Pee-wee Herman Is Back (And Single Again!)
Everyone of a certain age remembers watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse every Saturday and loving it, no matter how old we were. Then a bunch of things happened and he fell out of the public consciousness. Now the man who famously married a bowl of fruit salad in the Playhouse episode “Pajama Party”—but never officially exchanged wedding rings with an actual human—is back.
Of course, for those of you who were not avid viewers of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, marrying a bowl of fruit salad might seem as deviant as some of the charges that were filed against Paul Reubens. It was, in fact, innocent. At his pajama party, he said that he loves fruit salad. Following one of the many ongoing jokes on the show, his friends all said in unison, “Then why don’t you marry it?” Naturally, Pee-wee said, “All right then. I will”. An elaborate ceremony followed. There were tears. Miss Yvonne cried. It was lovely.
At Age 57, He's A Big Kid Who Is Grateful For Digital Re-Touching.
Now, 25 years after we started watching him, almost 20 years since his infamous arrest, and almost 10 years since his first major comeback in Ted Demme’s film Blow with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, PW is ready to ready to be in the spotlight again.
Last night marked the first night of a limited engagement at Los Angeles’ Club Nokia. Called “The Pee –wee Herman Show”, it is an update of his 1981 production, which played for five months at West Hollywood’s Roxy. In 1981, every show sold out. The same is expected for this round, which runs only through February 7. It was originally scheduled to begin in November at a smaller venue, but devout Pee-wee fans came out of the woodwork, causing the show to require not only a larger club, but more room to create a really, really big production for PW, the cast, and the slew of animatronic puppets. Paul Reubens’ “kids’ show for adults” is already a hit.
Since its inception in 1978, Pee-wee’s Playhouse has really been meant more for adults than children. Most of the humor of the show was lost on anyone not yet old enough to drive. Playhouse was, in many ways, groundbreaking. Here was this strange boy-man in an ill-fitting suit having co-ed slumber parties with farm animals and talking foliage in addition to his human friends. S. Epatha Merkerson, now famous for her role as Lieutenant Van Buren on Law & Order, played the saucy character of Reba the Mail Lady. There was an ongoing flirtation between the very white Miss Yvonne, played by Lynne Marie Stewart, and Cowboy Curtis, played by then-unknown Laurence Fishburne. It was among the first interracial situations, and it was on a show “for children”. Performing the famous wedding between Pee-wee and his beloved fruit salad was Ricardo, a Latin-American soccer player. The show was openly multi-cultural and yet, somehow, no conservative groups rallied against it. How Pee-wee managed to fly under right-wing radar is something that only Jambi knows. Also on the show for the first season was another unknown actor, playing the gruff Captain Carl. It was Phil Hartman.
Reubens has a mission for his new start. He wants to inspire people of all ages to find their own unique voices. He told the Chicago Tribune, “This isn’t a nurturing time. But the message of ‘The Playhouse’ has always been: ‘Dare to be different. Here are some of the options you might not have thought of’”. He also intends to make a new Pee-wee Herman movie when the right offer comes along. Reubens has already received a few offers–including one from Tim Burton to have Johnny Depp play the lead–but he’s holding out for something else. There’s no doubt that he’ll get it.
And this time, he promises, the Foil Ball will be enormous.