The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

[BlueYoshi]

[color=teal]The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in my eyes is definitely one of the slickest and funniest comedies I've ever seen. It does sometimes subliminally gives us views on minor black culture and common ordeals that blacks would tend to go through, but the show is still great, and I personally feel that that's the reason for its stunning success nationwide.

It was in 1990 that The Fresh Prince aired for the first time and continued to keep on rolling up until 1996 where the show came to a conclusive outcome. I'm glad that it [I]actually[/I] finished though, unintentionally leaving it to cliff hang would've caused a lot of fuss amongst viewers having to see a fully developed story having to go to waste. I can't help to feel how The Fresh Prince managed to kick-start Will Smith's career in such a positive way though, this certainly isn't a gift given to most actors and stand-ups and is considered a rare opportunity. Seeing as Will Smith derived from a comedic background, I would've expected him to portray this image for the rest of his career, but I was obviously wrong here since he managed to pull off the role of a fugitive with Tommy Lee Jones consistently on his tail in Enemy of the State quite well.

Each and every character that ever appeared on scene in The Fresh Prince was fully developed. Will Smith admitted that all he had to do was "be himself" in name and personality--and it worked. The whole family also persist on that fact, and I think it worked like a charm. For a family being brought up in the Bel-Air community, they're all individually different in personality; Carlton's the school boy, Hilary's the heavy spender, and Ashley is more ghetto-like. Granted that they feat different attributes and such to each other, but the way they blend into one another it's as if they are all one in the same. Even the special guest characters were funny, and all they had to do was be themselves. It's an affective tactic if you ask me.

The episodes ranged from stupid to funny to hilarious to serious, and each category was adapted well on the basis of the cast (besides the stupid one, heh), with the funny episodes showing off the antics of Will in pursue of any set goal, and the more serious type that get uncle Phil into a lecturous attitude towards Will's behaviour. Current trends are also noticeable, like Will's views on Carlton's height and Phil's weight, these were sustained until the very end of the show and add up to slowly bring in the hilarious-classed episodes.

Some may even compare The Fresh Prince to My Wife and Kids, but they're extremely different alike. Granted, they are both based around an African-American family, but the themes divide well away from each other. Will is shown struggling to live up to the expectations of his uncle in a light-hearted comedic story, while My Wife and Kids merely symbolises a typical family household, with the occasional dark-humour added every now and then.

I noticed that the quality of the spoofs and such in The Fresh Prince started to decline from when Will graduates and onwards, it got repetitive seeing him and Lisa arguing and making up all the time, but none the less I have no other complaints about it. Great show.[/color]

[Shinken]

This is extremely ironic. Today in English class, a friend came in with a radio and started blaring the [i]Fresh Prince[/i] theme song.

I've only seen a few episodes of the show, but I enjoyed it. The only reason I've never really seen it was that it was a bit before my time, as the nineties was the period of time that saw me turn double-digits only when they were coming to a close. (Then again, it seems to me that the nineties were just a ten-year extension of the eighties.)

[Wolfman]

I loved the theme song

in west philidelphia born and raised on the playground is where i spent most of my days...

[JCBaggee]

[color=darkred][size=1]Hee hee. I used to watch it when I got home from school...but now my classes have changed and I can't. Ho hum.

Its really a great show, with an all-star cast. I mean, c'mon...James Avery (Uncle Phil) was the Shredder on the original TMNT! Shredder! Thats some big name casting there.

--Chris[/color][/size]

[Balmon]

Personally - anytime that shows comes on - except for the REALLY REALLY REALLY old ones where everything Will wears is flourescent - I stop what I'm doing and watch it.

I mean, Carlton's dancing, Hilary's flakiness, Ashley's.... hotness..., all that rolled into one neat packages. One of the greatest shows.

Phil

[JCBaggee]

[color=darkred][size=1]I have to agree Balmon, the first few episodes just didn't have the same appeal. Its a bit obvious that some of the cast were still getting used to a sitcom format.

Now, mind you, I'm not saying those episodes are bad...they're still great, but the show just got better as time progressed.

--Chris[/color][/size]

[BlueYoshi]

[color=teal]It's the opposite for me; I found that the older episodes were much better than the new ones. Lisa was just irritating in every sense and the fact that the bulk of the episodes revolved around her and Will after graduation killed it. There was practically no need for the rest of the cast at that point and their roles pretty much became cameos.[/color]

[Manic Webb]

I loved this show. Watched it from beginning to end. In fact, it was one of the few shows my mom had us watch as a family.

In my opinion, the show went down hill after Viv's (or was his aunt Vi? Or was his mom Vi? Oh well) pregnancy. After the actress gave birth, she was let-go from the cast either because she couldn't lose the weight fast enough, or because she had to take care of her new-born baby. I'm not sure. Either way, they replaced her the following season.

And because [i]heaven forbid[/i] the episodes involve a baby on the set, Viv (or Vi) and Phil's baby miraculously transformed to the ripe age of 7 the following season. They pulled a "Family Ties." Ashley finally got some screen time with her "being ignored" issues, and they completely wipe that away by setting the show half a decade into the future.

I think Balmon was referring to the old episodes where the house has a different design and Will Smith had no idea where the camera was. Will's character was a lot more "urbanized" in those episodes, and everyone else was (for contrast) ten times more proper and uptight than in later episodes. Plus they played up on Ashley's "wannabe badgirl" image a lot more back then. The show got better after the actors became more comfortable with their roles.

So I'd say the show was at its best somewhere between the first and last couple of seasons. By the way, whatever happened to Lisa? I remember they were going to get married, but then she seemed to have disappeared.

[Balmon]

Yeah - I actually did hate the old house design. Manic, you were right on about those things.... except PERHAPS about the disappearance of Aunt Viv. As I understood it, she was a... nasty female dog on set, and no one really got along well with her... especially (GUESS WHO!??!?!)... that's right, the star of the show: WILL SMITH.

I think they just felt it was an opportune time to let Viv go - also, for the record, I totally preferred the new Viv.

Sure, as Manic says, there are some MAJOR inconsistencies (magic age-defying baby, etc.), but, what's the good of having a baby that can't do anything worthwhile on set? It would have been another prop - a whiny, set-disturbing, prop.

That's all. Don't get me wrong, I like babies, but not on my T.V. shows.

:)

Phil

[JCBaggee]

[quote name='Manic']In my opinion, the show went down hill after Viv's (or was his aunt Vi? Or was his mom Vi? Oh well) pregnancy. After the actress gave birth, she was let-go from the cast either because she couldn't lose the weight fast enough, or because she had to take care of her new-born baby. I'm not sure. Either way, they replaced her the following season.[/quote]

[color=darkred][size=1]Actually Manic, I remember reading some big stink about how the actress was becoming unreasonable, demanded more money, and refused to do work. You'll notice she is conveniently absent from some of her later episodes.

Who knows? I could be wrong, or mis informed, but personally I liked the second Aunt Viv better.

--Chris[/color][/size]

[Manic Webb]

I liked the first Aunt Viv because she interacted with her sisters better. Phil and Viv grew up in a lower-class environment, and worked their way to the top. The first Viv knew how to get ghetto when the kids misbehaved. Basically, she acted more like her sisters than the second one did.

[BlueYoshi]

[color=teal]The first Aunt Viv (Janet Hubert-Whitten) was fired from the show because of her pregnancy. The second Aunt Viv (Daphne Reid) was actually nothing of a bother; critics and other sources claim that she's a "Lovely African-American" who's best known for her work in TV series and on set, namely The Fresh Prince.

Yeah, Hubert-Whitten was so much more ghetto than Reid and really managed to plead with Will reasonably because she knew his circumstances, unlike Phil who always jumped to his own immediate conclusions. I'm not saying that Reid's character was poorly developed in that way, but certain things could have been redone to at least keep that trend going with viewers. I suppose it didn't really make a difference though, I mean the family made less and less of an appearance after Will and Carlton's graduation to focus mostly on them, and those classic family re-unions became non-existent.[/color]

[Gavin]

[QUOTE=JCBaggee][color=darkred][size=1]I mean, c'mon...James Avery (Uncle Phil) was the Shredder on the original TMNT! Shredder! Thats some big name casting there.

--Chris[/color][/QUOTE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=1]I'd never actually noticed that until I read it there, he sounds so much more... menacing in the Turtles, but appears so much more so in Fresh Prince (I wouldn't piss of somebody about 6'5 and 300 lbs., would you ?).

I always found the show to be highly entertaining, though I don't think it's on Channel 4 (English TV Channel) anymore which is a pity since they've replaced it with about an hour of Simpsons re-runs. My favourite character was without a doubt the Butler (who's name escapes me at the moment), I just found him to be so cliché he was funny. He would make a sarcastic comment but it wouldn't sound sarcastic becuase he was always so proper in the way he spoke, the episode where he's ill and everyone else is complaining that he's not working hard enough was hysterical.

I haven't seen the new series, and I only say maybe 15, 16 episodes in total,but it sounds like it's departed from it's old format which is a pity. I hope Channel 4 air it again so I get the chance to see the entire series.[/SIZE]

[Manic Webb]

The butler's name was Geoffrey. I'm almost sure it's Geoffrey (and not Jeffrey), because Will always called him "G." He was a great character. He loved that family, but he had a ton of criticism packed in that feather duster he carried around. His scenes with Hillary were a highlight of the show.

Oh, and he had a comment for everyone. Fat jokes for Phil (and Viv while pregnant), brat jokes for Carlton and Hillary, mannerisms jokes for Will. He never said anything about Ashley, though. She was the least neurotic or otherwise crazy person on the show.