HBO has announced it is working on a two-part documentary about the late Paul Reubens titled “Pee Wee As Himself.” In July 2023, Reubens, who played the iconic Pee Wee Herman on “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” passed away.
The announcement was made via a cryptic six-second clip posted to HBO’s streaming arm, Max’s social media. The footage shows Reubens dressed as Pee Wee Herman and then himself saying, “I really want to set the record straight on a couple of things,” before cutting back to him in character.
“Meet Paul Reubens, the man behind the icon Pee-wee Herman,” reads the caption. “The HBO Original 2-Part Documentary #PeeWeeAsHimself is coming to Max in 2025.”
This vague footage and a release window are all anyone outside of the production knows about “Pee Wee As Himself,” at this time.
The Arrests of Paul Reubens
Given the clip, it’s safe to assume his 1991 arrest for allegedly masturbating in a theater during a pornographic movie will be discussed. This arrest led to “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” being canceled despite Reubens claiming he wasn’t exposing himself. While he took on other roles in movies like “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” his career as a kid-friendly actor never fully recovered.
He was able to revive “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” as a stage play between 2009 and 2011. In 2015, Netflix released the film “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday” written by and starring Reubens.
2002 Charges
He was arrested again in 2002 on charges of possessing child pornography, to which he initially pleaded not guilty, and later changed to pleading guilty to a misdemeanor obscenity charge. During an interview done at the time, he admitted to owning a large collection of “vintage erotica.” Some of these films and muscle magazines had titles like: “Boy Nudist” and “Shame Dame,” alongside some photographic studies of teen nudes. But he contests that he viewed these pieces as art.
“Magazines. photographs. films. Incredible, beautiful stuff that I stand behind,” Reubens told NBC News. “…I wasn’t really thinking to myself, wow this is my creepy, weird stuff that I shouldn’t be collecting. It’s not titillating. It’s not something that I use for any kind of sexual purpose.”
“I think some of it is erotic,” he explained. “Some of it is sensual. Most of it I don’t view like that. It seems so innocent to me. You would immediately look at that collection and to tell very, very, very quickly this is not a collection of child pornography.”
There still seems to be some disagreement over what the images contained with Reubens saying one image shows “a young man with his hand on his thigh. It is close to his genitals, but not even that close. That’s what they’re calling somebody getting ready to perform a sex act.”
The city attorney’s office at the time, said the images were more graphic than what Reubens describes. Hence the assumption that these charges are among the things he would like to posthumously “set the record straight” on.
We will keep you posted on updates about “Pee Wee As Himself” as they become available. You can check out the clip for yourself below:
