144: Big Love for Pee-wee (with Karen Geier)

Junk Filter

The writer and content strategist Karen Geier returns to the pod to say farewell to Paul Reubens and his iconic Pee-wee Herman character.

Reubens created the Pee-wee character in the mid 1970s as part of the LA improv troupe The Groundlings, in a cohort that included Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks. A failed attempt to join the cast of SNL in 1980 doubled his resolve to be successful; he took his Pee-wee Herman show from cult status on stage to a smash-hit movie for Warner Bros. (the feature debut of director Tim Burton) and then to Saturday morning network tv with his innovative kids show Pee-wee’s Playhouse which ran for 5 years on CBS.

We talk about two of Karen’s three favourite movies of all time (1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and 2016’s Pee-wee’s Big Holiday), discuss the Pee-wee character as a queer icon, pop culture innovator and comedy god, lament the destruction of his success in 1991 with his notorious arrest at a porn theatre in Florida (from the days when so-called ‘Cancel Culture’ could actually cancel careers) and his hard-won third act with the return of Pee-wee to public life as Reubens fought a private battle.

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Trailer for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)

Pee-wee's Playhouse Season 1 opening and closing credits, 1986

Pee-wee finally makes it to the basement of the Alamo, 2011

Trailer for Pee-wee’s Big Holiday (John Lee, 2016)