Pee-Wee Herman

Paul Reubens was a veteran of comedy clubs (and several Cheech and Chong movies) when he hit upon the persona of Pee Wee Herman, a frantically bizarre man-child. He took the character on stage and hit it big. Eventually he created an entire stage review, modelled after a 1950s kiddies TV show that was like the real thing but on acid.

He developed a cult following and became a frequent guest on talk shows, always as Pee-Wee, never as Paul Reubens. His first film was an inexplicable hit and CBS approached him to front a show to compete with Saturday Night Live. But something got lost in the translation . . . By the time the smoke had cleared, CBS had given this host of a kids show parody his own kids show, smack bang in the middle of Saturday morning.

Pee-Wee's Playhouse was the wackiest thing to hit kid TV in years. It became an immediate hit and became (according to the Neilsen ratings) the most videotaped show in America. But things began to wane as the novelty of Pee-Wee started to wear off and his next movie bombed.

Paul eventually left Hollywood and moved to Florida. He was arrested there one night for masturbating in a porno cinema. The arrest received an abnormal amount of media attention and Pee-Wee Herman was dead. Mecko-lecka-hi mecka-heiny-ho!