The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996, featuring Will Smith in a fish-out-of-water tale of a streetwise Philadelphia teenager sent to live with rich relatives in a Bel-Air, California mansion. A total of 148 episodes were produced over six seasons.

Theme song and opening sequence

The theme song was written by Will Smith and performed by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

This version of the full theme song was rarely used on the show, although DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince did record it as an unreleased B-side.DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: B-Side Lyrics For the first few episodes of the show, verses one to three and verses six and seven were used; however, beginning with Episode #9 (titled "Someday Your Prince Will Be in Effect (2)"), only the first two and the last two verses of the song were used. This was done so that episodes could be longer.

The earlier seasons featured an instrumental version of the theme and stills from the episode for the closing credits. Eventually the music and stills were dropped, and closing credits would almost always appear over bloopers and outtakes from the episode. The closing theme over episode clips reappeared in the show's fifth season.

Episodes

See List of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episodes

Characters

See List of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air characters

Running gags

In addition to humorous scripts, the show found humor in physical comedy, insults, and running gags:

Carlton frequently bringing up Uncle Phil's will and suggestions for revisions to it
Will would frequently make jabs at Carlton's slight stature and virginity, as well as at Uncle Phil's weight and baldness. For Carlton's height, one episode held a small twist. In this episode, Will and Carlton trick Geoffery into thinking he won the lottery. Humiliated and resentful, Geoffrey quits as the Banks' butler and takes a job as a waiter. At Geoffrey's new restaurant, Will and Carlton pretend to be his sons. Will then jokes that the reason Carlton, his "older brother", "stopped growing" was because they didn't have any money for clothes. Rather than getting upset or angry, Carlton makes fun of himself, saying he wants to grow.
A running gag throughout the series was Carlton's enthusiastic love of singer Tom Jones and a gyrating dance he would perform to Jones' tune "It's Not Unusual." Eventually, Tom Jones guest-starred as himself and Carlton's guardian angel, showing Carlton what the Banks family would be like if he had never been born. The dance was actually a parody of the dance Courtney Cox performed in the 1984 Bruce Springsteen music video of "Dancing in the Dark."
Carlton often impersonated singer Michael Jackson, emulating his singing style and dance moves in several episodes.
A favorite recurring gag throughout the series involved Will's best friend Jazz flying out the front door after saying something offensive to a member of the Banks family (usually Philip) and being physically thrown out by him or her. The shot of Jazz flying through the front door was only filmed once (for Season 1, Episode #2: "Bang the Drum, Ashley" when Phil told him to turn up a classical music record, and Jazz scratches it like a DJ) and re-used each time. For this reason, in the many later episodes in which he is thrown out the door, he is always wearing the same shirt as he was that first time. In the Season 2 episode "Cased up," there was a small twist on this gag: when Jazz offends Phillip outside on the Banks' driveway, then comments "You can't throw me out because I'm already outside," Phillip proceeds to pick him up and throw him into the house via the kitchen door. Will was once thrown out of the house in the same manner as Jazz, and even Phillip was thrown out once during a dream sequence. In an episode, Jazz is thrown out together with a life-size cardboard figure of Bill Cosby - this one had to be redone several times, and such attempts appeared as the blooper sequence for the end of this episode.
Will would commonly break the fourth wall as part of a gag, such as when he described the character Omar as "the dude who be spinning me over his head during the opening credits", or by voicing his confusion over how Nicky could have aged several years over a period of about three months; in that scene, Jazz breaks the wall as well by first asking if the same person was playing the mother (a reference to the change of actress in the Vivian role), then, upon seeing the older Nicky, says, "Man I'm going back to the street where things make sense." After Uncle Phil proclaims, "We're rich," Will tells the audience, "If we so rich, why we can't afford no ceilin'?" while the camera tilts up to show the studio lights and rafters. In another episode, Will fakes playing the saxophone while Branford Marsalis plays in the background, causing Will to quip how great it is to be working for NBC. Another time, Philip is complaining until Will takes a television remote and "clicks off" Philip, then asks the studio audience if they wish they could live on television like him, where such things are possible.

Both Will and Carlton break the fourth wall in a later episode: Will meets his eventual girlfriend Lisa at ULA, where she poses as a psychopath obsessed with Will. As a practical joke, Will later tells Carlton that Lisa was really insane and that he had to kill her in self-defense. Carlton goes into a frenzied grief, running through all the set pieces (the house, the university, the cabin where Lisa entrapped Will, etc.), eventually meeting Will as the camera pans away from the set and into the audience.

In one episode, Phil is suing both Will and Carlton for not paying the rent of their pool house. When in the court Phil tells the judge that he is only trying to teach them a lesson, and that he bets they won't even show up. Just then Will walks in the courtroom looking very serious. When delivering his statement Will breaks the fourth wall by saying to the judge "your honor, I'm from west Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days", which is the opening line of the show's theme song.
Also, in a later episode where Ashley tries to get into modeling, her modeling agent goes up to Will and says "You'd be a perfect model. You look like you're West Philidelphia, born and raised!", which is a line from the opening credits.

Issues addressed

While the show addressed many serious issues, a few episodes were often lauded as very special episodes. Many of these did not have bloopers during the credits, to maintain the seriousness of the show.

While largely a comedy, this show commonly addressed African American issues.

In the very first episode, for instance, Will accuses his uncle of having forgotten "where he came from," or having forgotten that he is black. His uncle (himself a former Civil Rights activist) is furious, and points out Will's frequently-mentioned belief in the philosophy of Malcolm X. "I heard the brother speak," Phil angrily informs his nephew. Also, he accuses of butler of "acting like we still on the plantation"
The concept of what is acceptable for black self-expression was addressed in an episode where Philip clashes with Will over his attire at a party, which Philip feels make Will look like a hoodlum. Will compares his hoodlum attire to Philip's Afro from when he was a Civil Rights activist, to which Philip angrily explains "I was making a statement. You're just drawing attention to yourself." Will responds by asking how it's possible that a man as large as Philip "with an Afro the size of Philly" is not drawing attention to himself (Philip resolves this by grounding his own children, which turns them against Will and pressures him to change his attire).
In a later episode, Will and one of his old school friends, Ice Tray, reminisce about how Ice Tray frequently had to save Will from bullies who attacked him because he tried to be a good student. When Vivian confronts Will about Ice Tray's lack of drive, and challenges the assumption by Will that he and Ice Tray are alike, Will mentions that Ice Tray never had anyone to stick up for him, and by defending Will he kept Will from spiraling down the wrong path.
In another episode, Will and Carlton try to join an all-black fraternity, but Carlton is singled out for being a "sell-out" because his family is wealthy and he "acts white." Carlton proceeds to lecture the "Top Dog," saying that being black isn't what Carlton wants, but what he is, and that Top Dog is the real sell-out for not knowing what it truly means to "stick together."
- In an episode where Will is shot in the back during an attempted robbery at a bank ATM and then hospitalized, Carlton finds himself pondering the idea of carrying a gun for self-defense. This leads to an emotional confrontation between the two.
In one episode Will complains that African Americans are always shown rapping and dancing whenever they're shown on TV.
In another early episode, Will and Carlton are delivering an expensive car to one of Phillip's white colleagues, Henry Firth, but are accused by the police of stealing it only because they are African-Americans. They are jailed, the police refuse to listen to Vivian or Philip, and only release the pair after Firth himself tells them to.
The issue of absent fathers was touched upon when Will finally meets his father Lou (played by Ben Vereen) in one of the series' more emotional episodes. While Will was still an infant, his jobless father had one day walked out "to get a pack of smokes" and never came home. Years later he returns, now employed as a trucker, while Will is in college. Philip and Vivian give Lou the cold shoulder, but Will decides that he wants to go on the road with his father and leave Bel-Air, which Philip at first forbids. Will angrily retorts that Phil was not his father which upsets Phil. However, his father abandons him yet again, and the episode concludes with Will hugging Philip in tears, asking, "How come he don't want me, man?" Symbolically, Will accepts the fact that his Uncle Phil is the closest thing to a true father he has ever had.
The issue of teenage pregnancy is brought up in an episode in which Ashley is curious about sex. Will and Carlton, determined to find a way to talk to Ashley about it, go down to the local pregnancy center and find out about the issues.
The issue of interracial marriage is addressed in an episode in which one of Vivian's sisters, Janice, announces her engagement to a white man, Fred, and Will's mother at first forbids this. Will forbade it at first too, but after talking to Fred (and getting permission to borrow Fred's Porsche) he approves. The episode ends with a wedding scene.
Drug abuse is addressed in an episode in which Will, busy with finals, basketball, and his girlfriend, is having trouble staying awake. When one of Will's classmates gives him some amphetamines to help him stay up, Carlton takes 2000 miligrams of amphetamines, which he presumes to be vitamin E pills to get rid of pimples on his face. After Carlton's near-fatal overdose, Will confesses that although he never used the drugs, he is to blame for Carlton's using them.
The issue of alcohol abuse and drunk driving is explored as well. While at a party, Will and a rival drink shots to see who can drink the most. When Will passes out from drinking so much, some bullies drop him off at a graveyard and he meets spirits of the dead, who are stuck playing an eternal game of poker. While the poker sequence is shown humorously, the mood gets somber when a ghost child (who was with the other spirits) tells Will that he died when a drunk driver hit him.
The issue of divorce is also talked about. In a two-part episode in the sixth and final season, Phil and Vivian consider getting a divorce after Phil lies to Vivian about running for governor.

DVD releases

Season Releases

DVD Name	Release Date	Ep #
The Complete 1st Season	February 8 2005	25
The Complete 2nd Season	October 11 2005	24
The Complete 3rd Season	February 14 2006	24
The Complete 4th Season	August 8 2006	26
The Complete 5th Season	TBA 2007	25
The Complete 6th Season	TBA 2007	24

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has been released on Region 1, 2 and 4 DVD.

The first season has a special features section which features the creators, Tatyana Ali, Joseph Marcell and James Avery in a brief documentary. Tatyana Ali says the show is funny and she will never experience anything like it again. James Avery mentioned that he enjoyed it a lot and misses it. The second season has a special features section which plays through an archive of the season's bloopers and the best parts.

It should be noted that whilst season 1 had excellent special features (cast interview), seasons 2 and 3 have been severely lacking in this department, due to simply running through the bloopers which can be seen at the end of each individual show. Despite the Fresh Prince launching Will Smith's career, he has neglected the DVD releases of his show by not appearing in the 'special features' a single time (upto season 3).

In the UK, Region 2, the first season was released on February 21 2005 and the second on November 21 2005. The third season was released on June 28 2006.

In Australia, Region 4, the first season was released on April 13 2005. The second season was released on March 1 2006. The third season has been confirmed for August 9 2006

Continuity errors

The show contains a few continuity errors, in that some characters seem to age at different rates. In episode #2, "Bang the Drum Ashley," Ashley says she is 9; later in that season, in "Just Infatuation," Phil says she is almost 12. Will is 17 for the first two seasons, and 18 in season three. Nicky Banks grows from baby to preschooler between seasons four and five (though this was humorously addressed).

In one episode in Season Two, the family is going to an awards show and is to be sat next to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Eventually there is a power cut, and Phil and Vivian are trapped in Phil's office. Uncle Phil then turns on the stereo to make things a bit more romantic. Phil somehow managed to turn the stereo on during a power cut. (This is also mentioned on a montage in the Special Features on the DVD release of the series)

Another continuity error involves the marriage of Vy to Lisa's father Fred Wilkes. The two are married in the fifth season finale "For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll," but when Vy visits the Banks house in season six's "There's the Rub," she arrives without Fred. This had many fans puzzled.

Another continuity error occurs when Will claims he's never met his father in the episode where Carlton gets depressed and runs away to a blues bar (B.B. King guest stars as a guitarist at the bar), but later, when his father, Lou Smith, meets Will at his job at 'The Peacock' and Will knows who he is because he has a vague memory of him, and claims he hadn't seen him in fourteen years.

Will Smith gets his last name from his mother's side because his mother and his aunts were once referred to as the "Smith Sisters". Although in an episode where he reunites with his father, he introduces his name as Lou Smith (It should be noted, however, that Will's parents may have had the same last name even before they got married - all the more so a common name like Smith).

In the season premiere for season five, there was no conclusion to Will's stay in Philly. Rather than continue with the storyline, the writers simply chose to have NBC executives come and kidnap Will from the restaurant where he was employed at. After the opening credits, Will is back at home and things return to normal with no reference to the Philly trip.

At the end of season four, Will's friend from Philly Jackie played Tyra Banks disappears with no explanation. Some fans assumed that she transfered colleges, others assumed that she and Will went their seperate ways after freshman year.

Will and Carlton start college at the same time in Fall 1993 which would have made them college graduates in Spring 1997 assuming they were on the four year plan. In the series finale in Spring 1996, Carlton graduates and attends Princeton in the fall for law school while Will states that he is looking for to finishing school in California. There was no explanation for this. Some argue that this was considered part of a forced ending.

Syndication

The series currently airs on the weekends on the WB in the afternoon and seven nights a week on Nick at Nite and The N. Currently on Nick at Nite, Fresh Prince is on at 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM ET, and on Sunday and Wednesday nights, there is a non-stop block from 12:00 AM- 4:00 AM. On The N, (Noggin's nighttime program lineup) broadcast with scenes that were deleted from syndicated and original broadcasts of the series. The series is also syndicated in some U.S. markets, used by some (such as KAUT 43 in Oklahoma City) as filler programming. It also airs in Canada on YTV nightly and Omni 2. In the UK, it airs on Trouble and Bravo. In Australia, it airs on the Nine Network (free-to-air) and on Nickelodeon (cable/satellite). In Holland, Fresh Prince airs Monday through Friday on Veronica. In Brazil airs Monday through Saturday on SBT with the name "Um Maluco no Pedaço". In Norway, the show is broadcasted by TVNorge on weekdays with the Norwegian title "Fresh Prince i Bel Air". ^*. In New Zealand, the show screens on weekdays on the Prime network.

Trivia

Some viewers thought they saw George Burns playing a character named Max in the episode in which Will has a fear of surgery. The role was actually played by legendary actor and comedian Milton Berle, who quite resembled Burns at the time.
Before playing Lisa Wilkes, Nia Long had previously appeared as Claudia, Will's date to a dance in the second-season episode "She Ain't Heavy." In addition, Long and Smith appeared together in 1992's Made in America with Ted Danson and Whoopi Goldberg.
Although Will Smith received favorable reviews for his performance in the film Six Degrees of Separation, many Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fans cite the fourth-season episode "Papa's Got a Brand-New Excuse" (where Will is deserted by his father a second time) as the work where Smith establishes himself as a serious dramatic actor.
The show was originally supposed to end in Spring 1994 due to Will Smith's wanting to venture off into other projects hence the series finale ending for the season. After the episode was filmed in March, Smith told producers after fan reaction he wanted to continue on with the series.
Will Smith announced before the sixth season even started taping that it would be his last season on the show as he wanted to focus on his film career and he wanted to record an album and he didn't think he would have enough time to do all three venues at the same time.
Janet Hubert-Whitten left the show over contract issues and creative differences with Will Smith, who by the last season was the executive producer of the show. Daphne Maxwell-Reid was her replacement. Many fans point to this cast change as the moment when the show "jumped the shark."
In one episode Will makes a number of Muhammad Ali references. Years later, Smith portrayed Muhammad Ali in a motion picture entitled "Ali."
In another episode, Will makes a reference to Chicken George, a character in the miniseries Roots who was played by Ben Vereen. In the episode "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse," Will's father is played by Vereen.
In the 1996 film Independence Day, Will Smith's character has a girlfriend whose son is portrayed by Ross Bagley.
The show's theme song is currently part of a popular internet meme on 4chan.

External Links

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