I guess there still is a little bit of hope left then. I'm going to hold off on buying the set until some more information comes in. Over the past few days I've been thinking about it and a couple of deleted parts is not really a huge deal even for a die-hard Bean fan like me. I'm in Canada and when the CBC shows the Bean episodes up here they are WITHOUT those 2 scenes. However , I have the Canadian VHS versions and the missing turkey part is on there but the recliner part is not. It's all a bit confusing but it does seem like it could be possible that the original authorized versions are WITHOUT these parts and the versions with these parts were done in the years afterwards (perhaps unauthorized).

Make sure to keep us posted Dacoops3

I was going to buy this set since I may be contemplating on selling off my complete laserdisc collection sometime soon. I checked the episodes in question on my laserdisc copies (four of them) and they are uncut. I may just wind up keeping them until A&E reissues this set with uncut episodes.

I haven't purchased yet - just because of this. If they reissue, I'll buy.

Id say just get it, the edits are not major (but certainly worth complaining and persuing) and I believe if they ever make corrections down the road they will have a "mail-in/replacement" process much like other companies have had - BTTF and Jurassic Park.

Yep, that's what I'd do too. Get it now while it's still cheap and persue the trade-in if/when it happens.

We don't know foresure how many edits there are. No one has actually sat down and carefully compared this new DVD set with previous versions. One person (goshzilla) noticed that there are 2 parts missing and we are all assuming that is all there is. However , there is the possibility that there are actually more than 2 cuts. If that is the case then we have a real problem.

I'm on this side of the fence too. I am of the mind that the current box set is better than nothing. So, there's cuts, okay. I wish they were there but they aren't. Every movie and tv show has cuts of some kind. Some are thrown in as DVD extras, others are added in for an "uncut" version, others are missing altogether. If by some chance they would re-release it with the cuts added, I would be there to exchange it. But otherwise, such is life. There's worse things to worry about in this world. Shrug.

Re: Re: Some A&E contact info
 

You're entirely welcome. I'm just glad I was able to find it... and even happier that they're willing to at least listen.

I have a brother-in-law who is a fanatic British Comedy fan, and is really foaming at the mouth about this one, since he was looking forward to the release so much. I think he's going to mobilize the whole family to call and complain. IMHO, the more people who call the better though...

if youre still looking for contact info for rowan, a good site is whorepresents.com. it looks like "whore presents", but is actually Who Represents.com. i havent personally checked the site, but theres a good chance rowan is on it.

you have to register at the site, but its free. good luck!

If you've got the time, could you go through and make a note of how long each episode is on your version, so we can compare it to the length of the US versions? BTW, since it's Japanese, it should be NTSC which means there shouldn't be any PAL Speedup effect to screw up the numbers.

Here is a review over at Amazon :

This DVD set which proclaims itself to be the "whole" Bean isn't quite what it appears to be. While it does contain, in essence, all 14 episodes of the classic series, many of the episodes are slightly or even significantly EDITED. Two glaring examples are: in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean," the scene of Mr. Bean winning the turkey by guessing it's weight, then throwing it in the back of his car has been CUT. It is NOT here. In "Do-it-Yourself, Mr. Bean," the entire 4-5 minute scene of Bean inside Harrod's trying to take the sale chair away from the old people who get there first has also been CUT. He goes inside... and comes back out with the chair. There is NO scene inside. I would hardly call this the WHOLE Bean. Many other minor segments of him driving have also been cut. All in all, each episode now runs 24-25 minutes instead of the general 27 to 30 minutes. It's a real shame that this set couldn't have been done right, even if it took a fourth disc to do it. I will miss those little moments that are now apparently lost forever. However, what we are left with, edited or not, is still a nice collection... thus, I have to at least give it 3 stars despite my disappointment at it not being truly COMPLETE. I really doubt we will ever see a special "uncut" release, so go ahead and add this set to your collection. The picture's better than ever and the special features are nice but a wee bit minimal. Enough complaining, it's still the best show around... even with his bits and pieces removed.


SO IT SEEMS THAT THERE ARE MORE THAN 2 CUTS. MANY OTHER MINOR SEGMENTS OF HIM DRIVING HAVE ALSO BEEN CUT.

Is that in the customer review section? The US site?

I hope we get an answer to this as if it is really missing quite a bit I will be disappointed, even more so.

Yes , it is on the US Amazon site in the customer review section.

I see it now. For some reason when I looked earlier I didn't see the newest two.

I think I've finally sorted out this Mr.Bean mess. I'll try to explain it step-by-step so follow closely. If I've made a mistake somewhere please correct me.

1) Mr. Bean was originally shown in the UK on ITV and NOT BBC1 or BBC2. ITV has commercials but the BBC channels do not.

2) Therefore , when Mr. Bean first aired in the UK the episodes were around 22-25 minutes in length so that 5-8 mins. of commercials could be shown in a 30 min slot. This is why you get the placards showing such as "End of Part 1" etc.

3) Therefore , the official explanation from Katherine (the show's producer) that the new DVD set here in Region 1 (The Whole Bean)is the official , approved and authorized version is correct.

4) HBO and PBS have no commercials during a 30 minute slot. Therefore , in order to play the Mr. Bean episodes they needed to "pad" the episodes to make them a bit longer so that they could fit the 30 minute slot better. I'm guessing they asked for the extra scenes to be filmed so that they could insert them. I'm surprised that this was allowed to happen but I guess the producers didn't mind. (?)

5) For Canadians : The CBC has commercials. Therefore , when CBC shows Mr. Bean they use the original (22-25 min) UK version and that's why these 2 scenes are not seen on the CBC.

6) VHS Releases : I suppose that if some VHS copies out there have these scenes then that must mean that they got the rights to the HBO/PBS versions (the "padded" versions)

7) Overseas DVD releases : I suppose that if overseas (Region 2 German or R2 Australian etc.) DVDs have these scenes then they too must have got the rights to the "padded" versions.

So to sum up : there seems to be 2 different versions : an official one (22-25 mins. - original) and a special version exclusively for stations such as HBO and PBS. ("padded")

Since this new DVD set The Whole Bean is the official set then the episodes are only 22-25 mins long and will not have any of the "padding" that was added for the HBO/PBS broadcasts. Therefore , you will not see the turkey scene , the old lady scene and some other parts of Mr.Bean driving around in his car.

I suppose that if you want to see the "padded" versions you will have to get a hold of the appropriate copies. I myself have not figured which copies have both these scenes but it seems that the US VHS versions (I have the Canadian VHS versions and they do not have the scenes) and some overseas versions have the scenes.

On a similar note, is there supposed to be anything cut or missing from A&E's "Fawlty Towers" set?

1-800-CUT-BEAN

I've never noticed any cuts in the Fawlty Towers set nor have I heard of any cuts to it. Besides , Fawlty Towers is a BBC product , not A&E. I find all the BBC box sets to be of excellent quality.

Thanks for the info SA2000. Wish they would have obtained all the footage available for the collection as the missing parts sound good but I can't afford buying more just for them.

i haven't seen this posted, but i was wondering if anybody else's dvd cases were mislabeled. the first volume's case mislabels the episodes, saying "the trouble with mr. bean" is on disc 1, when it's really on disc 2.

this is almost a moot point when it comes to the cuts and such, but felt i should add to the list of problems.

I think that was mentioned in an earlier post. Yes , there was a mistake made in the printing on the package.

Actually, The Young Ones set from BBC has a scene missing. In "Nasty", they cut out the bit with Neil singing in the bath tub in the dark.

Just for the record, I have the Mr. Bean laserdiscs that came out a few years ago when laserdiscs were still being made, and they do include the missing parts.

sharkattack2000

Excuse me, but do you really think that the Brits actually went ahead to film more scenes, after the episodes were done, for the Americans' sake? To add extra "padding" to the episodes? That is ludicrous.

By the way, Rowan Atkinson was (is?) an electronics engineer, so playing with that recliner was his nod to the profession.

I really doubt that the missing scenes are anything but A&E's fault, just like the missing scene in "Never Say Never Again" we discovered a few years ago.

Let's face it, time and again, the American audiences are offered truncated cultural products, because the people in the entertainment industry think that they know better what the public wants. We've seen this in music - many European albums are edited in length and content for the American market. We've seen this in movies (most of Jackie Chan's films are cut in North America).

To imply that its someone else's fault/decision is delusional. A&E screwed the pooch on this one. The simplest explanation.

Well, the scenes no question were filmed contemporaneously. The question is whether or not there was an editing decision to remove them, or whether they were removed for other reasons.

As I said when it became known that there were a couple of more scenes in R2 24 Season 1, just because the scenes exist and just because they may even have been aired in a couple of places doesn't necessarily mean that they are supposed to be there for the purposes of the director's intent. There is stuff filmed for virtually *everything* that doesn't make it into the final cut.

I went ahead and bought the set yesterday.