--- title: Before Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman, There Was Pinky Lee description: As Pee-wee returns on Mar. 18, a look at his early TV inspiration canonical: https://time.com/4252836/pee-wee-herman-pinky-lee/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-17T16:00:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:45:21.860Z article:section: History og:title: Before Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman, There Was Pinky Lee og:description: Pee-wee returns on Mar. 18—and he owes a debt to a certain 1950s TV icon og:url: https://time.com/4252836/pee-wee-herman-pinky-lee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f2167a6f2acc9b2/69888a5acd1bba0af76ffc57/herman.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Paul Reubens In 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure' og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Before Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman, There Was Pinky Lee twitter:description: Pee-wee returns on Mar. 18—and he owes a debt to a certain 1950s TV icon twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f2167a6f2acc9b2/69888a5acd1bba0af76ffc57/herman.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch the 1950s TV Show That Inspired Pee-wee Herman  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 17, 2016 4:00 PM UTC  Paul Reubens rides a bike in a scene from the film 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure', 1985. Paul Reubens rides a bike in a scene from the film 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure', 1985.Warner Bros. / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 17, 2016 4:00 PM UTC As _Pee-wee’s Big Holiday_ comes to Netflix on Friday, the inimitable Paul Reubens character is firmly ensconced in pop culture. But when his movie _Pee-wee’s Big Adventure_ was released in 1985, TIME’s critic wasn’t so sure Pee-wee had staying power. “His big mystery lies in his strange appeal for adolescents,” the magazine [wrote](http://time.com/vault/issue/1985-08-26/page/66/). “Is he yet another vehicle through which they can sentimentalize their childhoods? Is he just the latest grotesque fad? Is he to the Reagan era what Pinky Lee was to Eisenhower’s? Impossible to say. But fair warning: this movie could induce terminal boredom in adults and rot the minds of the young.” It wouldn’t be long before critics were singing a much more positive tune—TIME’s later review of _Big Top Pee-wee_ [praised](http://time.com/vault/issue/1988-08-01/page/69/) _Big Adventure_‘s “pop-art surrealism”—but that 1985 examination got at least one thing right: Pee-wee was the parodic Pinky Lee of this era. In fact, by [many](https://books.google.com/books?id=jKdmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40&dq=pee-wee+inspired+by+pinky+lee&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnu%5FKpx7TLAhXJ8j4KHfn7BrsQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=pee-wee%20inspired%20by%20pinky%20lee&f=false) [accounts](https://books.google.com/books?id=5y9zBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA82&dq=pinky+lee+and+pee+wee+herman&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5hcWGn7TLAhULPT4KHerJBo0Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=pinky%20lee%20and%20pee%20wee%20herman&f=false), Pinky Lee was one of Reubens’ inspirations for the character. So who was Pinky Lee? Born Pincus Leff, he was a comedian who brought his vaudeville background to children’s television. _The Pinky Lee Show,_ which he created and starred in, ran for two years during the format’s _Howdy Doody_\-led infancy—much to some adults’ chagrin. In 1954, a list of shows “unfit” for children [called](http://time.com/vault/issue/1954-03-08/page/60/) his performance “highly unmasculine.” That same year, TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1954-10-18/page/117/) that “few adults are sufficiently strong-fibered” to watch it. (The frenetic pace of the show was a particular sore spot for many parents—even though the show can feel slower and softer than much of today’s kids’ TV.) In late 1955 Lee [collapsed](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19550921&id=xzMjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-ZkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2589,1043899&hl=en) on the air due to what was thought to be exhaustion, and [not too long](http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/04/04/84930581.html?pageNumber=59) after the show was cancelled. Watching the show now, it’s clear that Lee’s influence has endured: \[archiveorg ThePinkyLeeShow width=640 height=480 frameborder=0 webkitallowfullscreen=true mozallowfullscreen=true\] Lee [died](http://time.com/vault/issue/1993-04-19/page/26/) in 1993 at the age of 85. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4252836/pee-wee-herman-pinky-lee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4252836/pee-wee-herman-pinky-lee/"},"headline":"Watch the 1950s TV Show That Inspired Pee-wee Herman","datePublished":"2016-03-17T16:00:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:45:21.860Z","description":"Pee-wee returns on Mar. 18","url":"https://time.com/4252836/pee-wee-herman-pinky-lee/","keywords":["Television","movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f2167a6f2acc9b2/69888a5acd1bba0af76ffc57/herman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f2167a6f2acc9b2/69888a5acd1bba0af76ffc57/herman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Paul Reubens In 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure'","caption":"Paul Reubens In 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure'","creditText":"Warner Bros. / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4252836/pee-wee-herman-pinky-lee/","name":"Watch the 1950s TV Show That Inspired Pee-wee Herman"}}]}] ```