MovieChat Forums > Mr. Belvedere (1985) Discussion > They Just Don't Make Them Like This Anym...

They Just Don't Make Them Like This Anymore

posted 10 years ago by ememjee
4 replies | jump to latest

The episode I just watched is called "The Competition". The message conveyed within the sub-plot is about Heather not feeling attractive because the guy she is dating hasn't made a pass at her. She makes a remark about the possibility of him being a homosexual, (which would be the case if the show was made today) and the guy even questions his own sexuality himself because he doesn't think and talk about girls 24-7 like his friends do. Then when Heather dresses in a ballet outfit in an attempt to make herself more appealing to the boy, Mr. B steps in at the right time and says that it may be that the guy is just not ready for that stage yet, and that it isn't something that happens to everyone at the same age. I think that is soo cool. Why don't sitcoms convey messages like this today? It seems that today they talk like it is a foregone conclusion that kids at that age are all having sex. Instead of a message of abstinence, they have a message of "Don't get a disease". It disgusting.

[–] jarrodmcdonald-1 10 years ago

Well, a few episodes after this (during the same season) Kevin who has had stories regarding the loss of his virginity does have sex with an older woman. And in season 4, Wesley is molested by an older man and they make a point of saying it caused him to ejaculate. Plus I think we get the idea that George and Marsha have an active sex life. So there is sexual activity occurring in this show, and it is not at all a show about abstinence.

I would say the episode you reference about the football player taking ballet possibly being gay was an examination of gender and stereotypes. It is left intentionally ambiguous whether or not he would be gay. Mr. Belvedere merely says we all have different maturation processes, sexual orientation or promiscuity aside. I liked this episode very much and gave it a 10 rating, because I think it is a thought-provoking story on teenage identity. Even Heather's identity is called into question, as she tries to vamp it up in more than one scene to attract the guy. She is defining herself with provocative behavior, which indicates some of her own growing pains and wanting to rush into womanhood.

[–] ememjee 10 years ago

You certainly have a strange imagination. NOWHERE in that episode do they "Make it a point of saying it caused him to ejaculate", and the only "Molesting" that went on was Wesley being dried off. It was in a sexually suggestive way, but Wesley made sure he told someone because he knew it would happen if he didn't. In no way shape or form is ejaculation even alluded to.

[–] jarrodmcdonald-1 10 years ago

To be honest, I have not seen the episode yet. It was one I did not watch during the show's original run on ABC (my mother probably prevented my sister and me from viewing it). It is coming up on Antenna TV in the next week or so and I will make a point to look at it. The ejaculation comment came from another website, where I was reading other viewers' remarks about the episode. But perhaps it was alluded to, and I will check when it is rebroadcast. In a way, I think you are trying to slam me, saying I have a strange imagination-- when it is the show's writers who addressed the topic and brought it up in the first place. You should find fault with them, not me, if that subject makes you feel uncomfortable.

Going back to your original comments, I still feel you are wrong about this show depicting sex in wholesome ways. Kevin did have sex with the older woman (played by Kay Lenz) in the middle of season 3, and she broke things off with him because she wanted to be able to have sex with other men though Kevin had temporarily given his heart to her. Then, at the end of season 3 when Kevin takes his high school friend, the overweight Wendy, to the prom-- they make out in the car and it is very much suggested at the end of that scene that he does have sex with her.

In the fraternity episode at the beginning of season 4, Kevin's views about dating (and probably about sex) start to mirror the other guys in the frat house, though Kevin is still the nicer guy in the bunch. So his character changes and definitely becomes less 'innocent' or 'wholesome.' To try and put a weird set of middle class family values on Kevin Owens is not realistic. It is obvious to anyone who watches 'Mr. Belvedere' carefully that one of the main points the writers were trying to do on this series was to show that a typical American family in the 1980s had more morally gray (morally ambiguous) issues to deal with than the Cleavers and the Nelsons of the 1950s.

I think there's a season four episode where Heather is pressured to have sex with some guy that I haven't seen yet. And just recently, Antenna TV showed a season 4 episode where Wesley is left at home and one of Marsha's pillows gets stained (I will leave it up to others with 'strange imaginations' to determine if that was a sexual metaphor). And we see different versions of what may have happened. In one of the scenarios it is said that Wesley is up in his parents' room watching porn. And then we find out that it was Kevin upstairs in the Owens' bedroom with a sexy girl. There is even booze involved. Another scenario has Wesley dealing with the booze and the girl on the bed. And he was eleven years old. So yes, this is not 'Leave It to Beaver' or 'The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet' at all. This is a show that is pushing the envelope when it comes to teens and sex.

[–] jackgriffin1-1 10 years ago

Most kids that age are having sex in one way or another today. With the internet and cel phones I'm surprised at the number of kids who think that sex is nothing special.