| "Mr. Bean" | |
|---|---|
| Mr. Bean episode | |
| Episode no. | Episode 1 |
| Directed by | John Howard Davies |
| Written by | |
| Featured music | "All Creatures of Our God and King" |
| Original air date | 1 January 1990 |
| Running time | 25:53 |
| Guest appearances | |
"Mr. Bean" is the pilot episode of the British television series Mr. Bean , produced by Tiger Television for Thames Television. It was first broadcast on ITV on 1 January 1990 and was watched by 13.45 million viewers during its original transmission.
The episode, written by Ben Elton, Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, also featured special guest Richard Briers alongside Paul Bown, Rudolph Walker (who would later co-star with Atkinson in Ben Elton's The Thin Blue Line ) and a cameo appearance by theme music composer Howard Goodall.
Mr. Bean drives to a mathematics exam in his Mini, causing an accident with a blue Reliant Regal on the way. Upon reaching the college, Bean readies himself by taking out multiple pens, a policeman doll, a Pink Panther doll, and a Mickey Mouse alarm clock. He is alarmed to find that the exam is on calculus, having only prepared for trigonometry. After numerous attempts to cheat off his neighbour, Bean falls asleep.
Minutes before the exam concludes, Bean realises that he had the option between two papers: a green calculus paper and a white trigonometry paper. He frantically tries to complete the trigonometry paper, but his pen runs out of ink, prompting him to steal another student's pen. Despite the exam finishing and multiple warnings, Bean continues writing until his alarm clock goes off.
Later, Bean visits the beach and attempts to change into his swimming trunks, but worries about exposing himself to a man in a nearby deckchair. He devises a convoluted method to put his trunks on over his trousers and then remove his trousers from underneath. However, once he accomplishes this, Bean notices the man picking up a white cane and departing, revealing that the man was blind all along.
Bean attends a service at Stanmer Church and sits next to a man named Mr. Sprout. During the sermon, he sneezes and wipes his nose with his coat pocket. He then tries to discreetly eat a sweet, but accidentally drops it into his shirt. Bean retrieves the sweet from his clothes, but when he tries to finally eat it, Mr. Sprout's sudden glance makes Bean accidentally deposit it into the same pocket he used to wipe his nose.
During the end credits, Mr. Bean encounters the Reliant again, but turns down a dead-end street and crashes his Mini.
Following success with his character during his introduction at the Montreal comedy festival Just for Laughs in 1987, a script was written by Ben Elton, making this the only script he wrote for the series. Thames Television commissioned the pilot in 1989. The company's head of light entertainment, John Howard Davies, personally oversaw the first three episodes of the series as its producer and director.
The pilot itself was produced during the latter part of 1989, with location scenes filmed on OB videotape around the Peacehaven and Stanmer areas of East Sussex, [1] including Stanmer House and Stanmer Church. [2] The interior scenes recorded before a live audience at Thames' Teddington Studios complex.
As the episode was merely a pilot, it was simply called "Mr. Bean" and did not feature opening titles, nor the choral theme tune. Instead, the episode's title was superimposed along with initial credits during the scene of Bean's journey to the exam hall, with the closing credits during the final scene. The remastered version of the episode adds the standard opening titles and removes the credits from the opening scene.
In 1991, it was announced 20th Century Fox had a feature film adaptation of Mr. Bean in development. They remade Act 1 into a short film: Mr. Bean Takes an Exam and attached it to their theatrical releases. It was also included on the UK VHS rental release of Hot Shots! Part Deux . [3] John McGlynn portrayed the fellow student and John Savident portrayed the exam invigilator.
The pilot won the 1990 Golden Rose award, [4] [5] with the church sketch later performed live by both Rowan Atkinson and Angus Deayton as part of a comedy tour in 1991. This same sketch inspired the storyline for "Ray of Sunshine" from Mr. Bean: The Animated Series .