I'm Jesse Thorn. It's Bullseye. Paul Rubens died last week. He had an incredible life,

an amazing career. He was on the gong show, literally dozens of times. He was a legend in the

comedy troupe, The Groundlings. He was a gifted actor. But if you know Paul Rubens,

it's probably because you know his greatest creation, Peewee Herman.

At the front desk.

From Maximumfund.org and NPR, it's Bullseye.

This week, from the archives, my conversation with Paul Rubens. Plus,

Peewee Herman's conversation with his close personal friend, Charo. That's all coming up

on Bullseye. It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. So, right up top, I just want to say this.

Peewee Herman was everything to me. I grew up with divorced parents. They split custody,

almost exactly 50-50, except that every Friday night, I was with my mom.

And so, that meant every Saturday morning. I was with her too. And every Saturday morning,

I got up, turned on the TV, and like almost every other kid, I watched the cartoons. And for the most

part, Saturday morning cartoons in the late 1980s, we're not talking about art. We're talking about

US acres, which I think was a farm where a talking egg lived. Honestly, that's about all I

remember about US acres. While I was watching TV, my mom would be in another room reading or weaving.

The Saturday morning stuff, it meant nothing to her. It's not that she was above it. It just didn't

mean anything to her. And so, she'd do her own thing. Until Peewee's playhouse came on.

And then she'd come in and she'd sit with me. And when somebody on the show said the secret word,

she'd scream real loud. We both, that was for us, that was our thing.

Those other shows that I watched on Saturday morning, some of them were awful, some of them were fine.

Probably there were a few that were even kind of good. I mean, maybe muppet babies. I can't remember.

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