Media Credit: (Courtesy HBO/MCT)
Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) brings his Broadway show to HBO on March 19. (Courtesy HBO/MCT)
Reports of his death were grossly exaggerated, as Pee-Wee Herman has risen again. It just goes to prove you can't keep a good man-child down.
The character in the tight gray suit, red bowtie and short-cropped hair has been resurrected on Broadway and is now a special on HBO, "The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway," premiering March 19.
When Herman, whose real name is Paul Reubens, was arrested for indecent exposure 20 years ago, the media sounded the death knell for the character who was born when Reubens joined the improv group the Groundlings. That wiggly, whimsical creature went on to star on the kids' TV series, "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" and in several movies, which followed the romps of the waiflike comic.
Reubens says he's not sure why Pee-Wee is suddenly in favor again. "I really don't know. I mean, certain things, they just come back. It's cyclical, you know. If you wait long enough, these suits come back and this tie comes back, and I think that's what's happened. You know, I just waited long enough. And now, all the people seem to like it again, I guess."
