Mind the Baby, Mr. Bean

Mind the Baby Mr. Bean
Season	1
Episode	10
Air date	April 25, 1994
Written by	Robin Driscoll, Rowan Atkinson
Directed by	Paul Weiland
Previous	Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean
Next	Back to School, Mr. Bean

Mind the Baby, Mr. Bean is the tenth episode of the live-action TV series. It originally aired over ITV on April 25, 1994.

Plot

Mr. Bean goes to an theme park at Southsea in Portsmouth, but accidentally leaves his Mini's boot unlocked, and the handle locks in with a baby's pram which is towed behind the car to the funfair. Once Bean notices the "kidnapped" baby, he sees no choice but to look after it while enjoying himself.

After a series of "fun" misfortunes involving a bumper car, a large dog and the baby's buggy, Mr. Bean decides to go off on his own, leaving the baby in a Postman Pat kiddie ride in which he places nine coins in the machine so it can play for a long time. When he gets bored on a roller coaster, someone woke him up. At an archery shooting game, he accidentally shoots an arrow at a stall tender's head, causing him to shout "OY!" angrily. Later at a coin pusher machine, he attempts to cheat in a games arcade by banging the machine over and over again when there are no coins left. When he successfully releases many coins out of the machine, he gets his comeuppance as a young boy steals his prize. Meanwhile, a long queue builds up by Postman Pat. When Bean arrives to put more coins in, an angry mother rebukes him for what he did, forcing a disgruntled Bean to get the baby out of Postman Pat's red van.

Bean then notices that a stinky smell is coming from the baby. He realises that its nappy needs changing, and manages to remove it near the entrance to a ride. Unable to find any clean, new nappies, he helps a girl get on a carousel and steals her teddy in which makes her cross. After she scolds Bean for stealing her teddy, he cuts it open (using a Swiss army knife) and uses it as a makeshift nappy. Unfortunately however, a ride starts moving and sends the dirty nappy on a haphazard journey across the amusement park, landing in the faces of numerous people along the way.

Later, after winning a goldfish at a game by cheating at Solitaire Targets, Mr. Bean tries to keep the fish in his mouth after splitting the bag. However, he accidentally swallows it after winning at Bingo then subsequently spits it across the room into a bowl with another goldfish.

After the bingo game, he cannot stop the baby from crying and decides to buy a huge bunch of helium-filled balloons to cheer it up. However, the balloons lift the baby in the pram off the ground upwards into the air. Bean decides to use his archery skills. He takes the arrow from the archery game (with the man shouting "OY!" at him again) sharpens the tip of the wooden arrow with a pencil sharpener and manages to pop just the right number of balloons in just one shot. This results in the pram making a soft landing beside the baby's mother, who becomes pleased to get her baby back, although confused by the teddy bear nappy that Bean had put on it earlier.

Meanwhile, Bean drives off in his Mini - which, unknown to him, is also carrying the Doberman he freed from earlier. He drives off and discovers he still has the squeaky toy from earlier. Suddenly, before realising that the squeaky toy has been pressed, the dog barks, startling him in fear.

Trivia

• The scene where Bean swallowed the goldfish and spitting it out on a fishbowl is copied in the animated series episode, "Fish Sitting" where he, puts the goldfish in his mouth due to Mrs. Wicket who returning to the former's flat after a two-day absence and eventually spits it out back to the fishbowl after slipping in the water after he went to the latter's kitchen.

Behind the Scenes

• The entire episode is filmed on location at Clarence Pier, Southsea near Portsmouth.
• Shake It All Over by The Guess Who was heard during the scene Bean changes the nappy while Tiger Feet by Mud was heard at the bumper cars scene.
• Despite being shown on ITV like all episodes, the original transmission of this episode did not include an advertisement break. It is also the second episode to follow a single storyline, as opposed to sequences/acts. The other one is Mr. Bean in Room 426.
• A clip of the scene where Mr. Bean puts the balloons on the pram was shown to illustrate the expected result of a myth in MythBusters; the myth was that a ridiculous amount of balloons could lift a small child into the sky. It was proven to be incorrect, as it would need four thousand balloons to lift a 20-pound four-year-old child. So at least two thousand balloons for a 10-pound-baby, without the buggy. See it here.
• Although the situation in the nappy scene is that, the nappy is dirty, wet and soiled when Mr. Bean removes it, it is actually clean and likewise when the 'dirty' nappy flies into the people's faces, it is also clean and not soiled.
• The crying sounds heard in the episode are not produced by the baby itself, they are in fact stock sound effects heard in various other forms of media.
• The date of the viewing of this episode was postponed from 17 February 1993 owing to the abduction and murder of James Bulger.
• In the VHS and DVD, the episode 9 is Mind the Baby, Mr. Bean and the episode 10 is Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean.
• The dog breed attracted to the squeak is a female Doberman.
• The squeak at the dog scene is reused in the 2003 movie that stars Rowan Atkinson, Johnny English, where English in fantasy dream uses squeaky toys to lure two guard dogs away.
• The idea of Mr Bean finding a roller coaster boring to the point of falling asleep, only to be startled when being woken up was also re-enacted in the 1997 film, Bean: Ultimate Disaster Movie, but differently, the setting is the 3D ride film called the "Volcano Mine Ride" (produced by nWave Entertainment in 1995 with the animation works designed by Movida)
• Coin pusher machines nowadays have an alarm to cancel the prize when knocked over.
• After the boy steals Mr. Bean's prize, the arcade's coins have completely gone. Possibly this arcade was used as a prop to be a part of the episode, as only the arcade staff can empty the coins from inside.
• In one scene, a balloon form of Bart Simpson from The Simpsons can be seen in the background. At the time of production, The Simpsons was not particularly popular in the UK, being shown only on Sky One satellite channel, it would not air on terrestrial television (BBC1) before 23 November 1996.
• The squeaky toy that Mr. Bean used is a cartoon clock making a funny face.
• The Postman Pat Pat 1 kiddie ride used in this episode is manufactured by OMC Electronics and was built in 1991. The Postman Pat Pat 1 kiddie ride actually has a coin box inside of it. The coin box used outside and the door for the car was just a prop. This Postman Pat kiddie ride in real life is turned on by the Start button.
• At one point during the coin pusher scene, you can hear the opening theme of a Konami 1992 X-Men arcade machine, as well as Colossus's yell.
• On Cartoon Network Australia airing the scene where Mr. Bean and the baby are is in the bumper car is deleted, it is unknown why it could possibly be the music or the actions.
• This is the last episode which uses the Ending Theme sung by the Choir of Southwark's Cathedral.
• This is also the last episode to be shot entirely on film and to use the 1989 Tiger Television logo.
• This episode was filmed in 1992 alongside Mr. Bean In Room 426 in Southsea, Portsmouth.

Video

Mind the Baby Mr. Bean - Full Episode - Mr. Bean Official