After all, it was simply a way for a young rapper to pay off his pending taxes. Despite the interesting premise, a mix of experience (Avery, Hubert, Butler and Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks) and rawness (Tatyana M Ali, Karyn Parsons and the star of the show himself), and the racial tensions-marked era in which it was made, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air had no right to be as successful as it eventually was. The show, like so many films in the three decades to follow, was decidedly a Will Smith vehicle. Thirty years ago, however, being part of a television show was probably not part of the then-just-a-rapper's (as compared to the rapper/actor/producer we know now) plans, but a tax debt of nearly $3 million to the Internal Revenue Service forced him to make his first serious foray into acting. It was last year that cinematographer Morgan Cooper unveiled a dark and dramatic Bel-Air in his four-or-so-minute long trailer - one that earned fulsome praise from Smith, who seemed to suggest that there might be something to this new avatar. Over the past five years, Uncle Phil (the late James Avery), Aunt Vivian (Janet Hubert/Daphne Maxwell Reid), Geoffrey Butler (Joseph Marcell), Will Smith (Will Smith, curiously enough) and the rest of the gang have been the topic of some discussion following a couple of stray soundbites about a possible reboot (with Smith playing the role of the Banks family patriarch), a spin-off and the fan-made film trailer. ![]() Let's find out if The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air stands up to scrutiny in 2020. Now, 28 years since an unarmed Black man was mercilessly thrashed by five White police officers, we find ourselves in the post-George Floyd era - where police brutality, excess and apathy claimed the life of an unarmed Black man - where the battle for Black rights has regained its momentum and found its way back into the headlines. That the series aired at a time when the battle for Black rights was the topic of widespread and heated discussion - particularly in light of the Rodney King beating and the subsequent Los Angeles riots - gave its message that much more gravitas and power. But while such themes as drugs, gun control, class, fatherhood and peer pressure were explored and, (often) resolved and tied up neatly with a bow by the time a 24-minute-long episode came to a close, the sitcom's (and it certainly lived up to the 'com' part of that abbreviation) most powerful discourse surrounded race and racism. Originally aired on NBC between 19, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is the tale of how a fairly street-smart (and equally book-stupid) man moves from West Philadelphia to Bel-Air, California to live with his uncle and aunt, Philip and Vivian Banks while they seek to give him a better life.Īlong the way, he learns lessons about family, values, friendship, life and so on - all while delivering one solid PSA after another. ![]() ![]() Revisiting Gone With The Wind: Setting the benchmark for portrayal of racism, defiant female characters Revisiting Dustin Hoffman's The Graduate: A powerful satire that debunks stereotypes of romance and youthįrom its opening sequence, complete with that unforgettable song - one that need not be hyperlinked here, because if you've ever seen the show, it's unlikely you'll ever forget it - and its near-unending list of celebrity cameos, past all the cracks, crevasses and holes in the fourth wall, all the way to the variety of social issues highlighted (intentionally or otherwise), the show is a veritable triumph in daytime television history.
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