HBO takes a fresh look at Pee-wee Herman

HBO s new two-part docu-series Pee-wee as Himself streaming Friday prompts an eye-opening reconsideration of the phenomenon that was Pee-wee Herman the celebrated children s host whose shows conquered television movies and Broadway Pee-wee was created and performed by Paul Reubens Matt Wolf the documentary director and interviewer had a dramatic making of behind-the-scenes saga that matches the film s surprise-filled portrait Over days Wolf spent hours interviewing Reubens as they struggled over who had control over what was being made As an artist Reubens had opened his enormous archives of his performances and various collections to the filmmaker Rare clips and interviews home movies and history attest to his astounding expansive popularity which was nearly destroyed by dramatic seemingly career-ending controversies First when Reubens was arrested in a Florida adults-only cinema for exposing himself He successfully resumed his career as an actor in movies like Buffy the Vampire Killer Then he was labeled a pedophile There was no basis for the accusation Wolf covers it all But Reubens cut off cooperating just before he would address the harm and hurt he felt from being smeared When he certainly agreed the day before that interview Reubens who had been secretly battling cancer for six years suddenly died on July He was and left Wolf a message he recorded that last day In a virtual press conference Wolf was required how he hoped Reubens would be remembered Paul understood the value in being complex and I would say this isn t a legacy project because it shows Paul in his full complexity I hope the film positions him as one of the most of groundbreaking performance artists of his generation who in a singular way broke through into mainstream pop civilization I know that he transformed me He transformed how I see the world and where I went as a creative person And it s so clear that I am not alone in that feeling People who grew up on Pee-wee or were big fans of Pee-wee seeing the film I hope will help them tap into intangible and specific methods how transformative his work was for them It really is a gift to revisit early seminal experiences you had and to see how they reverberate in you So to me this isn t so much about saying Paul Reubens is a genius I mean that s overly idealizing and I don t like hero worship It s more about understanding why a multitude of of us have connected to his work and understanding where he lives within a legacy of performance art television and also broader pop custom Pee-wee as Himself airs Friday on HBO Paul Reubens Photo courtesy of HBO