Image via HBO Max / Saeed Adyani
Thirty years after The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air debuted, and almost 25 after it concluded, the cast of the iconic Black sitcom reunited for an HBO Max special that looks into the history of this show. The series followed a kid from West Philadelphia (born and raised) to Bel-Air to live in the posh mansion of his relatives, the Banks. For six seasons and 184 episodes, we grew with Will and the Banks family, and three decades later, our kids’ kids will still get to experience what true Black Excellence looks like.
Over the course of the 74-minute special, viewers got to relive most of the show’s iconic moments and hear the origin stories of everything from the Carlton dance to their Friday night taping ritual. There was a lot to learn by watching the reunion special. Even if you grew up with the series and know every piece of dialogue (like a certain cast member did early on), there are things that you can take from it. Here are the biggest takeaways from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion special.
Will Smith was really, really green
At the time of the show’s debut, the world primarily knew Will Smith as the Fresh Prince, who, along with Jazzy Jeff, took the world of hip-hop by storm. His natural wit and charm were perfect for a series like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but as he admits early on in the reunion special that this was the first time he actually had to perform dialogue with other actors. Karyn Parsons, who played Hilary Banks, told a story about how, during the rehearsals for the pilot, everything seemed cool, but when it was time to lay it down, Will started mouthing everyone’s lines as they said them (Tatyana Ali, who portrayed Ashley, said the same thing). In his own defense, Will said that because it was the first time he’d performed in a situation like this, he took things one step further: he learned everyone’s lines. It’s an interesting trick but is negated when you look like you’re mumbling throughout a taping. It does show Will’s dedication to getting it right. He’s shown up—now he has to show out and prove why he deserves to be there.
The show is based on Benny Medina’s life
One name Will briefly brought up while discussing his audition was Benny Medina, who was not only instrumental in launching Jennifer Lopez’s music career in 1999, but helped Sean Combs start Sean John and worked with megastars like Usher and Mariah Carey. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is loosely based on Medina’s life—he grew up selling drugs in East L.A. and later moved to Beverly Hills, attending Beverly Hills High School. That shift in his life brought him to the world of music, which led to him meeting Motown’s Berry Gordy, setting Medina on the path he’s still on today.
The NBC sitcom painted broad strokes over Medina’s life to focus it more on Will’s Philadelphia roots, but even Will knows: this show would be nothing without Medina.
Why they started using the same shot of Jazz getting thrown out
As Jazzy Jeff remembers it, him being thrown out of the Banks house was written into the first episode he was on. He said that there had been “about 150 takes” of him being tossed across the porch. “I think they didn’t want to torture me anymore,” Jeff said, and he thinks that’s why they started using the same shot, which of course became its own thing.
It was Alfonso Ribeiro’s idea to break the fourth wall
In the Season 5 episode “Will’s Misery,” Will turns the tables on Carlton and pranks the hell out of him. At one moment, Carlton gets so worried about possibly killing Lisa (Nia Long) that he drags himself out of the Banks household and starts running through all of the sets, as well as the audience, in one of the biggest moments in the show’s history. On the special, Alfonso revealed that everything was just set up perfectly backstage—even though breaking the fourth wall on sitcoms wasn’t a thing. This may be why it’s still talked about decades later.
Will Smith was getting new Jordans six weeks before release
Who knew that the cast had so much freedom to rock what they wanted to rock on camera? Both Jazz and Will spoke about maintaining that fresh-to-def vibe on set, including being seeded Jordans sometimes a month and a half(!) early, which made sense, especially if the person shipping them knew that Will being seen on TV in, say, a particular pair of Jordans 5s would be just as good as some bigger sneaker ad.
The cast brought authenticity to the show
As Alfonso mentioned, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was one of three Black shows on at the time, and during that era of Hollywood, having Black people in writers’ rooms wasn’t always a thing, so in moments when, frankly, Black people wouldn’t say or do certain things, the cast made it a point to course-correct the situations. Those corrections would happen on the Tuesday and Wednesday run-throughs of the show, where the actors really got to get onstage and block out how scenes and moments would develop. That attention to detail in Black culture would be just as important—even more so—than the clothes they had on their backs.
James Avery really was a father figure to the cast
It was amazing to hear Tatyana and Alfonso and others not just talk about the amazing music that James Avery, who played Philip Banks, had coming from his dressing room, but how he helped instruct them on perfecting their craft. Avery gave them lessons on how to be better actors, but also on how to be better as Black people. Will spoke on how, because of the importance of the position he was in, he had to elevate his craft.
In the scene where (if you allow me to use some pro wrestling lingo) Will cuts a great promo on his father, who had just walked out of his life again, during a take in front of the audience, Will messed up a line and was overcome with emotion. It was James who put him in his place, gave him his focus, and then called for them to run through the scene again. That is the scene that we all came to love. What a moment. What a man.
Janet Hubert’s side of the story
Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Vivian for the first three seasons of the show, admitted that, during Season 3 (and her pregnancy), things at home weren’t going well, and no one really knew it about any of it, including her castmates (Janet likened the isolation she felt to being “banished” from the cast). Will admits that, as a 21-year-old, he did make the set harder than it needed to be for Janet. Couple that with what Janet described as a bad deal she got from NBC, and it built up a bad rep for her when she was let go because she didn’t take the contract. In the media, it was played a different way, and there wasn’t much for Janet to do but step inward.
Will calling Janet “difficult” seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and forced her to do the only thing she probably could do and lash out. Decades later, it was amazing to see Janet and Will sit together, having that moment. The fact that it took this special for Daphne Maxwell Reid (the second Aunt Vivian) and Janet to meet is wild, but also necessary.