The Fresh Prince Of Bel- Air hid an insurgent heart beneath neon slapstick. Club. For most of the history of television, the barrier to syndication—and to profitability—has been 1. The shows that have made it to that mark are an unusual group. Many were big hits. Some found small cult audiences. Still others just hung on as best they could and never posted numbers quite low enough to be canceled. In. 10. 0 Episodes, we examine the shows that made it to that number, considering both how they advanced and reflected the medium and what contributed to their popularity.

Last week fans called for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to be brought back with Will Smith taking on the role of Uncle Phil. And Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton. A wealthy family living in Bel-Air, California, receives a dubious gift from their poorer relations in Philadelphia when Grammy Award-winner Will Smith arrives as The.

In this edition, we look at The Fresh Prince Of Bel- Air, which ran for six seasons and 1. NBC from 1. 99. 0 to 1. Here is a sentence that is inarguably bizarre without context: Every Fresh Prince fan should feel indebted to the Internal Revenue Service. Here is a sentence that may sound even more far- fetched: The Fresh Prince Of Bel- Air was one of the most subversive network sitcoms of its time. Regarding that first improbable sentence: When Will Smith met music producer Benny Medina, Smith had already won the first Grammy awarded in the rap category as part of the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. He had already made a fortune.

1. Movie star, rap star, and all-around superstar Will Smith (playing a character named Will Smith), is sent to live with his Aunt's family in Bel-Air to escape the.
2. Debunking the myth of the infamous "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse" episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.".
3. Will Smith only agreed to star in the show because he was in serious debt to the IRS. Smith gained widespread fame as the rapper The Fresh Prince, and with that.
4. We all know what Smith is up to these days. But what about the rest of the cast of 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'?
5. Ribeiro posted.
6. Created by Andy Borowitz, Susan Borowitz. With Will Smith, James Avery, Alfonso Ribeiro, Tatyana Ali. The Banks family, a respectable Californian family, take in a.

But Smith was particularly receptive to Medina’s pitch—that he star in a television show based on the producer’s childhood move from Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood to Beverly Hills—for one simple reason: He had already spent a fortune, too, and he neglected to send the government its share of his earnings. Smith was nearly bankrupt after the IRS assessed his unpaid taxes at $2. The show was a shot at solvency, and Smith’s wages were garnished 7.

Medina and his partner Jeff Pollack capitalized on Smith’s eagerness for a steady paycheck and brought him to see Quincy Jones, who wanted to produce a sitcom starring the charismatic MC. I need you to come to my house after the Soul Train Music Awards.’ So everyone went to his house,” Smith told James Lipton in an episode of Inside The Actor’s Studio. The details of Medina’s childhood were fuzzed to match the star’s biography. The main character would also be named Will Smith, and like Smith, he would be “born and raised” in West Philadelphia.

According to Smith, nobody asked him if he could act before the deal was signed. He did not know how; in his first scenes on the series he is clearly mouthing along with other actors’ lines. Smith treated Fresh Prince like an acting bootcamp, and his lack of experience didn’t hamper the show. NBC put the fledgling actor front- and- center from the beginning and let his charisma compensate until his acting caught up. NBC didn’t have the threat of tax evasion charges to deal with, but the network was as desperate as Smith to make Fresh Prince a (profitable) sensation. Cheers and The Cosby Show were still on the air, but winding down.

Seinfeld had only aired five little- watched episodes. NBC wanted a new hit with a hook for younger viewers, and the network pinned high expectations on the sitcom. The network heavily hyped Fresh Prince, banking on the Banks family becoming a younger, hipper, richer Californian iteration of those golden Huxtables. Though it initially floundered in the ratings, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air developed an audience with the help of the network hungry for a hit.

Out of all the shows NBC introduced that fall, only Law & Order and Fresh Princegot sophomore seasons. After the first season, the network continued to promote the show with younger viewers, courting the Blossom audience by having Will Smith befriend Mayim Bialik’s spunky hat- wearing teen. This was a confusing move by NBC because Smith appeared as himself on Blossom, but later on Blossom showed older brother Anthony dating Hilary Banks in a crossover episode, implying that in the Blossom universe both Will Smith the adult rapper and Will Smith the fictional teen student existed. While the Blossom promo appearances were confounding in their universe- building, NBC’s overall advertising blitz and continued support of the show worked. It ran 1. 48 episodes over six seasons, from 1.

During that time, Smith’s starpower skyrocketed. By the end of the series he had starred with Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys and filmed what would become his biggest role to that date as a wisecracking alien- puncher in Independence Day. With a rising star at its center, Fresh Prince did well in the ratings, but the show has maintained a place in pop culture that is disproportionate to the size of its initial audience because of an especially wide and successful syndication schedule that began in 1. The show’s success wasn’t limited to the United States; it benefited from heavy rotation internationally as well. In Hungarian, it was called Kaliforni. In Brazil, it became Um Maluco No Peda. In Italy, it was Willy, Il Principe Di Bel Air.

Along with other family- values sitcoms like Full House and Family Matters, Fresh Prince aired in afternoons on network television across the world during and after its initial run. It was the perfect after- school show, with a cast of young actors and slapstick humor. It remained cool even after it aired because Smith was a popular actor and rapper, but it was as clean as the squeaky sneakers Will favored on the show. The Hollywood Reporter acknowledged NBC’s grand plans for Fresh Prince shortly after it aired, admitting it was “the network’s great primetime hope.” The same review could only muster faint praise, calling it “tolerable television, far from a revelatory experience.” That assessment isn’t inaccurate. Fresh Prince is formulaic to a fault, a boilerplate comedy on which most episodes wrap up neatly with a moral lesson bestowed upon one of the characters after a misadventure. Fresh Prince is also intensely, unabashedly corny—the kind of thing Carlton would’ve watched, not Will. The setup is a contrived fish- out- of- water scenario.

Though based on Medina’s experiences, the network selected a 3. Harvard grad from suburban Ohio named Andy Borowitz as showrunner, along with his then- wife Susan. Fresh Prince succeeds because it imbues this tough- talking charity case with humanity and positions him as an audience surrogate instead of a figure to be laughed at. Which is where that second improbable sentence comes in: Despite the hacky premise, Fresh Prince snuck in a firm, persistent commitment to addressing experiences specific to black people in America—including institutionalized racism and identity politics—to a degree that isn’t present in contemporary sitcoms. The show, for all its rounded edges and pat wrap- ups, directly addresses race and (to a lesser extent) class issues.

The willingness of Fresh Prince’s writers to explore how its characters understand their blackness is one of the show’s strengths, and it was able to do this within the network system because Smith was such an affable figure, something the producers were aware of from the beginning. Smith’s crossover likeability and the show’s inherent hokiness served as a kind of Trojan horse to broadcast material that explicitly deals with charged issues like racial profiling and tokenism.“Will is not threatening,’’ Benny Medina told. The New York Times in 1. But we’ll do it Will’s way, rather than in their language.’’ Will’s way was one of reconciliation rather than confrontation. By placing the Banks family in an upper- class social milieu, The Fresh Prince portrays a black American experience that hadn’t been represented on television yet; the closest thing were the upper- middle- class Huxtables of The Cosby Show, but the Banks’ situation was one of over- the- top wealth. The Banks were cufflink Republicans with hired help, and the show milked the tension between Will’s “hood” sensibility and the Banks’ luxurious lifestyle.

Things You Might Not Know About 'The Fresh Prince of Bel- Air'1. Will Smith only agreed to star in the show because he was in serious debt to the IRS.

Smith gained widespread fame as the rapper The Fresh Prince, and with that fame came a significant jump in income. Unfortunately, Smith didn't manage his money wisely or pay enough in income taxes, and he owed the government a whopping $2. The IRS seized most of his belongings, including his income. The Fresh Prince almost declared bankruptcy—until producer Quincy Jones picked him to star in a new series, and The Fresh Prince of Bel- Air was born. And he had to pay up.

The IRS forced Smith to pay them 7. He was almost a total novice. Smith only had one other TV production under his belt—as a t- shirt salesman on an ABC after school special—when he accepted a role on The Fresh Prince, and is embarrassed by his earliest performances on the show.

He had never been formally trained as an actor, and—in some cases—his lack of experience was painfully obvious. When I watch those episodes, it's disgusting. My performances were horrible. Tyra Banks Made Her Acting Debut on the Show. She played Smith's on- screen girlfriend, Jackie, in a season four episode. The House in the Intro isn't in Bel Air.

Instead, the pictured house is located in the nearby (and similarly affluent) Brentwood. Carlton's Dance was Inspired by Courteney Cox and Eddie Murphy. Watch We Go On Online Iflix.

Geoffrey Had A Last Name. The ever- snarky butler of the Banks household's last name was .. Nicky's Middle Names Were Inspired by Boyz II Men. Audiences were first introduced to Nicky in season three, after he is born to Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv. His full name is Nicholas Andrew Michael Shawn Nathan Wanya Banks. What are the Boyz II Men member names?

Michael, Shawn, Nathan, and Wanya. The four- member R& B group performed at Nicky’s christening in a season four episode. Who's the Cabbie? Many sites (including IMDb) state that that's Quincy Jones driving the taxi cab with dice in the mirror.

But according to both Rashida Jones (Quincy's daughter) and Jada Pinkett Smith, the cabbie in the credits is . Besides, thanks to an auto accident at age 1. Jones has never learned to drive.

Smith met his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, during auditions for the show. She originally auditioned for the role of Will’s on- screen girlfriend.

She didn’t get the part, but that didn’t stop the couple from getting married in 1. See Also.. 2. 5 Things You Might Not Know About Friends*2. Future Stars Who Appeared on ER*1. Simpsons Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed. Smith contributed stories for some episodes. Will Smith was more than just the sitcom’s star.

He also helped with stories and produced some of the episodes, including “Ain’t No Business Like Show Business” in season three. In this episode, Will’s friend Keith Campbell, a comedian from Philadelphia, visits and makes stand- up look so easy that Will decides to pursue a career in comedy.

Two Different Actresses Played Aunt Vivian. Janet Hubert played the character during the first three seasons; Daphne Maxwell Reid played Aunt Vivian during the last three seasons.

Janet Hubert has said that the producers offered her a 1. When she refused, the producers refused to negotiate and recast the role. There were many famous guest stars. Jay Leno, Queen Latifah, and Hugh Hefner all made guest appearances on the show. The cast kept a . I need to pull that out, especially now that James has passed, because I know he's written in there. I know he was written about.

The Show was Canceled and Brought Back. After NBC canceled Fresh Prince in its fourth season, the finale had Smith's character heading back to Philadelphia.

After fan outcry, however, NBC decided to bring the show back; its fifth season opens with an NBC executive pulling Smith into a van to drive him back to California, saying . The Theme Song Caused a School Lockdown.

In 2. 01. 3, The Fresh Prince of Bel- Air theme song caused a school to be put on lockdown. A receptionist from Ambridge Area High School in Pennsylvania called a student to remind him of an upcoming appointment. He didn’t answer, and the receptionist was directed to the student’s voicemail. The student imitated the show’s theme song for his answering message, and the receptionist thought he said “shooting people outside of the school” instead of “shooting some b- ball outside of the school.” The local police brought the student into custody, although he was later released. You probably can't get the soundtrack.

Want to get a CD soundtrack of The Fresh Prince? You might have to take a plane to the Netherlands to get it; it was originally only released in Holland, where an extended remixed version of the title song hit #3 on the singles chart in 1.

The songs are now available online via Spotify and elsewhere for downloading. The Show has been parodied. There are multiple parodies of the show. Mad TV produced the animated Fresh Prawn of Bel- Air. A pet adoption group produced The Fresh Pup of Bel- Air.

See Also.. 2. 5 Things You Might Not Know About Boy Meets World*2. Facts About The Wonder Years*2. Future Stars Who Appeared on Seinfeld*5 Baffling Foreign Language Versions of The Fresh Prince of Bel- Air Theme.

Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay love The Fresh Prince. In August 2. 01. 2, the sitcom overtook the Harry Potter series as the entertainment of choice in the prison. The show endorsed a pair of basketball sneakers. They were called The Fresh Prince of Bel Air Jordan 5.