This article contains discussion of physical trauma
TV URBAN LEGEND: The recording of an episode of Mister Belvedere had to be delayed for a week because the actor who played Mister Belvedere accidentally injured his testicles.
There are certain stories that are so outrageous that you automatically assume that they must be true as, well, why would someone ever make up something so ridiculous? At the same time, though, that really isn't much of an argument for something actually being true, as obviously there are plenty of absurd stories that are false, and these are often ones that are SO dumb that they tend not to even rise to "legend" status, as you'd have to be a fool to believe them. In any event, long story short, when you hear the tale of THAT Mister Belvedere story, you'll also likely say, "Why would anyone make up a story like that?" And yet, a good deal of this story actually IS made up, but the heart of the story is actually true.
WHAT WAS MISTER BELVEDERE?
Gwen Leys Davenport created the character of Lynn Belvedere, the posh British butler who become a housekeeper for a "normal" American family in the suburbs, in the 1947 novel, Belvedere. The novel was a big enough hit that it was adapted into a film just a year later, with Clifton Webb receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the role of Mister Belvedere in the film, Sitting Pretty. Webb would do two more Belvedere movies in the next three years, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College and Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell
After a number of failed attempts to bring the character to television, the concept finally succeeded in 1985 with the launch of Mister Belvedere on ABC. Christopher Hewett, an acclaimed theatrical actor who had appeared in a number of productions in the West End of London and on Broadway in the States, starred as Lynn Belvedere, an English butler who finds himself down on his luck and thus willing to work for an upper-middle class family in Pittsburgh as their live-in housekeeper. Unlike the novel and the initial film, Belvedere needs the job (while in the original material, he takes the job just to get good material for a book that he is writing). The show was a moderate success, running for six seasons, although it was never even a Top 30 hit during its run.
The rest of the cast of the series was Bob Uecker and Ilene Graff as George and Marsha Owens (a sportswriter turned broadcaster and his law student wife, who becomes a lawyer during the series), and Rob Stone, Tracey Wells and Brice Beckham as their three kids, Kevin, Heather and Wesley. The youngest child, Wesley, was a troublemaker and his relationship with Belvedere was the main focus of the show (along with Belvedere and George butting heads, as George wasn't too happy about having a butler).
Okay, now that you know a little bit about Mister Belvedere, let's get to...THE STORY.
WHAT IS THE LEGEND ABOUT MISTER BELVEDERE'S...INCIDENT?
In 2005, Jay Mohr released a book about his short time on Saturday Night Live called Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live. In it, he told a story about how his cast mate, Adam Sandler, would always like to entertain the cast and crew with stories. One of them involved Christopher Hewett:
"One of my favorite [Adam] Sandler stories was the one he told us about the time that Mr. Belvedere sat on his own balls. Adam had a small part on the show Mr. Belvedere early in his career. On his first day, everyone was sitting at a huge table waiting to start the read-through of that week's show. The old guy who played Mr. Belvedere hadn't shown up yet, so everyone was drinking coffee and talking until he arrived. Finally, Mr. Belvedere walked in...in a sweatsuit and a matching monogrammed attache case. When the old guy took his seat he sang out 'Goooood morning everybody!' like a British Ted Baxter. As he took a load off, he apparently sat on one of his testicles. With his nut scrunched under his leg he screamed, 'Oooohhhhh!' and had to be carried out on a stretcher."
It is likely not a coincidence, then, that during Sandler's time on Saturday Night Live, there was a whole sketch ABOUT Mister Belvedere...
So what's the problem with Sandler's version of the story?
DID THE MISTER BELVEDERE INCIDENT ACTUALLY HAPPEN?
Well, first of all, Adam Sandler was never actually ON Mister Belvedere. His whole story was just lifted from a story his old friend, fellow comedian, Doug Benson, used to tell. Benson had been roommates with Rob Stone before Stone hit it big on Mister Belvedere, and Stone, for some reason, kept his roommates even after being on the series.
In a 2011 Q&A, Benson explained:
the semi-definitive story is that my roommate at the time, rob stone, played kevin on MR BELVEDERE, and he came home early one day and i said "why are you home early?" and he said "Mr Belvedere sat on his own balls." for a longer version, check me out on jay mohr's podcast, MOHR STORIES, plopping soon.
By that point, though, the story had been mostly confirmed by Jeff Stein, Executive Producer of Mister Belvedere, who explained in a 2009 interview with MacLean's:
"There’s also a famous urban legend that production had to be stopped when Christopher Hewett (Mr. Belvedere) injured his testicles. This one, it turns out, is no urban legend: 'Yes, it’s true. Mr. Belvedere did sit on his own balls. He fell backwards riding in a convertible in the Hollywood Christmas Parade. We had to shut down for a week while he healed.'"
Hewett did, indeed, take part in the 1988 AND the 1989 Hollywood Christmas Parade, so that checks out. Sandler had not yet joined the cast of Saturday Night Live at that time, so it would be around the time he was still hanging out with friends, like Doug Benson, back in Los Angeles. So it seems pretty clearly that Stone came home one day because the show was temporarily shut down because of Hewett's injury, told Benson, Benson told lots of people, including his friend of the time, Sandler, and Sandler then embellished the story over the years.
Still, at the heart of matter, the story is basically legit, so the legend is...
STATUS: True
Be sure to check out my archive of TV Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of TV.
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