Paul Reubens was born on 27 August 1952. He was a remarkable actor. But he created and performed the Pee-wee Herman character, which dominated his career.
Reubens had an amazing eye for talent. His show Pee-wee’s Playhouse was a creative tour de force both onscreen and off. The design, puppets, and animation were all fantastic.
Outside the Pee-wee character, Paul Reubens mostly played small roles in a large number of film and TV shows. He received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination in 1995. (He lost to Carl Reiner.) I most remember him as Amilyn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I suppose I should say something about Reubens’ criminal history. He was arrested for skulking around a porn theater. (Charges dropped.) He was convicted of cannabis possession. In 1991, he was arrested for being in an adult movie theater. And in 2002, he was arrested for possession of child pornography. The consumption of child pornography is a big issue because it pushes the creation of child pornography. But that’s not what Reubens did.
The problem with vice policing is that finding bad people is hard. Unusual people like Paul Reubens are thus easy targets. And this is a great blessing for actual sexual predators. But in America, it is far more important that the police look like they are doing something good than to actually do something good. Doing good is so much harder!
Anyway, there are many ways to celebrate Paul Reubens’ birthday, but I think the best is to watch Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Archive has the complete second and third seasons along with the Christmas special. Here is the first episode of Season 2:
Paul Reubens by Daniel Benavides licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Beez McKeever, who did the excellent props on MST3K, wrote Reubens a fan letter in eighth grade… and he remembered it! And when he did a stage show in Minneapolis, he got her good seats and brought her onstage as part of the show! And she loved it: https://www.mst3kinfo.com/satnews/brains/beez1.html
She sometimes sends things she makes into “Corrections,” too.
That’s a wonderful story! I’ve always wondered who the jackals are! I occasionally notice something I could post but whenever that happens, I see it on Corrections and others have come up with more clever stuff than I would…
Yeah, they’re pretty funny. Seth Myers, making YouTube comments into something less nasty… good for him.
You have to love how the jackals are geeks who’ll point out which type of car/plane/boat is which, and knitting nerds. I suspect most of them are aging liberals, which I wouldn’t know anything about. I’m in my PRIME! 52 is the new 27!
You’re only 52?! My friends are getting younger because my old ones are dying!
What I like about all that is that the jackals are clearly the biggest fans and its all pretend annoyance from Seth
Yeah, I’m 52, but don’t worry, I’m losing Medicaid, I won’t be around long!
I’m on ACA and I doubt I will be able to afford it next year…