The Curse of Mr. Bean

The Curse of Mr. Bean is the third episode of the live-action TV series. It originally aired over ITV on December 30, 1990.

Act One: The Swimming Pool
Mr. Bean goes to a public swimming pool, where he uses a manual arm to get his ticket at the car park. Once inside and changed, he becomes excited upon seeing a couple of children's slides and attempts to use one, only for a lifeguard to spot him and order him off the slides. Being excited, Bean tries out the highest diving board but when he sees how far down it is he chickens out and keeps trying to hide it not to look scared until two impatient boys push him off by stomping on his hand as he attempts to climb down. Mr. Bean loses his swimming trunks, and is unable to retrieve them as a toddler fishes them out of the pool with her snorkel. Mr. Bean, naked, just as the lifeguard orders everyone out. He tries to get back to the changing room unseen and almost succeeds, but the female lifeguard near the changing room turns around just as he hides behind a corner. He then runs to a female changing room but seven women appear behind him out of an archway next to it. As he turns around the women scream and run back to their changing room immediately as he runs off.

Act Two: The Parking Lot
Mr. Bean comes out of the swimming pool and prepares to leave the car park, only to realise that he has must pay £16 in order to raise the barrier. So, he tries to leave via the entrance of the car park but every time he leaves he gets blocked by a car or the barrier goes down too early. Eventually he's had enough, but what a piece of of luck when he sees the Reliant in the distance. Mr. Bean revs his car engine and at last, successfully manages to get out by knocking the Reliant out of the way.

Act Three: Lunch On The Park Bench
Heading for the park for lunch, Bean greets a man who is also having lunch while sitting on a bench. Spotting him having a sandwich, Bean sets about making his own using ingredients and tools he stuffed into his coat to make himself a sandwich (Mr. Bean style). He cuts two slices of bread from a loaf with scissors, spreads butter on them with his credit card, washes lettuce under a drinking fountain's water before using his sock to dry it, kills two sardines he takes out of a jar and then crushes peppercorns folded into a handkerchief using his shoe. After making his sandwich, Bean notices the man sipping some tea, and prepares to make his own using a hot water bottle, putting a teabag into it while placing the bottle's cap in his ear. He then proceeds to suck up milk from a baby bottle and spit it into the water in the hot water bottle, before sloshing it together. As he prepares to have his lunch, he ties his handkerchief around his neck, opting to use it as a napkin, only for the pepper traces on it to cause him to sneeze, making him drop his sandwich onto the ground and spray his tea all over himself, ruining his own lunch. The man, witnessing this, offers Bean the other half of his pre-packed sandwich as replacement, much to Bean's gratitude as the cap pops out of his ear.

Act Three (Continued): The street corner
Mr. Bean sees a cyclist get off his bike at a red light and walk his bike across so he decides to do the same with his car.

Act Four: The movie
Mr. Bean goes to see A Nightmare on Elm Street with his girlfriend Irma, bringing back into the theatre a big paper container of popcorn and she thinks it's for her too but he gives her the tiny one inside. When she tries to take some of his, he smacks her hand getting possessive, later snorting the popcorn in his nose back into the container. He is seen having a sip of juice from a straw inside his jumper. Before and throughout the movie he keeps trying to frighten her and the man on his left in his own silly ways. Getting tired of waiting, he whines out loud "Come on!" and that's when it gets dark so he starts making owl noises. Then he's the one getting terrified by the movie so he covers his eyes, puts his jumper over his head, and puts the popcorn container over his head while everyone else gets spooked by the movie. Once the movie is over and people are leaving, Irma has her jacket on her back and he grabs her sleeve and freaks out (thinking she lost her arm), ending the episode.

Cast

 * Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean
 * Angus Deayton as The Pool Attendant / The Man on Park Bench
 * Matilda Ziegler as The Girlfriend

Trivia

 * Reliant gags - Mr. Bean charges towards the entrance barrier when the driver of the Supervan takes a ticket, and, in the end, topples over.
 * The shot in which Mr. Bean's car begins accelerating towards the car park entrance lane once the barrier is opened is a reference to the movie Christine; the second horror movie reference in the episode. This same scene is re-created in the animated series episode, Car Wars, except the roles are reversed in the animated version.
 * This episode marks the debut of Irma Gobb, though she is simply credited as "The Girlfriend".
 * The horror movie that Mr. Bean goes to see appears to be called A Nightmare, but the poster shown is obviously for A Nightmare on Elm Street with the camera placed to cut off the last three words - although an obvious picture of Freddy Krueger is shown. In spite of this, the implied events in the film do not match any of the Elm Street films.
 * The original Nightmare On Elm Street came out in 1984, and so it is very unlikely that Mr Bean would have been able to see it at the cinema in 1990, when this episode aired. In fact, 1990 is one of the few years between 1984-1991 in which no Elm Street film was released, and the most recent one was the poorly received The Dream Child.
 * The implied sequence of events in the film actually match the beats of a roller coaster, not a horror film.
 * There is a reference to Evil Dead II, when Mr. Bean scares Irma by pretending to use a chainsaw to cut off his hand.
 * Act Four inspires one episode of the animated series called "Scaredy Bean".
 * The scene where naked Mr. Bean accidentally exposes himself to the female swimmers was cut in Nickelodeon airings in the UK and in Disney Channel Asia and was been frozen in former Philippine airings, with the shot later cropped in future airings.
 * This makes the first episode where a scene was cut in some airings. Second is Mr. Bean in Room 426 (where he walks around the hallways naked), third is Back to School, Mr. Bean (where a woman's panties gets accidentally exposed after Mr. Bean gave her the blue paper that got stuck on his hands) and fourth is Goodnight, Mr. Bean (where he picks up a toy gun and shoots the light bulb).
 * Angus Deayton (who frequently collaborated with Rowan Atkinson prior to the show) plays two roles in this episode; one of the lifeguards at the pool and the man on the park bench who witnesses Mr. Bean trying to make his sandwich.
 * Mr Bean would receive a caution for pushing his car like a bike - as would the cyclist if he were seen jumping a light in this way.
 * This is the third and last episode to be shot on video. The next episode would be shot entirely on video tape for studio scenes and film for outdoor and on location scenes
 * The end of the episode features Mr Bean running on screen and then he ends up being pulled back up into the sky. This is the only episode to feature this sequence, however, it was repeated in Mr Bean Rides Again, but with the street backdrop.
 * If you look closely at the scene where Mr. Bean Pushes his Mini, you can see another Mini that Looks Just like Mr Bean's one in the background.
 * This is the second time Mr. Bean sneezes, the first was in Mr. Bean.
 * First appearance of Mr. Bean's green and black Mini, but without the padlock.