Reel Rundown: ‘Pee-wee as Himself’ two-part documentary provides glimpse into the reclusive life of Paul Reubens

When the name Pee-wee Herman comes up, some people might think of the 1985 Tim Burton film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” Others might remember the children’s television show “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” which ran from 1986 to 1991.

Still others might consider something more negative: the headline news about the 1991 arrest for indecent exposure of Paul Reubens, the man who created the Pee-wee character.

All these topics and more are addressed in “Pee-wee as Himself,” a two-part Max series that was directed by Matt Wolf and is based on 40 hours of interviews with Reubens, who died in 2023.

Much of the series, each part of which is 100 minutes long, involves Wolf posing questions to Reubens. And with the actor’s face filling most of the camera’s frame, you’d suspect that he wouldn’t be able to keep secret the truth of who he is.

Yet Reubens’ very ability to dissemble, and to keep Wolf at bay, is a big part of his authentic self. It helped fuel his ability to play a character so well that, for a time, he had trouble distinguishing who was Paul and who was Pee-wee.

Wolf provides much of the typical biographical material, covering Reubens’ early years in New York and then Florida. How little Paul was entranced by the circus, which had its winter headquarters nearby. And how he pursued acting in college before heading to California where, eventually, he connected with the improvisational comedy troupe the Groundlings.

That’s the same group, by the way, that has given starts to so many other stars, including “Saturday Night Live” cast members Phil Hartman, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell and Spokane’s own Julia Sweeney.

It was while at the Groundlings that Reubens created the Pee-wee character. And with the support of Hartman and others, including Lynne Marie Stewart, he crafted the stage production “The Pee-wee Herman Show.”

Based on the success of that show, Reubens was able to attract the attention of the Warner Bros. movie studio, hire Burton and make the movie that grossed more than $41 million (on a $7 million budget). And that success enabled him to go on to produce the Emmy Award-winning children’s show.

But there was, as usual, a down side. Reubens was leading a hidden life, afraid that if he were to admit he was gay it would almost certainly wreck his career. That was, he admits, part of the bargain he’d made with the devil to achieve stardom.

Wolf interviews a number of the people who knew and/or worked with Reubens, from director Burton and his longtime collaborators John Moody and Stewart (who played Miss Yvonne on “Pee-wee’s Playhouse”) to his personal assistant Allison Berry. And he augments those talking-head sequences with reams of archival footage, ranging from early family photos to sequences from Reubens’ movies, stage and television show.

But Wolf always comes back to Reubens, whose death following a six-year battle with cancer took everyone by surprise except for those closest to the reclusive star. What becomes clear is that neither Wolf nor Reubens totally agreed about what shape the documentary should take, and that Reubens had trouble trusting that Wolf would get the story right.

Whether he would have approved of the final product is debatable. One thing is clear, though. Despite how much he may have wanted for people to know the real him, Paul Reubens most likely will be remembered less for being himself than for playing the obstreperous boy with the red bow tie.

Maybe, though, that’s how it should be. Fiction is usually easier to accept than the complex shadow of reality.