Pee-wee's Playhouse

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Alison Macor

Given its action-packed innovation, Pee-wee's Playhouse was an exhausting show to produce, and by 1989 Reubens decided not to renew his contract with CBS. Instead, he spent the next year working overtime to produce two years' worth of episodes so that he could fulfill his contract to the network and retire the character for good. In the summer of 1991, having completed production on the final episodes, Reubens was visiting family in Sarasota, Florida, when he was arrested in an adult theater for indecent exposure, touching off a media scandal whose hallmark was witty headlines such as "Today's Secret Word: Suspended." CBS abruptly canceled the remaining episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse, and Reubens spent months trying to resuscitate his career while parents tried to explain to their children what had happened to their favorite television character.