Mr. Bean, the invention of Rowan Atkinson, reached 30 years old in 2021. Eleven years had passed since Rowan Atkinson's conception of Mr. Bean in the late 1970s before Mr. Bean's own television program debuted. When he did, the character was an immediate success.
From 1990 through 1995, and again in two tremendously successful films released in 1997 and 2007, Mr. Bean became one of the great British comedy characters.
Mr. Bean, created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, was very successful with family audiences.
Let's look at few interesting facts you may not have known about Mr. Beans:
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The character was imagined many years ago
Mr. Bean was invented by Rowan Atkinson when he was pursuing a master's degree in electrical engineering at Oxford University.
The character made his debut, although under the name Robert Box, in Atkinson's one-off comedy Canned Laughter in 1979.
In the early 1980s, Atkinson appeared as Mr. Bean at the Edinburgh Fringe and at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.
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He almost had a different name
After reworking the Robert Box character, Atkinson chose to change his name.
However, Mr. Bean wasn't always Mr. Bean; he was initially Mr. White, who was far less charming.
Atkinson named his character Mr. Cauliflower after realizing that Mr. White didn't seem quite right. Mr. Bean was the subsequent and, luckily, final candidate.
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He was based on a famous French movie character
Monsieur Hulot, who starred in six films by Jacques Tati between 1949 and 1974, was a foolish, mute figure who often found himself in unpleasant social situations.
In a 2015 interview, Atkinson remarked of Tati, "I adored his films, and Mr. Hulot's Holiday was a significant influence for me when I was 17 years old. He revealed to me a world to which I had never been exposed.
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Not just the British like a bit of Bean.
Mr. Bean has been an enormous hit in the United Kingdom, but it's not only we Brits who like his show.
Since its debut in the United Kingdom in 1990, the live-action Mr. Bean program has been sold to more than 190 countries around the world.
Mr. Bean is said to have aired somewhere throughout the world at any moment in the previous 25 years, with 70 regions now airing the live-action or animated series in syndication.
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He is more well-known than royalty
Clearly, Mr. Bean is recognized by audiences worldwide. However, you may be astonished by the character's genuine notoriety.
The findings of a survey conducted in 2015 to determine which British celebrities were best known among foreigners residing in the United Kingdom were startling.
It came out that Mr. Bean was more known among non-Brits than Prince William's bride and probable future queen, Princess Katherine.
We are aware about his given name
Uninformed viewers of Mr. Bean may believe that the only fact they know about the character is his surname, however this is not the case.
Throughout the series, Mr. Bean is shown writing his true name, and in one scene of the 1997 Mr. Bean film, we even see his passport.
Both parties affirm that Mr. Bean's first name is "Mr." Which makes his entire name Mr. Mr. Bean.
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Mr. Bean's flat differs between episodes
If you pay careful attention to the program, it seems that Mr. Bean has problems remaining in one position for very long.
Between each episode, Mr. Bean's flat undergoes a full transformation.
In some episodes, his living room doubles as his bedroom, yet in others, he has a two-room apartment with a separate bedroom.
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He talks that way because of Rowan Atkinson’s stutter
Mr. Bean's way of talking is one of his distinguishing qualities. When he does talk, his voice is silly and timid.
This was somewhat inspired by Rowan Atkinson's childhood difficulties with his speech. Atkinson had a debilitating stammer as a youngster, which he only overcame when he learnt to use performing as therapy years later.
Atkinson's primary difficulty has always been the letter B; this is why Mr. Bean pronounces his own name in an unusual manner.
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Bean's voice has been heard before
Rowan Atkinson did not create Mr. Bean overnight; he spent years perfecting the role on stage and occasionally in front of our eyes.
Mr. Bean's voice was originally used by Rowan Atkinson in the BBC comedy program Not the Nine O’clock News.
The first-time audiences heard Mr. Bean was when Atkinson used the same voice for the ‘man who likes toilets' sketch on that program.
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He is very popular on social media.
Considering what you now know about Mr. Bean and his degree of fame, it may not come as a surprise to you that the character is quite popular on social media.
On YouTube, Mr. Bean's videos have had more than 1,300,000,000 views, while on Facebook he has about 80,000,000 fans.
This places him above Will Smith, Taylor Swift, and McDonald's in terms of popularity. Not bad for a character whose television series ended 23 years ago.
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The show's viewership was enormous.
Mr. Bean was an instantaneous success with audiences, and The Trouble with Mr. Bean was the most popular Mr. Bean episode in terms of viewership.
It is the episode in which the protagonist visits the dentist and has a picnic in the park, where he encounters a troublesome wasp.
On January 1, 1992, the program aired in the United Kingdom to a record 18.74 million people.