Mr. Bean is one of the most loved comedy shows in the world, but here is a fact that surprises almost everyone: the show ran for six years from 1990 to 1995 and only had 15 episodes in total, that’s only around six and a half hours of content.
The British sitcom was created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis and produced by Tiger Aspect Productions. It was co-written by Atkinson alongside Curtis and Robin Driscoll, with the pilot also written by Ben Elton. The series originally aired on ITV, beginning on 1 January 1990.
The character of Mr. Bean, a clumsy, almost speechless man who causes chaos wherever he goes, became a global icon. Bean rarely speaks, and when he does, it is generally only a few mumbled words in a comically low-pitched voice. Yet despite the language barrier, people all over the world found him hilarious.
So why do so many people think there were dozens of episodes? One fan explained it well: “The reason we think it has dozens of episodes is that each episode had three different stories in it, so it was like getting three episodes for every episode.”
The show peaked at 18.74 million viewers in the UK for the 1992 episode “The Trouble with Mr. Bean” and has since been sold in 245 territories worldwide. It also inspired an animated series and two feature films. Truly, quality over quantity at its finest.
