Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I’m a little late on this, but a few words about Paul Reubens and Pee Wee. In my early to mid-20s I didn’t watch television at all. Pee Week’s Playhouse started airing right about the time that I ventured back into the world of TV. It felt fresh. I would often watch it on Saturday mornings along with America’s kids. Mostly I enjoyed it for its high quality camp, but it was also genuinely funny, and sweet. I’m not typically attracted to man-child characters, but there was something about Pee Wee that allowed one to look look through both a kid lens and an adult lens simultaneously that I found compelling. There was a celebratory let-your-freak-flag-fly aspect of the show that I think was great messaging to kids, letting them know that there is place in this world to celebrate being colorful, creative, expressive, different, and/or, of course, queer. Of course this is now the type of content many on the right are trying to protect their kids from, This type of squelching causes major damage to the kids who need a particular kind of acceptance and space to explore being themselves.

Regardless of whatever personal issues Reubens had, I think he had a beautiful impact on the world, and I salute him.

Honestly, Sonic, I think we're just hitting that age where the people we were intimately familiar with are leaving this mortal coil. I fully expect a raft of Rolling Stones-era musicians to kick the bucket in the next few years, not to mention the Scorsese-era filmmakers and actors.

My brother was a fan, and he certainly had a big following among schoolkids and teens back in the day. His first arrest was quite the cause celebre back then, and I thought he was being railroaded even if he did technically break the law. I must confess I have no memory whatsoever of this second arrest, but I think it's safe to assume he didn't receive 1/100th of the public support he received during his first arrest. I never cared for him, but I can't exactly say he's not my style because I do enjoy Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean, who, now that I think about it, does have some similarities to Pee Wee.

What I find interesting is how many cultural touchstones we have lost recently. Paul Ruebens certainly qualifies as one, as does Sinead O'Connor, Harry Belafonte, Tina Turner, Raquel Welch, Tony Bennett, Burt Bacharach, Queen Elizabeth, Mikhail Gorbachev. Perhaps David Crosby. Maybe Berlusconi? Not just big names, but culturally and historically significant figures, ones who made an impact and helped define their era(s). (And I'm sure I've forgotten some names.) It's gotten to the point where for the past several months I've been dreading looking at the news to see who else we've just lost.

I probably watched Pee-Wee's Playhouse every day for five years. It was during a period of my childhood where I didn't have incredibly strong opinions. I just enjoyed the stimulation of television and his show did the trick. It wasn't until years when I realized what a singular feat of imagination it was. Oh yeah, and the show annoyed my parents from afar.

His career was infamously derailed, first when he was arrested for exposing himself during a porn theater and again for a child pornography charge which I guess he beat (what happened there?). My sense of the guy was that he was very talented and full of potential that maybe wasn't realized due to scandal. At least, a generation of Millennials who grew up on his show got to see him wheel it out one more time thanks to Netflix's penchant for blank check ventures a few years back.