The Spectator Beholder is a monster encountered in the legendary game Baldur's Gate 2 from Bioware (and Black Isle &c.), and its expansion Throne of Bhaal. Following is a summary which may be considered to contain (very) minor spoilers.
At a certain point in your progress through the story you meet a very unusual and... entertaining beholder identified as the "Spectator". He is far more amicable than most of his race, and in fact eager to converse with the party after years of dull magically-enforced servitude to an anonymous, deceased Drow. Apparently he was summoned on a century-long contract to guard a forgotten key securing access from the Sahuagin city into the Underdark, a thankless task made all the worse by some characteristically annoying imps which have been plaguing his immediate vicinity. A reasonably clever character can access his treasure without violence, and consequently release him from the need to guard it. He thanks you with some very funny parting dialogue, and goes on his merry way.
The Spectator beholder must have been popular with players, or developers, or both (I certainly found him endearing), because he makes an encore in the Throne of Bhaal expansion. Encountered in Sendai's lair, he again enables an "efficient" solution to a Drow-related problem. After establishing his total dissatisfaction with the Drow as employers, he again wanders off into the sunset to do whatever it is that professional beholders do between jobs.