Mr. Belvedere

One of the more enjoyable family shows of the 80s, this one had a twist. One snowy December night, Englishman Lynn Belvedere shows up at the Owens residence looking for work as a housekeeper. He's heard theyre in need of someone to help out and all take an instant liking to him, except macho head of the household, George (Uecker). The two have their friendly moments over the years, but mostly butt heads most of the run of the show. They had great chemistry over the years, considering we're talking a trained theatrical actor (Hewett) and an ex baseball player (Uecker) playing the parts. But the core of the show was the relationship between Belvedere and the youngest child, Wesley. Played terrificly by Brice Beckham, the two worked so well off each other, the older uptight codger and the rambunctious, wild pre-teen. Together both of them had a lot of great moments over the shows 6 year run, the strongest probably being the final episode of year 5. Belvedere, in a coma after a car crash set in motion by Wesley, lies motionless as Beckham delivers an emotional, expertly acted passage of dialogue of how sorry he is. One of many notable spots from the six seasons. Others featured were Ilene Graff as mother Marsha, Rob Stone as older brother Kevin, and the gorgeous (ok so I had a big crush on her) Tracy Wells as middle child Heather. The show had several tough spots over the years, being yanked a number of times and then brought back to fill the Friday night gaps on ABC. But they managed to crank out over a 100 episodes and have a respectable farewell, with Belvedere ultimately getting married and leaving the family. Some good ones to look for are Wesleys night alone when lies pile up the next day, Belvedere and George delivering a baby, and a great tornado episode set in the family basement. Though not a ratings monster, Mr. Belvedere will always be recognizable and was one of the more underrated shows of recent years.

After a whirlwind period of two years where the American Broadcasting Company went from riding "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" in being the top network overall in the Nielsen's for 1999-2000 to having their worst season ever in 2001-02 where everything fell apart, ABC has decided that family-oriented T.V. will be their focus over the "mild raunch" (to us Canadians) of NBC and FOX and the reality-T.V. obsessed CBS. They've had a track record in the mid to late 80's and early 90's with Perfect Strangers, Head Of The Class, Full House, America's Funniest Home Videos, Growing Pains, and this cult comedy, still revered by many.

Mr. Belvedere is still a big favorite of the college crowd who have set up websites for it, and many people believed that Rob Stone, who played the oldest son, was the man who'd later become the infamous Marilyn Manson.

The late Christopher Hewitt is the title character, a very British butler who has served for many people over the years, including Queen Elizabeth II, who somehow finds himself lost in Pittsburgh. He gets a job with his latest bosses, the Owens family. The show worked because of its fish-out-of-water situation and the fact that the wacky Bob Uecker was in it. Although not a classic sit-com, it was decent enough, the acting was very good, and it relied on dry British comedy as well as family sit-com situations. Hey, any show where Uecker has to try to keep himself under control is enough reason to watch. I'd love to check this show out again someday, maybe when I go digital.

I saw the re-runs on TV and my whole family love it. I found out how talented Brice Beckham was. He plays Wesley, who always puts his family into trouble. My little sis fancys him. I mostly liked the looks on Mr. Belvedere's face- especially when he was caught by George while dancing in the opera music. I also liked the part that Wesley broke the TV and waving "Hallelujah!" to Mr.Belvedere to hide the smoke. The casts are great and "Mr.Belvedere" is one of the funniest shows in the 80's.

I caught this show and was a fan for a bit of time. It was one of those sitcom shows of the 80's that was not really a huge success or a big flop. It had limited success and was able to last for six seasons and it was sort of a funny show. It featured an English butler living with an American family and it most certainly had some funny moments. It also had some very disturbing moments in the form of very bad jokes or subject matter. I remember one where the daughter was just about raped or something and another where the youngest child made a completely inappropriate joke about his teacher. Mr. Belvedere for the most part did not really do any of the more off kilter jokes and was the highlight of the show. This show is also a source of the rumor that one of the two male children was Marilyn Manson, but of course those rumors are completely untrue, I am not sure if it was the older boy or younger one that supposedly grew up to be everyone's most favorite satanist. Bob Uecker played the father of he household, I find it bizarre that they got a baseball play by play man to star in their sitcom, but he does an okay job and the man playing Mr. Belvedere did good too, the mother was unmemorable and all the children were very iffy. Still, this show had some funny moments and perhaps could have thrived longer and been more successful with better writers who know what is funny and what isn't.

The role that brought fame and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Clifton Webb some 40 years after it was in theater got developed into a TV comedy series. Christopher Hewett played Mr. Belvedere who resided with his movie family because he was doing research for a book on suburban mores.

On the big screen Robert Young and Maureen O'Hara only had littler children. But making the kids older here allowed for more plot situations to develop around the kids. The kids were in descending order, Rob Stone, Tracy Wells, and Brice Beckham. The parts that Young and O'Hara played were done on the small screen by Bob Uecker and Ilene Graff.

Christopher Hewett who was Zero Mostel's director for Springtime For Hitler in The Producer's plays Belvedere. Webb played the part with an acid wit as he did his usual early screen roles. Hewett took a bit off it for a family show.

Nothing special about Mr. Belvedere, your usual TV comedy. I'd check out the film and see how much this one comes up short in comparison.