Mind the Baby, Mr. Bean

Mind the Baby Mr. Bean
Season	1990 - 1995
Episode	Ten
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 in the live-action TV series. It originally aired over ITV on April 25, 1994.

Plot

Mr. Bean goes to an amusement park at Southsea in Portsmouth, but accidentally leaves his Mini's boot unlocked, and the handle pulls a baby's carriage with it 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 misfortunes involving a dodgem, a large dog and the baby's carriage, Mr. Bean decides to go off on his own, leaving the baby in a Postman Pat kiddie ride with nine coins in it while he gets bored on a roller coaster, shoots an arrow at a stall tender and attempts to cheat in a games arcade. (When he does win, a young boy steals his prize). Meanwhile, a huge queue builds up by Postman Pat. Eventually he's forced by disgruntled moms to retrieve the baby when he comes to put more coins in the ride.

Bean then notices that there is a smell coming from the baby. He realises that its diaper needs changing, and manages to remove it near the entrance to a ride. Unable to find any fresh diapers, he rips open a girl's teddy bear and uses that as a makeshift diaper. Unfortunately the dirty diaper takes a haphazard journey across the amusement park, landing in the faces of several people along the way.

Later, after winning a goldfish at a game booth, Mr Bean is forced to keep the fish in his mouth after splitting the bag. However, he accidentally swallows it after winning at Bingo then subsequently splutters it across the room into a bowl with another goldfish.

After the bingo game, he can't stop the kid from crying and decides to buy a huge bunch of helium-filled balloons to cheer it up. However, the balloons lift the baby and carriage into the air. Bean is forced to use his archery skills and manages to burst just the right number of balloons with one shot. This results in the carriage making a soft landing beside the baby's mother, who's overjoyed to get her baby back, although confused by the teddy bear diaper that Bean had put on it earlier. Meanwhile, Bean drives off in his Mini - which, unknown to him, is also carrying a rather fierce dog.

Behind the Scenes

• The entire episode is filmed on location at Clarence Pier, Southsea, Portsmouth.
• 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 being 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 an obscene amount of balloons could lift a small child into the sky. It was proven to be false, as it would take four thousand balloons to lift a 20-pound four-year-old. So at least two thousand balloons for a 10-pound-baby, and that's without the carriage. See it here.
• Although the situation in the diaper scene is that the diaper is dirty/soiled, when Mr Bean removes it, it actually seems clean and likewise when the 'dirty' diaper goes into the people's faces it also seems clean and not soiled.
• The date of the viewing of this episode was postponed from 17 February 1993 owing to the abduction and murder of James Bulger.
• The dog breed attracting 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 rescued in the 1997 film, Bean: Ultimate Disaster Movie, but differently, the setting is 3D ride.
• Coin-pushing arcade nowadays have the alarm to forfeit the prize when applying force.
• After the boy steals Mr. Bean's prize, the arcade's coins are all gone. Possibly this arcade is used as a prop to be a part of the episode, since only arcade operators can empty the coins from inside.
• In one scene, a balloon form of Bart Simpson from The Simpsons can be seen in the background.
• The squeaky toy than Mr Bean uses is a cartoon clock making a funny face.
• The Postman pat kiddie ride actually has a coinbox inside of it. The coinbox used outside and the door for it was just a prop. This Postman Pat kiddie ride in real life is activated by Start button.
  • However, there's a small speculation that it is the Prototype Version.
• The Postman Pat kiddie ride used in this episode is by OMC Electronics made in 1991.
• This is the last episode which is Using the Ending Theme sung by the Choir of Southwark's Cathedral.

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