…That’s the full song, which plays with the Pilot episode.

 

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the show’s launch, Will Smith assembled the show’s cast for an almost 2-hour trip down memory lane. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is one of the few 90s sitcoms that is still around today because of how massively popular it is. It is such an iconic show, good luck finding kids who haven’t at least heard of it.

Despite the fact the show ran from1990 to 1995 spanning 150 episodes, it has lived on in reruns in the 25 years since the final episode aired in 1995. A few cable networks carry the show and you can find all 6 seasons in their entirety on HBO Max (without Ads!).

Speaking of. I plan to binge all six seasons while my HBO Max subscription is still active. I finished Season 1 and I now know for sure the set changed after the first season. I was never sure but now I have it confirmed. The interior of the Banks home changes to the iconic look we all know and love after the first season:

 

 

…The second picture is from the Reunion Special and is a faithful recreation of the original set. It is also fueling speculation Will Smith plan to make a new show idea a reality. While he was promoting the Reunion Special last year, Smith said he was very open to creating a new series with himself as the dad. The idea would be for it to be a tribute to the late James Avery (1945-2013), who played Uncle Phil on the show. We will have to wait and see if it happens.

The Reunion special was done in 2020 during the pandemic if that wasn’t already obvious. Since that was before Vaccines became available, great care was taken to ensure the cast–almost all of whom are now over 50–could safely interact and be physically close to each other. I am hopeful they will do another reunion special, this time in front of a audience.

The show’s had quite a number of not just celebrity appearances but guest appearances by actors who would go on to star in their own sitcoms, dramas or movies. Queen Latifah made several appearances early in the show’s run as several characters. Like Will Smith, she was looking to transition into acting after making a name for herself as an artist. She would go on to co-star on Livin’ SIngle and the movie Set It Off, which established her acting career. Malcom Jamal Warner plugged the Cosby Show during his guest appearance, having made a prior cameo in a daydream sequence on the show as himself. Nia Long famously played Smith’s girlfriend on the show as several characters during its run.

The show is more known and beloved for tackling issues and and topics common from within Black America, all of which are still relevant today. In fact, you can have a group discussion after almost every episode. The cast revealed during the Reunion Special they didn’t just want entertain people but also wanted to enlighten, inform and uplift.

 

Here’s one now iconic moment from Season 2 that got renewed attention in recent years:

 

“No way! Dude’s got a gun. Next thing I know, I got six warning shots in my back.” This clip has been immortalized on YouTube. It was clearly done as dark humor but 30 years later, this line has taken renewed interest due to recent events that have made the news involving unarmed black men being shot by police. It’s not that it wasn’t happening back then. The difference its in recent years, it’s been getting recorded a lot more.

 

 

Uncle Phil’s question at the end “When are we gonna stop doing this to each other?” at the end was clearly directed at Black America. It was a shot at what had to that point become toxic stereotypes about what “being Black” is or is supposed to be perpetuated by Blacks. Not just the vernaculars but the “Street Smarts Culture” Black Americans perpetuated throughought the 70s, 80s, most of the 90s and most of the 2000s.

All that said, this moment and others from the show are clearly was a clear shot at “Black Hood Culture”. As much as many folks in my generation like to tout the 90s as “The last good decade”, it wasn’t all Nintendo and Michael Jordan. Especially for Black America. Let’s just be real: rap music, certain talk shows, certain comedians and gangsta movies all went a long way in distorting and devaluing Black Americans for a whole generation by glamorizing self-destructive habits, ideas and behaviors.

That’s a whole other topic that would need a series of posts to cover though. Before I move on, I will say the way this show tackled real life issues didn’t feel feel forced. Sitcoms–short for “Situation Comedy” or those who never knew–of the 90s, 80s and 70s are often criticized these days for having projected the false narrative any problem can be resolved within 30 minutes (or two episodes) during their eras. That IS true but the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was one of the few shows that covered real issues purposely and with great attention to detail.

 

 

Now here’s a scene many in America regardless of race or ethnicity felt the first time they saw it:

 

WIll Smith commented on the story behind this scene both in the Reunion Special and in past interviews after James Avery died. First off, this was 100% scripted. The backdrop to what is easily the most iconic scene in the entire series is James Avery pushed Will Smith to bring it as an actor and refused to allow filming to end until we got the finished product. Smith revealed during the embrace, Avery whispers to him ‘Now THAT’S acting!”

Earlier in the episode, Will and Uncle Phil have a huge fight and at the end of it, Will smell exclaims to him “You are NOT my father!” It’s not hard to understand how much it hurt Uncle Phil to have him say that to him and more so since he moved to Bel Air. For all intents and purposes, Uncle Phil was the father Will never had and needed.

 

That aside, the line “How come he don’t want me?” cut deep and hard for millions of Americans regardless of age who either grew up without a father or were the mothers of kids who grew up without one. No more needs to be said.

Oh and Will Smith–the person, not the character–did grow up with his father in his life. Some folks might also remember the song he did a few years after the song he did called “Just The Two Of Us”, which is actually a rehash of an old song with the same name. He did the song as a tribute to his firstborn son after he broke up with the mother of his son and got full custody. This was before he married Jada Pinkett (they have two kids together). No, not his other son Jaden. That’s his son with his wife.

 

 

When Season 4 began, there was a new actress playing the role of Vivian Banks. While Aunt Viv was spared the same fate as Family Matters’ Judy Winslow–who went upstairs one day and never came back down–there was no ignoring the fact she was played by a different actress for the second half of the show’s run. As Jazz put it, Aunt Viv “drastically changed” five months after giving birth.

Mind you, Nicky Banks (played by Ross Bagley) was “aged up” a few years between Seasons 4 and 5 (which again, Jazz points out) but given there is an implied time skip while Will is in Philadelphia (complete with 4th Wall breaking of course), you can kinda hand-wave this. More so since by then, viewers clearly noticed the new Aunt Viv and the one they’d grown to love had their own approaches to their protrayals of the character.

 

The interesting thing Daphne Reid, who played Aunt Viv in Seasons 4 through 6 revealed during the Reunion Special is she was initially considered to play Aunt Viv. She passed on the role and it wasn’t until the show began she realized she missed out on being a part of something special. Then, the role of Aunt Viv suddenly opened at the end of season 3.

 

Speaking of:

 

Will Smith and Janet Hubert-Whitten had their first face to face sit-down meeting in 27 years during the Reunion Special. After playing footage of that sit-down meeting between them, Smith told the rest of the cast it wouldn’t have felt right to do the Reunion Special without her and more so since she had been a big part of the show’s popularity both during her time on it and in the 30 years after the show ended.

Make no mistake the two said a lot more to each other than what we saw but the point is after 27 years, Will and Janet reconciled. Their feud was one of the longest in Hollywood history. Before I continue, Janet clarified the narrative everyone including Smith himelf assumed that she had been fired. In reality, her contract had expired. Janet actually was pregnant during the taping of Season 3 and her pregnancy was written into the show.

Her contract was up for renewal when she had her falling out with WIll. Negotiations fell through and her beef with WIll Smith, who was a rising star in Hollywood prettymuch meant her acting career was over. In the context of when their beef began, Janet told Will she knew that at the time they had their falling out he was basically untouchable. While clearly more was said between them than has been publicly shared, Will admitted he knew she was stressed from the pregnancy and needlessly added to it with his badgering. Janet told him aside from the pregnancy and the contract negotiations that fell through, she was also dealing with an abusive and failed marriage.

Will knew things came to a head when NBC first got wind of the rumors about them. He and the rest of the cast likely had been simply told she had been fired and her role was recast. Daphne Reid, who was originally considered for the role was chosen to replace Janet Hubert-Whitten for the rest of the show’s run. Aunt Viv is noticably absent from three of the final four episodes of Season 3 (she gives birth in Episode 20). She was paid for her final appearance in the Wedding Anniversary episode, which is a flashback episode.

 

Alphonso Ribiero already showed he has some SERIOUS dancing skills prior to the introuction of what is The Carlton Dance. For those who didn’t pick up on the obvious references, Ribiero took dancing lessons to be a backup dancer for Michael Jackson. Those plans were put on the shelf when he was cast as Carlton…or so he likely thought.

The song “It’s Not Unusual” by Tom Jones saw a surge in record, cassette and CD sales after its first appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. When he learned why his old song was suddenly so popular, Tom Jones begged to make his one cameo appearance on an episode of the show during a dream sequence with Carlton.

Will Smith recognized Alphonso’s talent outside acting and pushed for him to have opportunities to show off his range. This would continue 20 years after the show ended as well.

Alfonso won Dancing with the Stars in 2014 thanks to the Carlton Dance. He knew he would only be allowed to use it once and he knew people wanted to see him do it so he saved it for last, winning the competition with it.

 

 

I almost forgot to mention this but the iconic Fresh Prince of Bel Air mansion is actually located in Brentwood, which is next to Bel Air. The show is loosely inspired by the life of Benny Medina–known as the REAL Fresh Prince of Bel Air–who was the show’s Executive Producer. That’s not his actual mansion but Medina did own a mansion in Bel Air. He sold his mansion in 2015 for about $13 Million when he moved to New York.

As for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air Mansion, it’s still there. I think it’s owned by Will Smith but I can’t remember. Last October, Smith partnered with Air BnB to host five sleepovers. One night for $35 but in exchange, you could basically do whatever you wanted while there. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they could only source people from the LA County area who lived together. There will probably be another promotion once the Pandemic is under control though.

 

 

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