MTV’s Big Surprise : Network Scores a TV Wallop With Pee-wee

So who was responsible for what may well be the most memorable awards show stunt of the year?

Pee-wee Herman’s dramatic public emergence on the MTV Video Music Awards Thursday night, after weeks of hiding with friends, was the inspiration of MTV executives searching for a way to open their live show from the Universal Amphitheatre with a wallop.

“It was part of regular MTV brainstorming,” said Doug Herzog, MTV’s senior vice president of music programming, on Friday. “We were sitting around thinking of what interesting things we could do with the show and we just came up with the idea of Pee-wee opening the show.”

Questions whether Paul Reubens, who was arrested at an adult movie theater in his hometown of Sarasota, Fla., in July on charges of indecent exposure, would ever don the Pee-wee persona again were humorously erased on the Video Music Awards when Pee-wee stepped out before Van Halen took the stage.

“Heard any good jokes lately?” Pee-wee asked in his trademark adolescent squeak, before a house of screaming fans.

When the crowd noise continued to swell like a tidal wave of support washing over Reubens, Pee-wee said: “Oh, all right, shut up already!”

The appearance was short and sweet, but effective. The Los Angeles publicity firm Bender, Goldman & Helper, which was retained by Reubens shortly after his arrest to handle the media, agreed that the forum was perfect for Reubens.

“(Reubens) was concerned about what he will say and what he will do when it comes time to say something to the public,” said agency partner Larry Goldman. Goldman was contacted by MTV executives several weeks ago.

“(Reubens) felt this was the first step in that direction, to make contact with the public again--to get that part of the comeback out of the way. We felt fans should see him and know he’s doing OK.”

Reubens’ regard for MTV was a factor too, Goldman said, in his selecting this awards show for his post-scandal debut. Reubens has a pretrial hearing at the end of October for the indecent exposure charge, but there is no trial date yet.

“MTV has had a long-term relationship with him for years,” Goldman said. “After the incident they showed their support, which he appreciated. When we started thinking about what we could do to let his fans know he’s fine and doing well and he’s on his way back, appearing on the MTV awards was a natural. That audience is his audience and he’s comfortable with them.”

Contacting Reubens, MTV’s Herzog said, was easy. The hard part was convincing him to do it. “He wasn’t sure that it was the right time or the right place,” Herzog said. “But we kept after him. We were going back and forth for a while. He needed to get comfortable with the idea. When he got comfortable with it, he agreed.”

The big decision was to keep his appearance secret.

“We thought it would be more fun if people didn’t know anything about him coming on the show--and make it a surprise,” Herzog said.

Goldman said the actor-comedian wanted his appearance kept a secret too. “He didn’t want it turned into a media circus. He didn’t want people close to him to be inundated by a million calls from people wanting to know if it was true or not.”

Keeping it a secret wasn’t easy. “With a big show like this, with all the people involved it’s hard not to let something like that leak out,” Herzog said. “Most of the staff involved in the show didn’t know. Most of the MTV staff didn’t know. Only a handful of people knew about it--the people who were working on getting it done.”

On the afternoon of the show when Reubens showed up, he was surrounded by tight security. “We worked this whole plan where he had a separate entrance and nobody knew he was there,” Herzog said. “Most people didn’t know until he got out there on stage. On the list of artists and special events, he was just listed as a special guest.”

Did MTV consider having Reubens appear without his Pee-wee costume?

“We’d asked him to appear as Pee-wee,” Herzog said. “That’s the only way we wanted it.”

Reubens, of course, was elated by the fan response, although he was nervous before the show. One person backstage said he got down and prayed before he took the stage.

“He was relieved that it was over,” Goldman said. “He didn’t know what to expect. He was very nervous before the show. He felt that 6,000 or so people in the theater were a link to the millions of fans who have shown their support.”

Reubens left the theater immediately after the show, to avoid the media blitz. What has Bender, Goldman & Helper advised as Reubens’ next move?

“It’s not clear,” Goldman said. “He still has a trial he has to deal with. His attorney had advised him not to make any statements at this point. He’s had offers of things for him to do but nothing concrete that I can talk about.

“It’s important that the fans realize that he’s concerned about what happened to him and has been very upset over it. We have to proceed very lightly and delicately.”