I remember where I was when I heard the allegations in 1991. My mother and I had just come back from Texas where my father had started attending the Sergeant Major Academy in El Paso. My mother took my brother and I to the eye doctor. He was 15 and I was almost 13.
The news was being reported as if even the newscasters couldn’t believe it. Pee-wee Herman had been arrested. Celebrities had been arrested before, but Herman of Paul Reubens (ne Reubenfeld) had been arrested in Sarasota, Fla. on complaints of indecent exposure. Reports were coming in that he had exposed himself or was even discovered masturbating.
Yet it was unsure of what had happened. Had he been masturbating? Other reports indicated he exposed himself in a bathroom which might have been a misunderstanding. Actually what had happened was Reubens had been detained along with three other men as they were preparing to leave. There’s been reports this was the local police just cracking down on porno theaters bringing up decency issues that many had seem had gone dormant since the 1970s.
Reubens and his lawyers in the HBO documentary Pee-wee as Himself don’t go into much of the details but claim all he was doing was watching a movie. Regardless, the story broke and now the host of a children’s TV show was being labeled a pervert, even though he had originated the character of Pee-wee Herman while working on stage with The Groundlings. The first appearance of Pee-wee is in Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie, an R-rated movie. He would go on to appear in their third movie Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams where he does cocaine with the comedy duo. Reubens had also appeared briefly as a snooty waiter alongside Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi in The Blues Brothers.
Even The Pee-wee Herman Show which had been aired on HBO when it was called Home Box Office in 1981 had more of PG-13 style of innuendo even though there was no such rating at the time. But Reubens found himself targeted just like The Simpsons, Married…With Children and other media such as the 1991 movie Poison. The Moral Majority, parental groups, televangelists and Sen. Jesse Helms were on a full-blown campaign to find anything they could and call it indecent or pornography.
Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which had ran on CBS from 1986 to 1991 was pulled from the line-up, even though reruns had been shown for some time. Reubens had what he called a “Charlie Manson” look with a goatee and mustache and longer hair. Reubens said that when they were working on the show he was smoking cannabis a lot. S. Epatha Merkerson, who plays Reba the Mail Lady, on the show says when she met Reubens, who was also the showrunning producer, she didn’t make the connection between Reubens and Herman when she met him the first time.
Mind you, during this time, we’ve also since learned Bill Cosby was sexually harassing and assaulting women while The Cosby Show was on air and everyone was praising him for his values. It’s no surprise Reubens got such a welcoming response when he appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 5, 1991. Reubens was part of the MTV culture.
And even if it was just done as a joke, the audience’s response showed that the arrest and media reports were all just kicking a man when he was down. The audience cheered and clapped as they began cheering “Pee-wee! Pee-wee!” You can see Reubens looking so happy as if he’s about to cry. We weren’t going to let The Man try to tell us who we could like and who we were supposed to despise.
People protested that CBS start airing the reruns again. But Reubens had enough of playing Pee-wee for a while. It’s no surprise Reubens spent much of his life hiding his sexuality even in later years closer to his death. Reubens was really private about a lot of things. From the start of The Pee-wee Herman Show to the VMA Awards, Reubens rarely made any public appearances outside of his Herman persona.
In the 1984 movie Meatballs II, he played a character that was somewhat similar to Pee-wee. He also the voice of Max in Flight of the Navigator distributed by Disney, even though he was credited as Paul Mall. Yet, a lot of people could tell it was him. It’s possible Reubens agreed to do the 40 hours of interviews for filmmaker/documentarian Matt Wolf because he sense the end was coming as he was battling cancer. But he was also cautious about what to say and what not to say.
There’s a lot of scenes of him debating with Wolf off camera and even trying to take the narrative another way. Let’s face it. Documentaries now are basic with talking heads of people praising or denouncing the subject matter with voice-overs all around archived footage. I really don’t think we needed Natasha Lyonne’s brief mention of herself as she’s indoors wearing big sunglasses. I’m just glad Wolf kept her to one small interview which I wouldn’t doubt he was forced to include now she’s “big” again.
No, the better moments of the documentary are the quiet reflecting moments as Reubens recounts his upbringing. His parents were very supportive of him in every way even when he said he was gay. And being that June is Pride Month, the documentary shows how Reubens was unfairly targeted. A lot of us suspected him of being gay even when he had a kiss scene with Valeria Golino in Big Top Pee-wee and was seen out at parties and events with Debi Mazar.
Mazar, herself, keeps her relationship with Reubens secretive. They did have a close friendship and she help Reubens with the depression and anxiety he suffered following the 1991 arrest. But if they had a romantic relationship is really no one’s business. A lot of actors and celebrities lead private lives. The late Michael Gambon would often lie about his personal life denying he even had a wife. Both Henry Rollins and John Cusack have never been in any serious public relationships. Why does it matter?
I think it’s because time and time again, people assume gay men are child molesters and sexual predators. Yet, last month a Boy Scout Leader, Andrew Howard Haley, 61, was arrested in Georgia on allegations of child molestation and child pornography. Reubens would face a similar accusation in 2002 following a search warrant discovered questionable vintage magazines that might have been considered obscene.
But there was suspicion that Reubens, who was an avid vintage collector, had never even looked at it as it was in a box. In the mid-1990s as people began to get personal e-mails, laws were updated so new parents wouldn’t have to worry about sending their relatives pictures of their infant’s first diaper change or bath and it being considered obscene. Computer technology had to be updated as well to make sure parents doing a search of popular names didn’t result in child porn allegations if history showed “sex of a child” in reference to a name.
But the 2002 investigation which was the result of an investigation into child sexual abuse crimes against actor Jeffrey Jones. It’s argued in this documentary Reubens was targeted because he was just a friend of Jones. However the damage had been done. Reubens who received rave reviews for his dramatic turn in Blow alongside Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz spent the rest of the 2000s doing mostly cameo work as he took care of his father who was terminally ill with cancer.
It’s funny how people criticized Reubens for being at a porno theater when other TV actors had done worse. Kelsey Grammar struggled with substance and had been arrested for drunk driving. His Meatballs II co-star John Larroquette has famously talked about his alcohol-abuse struggles even blacking out and coming to on a commercial airplane unaware of where he was going.
Sadly, Reubens was just targeted because he lived a lifestyle that is more common now. He was an introvert. He kept a lot of things private. Now, we have people commented on social media about what they had for breakfast. Reubens’ behavior nowadays would be considered just normal. He was only targeted for being different than what society wanted him to be.
Little do people know that Pee-wee’s Playhouse was about being a non-conformist. Along with Merkerson, Laurence Fishburne famously played Cowboy Curtis and The King of Cartoons was played by Gilbert Lewis in the first season and William H. Marshall, famous for his role as Blacula, in subsequent seasons. Both actors were black.
And not that it mattered but John Paragon, who played Jambi, was gay. Reubens does say the show did push the envelope with some suggestive material that got pass Standards and Practices. But as a kid, I didn’t notice it. I watched Playhouse all the time. To me, it just seemed like a fun Saturday morning kid’s show. After he passed away, I learned Leslie Jordan had one of his early roles on the show.
While the documentary touches briefly on Reubens’ friendship and collaborations with Phil Hartman, who played Captain Carl, I wish more was spoken about it. Maybe Reubens didn’t want to dig at those old wounds, especially since Hartman was murdered by his wife, Brynn. What did Wolf expect Reubens to say? He felt bad. He was upset and depressed. Everyone would say that.
I’ve known some people who are introverts but act so extrovertly when they’re on stage or performing. I think Pee-wee Herman gave Reubens the outlet he needed. But like most actors, he got typecast and it was hard for the public to see him any differently.
Now, I hope people can see him for who he really was. Sadly, he passed away in 2023 before we could really tell him how much a generation loved him. But going back to that 1991 VMA appearance, I’m sure he knew then.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 