Comedy at its best--The Bean Scene

Whats the best comedy show according to you???? well if u ask me the only show which comes to my mind when it comes to comedy is Mr.Bean!! Rowan Atkinson is the King of Comedy according to me and this post is dedicated to Atkinson..... :)

Who is Rowan Atkinson?

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is an English comedian, actor and writer, famous for his title roles in the British television comedies Blackadder and Mr. Bean. He has been listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians.




Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham in 1955. His parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and his wife Ella May (née Bambridge), who had married on 29 June 1945. His elder brother, Rodney Atkinson, is a eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election in 2000. Atkinson was raised Anglican. He was educated at Durham Choristers School, followed by St Bees School, and studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University. He continued with an MSc at The Queen's College, Oxford, first achieving notice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1976. At Oxford, he also acted and performed early sketches for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), the Oxford Revue and the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC), meeting writer Richard Curtis and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.[more...]

The Bean Scene

Mr. Bean is a British comedy television series of 14 half-hour episodes starring Rowan Atkinson as the title character. Different episodes were written by Rowan Atkinson, Robin Driscoll, Richard Curtis and one by Ben Elton. The self-titled first episode was broadcast on 1 January 1990, with the final episode, "Goodnight, Mr. Bean", on 31 October 1995 Based on a character developed by Rowan Atkinson at university, the series followed the exploits of Mr. Bean, described by Atkinson as "a child in a grown man's body", in solving various problems presented by everyday tasks and often causing disruption in the process. During its five year run the series gained large UK audience figures, including 18.74 million for the 1992 episode "The Trouble With Mr Bean", which was the recipient of a number of international awards, including the Rose d'Or, and has had an enduring effect on popular culture. The show has been sold in over 200 territories worldwide, and has inspired two feature films and an animated cartoon spin-off.

Bean's show has four major characters :-

Mr.Bean

The title character, played by Rowan Atkinson, is a slow-witted, sometimes ingenious, selfish and generally likable buffoon who brings various unusual schemes and connivances to everyday tasks. He lives alone in his small flat in Highbury, North London, and is almost always seen in hisgenerally only a few mumbled words. His first name (he names himself "Bean" to others) and profession, if any, are never trademark tweed jacket and skinny red tie. Mr. Bean rarely speaks, and when he does it is mentioned, though he has been shown in the first episode to have a strong knowledge of trigonometry. (In the first film adaptation, on his passport "Mr." appears under the "first name" field and he is shown employed as a guard at London's National Gallery. In Mr. Bean's Holiday, "Rowan" is seen on his passport name field. Mr. Bean often seems unaware of basic aspects of the way the world works, and the programme usually features his attempts at what would normally be considered simple tasks, such as going swimming, redecorating or taking an exam. The humour largely comes from his original (and often absurd) solutions to any problems and his total disregard for others when solving them, his pettiness, and occasional malevolence.[more...]

Teddy

Teddy is Mr. Bean's teddy bear, generally regarded as Mr. Bean's best friend. Although inanimate, the bear is often privy to Mr. Bean's various schemes and doubles as a good dish cloth or paint brush in an emergency. The bear is a dark brown, knitted oddity with button eyes and sausage-shaped limbs, invariably ending up broken in half or in various other states of destruction and disfiguration. Occasionally, Bean pretends Teddy is animate. For example, when Mr. Bean hypnotizes Teddy, he snaps his fingers and the bear's head falls backwards as if it has fallen asleep instantly (Bean used his finger to prop Teddy's head up). Certainly, Bean behaves as if the bear is real, buying it a Christmas present or trying not to wake it in the mornings. Mr. Bean seems to have a supply of Teddy bears, as his bear was decapitated ("Mr. Bean in Room 426") and shrunken in the wash ("Tee Off, Mr. Bean"), and has been revived in later episodes.

Mr.Bean's Mini

Mr. Bean's car, a late 1970s MK IV British Leyland Mini 1000, developed a character of sorts. At first, an orange 1969 Morris Mini MK II was Mr. Bean's vehicle of choice, but this was destroyed in a crash at the end of the first episode. From then on, the car was a 1977 model , luminous lime green in colour with a black bonnet. It made its first appearance in "The Curse of Mr. Bean".

The Mini was central to several antics, such as Mr. Bean getting dressed in it while driving or steering it while sitting in an armchair strapped to the roof. It also had a number of innovative security measures; Mr. Bean fitted the door with a bolt-latch and padlock, rather than use the lock fitted on the car, and he always removed the steering wheel instead of the key, which formed a running joke in several episodes, at one point deterring a car thief. The car, confused with another demonstration car of the exact same model , was crushed by a tank in "Back to School, Mr. Bean", but returned in later episodes, perhaps having actually been the identical demonstration car from that point on.[more...]

Irma Gobb

Mr. Bean's "girlfriend" Irma Gobb, played by Matilda Ziegler, appeared in a number of episodes. episodes). The character later appeared in the animated series. She is treated relatively inconsiderately by Bean, who appears to regard her more as a friend and companion than a love interest. However, he does become jealous when she dances with another man at a disco in "Mr. Bean Goes to Town", and she certainly expects him to propose to her on Christmas Day in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean", with his failure to do so resulting in her leaving him for good (she does not appear in any subsequent The spin-off book Mr. Bean's Diary (1993) states that Mr. Bean met Irma Gobb at a local library.


Production n Broadcast

The programme was produced by Tiger Television, later renamed Tiger Aspect network by , for the ITVThames Television from 1990 to 1992 and then by Central from 1993 to 1995. After its original run it has been shown repeatedly on satellite channels such as Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy 2 , and internationally.

The record selling UK videos were withdrawn shortly before the release of the Bean movie and DVDs are being released on an annual basis as of 2004.

Awards

The first episode won the prestigious Golden Rose, as well as two other major prizes at the 1991 Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival in Montreux. In the UK, the episode "The Curse of Mr. Bean" was nominated for a number of BAFTA awards; "Best Light Entertainment Programme" in 1991, "Best Comedy" (Programme or Series) in 1992, and Rowan Atkinson was nominated three times for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" in 1991, 1992 and 1994. "Mr. Bean" also won the Norwegian comedy award "Tidleg Sædavgang".

Bean Movie Adaptations

Mr.Bean(1997)


Directed by Mel Smith ,the movie grossed over USD$230 million globally on a budget estimated at $22 million

Mr.Bean's Holiday(2004)


The film followed the character on an eventful journey across France for a holiday in the French Riviera, which after a number of misfortunes culminates in an unscheduled screening of his video diary at the Cannes Film Festival. It was directed by Steve Bendelack and according to Atkinson is probably the last appearance of the character.

The Animated Series


Mr. Bean was revived in a 2002 animated cartoon series, again featuring little actual dialogue, with most being either little soundbites or mumbling.


External links

Official site -Mr.Bean

Review of Mr.Bean's Holiday @ imdb

Episode Guide,Photos,Videos,Cast n Crew

Get ur copy of Mr.Beans Holiday here

Mr.Bean Themes for mobiles

Youtube playlist

Here are some torrent links for Downloads of Mr.Bean

Complete Mr.Bean on one DVD

Complete Set of Episodes

Mr.Bean's Holiday (avi) --> Download here