
I am not a very trusting person.
I'm not a very go-with-the-flow kind of person.
I'm like a person who wants to control things.
I asked, "Could I breathe down your neck a little bit, Randal,
while you're directing it?"
And he was open to that idea.
Yeah, it sounds so familiar.
The biggest collaborators of mine from Big Adventure
were not working on the film.
But I wanted it to be fantastic and live up to the expectation
or go beyond that.
I thought, well, maybe I'd go back and do the Pollyanna thing,
where Pee-wee brings joy to a town full of people who have lost that.
We told you, we don't want no circus here.
And you showfolk ain't welcome in this town.
-That's right. -Townspeople! Listen to me.
You are getting very sleepy.
Your eyelids are getting very heavy. You will enjoy the circus.
A lot of people wrote a lot of funny things
about Pee-wee's relationship to Dottie in Big Adventure.
There's a lot of things about me you don't know anything about, Dottie.
Things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand.
Things you shouldn't understand.
He doesn't seem like he likes his girlfriend
or seems like he's trying to get away from her and all different things.
So I thought, "Okay, what's the flip side of that?"
Pee-wee definitely has a big libido in Big Top Pee-wee.
I decided to really amp up the romantic side of Pee-wee Herman.
One thing that I was focused on for a while was Pee-wee's kiss
with his leading lady would be the longest kiss in screen history.
Something that I hoped would be funny,
that it just kept going and going and going.
I had, until this point, had a huge amount of control and a lack of interference
or input from people I was working with.
There was some wrangling with the studio over the duration
of this painfully long kiss scene.
'Cause he had final cut rights, they couldn't shorten the kiss scene.
And it created a situation where he could afford
to be arrogant about it.
There was some self-sabotage in it,
with him controlling every element of the film.
I mean, I gave in at a certain point.
I was just beside myself that something I'd worked that hard on
and thought was so good was, you know, just...
It fell out of my reach.
Two of the stars of Big Top Pee-wee, Mr. Pee-wee Herman and Valeria.
So the movie was completed and Paramount threw a circus-themed party
for the premiere. And I was sitting at a table,
and all these people that were my friends and acquaintances
and people I'd invited came one by one up to the table.
After the tenth person came up to me and said, "Wow, the sets were, I mean..."
"Wow, it was beautiful." I thought...
"People don't like the movie."
I mean, it was like... Hit me like a ton of bricks. Like I just...
I... It was not well received and I didn't see that coming.
And it was the first time in my run of success
that I wasn't Midas with the Midas touch.
The Monday after the weekend that it opened,
I drove onto the Paramount lot and this sounds like a made-up story,
but I drove into my parking spot in the executive parking lot
and somebody was painting out my name as I drove in.
And it felt horrible and scary, and terrible.
This new Pee-wee adventure seems more conventional.
Part whimsy, part circus, part love story.
-I felt that he'd lost the magic. -Absolutely lost the magic.
We both voted thumbs down on Big Top Pee-wee
because we were disappointed
to see Pee-wee's magic diluted by the real world.
First review of the movie, "Big Flop Pee-wee."
I think I went into shock a little bit and I was really disappointed
and it seemed like a huge failure.
I'm going. Did I mention I was going?
What took me out of it was John Paragon and I sat down and wrote
Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special.
We wrote that quicker than anything I'd ever written before.
I remember hour by hour and day by day, it lifting me out of the funk
of "my circus movie didn't do what it was supposed to do."
Christmas!
Hello, everybody. My name's Pee-wee.
What's yours? Welcome to my special Christmas Special.
Starring me, Pee-wee Herman.
Christmas in the playhouse And we're going to have a lot of fun
Merry Christmas, everybody
I was trying to be throwback-y and be influenced
by every single Christmas special I'd ever seen.
But first, did you bring me all the presents I asked you for?
The guest stars are my favorite people, and every one of them said yes.
Hey, it's Little Richard on ice!
Hi, Pee-wee!
Great gosh, Almighty!
I had, unbilled,
to this day, that was part of her contract, "Don't bill me,"
Cher.
So, Cher, are you having a nice Christmas so far?
Oh, yeah, Pee-wee. Christmas is my favorite time of year.
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells swing And jingle bells ring...
Hello, Pee-wee.
Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun
Hi, Pee-wee. Merry Christmas.
I was just calling to see if I could be on your Christmas Special.
Happy holidays, everybody.
Magic Screen and I are cousins.
Merry Christmas to you.
Merry Christmas, Oprah.
I made a very special dish for you, fruitcake.
Oh, fruitcake, my favorite.
Look, everyone!
A new wing to the playhouse! Made entirely of fruitcakes!
Wow!
Yes, there is gay subtext in Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Yes, there is.
I'm saying this seriously so you can put some...
dark music, some sting into it.
Come, they told me, pa rum pum pum pum
A newborn King to see, pa rum pum pum pum
I played my song for Him pa rum pum pum pum
Me and my drum
I don't brag about lots of stuff,
but I feel like the Christmas Special is a part of pop culture fame.
Welcome back.
We're just putting the finishing touches on the Christmas tree.
I'm enormously proud of it and bask in its gloriousness.
Thank you, Miss Yvonne.
Hey, Pee-wee, what about that special wish?
My wish is that there's peace on Earth
and that everybody has the very merriest of Christmases
and a Happy New Year!
By the time I'd get there, Paul would have been in the chair.
He'd be in the makeup chair, and he'd be there for however long.
But he'd really be napping. He'd be catching up on his sleep.
Around this time, CBS ordered the last two seasons
of Pee-wee's Playhouse, season four and season five, together.
That was a lot of episodes in a short period of time.
No wonder I was a shell of a person.
I was working so hard that I had no personal life whatsoever.
It felt very lonely to me and very singular.
-"For sale." -Oh, no.
Is Pee-wee selling us?
Oh no. Pee-wee would never do that.
And besides, it was in the playhouse window.
So Pee-wee must be just selling the playhouse.
We wrote an episode called, "Playhouse for Sale."
Pee-wee’s selling the playhouse?
And it was the last episode, and I knew it was the last episode.
I didn't feel like at the time it was the last episode ever.
I just felt like this is coming to an end.
It’s time to say goodbye, goodbye...
When I was a little kid, my favorite show, Howdy Doody, ended.
This is my first, like, real dose of reality.
-Goodbye from us to you. -Goodbye from us to you.
What kind of a world is this?
What kind of world would put Howdy Doody off the air?
You know, what's wrong with everything?
And I wanted to have something like that.
I wanted to go out with some kind of a beautiful bang.
Hey!
Thanks for watching, everybody.
Before I go, I would like to say goodbye to each and every one of you.
Goodbye to you and you.
I loved looking into the camera and talking directly to the kids.
Come closer.
Closer still.
Right up into my face.
I took my job as having a children's show so seriously.
I always thought, "Whatever is interesting you
is going to reveal itself."
In a lot of ways, it turned out to be this.
-Goodnight, everybody. -Goodnight, Cowboy Curtis.
Smile at the camera.
I wasn't sick of being Pee-wee Herman. I wasn't fed up with it.
I should have broken it up with a little vacation.
So I went home to Florida.
You know, there were six or seven years in a row
with an additional ten to 15 years
prior to that of just being obsessed and driven.
To a very, very large degree, I could control that.
You know, I had a lot of control in that. And then, I didn't.
It was the morning,
I was taking care of that garden.
He called me at his house and was very quiet.
And he said,
"I need you to go down the hill
to the grocery store and call me back from the payphone."
I was like, "What?"
"What do you mean?" And he was like, "Just do it."
And, you know, he was just immediately,
like, very aware that the story was going to break quickly.
In Sarasota, Florida, actor Paul Reubens,
better known as TV's Pee-wee Herman, is free on bail after being charged
with indecent exposure in an adult movie theater.
CBS announced today that, under the circumstances,
the network is dropping scheduled reruns of the program Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Comedian and television star Pee-wee Herman spent a couple of hours
playing house behind bars today.
He's charged with allegedly exposing himself
inside an adult movie theater.
The arrest came during a sting operation.
Officers approached Paul Reubens, he said, quoting here, "This is embarrassing".
The report says, Reubens said he was Pee-wee Herman
and offered to do the charity benefit.
The detectives then arrested Reubens.
Pee-wee Herman, one of the biggest stars among the small fry...
He was dressed as any normal person going to a theater...
-for an afternoon of... -Two months in jail...
-...theater enjoyment. -They say, because of the way he looked,
they had no immediate idea they'd arrested a celebrity.
I actually observed him manipulating his genitalia.
The statement said Reubens is, quote, "Emotionally devastated
by the embarrassment of the situation."
I was with John Paragon.
We just couldn't believe it, and we were feeling very
upset and panicky about it. I mean, I felt like crying.
It was like this is a terrible thing to have happened.
Herman's lawyer told a newspaper, quote,
"When that story runs, his career will be over."
I kept who I was a secret for a really long time.
And that served me very well as I wanted it to.
And then it didn't.
It really backfired when I got arrested and people had never seen a photo of me
other than Pee-wee Herman,
and then all of a sudden I had a Charlie Manson mug shot.
I lost control of my anonymity, And it was devastating.
This was not a story that could be killed. You just had to accept that.
But he also was insistent from day one
that he didn't do what they accused him of.
And that the facts didn't line up for what they were saying.
Meantime, the actor's publicist released a statement completely
refuting all allegations.
Quote, "According to Paul, the facts as stated
by the vice squad were totally untrue
and he never exposed himself or engaged in any other
improper activities," end quote.
Paul's state of mind from the arrest was a state of shock.
And he just wanted somebody to take care of him.
News trucks were like sitting in front of his parents' house.
Had to figure out how to get him out of Sarasota without being spotted.
Paul had prosthetic teeth.
They changed the shape of his mouth, so they made him look very different.
So with that and glasses,
and I think we cut all his hair off, we got him out of Sarasota.
Paul was friends with Doris Duke.
Paul reached out to her personally and said,
"I really need to hide out for a while."
She said, "Of course." And we swore everybody to secrecy.
And we got him to New Jersey, where he hid out for a couple of weeks.
I was calling him, like, every day,
'cause I was worried he might be suicidal. Like, I didn't really know.
My parents told him that, "We were with you
and supported you in all the good times."
Like, "We’re here for you a hundred percent now, too."
It's shocking what hideous,
horrible, mean stuff people say and think about me.
I have the right to an attorney. I have the right to remain silent.
And what if I did some charity work instead?
Pee-wee Herman was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Hospital today
after attending a Halloween costume party as Edward Scissorhands.
Pee-wee Herman, I think he should be executed
simply because he was involved with children.
I mean, Captain Kangaroo, people forget this man lived
with a load for, like, many years, many decades.
You’re involved with children’s programming.
There’s a certain responsibility involved.
Pee-wee Herman, people put their trust in him.
We do not like our children hanging out or having anything
to do with perverts.
It’s still a gigantic footnote. And when people said to me at the time,
people I work with said to me stuff like,
"You know, the public has a really short-term memory."
I turned around in the moment, and this is true 30 years later, and said,
"The public has a memory like a steel trap."
"The memory of the public is like an elephant memory."
"People remember everything, so don’t kid me or yourself."
"Like, that’s just now how it works."
And 30 years later, I still feel the effects all the time.
When they finally decided that he was gonna fly home,
we put, like, black plastic over all the windows
so that there was just no way anybody could look in at all.
It was sort of almost symbolic of him sort of trying
to just cocoon a little bit.
I just wanted Pee-wee Herman to know
that no matter what he does in his private life,
he'll always be number one with all our kids.
Hang in there, Pee-wee. We still love you.
-You made a mistake, but so what? -I believe in you. Don't give up.
A lot of people called, and a lot of people wanted to,
like, give him their best wishes and all that.
Pee-wee, hang in there. Don't let them run you down.
I don't care if you did do it.
Paul, he probably knows who didn't call,
and he probably knows who said harsh things about him.
I think he's just cruel to the people that help him the most.
And he has some kind of pathological need
to kill the projects that he's got going for him.
Now, were you shocked when you saw that Pee-wee Herman
had been arrested?
Paul called me, and we had been estranged for...
really, since I started Saturday Night Live.
-Estranged? -Yeah, just not talking.
Well, for any particular reason?
You’re at odds with him, aren’t you?
-Yeah. -Why?
Because you felt you helped develop the Pee-wee Playhouse,
and you never received credit or money for it.
-Is that correct? It is. -Well, that’s part of it. Yeah.
You certainly could have, legally, you could have taken
-him to court though. -Yes, I could have.
-But you didn’t. -And a lot of people have.
I know a lot of people have excused it, but I still have not excused his behavior.
Yes, it’s deviant behavior.
I just went through all kinds of hideous, horrible feelings.
I became a different person.
We hired a crisis PR firm,
and the press really wanted a picture of him in public.
So the conclusion was,
let’s have him coming out of a restaurant with a date.
And let’s let a couple of choice press photographers know,
with the understanding nobody’s going to know that it’s staged.
But now it took all the wind out of all the other reporters’ sales
'cause the picture had been had.
So now, there was how to get this image of his mug shot
out of the minds of the audience.
I had this idea 'cause I knew that the MTV Music Awards were coming up.
Ladies and gentlemen, MTV is proud to introduce someone
who has been a friend for a long time.
And so, I remember being in that press tent.
And he came out, and those reporters were all going like,
"Is that really him? Is this really happening?"
Thank you.
Thanks, thanks.
Thanks. Thank you.
Test. Test.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Heard any good jokes lately?
The audience at the MTV Awards really didn't give a damn
about him being arrested.
They cared about his creative genius.
-Pee-wee. Pee-wee. Pee-wee. -Others are sticking by Pee-wee.
These folks gathered in front of CBS Television in Los Angeles to protest
the network’s decision to pull Pee-wee’s Playhouse
off the Saturday morning schedule.
Free Pee-wee!
Well, the media has crucified him, and CBS, these spineless jellyfish,
have dropped him before he’s been proven guilty of anything.
Pee-wee!
People really came out to support Paul.
There were protests all over the country.
Pee-wee Herman has an adult cult following, but they know it is unlikely
that this demonstration will change anything.
How many of you masturbated in the last week?
This is not to condone what he may have done,
but it’s not exactly the crime of the century either.
Allegedly, the guy walked into a dirty movie house, exposed,
and then, quote, "manipulated himself."
Do you think anybody in a joint like that was shocked by it?
There’s wilder stuff up on the screen.
The goal for Paul was to avoid going through the pain of a trial.
There was no question in the world that he would have beat this.
It just drags the story out, and we just wanted it done.
So the best we were gonna do was a no-contest plea.
Actor Paul Reubens has agreed to pay a 50-dollar fine
and make an anti-drug commercial as part of a plea bargain
on indecent exposure charges.
He appeared in court today at a brief hearing.
Reubens is best known for his role as Pee-wee Herman.
He was arrested last July and accused of exposing himself in an X-rated theater.
He pleaded no contest to the charges.
At this time, Mr. Reubens, I will ask you...
if you understand the plea called for the acknowledgement
and waiver of rights that you have signed.
Yes.
Do you understand you give up all your rights in this waiver of rights form,
-including the right to a trial? -Yes.
Did your attorneys, Mr. Dresnick and Mr. Gerstein,
-explain everything to you, sir? -Yes.
-Do you have any questions? -No.
All right. Then I’ll ask you at this time how you plead.
He will plead no contest. The plea, the plea is no contest, your Honor.
All right.
My biggest fear is, and where I think is...
wherein lies the rub, no pun intended...
is how do I come off in this narrative and what the goal is for me in this
and not come off like a victim in some way?
You know? Like, I feel like
it’s very easy to turn my story into
"I'm a victim in some way," or I’m, you know,
the man behind the mask, the tears of a clown.
I mean, I know a lot of what it is, and I don’t, I rebel against it.
I don’t want it to be that. I’m going to try to figure out some way to
rise up above that in the same way that I feel like I’ve been forced
and had to kind of rise up above that in, you know, reality.
Oh, God, she’s really beautiful. She’s gorgeous.
Thanks.
Elida was born.
She would come to work with me every day.
That was actually a really nice thing, I think, for Paul
because he was ready to start to, like, open up a little bit more,
to kind of get his mind off of things and to sort of move on.
I remember the night that I met Paul.
We had mutual friends. I was a huge, huge fan of his.
It was after his arrest, and the weight of the situation was so heavy.
He was damaged. He was broken.
It was like a bird that got hit by a truck.
He couldn’t go out of the house for a minute,
and being reclusive, it was often dark. He was sleeping weird hours.
I’d come over to the house, open up the curtains, get some fresh air.
I couldn’t really make my way through the house. It was packed.
I encouraged him to get out because, you know,
as someone with so much creativity, if they don’t work, they die.
Coco.
Before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we just kind of clicked.
Since it was the first film that he was gonna do after his arrest,
he had to put it in his contract that he could look as much like
his mugshot as possible.
What are you, some kind of weirdo or something, huh?
It’s cool to see him sort of, like, you know, protect himself that way.
You ruined my new jacket.
Kill him a lot.
When Paul turned me into a vampire, it really does bond you for life.
We’ve always had this connection.
We’re kind of, you know, we’re bound in eternity.
Document this whole situation.
This is the kind of shit that comes back onto you.
Oh, my God, I can’t believe we’re video... Are we videoing?
He just needed, like, his family. His, like, you know,
his second family to come around.
He started slowly seeing people.
He started laughing again. It was great.
Go.
Excellent.
But I don’t see any synchronized swimming.
Film, Paul.
-Look at my pants. -...any kids or anything.
Look at my pants.
We started going to these thrift stores and collectible places and swap meets,
and just sort of expanding my knowledge on things.
I’ve always tried to encourage him of doing, like, a museum
because he’s got all this incredible stuff.
The collecting really is at the core of sort of things he loves and who he is.
The more time we all spent together, the happier he got.
He became like Paul again.
My first guest, best known, of course, as Pee-wee Herman.
This is his first talk show appearance ever as himself.
Please welcome Paul Reubens.
Well, thanks for coming.
Now...
You usually come on, or you have come on in the past as Pee-wee.
Are you a little nervous?
Oh, you're not nervous.
Are you gonna talk at all tonight, do you think?
Now, see, people want to know what you’re like, so you have to speak.
-Okay. -No, that's very good.
That what we call a beginning.
Now, that sounded like Pee-wee, though.
It did?
See, that sounds like Pee-wee. That doesn’t sound like Paul.
No, this is my real voice.
Very...
Paul had not gotten attention for playing another role that wasn’t Pee-wee Herman.
So this was a defining moment.
-Come on, faster, faster! -Okay, Andrew, time to die.
Good idea, Miss Brown. A suicide pact. Here, rip out my throat.
-What are you talking about? -Just do it!
Paul was being a creative person and being in Hollywood.
And it was great.
I remember him being fit for wigs, creating a whole look.
Please welcome Paul Reubens.
He developed, you know, different characters.
He was able to hide behind, not Pee-wee,
but throw himself into something completely new.
Barbie.
Maria.
-George. -Barbie, he is yummy.
He looks just like a Ken doll.
Ken and Barbie, oh, my God, it is so perfect.
I went to the premiere of Blow with Paul.
And finally he was confident.
I mean, everyone was there.
It was Hollywood. It was big, and Paul was back.
You’re getting great reviews
-for this movie, Blow. -Yeah.
-People are very excited about-- -The movie is great.
And in it, you play, it’s an interesting character, bisexual hairdresser.
Did you, is that a role you gotta research in some way, or no?
-I knew how to cut hair a little bit. -Right.
Paul and I, like, were consistently together for a couple of years.
So I think it started raising some eyebrows.
I left it always ambiguous because I like to keep people guessing.
I like the idea of mystery.
We’re following Paul...
while he’s putting his-- there he is.
You look damn good, I’ll tell you.
-Here's my 'mani. -Let me get back.
I mean, look, in old Hollywood, people were set up to date.
It was like an arranged marriage.
And with Paul, he was my boyfriend. And I know that, like, people might say,
"Well, you know, like, well, he was gay."
Yeah, well, so what?
I mean, I grew up in the life, so to speak.
So, for me, like, I never really had to put a label on anything
because nobody else did.
One day, he just gave me, like, a friendship ring, you know,
a boyfriend-girlfriend ring.
It was, like, you know, literally from a Cracker Jack box.
We knew that in moving forward,
we’d always be there for each other.
Look at her through here.
About ten years passed from when he was arrested.
God, that thing is so small.
Okay, okay, okay.
Paul was shooting the Elton John video.
And so, I just thought it was like a normal day.
And all of a sudden, we got a call from the neighbors
saying, like, "There’s police driving up to the house."
And there were probably 25 officers in the house.
I was petrified. I didn't know anything about any of it.
I was just like, "Oh, my God. Like, what’s happening?"
The actor better known as Pee-wee Herman is being investigated
tonight after Los Angeles Police confiscated his art collection.
CBS News’ Mark Coogan live in the newsroom
with the latest on this story. Mark?
Harold, the issue here is alleged child pornography.
Acting on a complaint from a former Reubens acquaintance,
LA Police searched Reubens’ Hollywood home.
They reportedly took away boxes of erotic videos and pictures.
I got a call from Paul and he told me it absolutely wasn’t true.
He knew Jeffrey Jones,
and Jeffrey Jones was being accused of improprieties.
And that person who accused him
had been to Paul’s house with Jeffrey and other people.
And that person accused Paul of possession of child pornography.
And then, of course, the raid happened as a result of that.
I asked him straight out, like, "What the fuck's going on?"
You know, "What happened?"
You know, I got all the, like, clear answers.
They found vintage homoerotic art,
but it’s, like, you’re going to, like, ruin this guy’s life for art like that?
I immediately went to Paul's home in Hollywood
to directly communicate with law enforcement.
It was an extraordinary and unusual thing to participate in,
mainly because Paul’s residence was also, in many ways, like a museum.
He had extraordinary collections of things,
including materials that the police decided they wanted to seize.
And these photographic collections of early gay erotica,
including literally hundreds of thousands of old photographs
and old eight-millimeter film.
Some of these archival boxes had not even been opened.
Throughout the execution of the search,
there was no indication that this was material that Paul
regularly accessed or reviewed.
Shortly thereafter,
we found ourselves getting a call from the Enquirer.
A story had been leaked to them about the raid by the LAPD.
Now, actor Paul Reubens is the subject of an investigation
into alleged child pornography.
The investigation is ongoing. No charges have been filed,
and the actor’s representative is condemning the entire business.
I could find the exact collections in some of the biggest universities
in the country in their LGBT archives.
I had defended folks in child pornography cases,
and this just was not child pornography.
...Pee-wee Herman’s house. ET broke the story.
Now, we have new details.
The press coverage about this case was not that extensive.
We were asking people to wait for the results of the case,
not take the bait of the leaks.
He’s getting some celebrity support. Right? Courteney Cox and her husband,
David Arquette, are stepping up and speaking on his behalf.
And you know what? I was a little surprised
because these are big-time Hollywood stars
and really voiced support for Paul Reubens.
Paul stayed with us, and...
I think for him to be able to be there during such a tough time
was really kind of peaceful. Like, we’re going to get through this.
As far as Paul’s sexuality goes, he’s guarded about it.
He's private about it.
Paul's old-school, so he doesn't want to talk about his personal life.
I said, like, "This may be the universe telling you to live your true life."
I was trying to encourage him to sort of come out.
Paul was not out in the public at that time.
So he was an easy target in that regard.
This was a homophobic witch hunt.
You know, there’s a trope, obviously, that’s quite dangerous about pedophilia
and LGBTQ community. It goes on today.
When a children's entertainer is accused of possession of child pornography
and those words, "Paul Reubens," "Pee-wee Herman,"
"child pornography," are in a headline, the damage is done.
It became very evident that they were trying to mess around with him,
like, make trouble.
Okay, good. Okay. Now, wave at Paul. Wave at Paul.
The police took all of Paul's photos,
but once we started getting things back,
it turned out that they had taken all of these photos of my daughter,
Elida, from when she was young.
They also went to her school and talked to the school.
Which I didn’t know that at all until after the fact.
Who are you waving at?
And then, and I also had to sign a letter that allowed Paul to be alone with Elida.
It was just so devastating.
The district attorney participated in that first year of the investigation
from the search warrant for the next 12 months.
And based on their investigation and their review of the material
and any evidence seized, they made the determination
that no charges should be filed.
And at the very last minute, literally a day before,
prosecutors could no longer bring charges,
the LA city attorney announced that they were gonna file
one count of misdemeanor possession of child porn.
You wanna talk about LA champions? Well, here’s one you should know.
His name is Rocky Delgadillo.
Rocky Delgadillo was the newly elected city attorney.
He was very ambitious,
had announced that he was particularly focused
on child abuse issues.
It was increasingly clear to us that this was a political case.
Had Paul been a regular citizen,
none of this attention would have been given to him.
Happy birthday, dear Milton
Happy birthday to you
Help me blow them out.
His dad started to go downhill,
and so then, from there, he went to Florida.
When my dad was declining, Paul was helping my mom do everything
and just basically lived with them
and took care of my dad the last several months of his life.
My dad was real macho.
And that was an issue, I think, between him and Paul.
Paul really worked on his relationship with my dad.
That really impressed me
how much effort he put into that, and that paid off.
It was a choice that Paul had to make.
Does he go to trial
and potentially be completely exonerated and vindicated
but, with that, take on this being in the public eye?
It was decided that we would find a misdemeanor,
literally find a misdemeanor,
that addressed this being material that was offensive somehow
but on an obscenity standard, not anything to do with child pornography.
A month after he was charged with possession of obscene material
and had to turn himself in, his father passed away.
Shortly thereafter, Paul needed to go on camera and clear his name,
because he had nothing to hide, and he needed someone credible,
like Stone Phillips, to ask him all the tough questions.
Were you in possession of child pornography?
No. I mean, emphatically, no, I was not.
And where do you draw the line? I mean, to you, it's art.
To somebody else, it may be offensive, objectionable, obscene.
I guess where I draw the line is I feel like I live in a country
where I can collect what I wanna collect. And...
as long as I'm not hurting anyone, as long as I'm not exploiting children...
I think I should have the right to collect whatever I want.
After they’d gone through 30,000 images,
it came down, ultimately, to one image in one vintage magazine.
They agreed that the photograph was not of someone underage.
Once the child pornography charge was thrown out,
I was willing to take responsibility for my collection.
-Which included? -Which includes saying and agreeing
that there were images that were obscene.
His penalty, a 100-dollar fine, mandatory counseling,
no unsupervised contact with children,
and, for the next three years, he must register as a sex offender.
You can say lots of things about me.
And you might, and so might lots of other people,
the public may think I'm weird, they may think I'm crazy,
or anything that anyone wants to think about me,
that’s all fine, as long as one of the things you’re not thinking about me
is that I’m a pedophile because that’s not true.
Paul's very resilient.
Those were some scary times and you have to be
willing to allow for that pain to be there, you know,
and to actually express it a little bit, also.
That took a lot of day-to-day work, but Paul knows how to, like,
come back from things.
Please welcome Paul Reubens.
I’m just curious. I know it’s been a while since you were Pee-wee Herman.
We actually found a Pee-wee outfit.
This is the real Pee-wee Herman outfit we have right here.
We were curious if you would fit into it.
Do you think he could fit into it?
No, I can't.
-Come on. Give it a try. -I can't.
Beg me.
Just...
-Yeah. -Do you feel yourself becoming Pee-wee
-as you put it on? -It's not about the pants.
-Pee-wee is really in me, you know? -Yeah.
Right.
Paul had the opportunity to bring back Pee-wee,
which he was thrilled about.
And I think that that was a little bit hard for him.
And realizing that he was older and that time had passed.
But I think he always had faith in Pee-wee.
Paul called me up and said, "Well, we’re doing the stage show again,
and I’d like you to be in it." And I said, "Really?"
Here’s some mail for you, Pee-wee.
Paul, I thought for sure you’d want, like, a 25-year-old Mailman Mike,
not a, you know, 60-year-old Mailman Mike.
It’s the most beautiful woman in Puppetland, Miss Yvonne.
I mean, when I opened that door as Miss Yvonne and came out,
I could have done anything. I could have peed, and people would have said,
"Miss Yvonne made such an incredible statement."
"She peed on stage. I love her."
Oh, did we already find out today’s secret word?
-Yes, we did, Miss Yvonne. -Darn, I missed all the fun.
Come on, everybody, let me in on the fun.
It was a thrill, and it was a built-in
love affair with the audience because they had watched us as kids.
The live version of the Pee-wee Show
on Broadway really was everything you wanted it to be.
I met with Paul, generally, just praying that he might want to do
a Pee-wee Herman project.
And it literally took years to convince him to do it.
There seemed to be a lot of anxiety around the idea of bringing
Pee-wee Herman back in a movie.
We’re writing Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.
Paul spends too much time in the house.
Paul isn't out and about that much. Paul needs an adventure.
Hello. And I'm helping write it.
He needs to go make another movie.
Appley!
Cool.
There was always a feeling like Paul had gone through so much,
and as a result, we didn’t get this for so many decades.
-To friendship. -To friendship.
As fans and people who admire him, we wanted to give him the confidence
to take a big run at another project.
And he loved the movie.
-Pee-wee. Pee-wee. Pee-wee. -Pee-wee. Pee-wee. Pee-wee.
It really was pandemonium. People went crazy for every joke.
I told you, I told you.
I told you it was good.
Then you realize how tuned in he was to his fans and what they like
and his relationship with them.
He really got a special moment of total appreciation.
If you were gonna make this documentary yourself, what would it be?
I would have taken all the footage that I shot over all these years
and all the photos I took and all the stuff
that people aren't getting to see right now,
all that too, and made something that would have been very dreamy
and very kind of, like I would have talked a little bit on camera and just gone,
like, "Now, I’d like you see this, and then this happened."
"And then I made this, and then I did this." Me, me, me, me.
"And then I got arrested, and it was horrible."
And then, you know, "Life was good-o, and then I had to take care of, you know,
people that were close to me that were fucked up."
And, you know, I don't know. I don't know what it would have been.
We’ll never know, or maybe we will. I don't know.
Paul kept his illness a secret from almost everyone.
He was someone who'd been so private all his life.
It was challenging for him to do the documentary.
But at the end of his life,
he took a leap of faith and decided that the film should be finished.
He wanted people to see...
who he was as Paul.
In the last months of Paul's life, he was in a loving relationship.
He was surrounded by his closest friends.
He had a lot of joy.
I think he was embracing the fullness of his life in those last days.
And in awe of the life that he had lived.
Paul was incredibly brave.
All this different stuff...
all these different emotions,
all these different influences and factors...
stuff that I saw when I was little...
I felt like I could somehow give that back.
I felt like a good collector of it all.
I was like a good vessel for it all.
Nothing would, like, stop me.
Nothing would deter me that it would be pure in every way
and I think that’s what it was. That’s part of why I feel so proud of it
is because I...
I delivered that. I lived up to that,
not just for you, but for myself.
I'm flying.
I am the luckiest...
Boy in the world
The birds all envy me.
Because I’m Pee-wee
If you’re lucky like me, boys and girls, all your dreams are going to come true.
Because guess what, kids?
I said, guess what, kids?
What?
I'm gonna share all my luck with you.
I’m Pee-wee Herman.
I’m the luckiest boy in the world.
Goodbye. Goodbye, boys and girls.