History YMMV / TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir

** "Stop Will in the Name of Love" has Ashley's date getting frisky with her while playing mini-golf. While Ashley is consenting, Will ends up being UnintentionallySympathetic for not wanting his 14-year-old sister to get sexual with someone, especially when he caused Carlton emotional pain in a previous episode by telling him to rush in. Ashley storms off and walks the Bel Air streets alone at night, and when Phil and Vivian run into her, they chastise Will for supposedly being irresponsible without letting him explain Ashley stormed off and he was trying to stop her even though he had walked in seconds later. Ashley's irresponsible actions are glossed over when she uses the open mic night to demand respect from her family and that she should be trusted to make her own decisions, even though the way she acted proves the contrary.

** "Stop Will in the Name of Love" has Ashley's date getting frisky with her while playing mini-golf. While Ashley is consenting, Will ends up being UnintentionallySympathetic for not wanting his 14-year-old sister to get sexual with someone, especially when he caused Carlton emotional pain in a previous episode by telling him to rush in. Ashley storms off and walks the Bel Air streets alone, and when Phil and Vivian run into her, they chastise Will for supposedly being irresponsible without letting him explain Ashley stormed off and he was trying to stop her even though he had walked in seconds later. Ashley's irresponsible actions are glossed over when she uses the open mic night to demand respect from her family and that she should be trusted to make her own decisions, even though the way she acted proves the contrary.

** Vic, the ColdHam employee at the [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible avant-garde Christmas designer store]] whose decorations that Will and Ashley rejected in the first ChristmasEpisode "Deck the Halls". He was portrayed by the late Taylor Negron.

** John Ridley wrote two episodes. Ridley is best known as creator and
executiveproducer of ''Series/AmericanCrime'' and for writing ''Film/TwelveYearsASlave''.

** Creator/{{Phil LaMarr}} played Uncle Phil's law clerk in "Robbing the Banks".

** Creator/ChristaMiller, best known for her roles in ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', and ''Series/CougarTown'', had a small role in "Who's The Boss" as an unnamed girl Will hit on.

** Eddie Gorodetsky wrote six episodes and also served as co-producer. Gorodetsky is best known for co-creator and co-executive producer of ''Series/{{Mom}}'' and for creating the Summer Gleeson character in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.

** John Ridley wrote two episodes. Ridley would go on to win an Academy Award for writing ''Film/TwelveYearsASlave'' and create the TV series ''Series/AmericanCrime''.

** Dan Cross and David Hoge also wrote an episode. Both are best known as creators and executive producers of ''Series/PairOfKings'' and ''Series/TheThundermans''.

** Creator/LarryWilmore wrote an episode and served as co-producer. Wilmore is best known as creator and executive producer of ''Series/TheBernieMacShow'' and for co-creating ''WesternAnimation/ThePJs'' and ''Series/{{Insecure}}'', plus recurring correspondent on ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' and hosting its short-lived spin-off ''Series/TheNightlyShow''.

* OlderThanTheyThink: You might think the Carlton Dance originated on this show, but a slight variation was seen in Sheena Easton's [[https://youtu.be/CqH7LlWwIww?t=151 Sugar Walls music video]]. One person even commented it on her dance being similar:
-->@ 2:33 Why did she start doin' The Carlton Dance? Oh wait.....Carlton was doin' The Sheena Easton this whole time?!!!!

* ValuesResonance: In "Mistaken Identity," on the other hand, Will has the better measure of the situation, as does Uncle Phil. They both try to dismantle Carlton's naivete about the situation -- Will with more BrutalHonesty and Uncle Phil with BreakingBadNewsGently. Will himself points out that they were both very lucky to not be killed, and tells Carlton that cops are racist and he needs to know that sooner rather than later. No one will stop you for driving too slow if you're white, and a map will not help you. Phil says something to the same effect, that you question if you were doing something wrong but knowing that you didn't is what's important.  

* ReplacementScrappy: Despite the fact that many people in the cast and crew hated Janet Hubert-Whitten, a majority of fans prefer her portrayal of Vivian over Daphne Maxwell Reid's. Not helping matters is that Vivian was a more important character when she was played by the former, but was more or less DemotedToExtra when the latter took over the role.

* Will's ComicalOverreaction to his mother and Lisa's father in a bed together in "For Whom the Wedding Bell Tolls".

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: In "Mama's Baby, Carlton's Maybe", Will jokingly identifies Carlton as the father of his ex-girlfriend's baby as stating that he's seen ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'' eight times. Was this meant to show off his cousin's [[{{Manchild}} childishness]] or has he viewed the film so many times [[PoorMansPorn for more adult (albeit embarrassing) reasons?]]

** The Season 5 two-parter "What's Will Got to Do With It?" sees Will managing to snag Ashley a career in singing, which would later happen in real life with Will Smith helping Tatyana Ali land her ''own'' musical career. Additionally, this episode also features actor Obba Babatunde playing an {{Expy}} of Creator/{{Motown}} founder Berry Gordy (even going so far as to be named Gordy Berry). Three years later, Babatunde would go on to portray Gordy himself in the miniseries ''The Temptations''.

** Will learns self-defense from Creator/PatMorita (as himself). Later, the former [[Film/TheKarateKid remade one of the latter's most famous films]].

** Season 6's “Get a Job” featured Chris Rock as a guest-star. Come 2016, him and Will Smith would be feuding, which, in 2022, reached its breaking point when Smith slapped Rock, who was hosting that years' Oscars over him joking about his wife, Jada, losing her hair. Don't expect these two to make peace anytime soon.

** In “Get a Job”, Carlton blasts an "unfunny" comedian's antics as being a "low-rent Creator/MartinLawrence wannabe". Said comedian was played by Creator/ChrisRock, whose real-life career would not only explode the following year, but his popularity as a comedian eventually surpassed Lawrence's.

** In Season 6’s “Get a Job”, Carlton blasts an "unfunny" comedian's antics as being a "low-rent Creator/MartinLawrence wannabe". Said comedian was played by Creator/ChrisRock, whose real-life career would not only explode the following year, but his popularity as a comedian eventually surpassed Lawrence's.

* AcceptableTargets:
** Superstitious people, who the characters openly call insane in an early episode.
** Phil's weight was a common punchline.
** Carlton was a preppy dork, and a virgin [[spoiler: though so was Will]], which didn't escape notice. Nor did his diminutive stature.
** Clarence Thomas was a favorite target of the writing staff.

* CommonKnowledge: A lot of people seem to mistakingly believe (thanks to the opening theme) that Will went from Philadelphia to Bel-Air (a whooping ~3800 Kms) entirely by taxi. However, the complete opening theme shown only in the pilot episode, shows that Will actually took a flight to Los Angeles, and called a taxi to Bel-Air on the airport.

** This is a moderately popular source for WebAnimation/YouTubePoop. Case in point: [[WebAnimation/KroboProductions The Fesh Pince of Blair,]] considered to be a FountainOfMemes in its own right.
** '''WHO CARES WHAT YOU THINK?''' '''''YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!!''''' [[labelnote: Explanation]] A line from a particularly poignant scene in "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse", when Will has an argument with Phil, that is often used in WebAnimation/YouTubePoop when one character disagrees with the opinion of another. [[/labelnote]]

** Will's remix of Phil's campaign ad almost resembles 2010s' WebAnimation/YouTubePoop videos. In fact, this episode aired roughly a decade before Website/YouTube was created.

** That's to say nothing of the family's Republican leanings, as the party's attitude towards race relations have come under increasing fire in the years since the show's original run. In one episode, Uncle Phil tells an old civil rights activist friend of his fight for affirmative action, which the Republican Party of 2020 staunchly opposes. Another episode even features an appearance by a certain Donald Trump, who Carlton is a little ''too'' excited to see.

** Will going out with Carlton's ex-girlfriend, Paula, in "The Cold War" only a few days after they broke up. He technically has a right to go out with her since she was single and accepted Will when he asked her out.
** Will's friend Top Dog in "Blood is Thicker Than Mud". Will and Carlton decide to pledge to the fraternity that Top Dog runs, but he refuses to let Carlton join because of his wealth and privilege and even calls Carlton a sell-out. While Top Dog is in the wrong because he hasn't known Carlton long enough to judge his life and he still let Carlton pledge while working him much harder than the other candidates, despite never having any intention of letting him join, he's not wrong about Carlton's general attitude. In several episodes both before and ''after'' this one, Carlton displays multiple instances of elitism and callousness towards the less fortunate; in particular, in "I, Stank Hole in One", he expresses glee at getting to see a family's house foreclosed on and them being thrown into the street. Taking Carlton's personality over the course of the show into account makes Top Dog seem like less of an unreasonable bigot and more RightForTheWrongReasons.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** In "Mistaken Identity", Carlton repeatedly ignores Will's advice, escalating an already lousy situation once they get pulled over. At the police station, he [[OnlyBadGuysCallTheirLawyers fails to shut up and ask for a lawyer]]. While the former situation can be chalked up to a sheltered upbringing,[[note]]Kids raised in nicer neighborhoods are taught from kindergarten that police officers are by default their friends and there to help, while the truth is it may depend on the person and the situation, even if you have done nothing wrong[[/note]] the latter situation is inexcusable for someone claiming to be pro-law.
** "Just Say Yo!":
*** Will is given amphetamines from a classmate to help him stay awake. Instead of getting rid of them or storing them a safe location, he throws them in his locker and forgets about them. Carlton eventually stumbles upon them (mistaking them for vitamins), downs a whole bottle and ends up hospitalized as a result of Will's carelessness. "How could [he] be so stupid" indeed.
*** Carlton isn't blameless either; even if he was concerned about the zit on his head and didn't know that the bottle had amphetamines, he still should have known through common sense that downing a bottle of vitamins is a bad idea.