Gotham isn’t exactly making secret of Cameron Monaghan’s smiling return as Jerome Valeska in 2017, but his won’t be the only familiar face back from the dead. Our first synopsis for 2017 premiere “Ghosts” also reveals Paul Reubens back in his role as Oswald Cobblepot’s father, but how?
Pee-wee Herman has long existed in a queer space, though one only subliminally alluded to. Paul Reubens’ feminine boyish persona, oscillating between effeminate gay man and asexual man-child, has long played with ideas of gender expression that comment on an underlying queerness. From the drag queen genie Jambi in Playhouse to Pee-wee’s episodes of crossdressing, from his makeup and exaggerated feminine gestures to the fluctuating inflections of his comical voice, Pee-wee has been deconstructing gender and sexuality norms all along while disguising it as campy comedy. Yet Pee-wee never directly acknowledged the queerness of his imaginative universe and even struggled with embracing it, as an early episode of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” shows. In the Season 2 episode “Pee-wee Catches a Cold,” the host reveals the daily secret word as “Out,” and then immediately falls ill, as if weakened by the idea of being out to the world. But after a 28 year absence from the big screen, Pee-Wee is finally coming out.
In this age of delayed sequels, Paul Reubens has achieved something almost miraculous with Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, delivering a film that is just as joyful, hilarious and wonderfully weird as you hoped. 31 years after Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Reubens has returned to his iconic and enduring character for a new Netflix movie in which Pee-wee Herman is inspired by Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello to take his first-ever vacation. We had a chance to speak with Reubens and Manganiello following the world premiere at SXSW, where the two discussed their bromance and whether or not Pee-wee's Big Holiday is a prequel.
Judd Apatow knows a thing or two about manchildren. He’s built an entire career chronicling the exploits of immature boys straining for maturity against the pull of their juvenile urges. Apatow’s latest producing effort, though, presents an entirely different sort of overgrown kid: Pee-wee Herman, who’s less of an adult with the impulses of a child as a child in the body of an adult...
There are few TV shows as purely, innocently, and energetically delightful as Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the Saturday morning vehicle for Paul Reubens’ grey-suited man-child. An adult perpetually trapped at the stage of early boyhood in which kids mostly say funny nonsensical things and that’s it, Pee-Wee and his colorful gang of anthropomorphic pals brought a hefty dose of camp humor to the happy shiny
Whatever your feelings on FOX’s Gotham, few would argue that Robin Taylor’s Penguin proved an early highlight of the show, accented by screen legend Carol Kane as his eccentric mother. Now, the Penguin family lineage grows even odder, as Pee-wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens signs on to play Penguin’s father (again) in Gotham Season 2.
After teasing their upcoming original film lineup for some time now, Netflix has finally announced release dates for three major titles: Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation, the company’s first original film acquisition for exclusive distribution; Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, which marks Paul Reubens’ big screen return as the beloved, iconic character; and that Adam Sandler comedy western movie that’s been causing quite a fuss.