charge on Reubens's record but obligated him to 75 hours of community service. As part of his service, he created, produced and financed two antidrug public-service announcements. Despite the negative publicity, many artists who knew Reubens, such as Cyndi Lauper, Annette Funicello, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Valeria Golino, voiced support. Bill Cosby defended Reubens, saying, "Whatever [Reubens has] done, this is being blown all out of proportion." Others who knew Reubens, such as Pee-wee's Playhouse production designer Gary Panter, S. Epatha Merkerson and Big Top Pee-wee director Randal Kleiser, also spoke in support. Reubens's fans organized support rallies after CBS canceled the reruns, picketing in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The television news magazine A Current Affair received "tens of thousands" of responses to a Pee-wee telephone survey in which callers supported Reubens by a nine-to-one ratio. Reubens did not offer interviews or appear on talk shows, but he did appear as Pee-wee at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards on September 5, asking the audience, "Heard any good jokes lately?" He received a standing ovation. Reubens appeared as Pee-wee only once in 1992, when he participated in a Grand Ole Opry tribute to Minnie Pearl. 1990s and comeback in Blow During the 1990s, Reubens kept a low profile, dedicating himself to writing and collecting a variety of things, "everything from fake food, to lamps", although he did do some dubbing and took small parts in films such as 1992's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Tim Burton's Batman Returns (Reubens portrayed the Penguin's father) and 1996's Matilda and Dunston Checks In. In 1993, he voiced the character Lock in another one of Burton's productions, The Nightmare Before Christmas. (Reubens later voiced Lock for the video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge in 2004.) Reubens dated actress Debi Mazar in 1993 after he started attending film premieres with her. Reubens has since credited Mazar with ending his depression from his arrest. During the mid-1990s, 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