Thursday, August 9, 2007

It's Rowan Atkinson Like You've NEVER Seen Him Before!

“For those who now him only for the acid-tongued Black Adder,

this will be a revelation, while for the rest it is merely a confirmation of his genius.”
- The Sydney Morning Herald



ON AUGUST 28, A&E HOME VIDEO PROUDLY PRESENTS

A RARE STAND-UP PERFORMANCE FROM THE GENIUS

WHO BROUGHT US MR. BEAN



ROWAN ATKINSON LIVE!



As He Conquers U.S. Audiences With Mr. Bean’s Holiday,

Don’t Miss This Never-Before-Available Concert –

Ready to Add to Every Comedy Lover’s Collection for $19.95srp!



To Celebrate His Latest, Eagerly Anticipated Theatrical, A&E Home Video

Will Reprice Their #1 Best-Selling DVD Franchise for a New Generation of Fans!



NEW YORK, NY -- One of the greatest comic minds of his generation, Rowan Atkinson is best known for his unforgettable characters and inventive physical humor. Now, the star of Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and other television and film gems, performs his world-famous sketches and rare standup comedy routines in front of a live audience in ROWAN ATKINSON LIVE!. On August 28, A&E Home Video, the DVD home of MR. BEAN and MR. BEAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, delivers his most unforgettable performance yet: ten hilarious stand-up sketches that’ll have audiences reconsidering his comedic genius forever. On the heels of Mr. Bean’s Holiday (opening across the U.S. on August 24), this never-before-available DVD will be available for comedy lovers, Atkinson aficionados and Anglophiles everywhere for the highly-collectible price of $19.95srp.



Through the ‘80s, Atkinson developed a legendary stage show that reached its height of hilarity in this 1991 performance. Filmed in front of a wildly enthusiastic Boston audience, this hour-long concert captures the off-kilter humor and deft antics of this dazzling funnyman. Including humor far rawer and more profane than anything Atkinson has ever put on TV, ROWAN ATKINSON LIVE! features ten live classic performances, among which fans of Mr. Bean will find some of their favorite routines -- plus plenty of brand new hilarity! Here, Atkinson eschews the silent slapstick of his most famous character to portray everyone from Satan (but you can call him Toby) to a devout (if sleepy) churchgoer, a bad-news delivering headmaster to an actor amateurishly portraying various Shakespearean characters. Joined by his partner in crime, Angus Deayton, Atkinson presents material mostly unknown to viewers of his television shows – and ones which they’ll never forget.



While discovering Atkinson's brilliant live work is a treat in itself, this disc also contains additional stand-up performances never before released in North America, including bonus sketches: “Elementary Dating”, “Guys after the Game”, and “Tom, Dick and Harry”.



Repriced for both a new generation discovering Atkinson for the first time and his most die-hard fans, A&E Home Video is making it easier than ever to own the complete Mr. Bean collection on DVD. In conjunction with Mr. Bean’s Holiday, consumers will have the opportunity to stock up on Atkinson’s most indelible character – the hilarious man-child who made him one of the world’s most popular comedians:



* MR. BEAN: THE WHOLE BEAN (NOW $39.95srp) – With nary a wit of sense and scarcely a word spoken, Mr. Bean bumbles through life as if he was born yesterday, managing to turn everyday situations into spectacular screw-ups with stunning regularity. Utterly oblivious to his prodigious shortcomings, he negotiates a series of self-inflicted misadventures that never--ever--leave him any the wiser. Starring the incomparable Atkinson MR. BEAN has won a veritable plethora of international awards and built a cult following around the globe that is, quite frankly, a tad disturbing. This set includes all 14 episodes -- the entire Bean ouvre -- on 3 DVDs.

* THE BEST OF MR. BEAN (NOW $9.95srp) -- First unleashed in 1989, the classic British series emerged from Rowan Atkinson's stage performances which featured the silent, physically outrageous comic acting that won him an International Emmy Award, a Cable Ace Award, the Golden Rose of Montreaux--and a global cult following. This special collection features the best of the best, with absolutely classic sketches featuring all the funniest, most gut-busting moments in Bean history.

* MR. BEAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (THREE SETS, EACH NOW $14.95srp) -- It's not easy being Bean, and Atkinson turned over the responsibility to a cartoon alter ego after fourteen strenuous episodes. But that doesn't mean that the funnyman abandoned his famous character -- he oversaw all aspects of his animated adventures, to the extent of acting out every scene so that the animators can capture his distinctive Beany flavor. The result of more than two years of preparation, MR. BEAN, THE ANIMATED SERIES introduces a whole new cast of characters into Bean’s distinctively skewed world, and the episodes in these three collection (SETS 1-3) are sure to delight kids, grown-ups and everyone in between (you know who you are). It's sketch comedy of the most literal sort!

A&E Home Video, part of the Consumer Products Division of A&E Television Networks (AETN) is a video distributor of non-theatrical programming, featuring collectible VHS and DVD editions of the high quality programming from A&E Network and The History Channel, as well as acquired classic programming. A&E Home Video brings the best of critically acclaimed entertainment presented in award-winning packaging to the special interest category. For more information about ordering these and other titles from the A&E Home Video Collection, call (212) 206-8600 (TRADE ONLY). Consumers please call 1-800-423-1212 (A&E). In addition to placing orders by phone, A&E Home Video products may be purchased over the World Wide Web at ShopAETV.com.

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