Mark Mothersbaugh, who made music for Paul Reubens’ Pee-wee’s Playhouse series and his 2016 swan song, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, has reflected on his friendship with the late comedian in a new interview with Yahoo Music. The Devo frontman, who went on to score various Wes Anderson films and blockbusters like Thor: Ragnarok, said that Reubens gave him his big break on Pee-wee’s Playhouse. “It totally changed the trajectory of my career,” he told interviewer Lyndsey Parker.
The pair first worked together on the obscure 1980 film Pray TV, Reubens’ first film role, which starred Devo as a fictional futuristic band. Reubens originally asked Mothersbaugh to make the music for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, his Tim Burton–directed breakout feature, but a scheduling clash meant it instead went to Danny Elfman. When he came on for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Mothersbaugh recalled Reubens saying, “Here’s my only notes. When it’s something sad, make it really, really sad. When it’s something happy, make it really, really happy. When it’s something shocking, make it really, really shocking.” Added Mothersbaugh, “He just wanted everything to be done to extremes.”
He described the partnership as “an ideal, perfect situation” that encouraged him to stay in TV. “We were all thinking outside of the traditional box. Paul had never done [a TV series] before, so he had no reason to be worried or think maybe it’d be a bad idea to take a chance on somebody who’d never scored a TV show before. It was one of those shows that I don’t know if it could ever happen again. They gave him so much artistic leeway…. Maybe the closest show to creating an energy and enthusiasm like that was Yo Gabba Gabba!”
“It’s just shocking and sad that he’s gone,” Mothersbaugh said. “I really didn’t expect it. We’d even been talking about working on an animated version of Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”
Head to Yahoo Music to read the full interview, and find other artists’ tributes to Reubens in Pitchfork’s obituary.
