See How Paul Reubens Shined a Light on the Lone Star State in Pee-wee's Big Adventure at Texas Theatre

The death of actor and comedian Paul Reubens seemed sudden, and not just because he kept his six-year battle with cancer private. Pee-wee Herman, the character he created, starred in movies like Pee-wee's Big Adventure and the Saturday morning kids show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and he appeared incapable of aging.

Reubens died on Sunday at 70 at his home in Los Angeles, according to The Associated Press. Just hearing his age sounds strange. He'd been playing Pee-wee Herman on and off for what feels like half a century but not in a tiring way. Pee-wee would pop back into our lives in movies and on TV, and it always felt like the time around him had stopped. He would bounce on stage in that iconic grey suit and red bow tie screaming and laughing like a giant kid.

The mega movie hit Pee-wee's Big Adventure thrust Pee-wee Herman permanently into the pop culture lexicon and launched the film careers of greats like director Tim Burton and composer Danny Elfman. The Texas Theatre is bringing Pee-wee's Big Adventure back to the big screen for two showings at 7:15 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Reubens created the character in the late 1970s as a member of the Los Angeles improv comedy group The Groundlings, where other future stars would find their own way under Reubens' drive and generosity with the spotlight. He gave practically every one one of his Groundlings friends part of the credit for his success.

Future Saturday Night Live star Phil Hartman became close friends with Reubens, who cast him as the cantankerous Captain Carl in his popular late-night comedy show The Pee-wee Herman Show, a character that he carried over to his HBO special of the same name and his Saturday morning TV show.

Cassandra Peterson had a pivotal role as a hard-fighting biker chick in Pee-wee's Big Adventure. In an iconic scene, Pee-wee wins over the bikers with his goofy dance to The Champs' sax classic "Tequila." Petersen built her career with that early success as the mysterious horror host Elvira.

Actor Lawrence Fishburne entered Reubens' life at the height of Pee-wee's television popularity when he was cast as the rootin-tootin' Cowboy Curtis on Pee-wee's Playhouse, helping Fishburne fulfill a lifelong dream of playing a cowboy, he told Conan O'Brien in 2017. Fishburne went to become an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actor in numerous categories and genres. 
Reubens seemed to relish the chance to turn the spotlight on more than just himself and his characters. He had a love for kitschy art and collectibles that played out in characters like Pee-wee, who would surround himself in whimsical, retro toys and throwback decorations. Maybe that's also what inspired him to make Texas a central plot point of his big cinematic break.

If you haven't seen Pee-wee's Big Adventure, then what the hell are you waiting for? It is a perfect comedy movie not just for the character but for the genre. It encapsulates the spirit of Reubens' comedy and his love of the gaudy and goofy.

Our hero goes on a coast-to-coast quest to find his beloved bicycle, stolen and sold by a sniveling rich brat named Francis, played by Mark Holton. In his desperation, Pee-wee turns to a fraudulent psychic who claims that his bike is being stored in the basement of the Alamo. He hitchhikes to San Antonio, only to discover that the Alamo has no basement. But that's just a setup for Herman's slightly smaller adventure in Texas.

The scenes of Pee-wee playing a cowboy toy with Texas culture rather than make fun of it. Reubens knows the Old West ways of Texas are woven into the fabric of Americana, but the jokes he wrote into the script with Hartman and Michael Varhol embrace its silliness without being cynical. It's impossible for Pee-wee to be cynical about anything. He refused to ever grow up.

Pee-wee accidentally gets roped (no pun intended) into riding a bull in a rodeo by posing as a cowboy while evading a jealous, giant boyfriend. He breaks the ring record but gets bucked and suffers a classic case of television amnesia. A group of concerned cowfolk check on him.

"Can't you remember anything?" one cowpoke asks Pee-wee. He responds, "I remember...the Alamo." The cowboys whoop and holler the way cowboys should.
One of the best jokes of the movie happens during a phone call to his secret crush Dottie, played by E.G. Daily. Dottie doesn't believe Pee-wee is calling him from Texas, so to prove it Pee-wee belts out the lines, "The stars at night/are big and bright..." and holds up the phone while the folks around him clap and sing back, "Deep in the heart of Texas!" It's an enduring bit. Just walk into any crowded space in the state where people are corralling around and belt out those first few lines and at least one person will clap back to finish the tune.

By the end of the film, the cowboys and all the other folks he's met along the way as he tries to retrieve his stolen bike become Pee-wee's friends. They join him at a drive-in for the premiere of his life story that's been re-recycled into something else entirely. It doesn't matter, because Pee-wee accepts everyone the way a starry eyed kid would, and Texans everywhere should be grateful for it.