People are saying to have seen a different version of the pilot episode. Is it possible it was the unaired version, and not the version that aired on March 15, 1985?
Because I remember looking at the TV listings for the program in 1985, and the pilot was never rerun on ABC.
Thr Antenna Tv Version is the original pilot. They changed it later to fit the rest of the series by removing the original intro and outro. They also removed the line where George says he's in construction.
shareAnd here it is, the first clip in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFb5jwOq1qk
Could it be that the version we assumed was the pilot intro, was actually the intro to episodes 2-7 of season 1? And the version we assumed was the season 1 intro, was actually the season 2 intro?
Unfortunately, until the original Spring 1985 broadcasts of episodes 2-7 resurface, we may never know for sure.
My mom watched the original airing of Mr. Belvedere in 1985 and what you said matches with what she said. So the DVD pilot intro is really the season one intro and on the DVD the 2-7 intro is really the season two intro.
shareWow. This changes everything that I thought I knew about Mr. Belvedere. I should have known, because:
1) The season 2 opening had clips from the first four episodes in taping order: "Pilot", "Gotta Dance", "The Outcasts", and "Sweet Charity". When they taped them, they obviously didn't have enough material to put together an opening featuring clips from episodes from the debut season.
2) A typical opening to any long-running 1970's or 1980's sitcom has clips from the season(s) that came before the current one. And Mr. Belvedere was no exception. I know Perfect Strangers did this during its 2nd season (the 2nd season opening was the same as the first, but edited to feature clips from season 1 episodes).
At least the DVDs of Mr. Belvedere aren't like the 1989 Syndicated versions (every episode from seasons 1-5 had the short season 4 opening).
Their are actually 3 different versions of the short intro. Season 3 short intro
Season 4 and 5 short intro
And the Season 6 short intro and it's pretty rare.
Would I be correct in assuming this: During the original broadcasts of season 3-6, the show would alternate between a short open, and long open.
If that's true, why would the show do this? Why not just a long open for every episode?
Sometimes they wanted to add more commercials and other times they didn't.
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