Im thinking about in all the ways even streaming now. Im thinking before streaming the stooges would be a good contender. Was shown in movied theaters and had reruns going all the time on so many different channels. Its a wonder life used to be spammed in november and december before the ip was taken back out of public domain.
EDITING. Im thinking more about the same thing being rebroadcast I think which is why I was thinking its a wonderful life to. So like there are only so many stooges and they get replayed a lot as opposed to like the simpsons or doctor who running for a whole bunch of seasons.
Mr Bean. Popular around the world and dialogue free, so no localisation costs. He’s probably been seen more than any other single character as it’s so easy for anyone to understand what’s going on. Certainly a contender for most watched, but maybe not most played, as there’s not as many episodes as many long running series, so you can watch every episode in a single day, rather than the weeks it would take to plod through the whole of The Simpsons.
I did not realize that was so globally popular. I did not even realize for a long time that the one version of black adder was mr bean.