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Today is the 70th birthday of Paul Reubens, one of the most creative artists ever seen on television. His Pee-wee His Herman persona has inspired decades of kids to develop their quirky imaginations. In the late 70s, Rubens developed a child-like personality at Groundlings. In 1981, he got his own HBO special based on his show My Stage.Fueled by his growing popularity on the Late Show segment, Reubens gained attention variety Via a 1984 concert review of Pee Wee Herman performing at the iconic Carnegie Hall.
“Herman’s relationship with a devoted audience, including an idolatrous element, was impressive. The crowd, who paid up to $19.50 a head, was generally 20-33 years old and had both long hair and preppy hair.” They liked Herman’s frequent audience visits (the performer’s wireless body mics were effective), an incredibly eccentric and deceptively narrow persona. Nonetheless, Herrmann’s career is on track and Rubens faces a bright future in all media.”
In fact, all the media had Pee-wee fever explode just a year later with the hit movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, the feature debut of a young Tim Burton.mixed reviews from variety The success of the film, which grossed $41 million on a $7 million budget and touched on what Rubens does best, was still predicted.
“Rooney and the charming opening sequence set a standard the rest of the picture can’t hold up to, but the freshness of comedian Paul Reubens’ unique character setting has already armed viewers with five regional sites.” It’s been unlocked, and Warner Bros. promises to deliver impressive numbers when it hits nationwide on August 9th.
“Pee-wee’s Playhouse”
© CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection
Perhaps Rubens’ greatest achievement with this character was producing five seasons of the Saturday morning children’s show Pee-wee’s Playhouse from 1986 to 1990. An “anything goes” sensibility that caught the industry’s attention early on. 1987, variety reported on a Directors Guild seminar called “Kid Vid: The Inside Story,” featuring programming executives from CBS, NBC, PBS, Disney, KCOP, and Paramount Pictures.
“The loudest panelist was Judy Price, vice president of children’s programming and daytime specials at CBS, who relied not only on animation or technical gimmicks to attract viewers, but on show that was ‘unconventional’. I commented that I was having trouble bringing it to the network. .
“‘We look at animation as a picture frame in terms of the quality of execution,'” she said. You get it and you use the framing device to strengthen it or weaken it.Pee Wee Herman is the heart of his show and it happens to have a lot of elements.That show dared to be out of shape.The best. An iku show is a show that defines or redefines form.You break form and have a chance at greatness.The official one may be successful, but it will never be great.”Smurfs ‘, ‘Muppet Babies’ and ‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse’ were not official and proved to be great. Breaking form doesn’t always make you great, but the real sin isn’t trying. ”
After ‘Playhouse’ ended, Reubens primarily pursued other roles and projects, but revived Pee-wee in the 2016 Netflix film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday. It was produced by Judd Apatow, who talked about his admiration for comedians while teasing the film at that year’s Television Critics Association press tour.
“I love Pee-wee Herman and wanted more Pee-wee Herman movies and TV shows, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the movie. It’s really funny and silly and in the spirit of all his other work.” I’m staying.” “I was happy [co-writer] Pole [Rust] And I will work with him. He knows exactly what he wants to do and what the voice of the piece is, so we tried to help as much as we could, but it’s really a world he invented. I’m just trying to help you build things. It was great. It was a dream come true. ”
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