Paul Reubens he had been developing during the last few years, "Pee-wee Herman". With the help of other Groundlings like John Paragon, Phil Hartman and Lynne Marie Stewart, Pee-wee acquired a small group of followers and Reubens took his show to The Roxy Theatre where ""The Pee-wee Herman Show"" ran for five sellout months, doing midnight shows for adults and weekly matinees for children, moving into the mainstream when HBO aired "The Pee-wee Herman Show" in 1981 as part of their series "On Location". Reubens also appeared as Pee-wee in the 1980 film "Cheech & Chong's Next Movie". Although it was Reubens
Paul Reubens played a recurring role on the TV series "Murphy Brown". The role earned him positive reviews and his first and only non-Pee-wee Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. He appeared six times on the show between 1995 and 1997. Afterward, Reubens began working on an NBC pilot entitled "Meet the Muckles", a show that would be based on "You Can't Take It with You". The project got stuck in development hell, and was later dropped when Reubens' ideas grew too elaborate and expensive, although Philip Rosenthal blamed NBC's negative response on Reubens being on a "blacklist".