Happy Birthday Mr Bean

I’m not sure what arrangement Tiger TV/Aspect had with Thames, but Mr Bean was only made for Thames up to the end of 1992. After this time it was a Tiger production, usually for Central. I don’t believe it was a Tiger Production for Thames, and then a Central Presentation, at least for the post 1993 episodes. Certainly the loss of the franchise didn’t end Thames’ association with Mr Bean, as it continued to be released through Thames Video and VCI up until the end of 1990’s, probably when Thames Video ended as a brand, as well as its association with VCI.

It’s probably not much of a coincidence that Mr Bean has been added to BritBox in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately BritBox has the cropped episodes usually shown on ITV4. Amazon Prime Video has the 4:3 versions, which appear to be the DVD edits.

Same thing happened with the original videos, removed the end-of-part bumpers. However there are a couple of extra scenes on on the video releases that never appeared on the TV versions and they never appeared on the DVDs either. (note: I don't mean The Library and the Bus Stop, as those did appear on video and on the DVDs).

However the other thing that didn't appear on the DVDs for obvious reasons was the extended trailer(s) for the other Mr Bean videos at the time (the red, blue, green and purple ones - there was a yellow one as well but I don't think that included the trailer and they stopped the unique colours with the later videos, although they seem to have reappeared to an extent on some of the DVDs). This example from the green video (start at 55 seconds in if it doesn't go straight there):

I assume Fremantle distributed Mr Bean until Tiger Aspect was bought by Endemol now Banijay.

Somewhat OT but the original 1992 ITV Networking Arrangements approved by the ITC did not allow an independent producer to compete directly for a commission from the ITV Network Centre. Instead they needed to “go through” a licensee. Pact complained to the U.K. competition regulators in existence at the time (the Director General of Fair Trading / Mergers and Monopolies Commission) who upheld the complaint and the arrangements were then revised to allow indies to compete for commissions on the same basis as licensees

YouTube recommended this to me today, continuity from a repeat on ITV1 from Christmas 2004. The menu/ident is pretty nice, I liked this look better than the celebrities idents and the initial 2006 idents.

I remember watching that a few weeks ago because (funny enough) it was recommended to me too!

There was also this one from Christmas 2004, where a special news bulletin about the Indian Ocean tsunami prevented Mr Bean from being broadcast.

I'm in love with that smooth menu-to-ident transition.

I love the ITV1 "squares" package from 2004-2006, I cannot understand why they were used for such a short time, the ITV logo from 2006-2013 looked too...commercialised.

Would take this over today's idents in a heartbeat.

The menu format worked really well and is the sort of thing which would sit nicely alongside the ITV Creates idents.

The way they scheduled them on ITV always made them feel like a real treat as a kid.. was always excited to see one pop up in the TV guide.

I would have thought the most successful comedy character in history internationally. There is even a chain of Mr Bean branded coffee shops in China.

Largely due I think to the lack of dialogue, which makes it universal. Apart from the Back to School episode anyway, which I think has more dialogue than all the other episodes combined. And the movies... but better to not talk about them anyway.