A tribute, an apology, and other memorable moments from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Reunion
Aux Features TV
As the promotional materials foretold, the cast of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air reunited for the first time since the subtly subversive sitcom came to an end on May 20, 1996. Will Smith hosted the gathering on the re-created set of the Banks home, which was the site of many a lesson and laugh over the course of six seasons. The Fresh Prince’s 148-episode run wasn’t without some tension, as anyone familiar with the story of Janet Hubert, “the O.G. Aunt Viv,” will tell you. Smith seemed prepared to meet that part of the series’ past head on, when he arranged to meet Hubert for the first time in 27 years.
Their conversation, which brimmed with Hubert’s vulnerability and candor, probably drew as many viewers to the reunion special—which is now streaming on HBO Max—as the promise of seeing Alfonso Ribeiro do the Carlton one more time, or watching Karyn Parsons’ spot-on audition for the role of Hilary Banks. But there were several other memorable moments in the hour-and-change-long special, which featured archival footage from the taping of the two-part series finale, “I, Done,” and a loving memorial of the late James Avery, whom the cast agrees was “the heart of the show.” So just sit right there and we’ll tell you about the most notable moments and revelations from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Reunion.
Will Smith landed the role of “Will Smith” after an impromptu audition at Quincy Jones’ birthday party
For the first time, Smith told his former castmates—Tatyana M. Ali, Joseph Marcell, Karyn Parsons, Daphne Maxwell Reid, and Alfonso Ribeiro (Ross Bagley, who played Nicky, shows up toward the end and therefore misses this anecdote)—just how he came to be the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Music industry insider Benny Medina was the actual inspiration for the story of a working-class teen who moves to a swanky Los Angeles neighborhood; he worked hard to convince Smith that he could carry the story on a sitcom. The only kind of audition I had was Quincy’s birthday,” says Smith. “Benny Medina had pitched me the idea. I was making music. They were like, ‘Come to Quincy’s house, we have this idea for a TV show.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll go to Quincy’s.’” Smith agreed to audition for the part—which he’d just learned about—at Jones’ birthday party, where the guests included Brendan Tartikoff, then the president of entertainment at NBC, and Warren Littlefield (at the time, Tartikoff’s right-hand man.) Smith admits to being skeptical of his own ability to move from music to acting; he initially asked Jones for two weeks to prepare. But when Jones pointed out that everyone the actor needed to sell on the idea was at the party, Smith got down to business. He tells the rest of the cast that he ended up taking only 15 minutes to prepare for the impromptu audition, which he nailed.
Karyn Parsons was worried viewers would hate Hilary Banks
Parsons tells the group she was so nervous about the first taping that she wished for an earthquake. It didn’t help her nerves that Smith appeared to be saying her lines back to her. (Apparently, he did that with all his scene partners. Smith was so anxious about learning his dialogue that he learned everyone’s lines.) But the actor was even more worried that viewers would despise Hilary, who began the show as a beautiful, self-centered teen and grew into a beautiful, self-assured professional. Parsons recalls the response from the studio audience to all the shenanigans in “Knowledge Is Power.” In the episode, Will and Carlton take turns blackmailing Hilary (who dropped out of college without informing anyone.) The dinner scene, where things came to a head and Hilary’s humiliation peaked, had the audience “stomping” their feet in approval. Ribeiro and Smith are quick to tell Parsons that she was just good at her job.
James Avery taught the young cast to elevate their craft
The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Reunion pays touching tribute to James Avery, who played high-powered lawyer and jazz fan Philip Banks. In footage from the final table read, Avery gets the last word, telling the cast and crew just how much the show has meant to him and to fans. Everyone from Smith to Ali to DJ Jazzy Jeff, whose onscreen interactions with Uncle Phil almost always ended in being tossed on his ear, says the late actor helped them to understand their art. The season-four episode, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Excuse,” was an especially moving installment of the show; it featured Ben Vereen as Will’s father Lou, who pops back into Will’s life after 14 years just to exit stage left again. Smith says he flubbed one of his lines during an emotionally fraught scene, wherein Will writes off his father. As Smith let his frustration show, Avery urged him to channel it into the scene, and their slightly improvised material made it into the final cut. “That’s acting,” Avery told Smith as they embraced at the end. There’s a moment of silence, as the reunited cast members tear up. DJ Jazzy Jeff then talks about all the musical recommendations he got from Avery, while Ali says she “learned what it means to be an artist from him.”
The cast often had to take matters of authenticity and artistry into their own hands
The series creators of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air were Andy Borowitz and Susan Borowitz, both white creatives. The former has said Quincy Jones’ stories of raising his children in Bel-Air helped inspire the show, while the latter has said she was inspired by a series of articles about “being black in America.” They say they aimed to break up the notion that there’s a monolothic Black experience, so they hired Black writers and crew members. But during the reunion, Ribeiro makes it clear that the cast played a significant part in ensuring that the story of the Banks-Smith family rang true. They took every Tuesday and Wednesday during filming weeks to weigh in, noting to the writers that “this wouldn’t happen. Black people don’t do this.” Ali and Parsons recall a time they pointed out that a young Black girl would never make some disrespectful remark to her mother because “she’d lose her teeth.” “Culturally, we don’t do that.” The cast felt a shared responsibility, one that James Avery was quick to spell out, Ali says: “What we do is not about us. We are here to bring dignity, to represent, to expand, to push forward.”
Janet Hubert asks “How do we heal?”
While it’s certainly enjoyable to reminisce on how “the Carlton” came to be (all Ribeiro saw in the script was “Carlton dances,” and he took it from there), or to learn that the show banked takes of DJ Jazzy Jeff being thrown from the house (the actor-rapper notes that you can always tell by the shirt Jazz wears that a toss is coming), the tête-à-tête between Will Smith and Janet Hubert is easily the most anticipated moment from the special. Smith introduces the segment to his castmates by acknowledging that there’s no way to celebrate the show and its legacy without also celebrating Hubert’s contributions to the series. In a previously taped segment, Smith sat down with Hubert, who played Vivian Banks in seasons one through three, to talk about what many in the public have viewed as a feud, even if that suggests the two actors had equal influence.
Over the years, Hubert and Smith have made comments about each other in the press; Hubert even wrote a book about her experiences on the show, which includes a less than charitable depiction of Smith. Smith and Hubert say they’re both ready to talk things through, but though the former initiated the conversation by inviting Hubert to the taping, it’s the latter’s candor that illuminates the discussion. Right off the bat, Hubert asks Smith, “I just wanted to know one thing: Why? Why so far? You guys went so far. I lost so much. How do we heal?” She’s the one who opens up about what was going on in her life during season three—she was in the midst of a difficult pregnancy and an abusive marriage. Hubert says she wasn’t unprofessional, she just felt like she couldn’t trust anyone on the set because she’d been “banished” by Smith. Hubert, who was in the cast of General Hospital from 2018 to 2020, shows tremendous vulnerability in telling Smith, “Calling a Black woman ‘difficult’ in Hollywood is the kiss of death. And it’s hard enough for a dark-skinned Black woman in this business.” The Oscar-nominated actor looks chastened, but he doesn’t attempt to rebut Hubert when she says, “You took all that away from me with your words, and words can kill.” Smith also doesn’t shed much light on his actions at the time; when asked about seemingly pushing Hubert out of the show, he acknowledges that he was driven by “fear and jokes” and the need to succeed. Hubert apologizes first, then Smith, and Hubert says it’s time to heal. She reiterated that call on Twitter Wednesday night, so we’ll let the “Original Aunt Viv” have the last word.
44 Comments
Their feud still reads like a supporting actor upset that the guy who’s referenced in the show’s title was the star, but there’s no denying the show suffered significantly without her. Nice to see they reconciled.
People stopped watching! It was too weird to have Will in college AND a new Aunt Viv after three seasons. It was a different show with the new lady, and who ever thinks “Fresh Prince” and DOESN’T think about the seasons when Will was in High School (the first three, with OG Aunt Viv)?
I think of both halves pretty equally, to be honest. And I like both Aunt Vivs. They’re literally different characters, but I like them both! Same with both Beckys!
I think we can more or less piece together what happened at this point. She was annoyed that a teenager with no acting experience was the lead over the professionals, the rest of the cast took the star’s side, Smith, being a teenager, probably wasn’t as magnanimous about that as he could have been, her personal life was hell, and it hobbled her career.
There are some minor sins there, but nothing that most people shouldn’t be able to be understanding about after 25 years and given that they both apologized. The public probably doesn’t need to keep this going if they’re over it.
Smith was actually 22 when the show started, but I think the feeling was the same from Hubert regardless. Smith was a non-actor who the entire show was centered on. And as the shows writers were feeling the show out, they found the Will-Uncle Phil, Will-Carlton, Will-Geoffrey, even Will-Hillary etc dynamics were more fun to write and that left Aunt Viv less to do.
Correction cheerfully accepted! But yeah, I stand by the rest of it.
Winifred Hervey, who was the showrunner for the 2nd and 3rd seasons, discussed working with him in an interview with the TV Academy. From her, it sounds like Will wanted a say in what all the other characters were doing, and was allowed to give notes on the others, and it rubbed the experienced actors the wrong way, though presumably James Avery handled it better than she did.
big time, post OG Aunt Viv led to precipitous fall in quality, especially after they added Nicky and Will was dating Tyra in college
Seems like after 20 years of gaslighting OG Aunt Viv, Will’s excuse basically boils down to, “Well, I was going through some stuff.”She’s much more forgiving than I would be, although at this point, it was likely the only possible way for her to get any type of closure.
I think this Will Smith was the person Hubert would’ve preferred to work with back in the day.
Not to excuse his actions, but it’s a constant reminder of how we put so much responsibility on famous young men who may not have the compassion or experience to see the bigger picture.
i.e. Young LeBron thought that a championship in Cleveland would be the greatest thing he ever did. But mature LeBron getting voters registered to kick out a fascist just changed the country.
Having just dealt with something similar if not exactly analogous at work, it’s very difficult even for mature adults when someone starts bringing negative emotions they have in their personal life into the workplace and snapping at people, particularly when they are not communicative about it. Someone younger is going to have even more trouble giving them space because it requires a lot of emotional maturity, and if you don’t build enough goodwill with them they will refuse to perform that kind of emotional labor because it’s not what they signed up for. (And the young people I’m dealing with are all at least 5 years older than Will was when this happened).
“Smith introduces the segment to his castmates by acknowledging that
there’s no way to celebrate the show and its legacy without also
celebrating Hubert’s contributions to the series.”
Contribution? She WAS Aunt Viv, and starred as such for literally half the entire series. The second half of the series, when Will went to college and didn’t even live at home, was much less popular. By the show’s final season it was almost a joke how far from its original vibe the show had gotten.
The Fresh Prince people REMEMBER is with the OG Aunt Viv, so it’s extremely odd for them to be acting like THE SHOW was the last three seasons when all the magic happened in the first three.
Agreed; the ratings dropped so much in the first non-Janet Hubert season that they were going to cancel it, but the affiliates were getting such good ratings from repeats of the first three seasons that they agreed to basically fund the last two seasons so they could have more reruns to show/be able to syndicate it.
One of the first episodes I think of when I think of this show was the one where Aunt Viv auditioned for some sort of dance situation – I can’t recall the details. But I do remember Hubert acting and dancing the HELL out of the audition scene, and then doing a hilarious drop to the floor after she’d proven herself to the younger girls who had doubted her and gracefully exited the room. She was so good on that show.
Iconic moment.
I’m also fond of a moment when she discovers her son doing a striptease for a crowd of women yelling “Take it off!” – “PUT IT ON!”
My favourite OG Aunt Viv scene is this one from season one’s ‘The Ethnic Tip’.
Will: I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X three times.
Aunt Viv: And that makes you a serious black history student?
Will: It’s a very important book.
Aunt Viv: Will, you can read that book, you can wear the T-shirt, you can put up the posters and you can shout the slogans, but unless you know all the history behind it, you’re trivializing the entire struggle.
I would give anything to have James Avery there as well. Dude was everything to that show.
My favorite uncle phil serious scene:and my favorite scene overall:
Ugh I wish that second clip wasn’t edited but yes!EDIT: Here:
Oh sorry, I didn’t even check that video, just pulled up the first one that had that phrase. LOL, thank God it wasn’t a racist edit or something.
Also held in very high regard elsewhere as well. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone as surprised, amazed and delighted especially all at once as when James Avery appeared here:
He was also Shredder. It’s not relevant, but I love it.
Is that Hank Azaria in the police station scene??
Fresh Prince is better than The Cosby Show.
Yes, The Cosby Show is basically unwatchable thanks to what we know about Bill Cosby now. But even without that, I still say Fresh Prince has aged better and arguably overtaken Cosby in the cultural lexicon.
Cosby wanted a show about a thriving, affluent black family. A laudable idea he succeeded at, but the show wasn’t about much other than that. Even now, I have a hard time describing the plot of an episode or a joke that holds up outside of context. And I used to watch reruns every day after school!
Contrast that with Fresh Prince. The conflict is there just by Will showing up and being very different than his well-to-do family. Uncle Phil wanted to build a better life for his family, and Will has a great opportunity living with them. But for both Will and Phil, the series asks, “…Now what?”
In a lot of ways, Fresh Prince zigged where Cosby Show zagged. Cosby took growth and prosperity for granted. Fresh Prince showed there would always be battles to fight, especially from within. “I’m running the same race as you, so why you trying to trip me up?”
…Plus, I just remember tons more jokes and scenes off the top of my head from Fresh Prince. Without Googling, I can think of…
– “If we’re so rich, how come we can’t afford no ceiling?”
– “Pillow mounds of mashed po-tay-toes…”
– “Jazz, I told you that the Jackson on the $20 bill ain’t supposed to be Jermaine!”
– (Uncle Phil exercising) “One!…Mmmwhelp, to hell with this!”
– And of course… “MAMA NOOOOO!!!”
I’m curious how old you are and if that impacts how you view each show.I’m 42 and Cosby show started in 1984 when I was 6 years old. Fresh Prince ended in 1996, the year I graduated high school. I basically grew up with those two homes.Cosby show is by far my favorite of the two. The episodes were litteraly built around memorable events – Big Fun!, Gordon Gartrelle, Rudy’s Sleepover, singing “I Got the Feelin’” and “Night Time Is The Right Time”, Justine! Justine!, “Sponji Reggae”, Sondra and Elvin talking about opening a outdoor store- that’s just off the top of my head.Fresh Prince definitely had it’s highs too but from my perspective was overly “slapstick”. It surely addressed more social issues though. The emotional moments were particularly touching on Fresh Prince.
The both of you are sort of interpeting it wrong and it has nothing to do with how old anyone is. Cosby was meant to be a black take on the traditional sitcoms that were all the rage at the time while Fresh Prince was more of a “fish of out water” comedy similar to Perfect Strangers. They were both targeting different demos for different reasons and co-existed peacefully. It just catered to different tastes for different reasons.
I guess it didn’t didn’t convey in my post, but that’s basically my position too. They both had their place and were each excellent.But it’s ok to have favorites! 🙂
I’m the same age as you are. I think one difference between the shows is that The Fresh Prince had a hipper sensibility (for its time) than the Cosby Show. Also, The Fresh Prince told overt jokes about race, that’s something I don’t remember the Cosby show ever doing. Though I haven’t regularly watched the show in decades.
Cosby Show still holds up, & once Bill dies, I’m gonna start watching reruns again since he won’t be getting royalties anymore. And I can’t believe you did the ceiling joke without also doing this one:
YOU CANT REMEMBER ANY COSBY PLOTLINES BECAUSE YOU’RE JUST NOT JAMMIN ON THE ONE AT PARTIES.
And Roooooooobert.
I added this under the top comment, but since it will likely be lost there, Winifred Hervey (the showrunner of seasons 2 and 3)‘s interview with the TV Academy is worth watching, and she shares some thoughts that points to at least part of the conflict. (Star with no acting experience giving notes to the other actors…yeah. Conflict.)
It sounds like she had “Aunt Bea Syndrome.” Francis Bavier was already an accomplished Broadway actress, when she was cast as Aunt Bea. Griffith was a hick new-comer. and he drove her nuts with his pranks and cussin’.
Except Andy Griffith had already done A Face in the Crowd and No Time For Sergeants so just how much of a “newcomer” did she think he was? And checking that on wikipedia tells me he also had a Tony nomination on his résumé.
Andy Borowitz created the Fresh Prince? That guy who does the hacky fake headlines for the New Yorker?! How did I never know this?
So, is there an opportunity for Ms. Hubert to get a supporting role on the upcoming dramatic reboot of the show? Maybe she’s a schoolteacher at Bel Air Academy. Just an idea…
BRANDON Tartikoff, not Brendan. Have some RESPECT for the DEAD!Jesus between this and the random roles does anyone proofread these articles anymore?!
“Calling a Black woman ‘difficult’ in Hollywood is the kiss of death. And it’s hard enough for a dark-skinned Black woman in this business.”
This was a particularly brutal truth.
sounds like Will was a 21yr cunt at the time, dishing out cunty behaviour.FYI Karyn Parsons performance as Hilary is one of the best “bitchy” characters ever. up there with Cordelia Chase.
Oops, tough shit, Ross Bagley, better luck next time.
My fan theory has always been Geoffrey is Ashley & lil’Nicky’s real father
I’m a White guy and I watched the show at an age where I was too young
to a) understand the cultural importance of the show and b) fully
realize the attachment I had to all these characters. Looking back, the Banks was my favourite family on TV for quite a while. It took James Avery’s death for my older self to realize that it was one of my favourite portrayal of a father figure that I’ve seen on TV.