Paul Reubens, A.K.A. “Pee-Wee Herman,” Is Arrested For Indecent Exposure
Sarasota County Sheriff’s DepartmentPaul Reubens was arrested in 1991, and he would have other legal trouble later on.
In the 1980s, Paul Reubens became famous for his comedy character, Pee-wee Herman. In 1981, The Pee-wee Herman Show debuted on stage, leading to an HBO special. In 1985, Reubens made his first movie, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. And from 1986 to 1990, Reubens’ show Pee-wee’s Playhouse ran on CBS. But then, Reubens found himself at the center of a scandal.
In 1991, Reubens was arrested alongside three others at South Trail Cinema, an adult movie theater, in Sarasota, Florida, for indecent exposure. Reubens eventually pleaded no contest to the charge of exposing a sexual organ and he was required to complete 75 hours of community service.
“Obviously I wasn’t thinking,” Reubens told NBC News in 2004. “I certainly wasn’t thinking to myself, ‘You’re a children’s show host. Your show is still on television.’ I wasn’t making those lists. I felt like they were insinuating like, well, I was sitting in you know, a darkened movie theater, in my Pee-wee suit… It didn’t seem like anyone’s business but my own.”
Photo by Alan LightPaul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman at the 1988 Academy Awards.
When he was pressed about the indecent exposure charge, Reubens denied that things had happened that way at all. “I maintained at the time that it didn’t happen and I maintain that still,” he stated.
However, the charge tainted Reubens’ reputation as a children’s entertainer. And he’d have more legal trouble in the years to come. In 2002, Reubens was arrested again after a police raid of his home turned up materials depicting children under the age of 18 engaged in sexual conduct.
Reubens, however, claimed that the materials were artistic and not pornographic in nature. Ultimately, the child pornography charge was dropped, with Reubens pleading guilty to a lesser charge of obscenity.
