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About this
Item
When Warner Bros. executive Benny Medina wanted to create a show based
on his experiences as a poor kid growing up in Beverly Hills, he found the
perfect contemporary corollary in Grammy-winning rapper Fresh Prince -- a
player later to be better known as
Will Smith.
With music legend
Quincy Jones
signed on as executive producer, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air offers
Smith as Will, a poor Philadelphia teen who is sent to live with his wealthy
aunt and uncle in Bel-Air, California. Uncle Phillip Banks (James
Avery) and Aunt Viv (Janet
Hubert-Whitten) have three children of their own: airhead
Hillary (Karyn
Parsons), quick-witted Ashley (Tatyana
Ali), and Will's foil, Carlton (Alfonso
Ribeiro), a mildly abrasive preppy in the mold of Alex P.
Keaton from Family Ties. Streetwise Will’s assimilation into Bel-Air’s
upper-crust culture is standard fish-out-of-water material, but Smith's
considerable charm helped make Fresh Prince a hit and propel him to
stardom. The first season is slightly unpolished as Smith and the rest of
the cast find the groove, but many outings are particularly entertaining. In
"Clubba Hubba," Will meets a girl at a country club and wants to impress her
snobby father, so he enlists Carlton's help; "Def Poet's Society" finds Will
joining his prep school's poetry club; "The Young and the Restless" finds
Will sneaking Philip's elderly mother out for a night on the town; and, in
"72 Hours," Will challenges Carlton to spend time in a rough neighborhood.
For a premiere season, the first Fresh Prince run includes an
impressive parade of guest stars, including
Richard Roundtree,
Hank
Azaria,
Naomi Campbell,
Vivica A. Fox,
Queen Latifah,
and
Don Cheadle.
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