Thank you for posting about this, i was planning to be at Best Buy at opening tomorrow to pick up this set, one of my most anticipated DVDs ever. Very disappointing news, i will definately NOT purchase this set now.

please keep this thread updated with any official responses from A&E.

Well, i'm sorry I spoiled this for so many people, but we needed to know, right? :(

I have finished the set and can't tell if there are other cuts, who knows, maybe those were the only cuts. I'm hoping that others who get it will help and confirm this fact. I haven't had the chance to do the comparisons like I wanted. I just happened to notice those 2 cuts.

Can anyone with the Aussie set confim that these scenes are intact in that set? I will probably get that set and just keep the A&E set for the Comic Relief skits. Are the Comic Relief skits on the Australia set? They seem very similar.

Actually, goshzilla, you did a very GOOD thing! Thanks for the warning. At least those who decide to buy it know exactly what they're getting. Very good info before buying.

Here are a couple of email responses I received back:

This one from newvideo.com

"Hi Bobby. The Mr. Bean DVD set you received are the complete, authorized
episodes as Rowan Atkinson and the Executive Producers of Mr. Bean intended
the episodes to be. Any differences in the episodes from the episodes
you originally saw had been made because Rowan asked them to be -- the
episodes on the DVD set are his final cut.

I hope this explains things. Let me know if you have any more questions."



OTHER RESPONSE

This one from aetn.com

"Hello from A&E Television Network and thank you for your recent e-mail.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention, we will be looking in
to this immediately. I will keep you updated on the outcome.

Thank you in advance for your patience."




I'm hoping something is done about this. Uncut is the only way to go.

I remember seeing the Mr. Bean Chrismas episode on Kazaa. I don't remember if it is cut or not.

I think I might have to get this anyway. I'll check out the price first.

I don't know if it is a cut or not but on the first disc-The Return of Mr. Bean-The Department Store. Mr. Bean is putting things in his basket. After he puts in the towel he is shown on the escelator (SP). He now has a scale in the basket that wasn't there before. Just thought I'd throw it out there in case someone has something to compare it to.


Voyagerbob

[QUOTE]Originally posted by voyagerbob
[B]Here are a couple of email responses I received back:

This one from newvideo.com

"Hi Bobby. The Mr. Bean DVD set you received are the complete, authorized
episodes as Rowan Atkinson and the Executive Producers of Mr. Bean intended
the episodes to be. Any differences in the episodes from the episodes
you originally saw had been made because Rowan asked them to be -- the
episodes on the DVD set are his final cut.
[QUOTE]
-snip-

No way in holy heck I believe this. Yeah, i'm sure Rowan said "Hey, i'm gonna sue you guys if I see that damned turkey stealing scene in the dvds, I don't want the world to think it's ok to cheat people outta turkeys".
And "Hey, there might be a rash of old people getting squished by electric recliners, maybe we shouldn't show that?".

Seems to me like they where snipped to make them fit on the dvds better. Or A&E where too lazy and dumb to realize that they where cut eps.

I bet we'll never know.

I'm pretty darn sure i've never seen him buy a scale in that ep in any of my versions. But, good eye, who knows, maybe that's somewhere, or maybe it was something cut and never shown anywhere. Ah, the mystery that is Bean.

I keep forgetting to say this, but on the keep case packaging for dvd 1 and 2 there is a misprint. The last episode listed on dvd 1 is not on it, and the 1 first (from memory) episode on dvd 2 is wrong too, they are switched. Not a big deal, but another sign that maybe A&E aren't playing with a full deck.

I have the Australian R2/4 box set which has the turkey/scale scene but not the old lady/chair scene.

Ooh.......

I have region 2 Japanese release and I am going to check it out tonight if it contains the missing scenes from US releases.
It was expensive, I think I paid about $110. I know it was crazy but I was diehard Mr. BEAN fan....

Sigh.... Oh well. I guess I'll live with the cuts since I only paid $23 for the set. It seems pretty silly to do this, though.

Does anyone have any bright ideas how we could bring this to Rowan Atkinson's attention? Since the response seems to be "...it's how Mr. Atkinson approved it", I'm thinking he needs to be allowed address whether he knew the segments were missing before it was approved.

The best I've come up with is:

The mailing address for the Official Mr. Bean Fan Club:

Mr. Bean Fan Club
P.O Box 89,
St Leonards On Sea,
East Sussex, TN38 9ZX, UK

Mr. Atkinson via Thames TV:

Rowan Atkinson
c/o Thames Television International
Teddington Studios, Teddington Lock
Middlesex, TW 119NT
U. K.

So A&E is implying that the other region versions are some how out there without the consent of Rowan Atkinson? Either way, I ordered the region 4 set, and I hope that's uncut! I am glad I put off ordering the region one set.

Hey Folks!
I just checked out my region 2 Japanese Mr. BEAN collection and all the scenes that are supposedly missing of region 1 release is there.
It was distributed by Polygram and suggested retail price is 11600 yen.
It comes with 3discs but the third one is just cd-rom with Mr. Bean screensavers.

I have brand new extra one unopened, so if anyone is interested let me know.

THanks but not for $110.

I'll wait until this is resolved one way or the other.

This may be the address for Atkinson's agent:

PBJ Management Ltd.
5 Soho Square
London W1V 5DE

I'm not sure that focusing on Atkinson is the best way to deal with this... after all, he's already been paid by the licenser, and is probably too busy to personally worry about stuff like this. I think the "that's the way Atkinson and the producers wanted it to be" line sounds like a load of BS anyway... but I doubt they'd be outraged by it either.

I think the fault for this falls squarely on the shoulders of A&E... and if anyone's going to be raising hell, it needs to be with them. I say, be vocal and demand replacement discs, it's worked with other companies who've done some major ****-ups. Might take them forever, but once they realize fans are pissed... who knows?

Ok, sounds good... how do we express our outrage? Is there a phone number or email address?? The "boards" on the A&E website don't seem like the best method as I doubt they bother to read them.

Some A&E contact info
 

Well, after a little poking around, I found this page of corporate contact info:

http://www.aetv.com/corporate/corpcontact.html#corp

It looks like the phone number for A&E Home Video is
(888) 423-1212

I still haven't found an address or PO Box, but we can at least start the hell raising with this...

More A&E contact info
 

Found it!

Here's the address for the network:

A&E
235 East 45th Street
New York, NY
10017

Also, for any who missed it, you can send an email through the form on thier site:

http://www.aetv.com/feedback/feedback.html

Well, I've got the set coming. And I'm gonna enjoy the hell out of it!

I'm sure I won't even notice the missing scenes because it's been a while since I've seen the episodes. There may even be some episodes that I never even saw....

Yes! Just got it today and have been getting lots of laughter! Not gonna let a couple short cuts prevent me from owning this!

Did I say I am going to sell for $110 of my brand new region2 Mr. Bean?
No.... I am thinking in more in line of $70.
It has been like more than 2years since I kept it. As matter of fact, I have even forgotten about the fact that I had extra one, so many dvds....
But I should just sell it because there is no reason to keep two.

Anyone interested let me know...

Re: Some A&E contact info
 

I just called A&E with the number you listed, and I have some good news. The good news is that the guy who anwered the phone said that they are looking into the fact that some of the shorts were edited, and to call back in a couple days. He said they are concerned about this and are doing an investigation. I hope they will fix this, and not hide behind some BS answer. Thanks again azdragon for posting the A&E contact information.