Mr. Belvedere

Popular 80s sitcom based on the Gwen Davenport novel, "Belvedere," which in turn was thrice adapted to the big screen. Like its earlier novel and big-screen brethren, "Mr. Belvedere" featured British butler Lynn Belvedere, who takes a job as a live-in nanny for a typical American family and records their everyday experiences in his diary for future use in writing a novel. In the 1985 small-screen version, the Owens family served as that "typical American family" and the source of fodder for Belvedere who had previously worked as a gentry for Winston Churchill and had connections to British royalty. Family patriarch George (played by sports-caster Bob Uecker) was, in an example of art imitating life, a sports writer; the matriarch was Marsha, a law student. The couple, which had settled in suburban Pittsburgh, had three children: Awkward teen-ager Kevin, precocious (and easily embarrassed) Heather and mischievous prankster Wesley. George was initially uncomfortable hiring the worldly Belvedere, but eventually came to appreciate the Englishman's friendship (as well as his expert culinary skills). Wesley, unlike his elder siblings, seemed to never get along with Belvedere; however, even he came to appreciate the British native's advice that he would regularly dispense to the family. Each episode ended with Belvedere writing in his journal, giving the show's moral while putting everything into perspective. In later years, Marsha graduated from law school and got her first job, while Kevin (and later, Heather) graduated from high school and entered college. The 1985 small-screen adaptation of "Mr. Belvedere" marked the end of a long succession of unsuccessful attempts to bring Davenport's novel to television; the three earlier pilots were made in the 1950s (soon after the final big-screen movie) and 1960s.