Mr. Belvedere

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.

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 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.

This was a really fun show that is a good example of the old school, very family friendly, situational comedies that ate up most of my family's TV watching time throughout the wonderful decade of the nineteen-eighties.

The lead character (the title-named Mr. Belvedere) is a stuffy but very wise and very professional, stuck-in-his-ways butler who actually was the butler for the royal family. I forget why he leaves them and moves to the U.s.

Anyway he settles in with this American family of blue collar people in Pittsburgh, PA, where the father is a gruff former baseball player (played by Bob Uecker) and the youngest son Wesley is a trouble maker and a constant thorn in Mr. Belvedere's side but also becomes his best friend.

I recently got familiar again with this 1980s sitcom after watching several episodes in the past week. The middle-class Owens family from 'Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania' couldn't have scored a better housekeeper than a former British butler. After all, he served the Queen of England and was the personal valet to Winston Churchill.

While the wife Marsha studies to be a lawyer, Mr. Belvedere cooks, cleans, grocery shops and meddles in family affairs and always, without fail, manages to give the right advice to help set things straight. As cultured and upper crust as he was, he carried the ability to relate to the family and rightfully so. The hilarious conflict and equally hilarious exchanges between him and his nemesis, the youngest child, Wesley Owens, was a treat.

The show, you have to admit, had excellent casting. Bob Uecker as the dad was perfect for locking horns with the 'big guy' and Rob Stone and Brice Beckham have such a strong resemblance to each other that you can't help, but think they're really brothers.

When watching this sitcom, you can easily see that Mr. Belvedere is there to help out and to help out in more ways than he can. He was so perfect that you can't help, but see how much he spoiled the Owens family with his servitude:

Marsha once complained that he didn't bring her the 'right type' of coffee. The family also sits at the table first thing in the morning, expecting to be served right away. Mr. Belvedere also served an elegant Thanksgiving dinner, but after Grace is said, bows out and wishes everyone a 'happy feast'.

They expected service and got it. Not only that, but Mr. Belvedere was a source to turn to whenever they had their troubles and they always got it without fail.

All that clearly shows what a 100% ideal employee he was. I wish I had a Mr.Belvedere in my household. He had the solutions to everything. The most unforgettable moment was when it was time for him to leave and Wesley said, "I'm losing my best friend." He couldn't have been more right.