As Fresh as ever – 30 years on
Will Smith’s hit comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is heading back to our screens
THE television debut of Will Smith saw him catapulted into the limelight. The theme song of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air over the opening credits explained to viewers: “Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air.”
The comedy saw Will play a fictionalised version of himself as a streetwise teenager who moves from Philadelphia to Bel-Air in California to live with his rich aunt and nd uncle in their mansion after getting etting into a fight at home.
Will was known by his rapper name The Fresh Prince at the time and has described scribed his early performances mances on the show as “horrible”. le”. He said: “I was trying so o hard. I would memorise rise the entire script then hen I’d be lipping everybody’s ody’s lines while they were ere talking. When I watch those hose episodes it’s disgusting. gusting. My performances mances were horrible.” orrible.”
The comedy als also starred Tatyana Ali (Ashley), Karyn Parsons (Hilary), Joseph M Marcell (Geoffrey), Janet Hubert, Dap Daphne Maxwell Reid (both playing aunt Vivian) and Alfonso Ribeiro Ribei (Carlton), as well as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Je who had a recurring role. S Sadly, James Avery, wh who played Will’s on-scr on-screen uncle Phil Bank Banks, died in 2013. Famous faces who appeared o over the years included Donald Dona Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Chris Rock, Queen Latifah and sup supermodels Naomi Campbell and T Tyra Banks.
The hit come comedy, which first aired 30 years a ago and ran for six seasons – until un 1996 – was originally broad broadcast on BBC 2 in the UK. From New Ne Year’s Day all 148 episodes will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer. iPl
Will, now 52, and an the rest of the cast members cam came together earlier this year fo for a one-off reunion to celebrate celebr the 30th anniversary. A drama re-boot of the show is currently in the works.