Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens documentary on HBO

It's fantastic, and the vintage photos and clips are beyond wonderful.

There's a brief scene of Paul Reubens at Cal Arts doing a scene with classmates Katey Sagal and David Hasselhoff (!!!).

And Paul's first love was an incredibly attractive man lost to AIDS.

Enjoying it very much. The access to vintage photos and video is fantastic.

It was intriguing to see he was a handsome guy when he was young and before he hit it big.

I adore him and his alter ego. My millennial nieces and nephews do as well. Not that easy to bridge the generation gap unless you're a comedic genius.

It was interesting seeing Reubens without the Pee Wee persona, he came off a bit full of himself, at times.

One of the things I admire about Reubens is that he would not allow Pee Wee's Playhouse merchandise to be advertised during the show, he didn't want the show to be a thirty minute ad for toys.

My brother had a professor in college who was originally from Florida and was from the same area as Reubens and had a crush on him. She said that young Reubens was rather serious and artsy, not the crazy Pee Wee.

Wasn’t a big Pee Wee fan, but the documentary is a great watch.

hey OPea, thank you for posting this- I didn't know it was out and am watching it now. Very much enjoying it. I have always been such a big fan and him narrating it out of character is so charming, what a guy.

Watched both episodes tonight. I got a little weepy at the very end when he said how hurt he was by being labeled a pariah and pedophile, when he wasn't.

A comic genius.

I just finished watching it because of this thread. Very well done and Rubens had a fantastic and tragic story.

Great documentary. Brought back lots of memories.

I'm almost done with episode two.

What a fascinating guy. He was like a more accessible Andy Kaufman.

I also never realized that PeeWee was a stage play before he hit big with the movies and TV show.

Even though I was never a big fan, I miss the pre internet days when stars of all varieties were actually talented, driven, totally unique and, yes, often difficult to deal with.

I loved this man’s work so very much.

Did anyone actually think he was straight?

R15 yes!

You must remember people were shocked by Liberace, Rock Hudson and Ricky Martin.

Unless you are on the cover of Time, with “Yep, I’m gay” the American people are SHOCKED!!

Do people think Mr. Rogers never masturbated?

Why I never in all my life!

YES YOU DID R18!!!!

It's really quite embarrassing how hard I can cry about someone who I never met and didn't know I existed but, I was practically sobbing by the end of this

[quote] Do people think Mr. Rogers never masturbated?

But only when he was fantasizing about being dominated by Lady Elaine Fairchild.

Meow meow masturbate meow meow

I was disappointed to see Phil Hartman join in the Pee-wee bashing on Howard Stern after the movie theater incident. Sure, I understood bitter old (and probably homophobic old) terminally unfunny Soupy Sales lambasting him, but Phil? (Yes, I know about their problems and estrangement, just thought Phil was above that.)

Revisiting His Sudden Death (and the Shocking News That Followed)

I loved Paul Reuben’s and Pee-Wee. Even saw him on Broadway during his last touring show of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. As someone else said above, he does come across a bit narcissistic and full of himself, but of course, he’s a celebrity. And his charm and kindness still come across. However, someone on the documentary commented that he could really hold a grudge for a long time. Hey, nobody’s perfect I guess. I miss him terribly.

[quote]There's a brief scene of Paul Reubens at Cal Arts doing a scene with classmates Katey Sagal and David Hasselhoff (!!!).

I'll have to check this out. Met Paul at the CalArts 25th Anniversary (my first year) and he was really cool. He roomed with Hasselhoff and was not a fan, LOL.

Vanity Fair.

Paul & John

I still can’t believe people were shocked that masturbating goes on in an adult movie theater. Good god.

I knew about him being friends with Katey Sagal. She shared photos of them together as kids. I’d know that voice anywhere. My god, Pee-wee, Elvira, Peggy Bundy… these people embodied so many iconic characters.

I think it's a overstatement to say that most people are shocked when there's confirmation that celebrities like Paul Reubens, Liberace, Rock Hudson and Ricky Martin are gay. They have their suspicions and most of the time, they turn out to be true.

People can still be entertained by talented people and not be consumed with wonder of who they are sleeping with.

Like most people who thinking that are "passing", they aren't passing as much as they'd like to think. And most of the time, it's not as big of a deal as they think.

*And* she was a Harlette, r29!

Phil Hartman’s nutbag wife had a real problem with his friends so he presumably hopped on the bandwagon. He didn’t talk to Cassandra Peterson for years after she said he should not marry that crazy hag.

It wasn’t even a gay adult movie theater. It’s beyond rich for the likes of Sam Kinison to call for his execution over it because he did a kid’s show. What a doofus.

Why do they never mention Paul’s brother? I think his name is Luke. This has been an ongoing thing.

Here's the director talking about making the documentary

R34, I looked up his brother, and it looks like there was an assault and that Paul sued him? This was in between the father and mother dying, so it wasn’t about a will or inheritance. Quite icy to erase him from this documentary, but the flip side is that he didn’t feel it was necessary to talk about it to tell this story.

His brother has been cut out of everything before this documentary was even a thing. People were shocked years ago to hear that there was even another sibling. Cassandra Peterson said that she knows his siblings, and knew his parents.

Who the hell is the host of The Daily Show now?

Now we need another doc.

Just finished it. It was amazing. Such a long, odd but storied career. I'd forgotten about the Jeffrey Jones thing and how they went after him a second time.

Seeing Lynne Stewart who just died in it is even sadder. Cassandra is the only one of that group still alive now.

Phil Hartman shot

John Paragon went to the desert and drank himself to death - 2021

Paul Reubens - 2023

Lynne Marie Stewart - 2025

John, Paul, and Cassandra all bought plots together. I believe John and Paul are interred together. John is in a Jambi box. The doc was the first time I ever heard anyone say that John was gay. It was obvious but so many of them kept their private lives private. Hell, Cassandra was eating snatch for 20 years before she went public.

His agent was particularly handsome too.......FYI----->>Pee Wees house is for sale.

John Paragon played the older member of the thuggish gay couple who terrorize Kramer on the street in a few eopisodes of "Seinfeld."

[quote]The doc was the first time I ever heard anyone say that John was gay.

LIES!

Everyone I know has a big but. Come on Simone, let's talk about your big but.

AIDS really did touch all of us in the 1980s and the1990s. I'm glad he talked about it.

Cassandra Peterson seems to be the biggest fag hag in history. Here she is starting to cry about Richard Chamberlain last week. She was at his last birthday party, got on the plane and was told that he died when she landed.

New York Times

I was a kid when the porn theater arrest happened. And I remember it being a HUGE deal.

But I don't have any recollection of the pedophilia stuff. At all. Which is weird. I can't even imagine how horrible that must have been. For the entire world to think you're a pedo because you collect gay erotica from the 50s. So fucking sad.

He really seemed like a good, strange, odd, slightly misshapen egg.

I remember it, r49. You have to remember, by the time that happened Pee-wee was long over and Paul was a small character actor. The entire thing was bs but anyone connected to Jeffrey Jones wasn’t a good look. Because Paul kept his personal life so private, people could just believe anything about him. They chalked him up to being a weirdo like Michael Jackson.

Paul's grave

I wonder what happened to Paul's huge collection of memorabilia & media? In the final moments of the doc, you see this space crammed with tons of stuff - agreed with the poster above, it's so heinous how the cops tried to frame him as a pedophile just because he collected vintage beefcake mags = systematic homophobia

I thought it was interesting that, over 35 years after the first movie was released and the Saturday morning show began airing, the clips of each are not dated and hold up creatively. The list of people with whom he worked in the 80s and went on to bigger careers is impressive, including Phil Hartman, Laurence Fishburne and S. Epatha Merkerson. Also, he was influential in getting Tim Burton's first movie directing job with "Pee Wee's Big Adventure." Reubens seems to have had great insight into what he was creating. In the 80's, the guy must have worked his ass off.

I believe him when he says that he was not a pedophile. It was a good documentary. RIP Paul. You were loved.

I followed him on IG, and he posted fairly regularly, but then he stopped. I found out he was sick from a Kathy Griffin post.

r53 Do they interview any of the people he worked with in the documentary? Especially those who went on to bigger and better things?

By the time Merkerson and Fishburne worked with Pee Wee, they were just actors who were cast in the show - not developing their own characters. She's already spoken about the experience.

That was lovely, R57. What a doll she seems like.

His dad was very handsome.

Seems they skipped over how the father made his money, but looks like Paul never had to work a regular job pre-Pee Wee,

R60, I was curious about that too. The father’s wiki doesn’t specify how they made their money, but it seems that the father did quite well.

R59 I was very, very attracted to his dad. His brand of swagger gets me every time.

I remember being mentioned on DL years ago that John Paragon was gay. Possibly when Paul got arrested and there was a thread on it.

[quote] Do they interview any of the people he worked with in the documentary? Especially those who went on to bigger and better things?

They interviewed Natasha Lyonne for a quick second--and I do mean (thankfully) a very quick second. She seemed to think the interview was about HER so I imagine the producers asked her a couple of quick questions and then blew her out of there. They tossed in the obligatory three seconds of screentime to make it worth her drive and effort.

Note to interviewees: When you turn up to talk about someone ELSE in THEIR documentary--don't attempt to overshadow them. This ain't the time nor the place.

Who was Paul in a loving relationship when he died?

Was Paul a top or bottom?

Who cares?

This is Datalounge, not One Million Moms

I love that he spotlighted black actors. His black boyfriend was cute as fuck too.

That arrest in 1991 convinced many that he was straight because of the movie and he coasted off of that for years.

Don't forget his bff Allee Willis. All the cool people are dying-off, with no replacements in sight.

R64 I, too, am glad Natasha Lyonne was only featured once (and I actually enjoy her most times). Also thankful she wasn’t doing her Columbo schtick that has permeated every interview she’s done since she started Poker Face.

I got the impression that his entanglement with the law over alleged possession of improper material was vindictive. He was named to police by Jeffrey Jones, or JJ acquaintances, and although I'm certainly team Paul here, bridges he may have burned with those people. Naming Paul may have been some sort of revenge for a past dealing. Paul's talent, vision & drive speak for themselves, but it's well documented long before this film that he's not been fair in matters of credit/compensating. While the baseless stigma of homosexuality & p*dophilia has hampered decent reputations of decent people throughout history, I do believe that a personal vendetta is what led him to being named by Jones & those investigated with him.

What did his Dad do for a living?

The doc never said what he did for a living, which likely means Daddy Reubens had secrets of his own.

This is Pau’s father, he was one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force.

SHHHHHHHH! I'm TRYING to use THE PHONE!

His dad looks very happy too

I liked the part where he said Cher did his Christmas Special and never billed him for her appearance. Cher and PeeWee were also on the first episode of the Joan Rivers nighttime talk show.

His voice over at the end is heartbreaking. He recorded it the day before he died and the pain in his voice while he denied being a pedophile was devastating. I hope he's found peace.

I liked that part too

I’m sure the director was annoyed when Paul quit before finishing but this ending is way more poignant. He knew he was out of time and he wanted to speak on it before he left.

This documentary was excellent. I rarely cry at the end of documentaries.

After reading his father's bio at r76, I think it's pretty clear that Israel set him up in his business ventures and/or provided him with a nice continuing stipend. Considering his contributions to the creation of the Israeli Air Force and that he was shot down and could easily have been killed after a successful bombing run, it's the least they could do.

R79...I think Cher stimulating in her contract that she not be billed meant that she not be given credit for her appearance. If you look back on all the promo for the Christmas special Cher is never mentioned among the list of guest appearances, not for broadcast & not on packaging for home viewing. I don't think Reubens was referring to anything monetary.

I did see a video with Paul’s current boyfriend but never found out a name and they obviously wanted to give him his privacy. Paul was really a nice guy. Insanely nice, actually. He could be cutthroat in business but he went out of his way every day to contact people to see how they were and to send them a joke via text. I always got the sense that he was lonely.

John Paragon’s death was the one that really got me. He went off to the desert and drank himself to death. I have no idea how that was able to happen. I know many people from The Groundlings and no one was able to tell me if he cut people off. They all pretty much stayed in touch with each other over the years, and he was Cassandra Peterson’s work partner. There was a story on TMZ that he was being sued for threatening to kill his neighbor’s dog. lol. I think that was about 10 years before he died. He definitely was going down a dark path but began doing fan events and was very personable with everyone.

Lynne Stewart was beloved by all and rightfully so.

I was glad that someone brought up suicide in the documentary about Paul and that they were checking in on him. I’m really glad he didn’t go that route but the fallout from his arrest was disastrous for him emotionally.

It’s funny and sweet that his dad told him to go out and be the best homosexual he could be.

[quote] Was Paul a top or bottom?

Given that he didn’t die from AIDS in the art community of the 80s, he was either a top, or a side, or celibate.

Did anyone else get the impression that Debbie Mazar imposing herself in Paul's life was a bit opportunistic & "hanger-on"? She seemed too eager for photo opportunities, something that really appeared evident in all the shots that were featured in the doc. Perhaps the cynic in me has read too deeply into her relationship with Paul Reubens, but I really do get the impression that she saw a ripe situation & swooped in. She did not appear sincere in any of the pictures I noticed of them together. Reubens didn't mention her in any of his commentary & her own interview played like an attempt to justify her involvement in his recovery from the events that had occurred in that period of his life.

R89. I didn't get that at all. She seemed very genuine.

R88 types like an ignorant buffoon.

R89 speaks the truth

I love that Kathy Griffin thought she was so damn special for getting a long, drawn out birthday message from Paul and in the documentary he's showing giving that same exact long drawn out birthday message to 12 other people all on the same day lolol. PS. How many friends does dude have if 12 of them all share the same birthday!?

The 1989s was a weird time.

r94 There was more than one 1989?

R94 It is performance art on a commercialized basis. Brilliant.

I'm just about to watch the final 20 minutes. Really interesting and well done. Brought back lots of memories of Saturday mornings watching that trully-hard-to-describe but FABULOUS show!!! Hard to believe Reubens has been gone almost 2 years already.

I admire his use of CGI age-defying software on the last Pee Wee film. A star should be young 4-ever.

R89, she entered his life when he was pretty much ruined. She didn’t get anything out of it.

R91 still confuses HIV with AIDS.

There is no “AIDS.” It was merely a label, long outdated.

There is only HIV (sometimes, with related complications).

As a children's entertainer Reubens needed to be above suspicion, so jerking it in a public theater in Florida of all places was a spectacularly reckless act. I assumed at the time that he was sick of Pee-Wee and this was his half-assed way of getting out of it.

He w as any a child entertainer then, was he? No.

An aside: Paul and John Paragon both had those 1950s "physique magazine" pictures decorating their mirrors at their makeup station backstage at the Groundlings.

He wasn’t any*

R104 And? What?

[quote] There is no “AIDS.” It was merely a label, long outdated.

This one graduated from Trump University.

R102, Pee-wee had already ended when that happened.

No R107 I graduated from the real world.

Do give us a 2025 reality check on the medical understanding of AIDS and HIV. When is the last time you, as an MD, diagnosed “AIDS.”

Am I missing something r94 because the movie came out in 1985.

And my absolute favorite part of the scene was the moment after when he rides off on his gifted motorcycle. I still reference it as an adult. When he crashes and you see his body tossed to the side. I thought that was the MOST hysterical thing I’d ever seen. That little moment defined my sense of humor as a little 10 yo kid. That’s the kind of stupid stuff that makes me laugh to this day.

Isn’t Paul’s sister a lesbian? At least it seemed so from the documentary. Can you imagine gave a gay sin and a lesbian daughter from WWII era parents?

I wonder if the legendary NYC artist Joey Arias remained in contact/friendly with Paul. He played “Shim Half-Man Half-Woman” in Bigtop Peewee. Joey is also good friends with Debi Mazar, so I wonder if their friendship came about through him.

T111 she’s a well regarded human rights lawyer

R111

Yeah. And a lesbian.

1989s was a typo! Should have been 1980s!

I watched Pee-wee as a kid. I remember that blue flapping couch and the claymation. It was a weird time.

[quote]Do give us a 2025 reality check on the medical understanding of AIDS and HIV. When is the last time you, as an MD, diagnosed “AIDS.”

Honey, no one gets AIDS in the Western world thanks to antivirals. AIDS is diagnosed every day in Africa. You’re a moron.

And you proofed your stupidity by linking to an article about….Panama?! Yes, you did.

Proved and proof

R119, you said that no one gets diagnosed with AIDS. You’re a goddamn idiot.

Panamanians are no one to him, r21.

[quote]Did anyone else get the impression that Debi Mazar imposing herself in Paul's life was a bit opportunistic & "hanger-on"?

Reubens gave an interview to Playboy single-handedly crediting her for pulling him out of a death spiral depression. He said "I fell in love. With a woman. And BOOM!" or something like that.

I have zero problems imagining that Debi Mazar was/is adorable and fun and supportive, and that they were crazy about each other as mega-besties. She would come over and pull the curtains apart letting light into his depression dungeon, and she'd get him up and out of bed, make him eat, and get him out of the house. She didn't need that shit. She truly adored him, and he her.

I became OBSESSED with John Paragon after seeing his comedy special "The Paragon of Comedy" on Showtime in the early 80s at age 9. AT some point we VHS-ed it. I must have watched that special three hundred times. Pee Wee Herman had a stand-up bit on the special. I'd never heard of Pee Wee Herman so often I would fast-forward past his bit. Reubens also was in a sketch with John where they were two obese friends, Arnie and Al. Other Groundlings were involved, too. He continued to have success with the Ramon Azteca character on TV, I can't remember which show, but it was it one of those obscure short-lived 80s sketch shows. (Just looked it up: FTV.)

My mind was totally blown a few years later when John Paragon's head emerged from the genie box as Jambi for the first time. I knew exactly who it was and I was THRILLED.

I always thought it was terribly sad that John Paragon was such a crazy extreme talent but he never got his true due. He had some early success. Earlier than Reubens. But then it flipped, and he seemed to eat Paul Reubens' and Elvira's dust for the rest of his life. I wonder if drugs/alcohol played any sort of role in the slowing of Paragon's roll.

I also didn't know how or when he died till this thread. It's very sad. I will always love John Paragon. He's a true star to me.

[quote]I always thought it was terribly sad that John Paragon was such a crazy extreme talent but he never got his true due. He had some early success. Earlier than Reubens. But then it flipped, and he seemed to eat Paul Reubens' and Elvira's dust for the rest of his life.

Before he moved to Palm Springs, he was working as a puppeteer in one of the parades at Disneyland.

Funny, R125 on his Showtime special from'83 there was a character named Ray, and Ray is hippie, and a puppeteer.

I can only assume that John Paragon might not have felt entirely self-actualized as an anonymous Disney puppeteer after being a Groundling and being steadily on TV through the 80s. But who knows?

Paragon played "Breather" on Elvira's Movie Macabre and every week would call in as an "obscene caller" but always end up telling a really corny joke.

But the way it played out and Elvira's reactions were hilarious!

Here's Elvira singing with Paul and John (in fat suits!).

The Elvira Show (failed pilot).

Starring Peterson, Katherine Helmond and Paragon as a talking cat.

Appearance by Lynne Marie Stewart at the beginning.

That group really hung tight.

[quote]I became OBSESSED with John Paragon after seeing his comedy special "The Paragon of Comedy" on Showtime in the early 80s

John's in Eating Raoul.

He was a fucking genius, R129.

The opening jazz piece is INCREDIBLE. Spandau Ballet, eat your heart out! He can do the splitz and everything!

The first sketch, the doctor, used to slay me. I'd watch it over and over and over.

All of Paragon's characters were fantastic and hysterical.