Already in tears

I recently watched some eps. of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" on Amazon Prime, the first time I've seen any episodes since it went off the air umpteen years ago. I'm apprehensive about this docu. I'm not sure I want to know anymore about Paul Reubens than I already do. Nothing against him personally, but sometimes it's hard to re-watch stuff when you know more about its makers than you'd like. I mean, I can watch episodes of "Star Trek" from 1966-69, but Shatner's preening can be hard to take after we've heard so much about the off-camera antipathy towards him from the rest of the cast. And when someone creates an unforgettable character like Pee-Wee, I tend not to want to know the background of it. The magic is there in the show. We may be better off not knowing how the tricks are done.

This is up today

2-part documentary. I might watch this later tonight.

I watched part 1 last night and not sure this needed more. They haven't covered his scandal yet though. And probably could have shown less of his avant-garde years in college. That went on a bit long IMO. I did enjoy the Groundlings part a great deal. Mainly because of the great Phil Hartman. But nothing I've seen so far takes away the magic that is Pee-Wee Herman.

Watched all of it tonight. Beautifully made. I enjoyed every minute of it and found it really fascinating. His childhood, his super cool parents, the influences, the experimental early work. So much was a fun trip in nostalgia as well especially through the 80's with the Letterman show and the movie all the way up to the arrest and his appearance on MTV. Some of his pricklier side comes through in his sparring with the filmmaker and not entirely surprising of the bridges that got burned and egos bruised. I got a new found appreciation for the subversive surreal beauty of the TV show. All around fascinating and wow that last audio recording he made is just heartbreaking. He had such a massive collection of stuff I'd almost wish there was a separate doc on how all of it was dealt with after he died.

I watched part 2 last night and loved it. I still personally think part 1 spent way too much time on his childhood, teen and early adult years (college). Part 2 focused more on why I really tuned in. I had no idea about that second scandal. Or I had completely forgot about it. But watching infuriated me how they tried to destroy his life twice. And I'm so glad he rebounded both times. He had so many wonderful people around him to get him through that. The last 5 minutes were just heartbreaking. I'm a lifelong huge fan of Pee-Wee. I couldn't go to L.A. see that live Pee-Wee Show when it ran for a month, but was thrilled they brought it to Broadway 9 months later where it had a limited 7 week run. And I took the train up from D.C. to see it. Such a great night. Paul came outside afterwards and talked to fans.

That second incident was truly ugly. I remember the sensational headlines and it had the misfortune of being lumped in with the Jeffrey Jones charges. I'm guessing the unfinished interview portion would've had more of him directly addressing it instead of old interviews and acquaintances. Maybe he would've been asked if he regretted not fighting the charge when investigators had to comb through boxes and boxes of clearly old vintage material to find one to get an obscenity plea.

I was not that excited but then I watched Part I and immediately finished part 2 the next day.

Too bad there was no YouPorn in 1991 and that theater incident would have never happened.

It was nice that he was redeemed with a play and another movie.

I wish Big Top Pee Wee was on Blu-ray.

It's coming on UHD Blu-ray later this year.

I enjoyed this tremendously. Pee Wee's Playhouse was part of my Saturday morning routine. I had to watch it in on the black-and-white set in my parent's bedroom because the downstairs TV didn't pick up the channel it was broadcast on.

During the segment on Pee Wee's Big Adventure, I was hoping they were going to play the Siskel and Ebert clip where Roger hadn't seen the movie so it wasn't reviewed on their show, but when they did the Worst of 1985, Gene picked it for his list, and as he was showing the clip Roger goes, "I don't know, that looks pretty funny. I kind of want to see the movie now."

Amazon link?

Doubt it's on Amazon yet.

Here's some info though:
https://geekvibesnation.com/terror-v...wee-on-4k-uhd/

Cool will Big Adventure also get the 4k treatment?

Skip to 12:00.