History Trivia / TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir

** Another common story is that Smith ad-libbed his ending monologue. This hasn't been independently verified by anyone connected with the series, although many cite James Avery's clearly blindsided reaction as evidence of this. What ''is'' known is that Avery was greatly impressed by the raw emotion of Smith's performance, complimenting his acting skills after the scene had concluded. Karyn Parsons, who could be heard crying backstage in the aired episode, also stated that while the monologue was scripted, Smith had done it another way in the rehearsals. He didn't go in the dramatic route it took until the day it was taped.

** Will Smith personally wrote his famous monologue at the end of "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse." Additionally, James Avery hugging him was also totally unscripted.

* NamesTheSame: In "When You Hit Upon a Star", Carlton buys an expensive ice cream cake called "Sonny the Seal" for Will's birthday. It ended up melting and the remains subsequently poured on Will's head during the credits. In real life, Milton Bradley produced a ring toss game named "Sonny the Seal".

* UnderageCasting: Vivian turned 40 in Season 2. Janet Hubert-Whitten was in her mid 30s when she was cast.

** Music/KidNPlay, who had a cartoon on NBC at the time, had a sitcom deal that ultimately morphed into ''Bel-Air'' after they turned it down. According to Christopher "Kid" Reid, NBC had cancelled their cartoon, and they got pretty salty about it, leading to them rejecting the deal. Ironically, Kid N' Play had gotten the leads roles for ''[[Film/HouseParty1990 House Party]]'' after Will Smith and Jeff Townes turned down a couple years prior.

* CastIncest: Will Smith revealed in his memoir that he had a crush on Karyn Parsons (who played his cousin Hilary) and wanted to go out with her, but she rebuffed him, citing how awkward it would be to continue working together if it didn't work out.

** Subverted with Joseph Marcell, Geoffrey's actor. He was born in St. Lucia, but moved to the UK when he was 9.

** Alfonso Ribeiro was 18 when he began playing Carlton, who's stated to be a year younger than Will.[[note]]A Season 1 episode establishes Will as having been born in 1973, and Carlton in 1974.[[/note]]

* DiedDuringProduction: Alfonso Ribero has stated that any hope of a ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' reunion/reboot died with Creator/JamesAvery on December 31, 2013. Nonetheless, that didn't stop Will Smith from announcing in 2020 that there would indeed be a reboot, albeit DarkerAndEdgier, and a reunion special.

** Creator/NiaLong once played a one-shot role as Will's rather airheaded prom date, Claudia, before coming back three seasons later to play Lisa, his long time girlfriend.

* FranchiseZombie: Averted. James Avery (Uncle Phil) even commended Will Smith on wanting to leave the show on a high note instead of keep it dragging on.

** Will Smith has said he cannot watch the first few episodes because he considers his acting in them to be terrible, noting how he was mouthing the other actors' lines.

** Los Angeles native Craig Kirkwood portrayed Geoffery's son, Frederick.

** Will Smith met second wife Jada Pinkett-Smith (then known by her maiden name) when she tried our for the role of Will's onscreen girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes. She didn't get the role, but they still hit it off and got married in 1997.

** At the start of the series, Will Smith was not a trained actor but simply had loads of energy and charisma. His immaturity and ego was rampant early on, which made it more difficult for the other actors who were more afraid of losing their job if they didn't perform. Karyn Parsons and Tatyana Ali admitted to being frustrated with his unprofessional behavior, messing up his own lines while also mouthing their lines to himself during their performance ([[{{Blooper}} sometimes seen on camera]]). They all credited James Avery stepping in as TeamDad to get Smith to clean up and take it more serious.

* TheCastShowoff: Alfonso Ribeiro [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyfKIKYmcA getting to show off his dancing chops]], as did [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOJSuIVmv_g Janet Hubert-Whitten]], a Julliard graduate who danced in ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'' on Broadway. She, Ribeiro, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtXHKGoqEwQ Tatyana Ali]] showed off their singing skills in multiple episodes.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The series is laden with contemporary pop culture references, especially in the earlier seasons, which not only had many late 1980s fashion lingering around, but also had frequent references to early 1990s politics such as Operation Desert Storm and UsefulNotes/DanQuayle, and celebrity scandals such as Creator/ZsaZsaGabor's slapping of a police and evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's arrest for solicitation. This reaches the point that a gag in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' mocking the worst excesses of the decade used the typeface of the show's title card.

** Downplayed then averted with Tatyana Ali being 11 when she first played Ashley, whose age was inconsistent throughout Season 1 but put her as younger than 11. "Just Infatuation" would properly establish Ashley's age as being the same as Ali's.

* OneTakeWonder: The infamous ending to "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse" was done all in one take. Karyn Parsons (Hilary) could be heard crying backstage. Director Shelly Jensen was too emotional to do another take.

* DiedDuringProduction: Alfonso Ribero has stated that any hope of a ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' reunion/reboot died with Creator/JamesAvery on December 31, 2013. Nonetheless, that didn't stop Creator/WillSmith from announcing in 2020 that there would indeed be a reboot, albeit DarkerAndEdgier, and a reunion special.

* DoingItForTheArt: Creator/WillSmith gave 60% of his salary to getting the first three seasons off the ground.
* DuelingWorks: With ''Series/FamilyMatters''. Both shows made occasional mention of the fact that Creator/JamesAvery and Creator/ReginaldVelJohnson looked similar; Avery himself appeared in the closing of one ''Family Matters'' episode that lampshaded the similarities. In a later ''Fresh Prince'' episode, Creator/JaleelWhite guest-starred as one of Ashley's boyfriends.

** While filming his now-famous monologue at the end of "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse," Will Smith was so overcome by the scene's RealitySubtext that James Avery went off-script and gave him a much-needed hug (fortunately this still fit the context of the scene).

* FlipFlopOfGod: Creator/WillSmith had long denied the possibility of rebooting the series, claiming it would happen "pretty close to when Hell freezes over." That changed, however, when Smith saw the fake fan trailer "Bel-Air" from Morgan Cooper, which immediately caught his interest; Smith teamed up with [[PromotedFanboy Cooper]] to develop a real reboot based on the trailer, which was then picked up by Creator/{{Peacock}}.

** Janet Hubert-Whitten being fired from the show was known information at the time it happened, but it took some time to reveal what happened. James Avery and Alfonso Ribeiro confirmed that the whole cast was like one big family, except for Janet Hubert-Whitten, who was being difficult to work with and toxic to be around, and really killed the mood on set. In particular she was upset at how Will Smith dominated the show, seeing him as an immature kid who didn't take the job very seriously and she felt the show should be more about Phil and Vivian. [[https://ew.com/tv/fresh-prince-bel-air-reunion-highlights/ It wouldn't be until November 2020]] when Smith and Hubert-Whitten reconciled for the purposes of the 30th Anniversary Reunion special, where more information came to light about Hubert-Whitten dealing with a troubled marriage at the time and finding little relief from her castmates on top of that. Smith expressed regret for his behavior, better understanding now the professionalism of acting, the struggles of divorce as well as juggling a career and a family.
** At the start of the show, Will Smith was not a trained actor but simply had loads of energy and charisma. His immaturity and ego was rampant early on, which made it more difficult for the other actors who were more afraid of losing their job if they didn't perform. Karyn Parsons and Tatyana Ali admitted to being frustrated with his unprofessional behavior, messing up his own lines while also mouthing their lines to himself during their performance ([[{{Blooper}} sometimes seen on camera]]). They all credited James Avery stepping in as TeamDad to get Smith to clean up and take it more serious.
* IAmNotSpock: Defied. Creator/WillSmith chose to call his character "Will Smith" because he knew he would be referred to as his character's name for the rest of his life. According to interviews, he was acting on the advice of Alfonso Ribeiro, who will probably never escape this. "When we go out together, people are like: 'Will, Will! Carlton!'"

** Creator/WillSmith has said he cannot watch the first few episodes because he considers his acting in them to be terrible, noting how he was mouthing the other actors' lines.
** Interesting case with Janet Hubert -- sometimes she seemed as though she's came to regret taking the role, [[FlipFlopOfGod sometimes she didn't]]. The times she did were mainly due to her conflict with Will Smith, and she's even requested for fans [[IAmNotSpock not to refer to her as Aunt Viv]]. The times she didn't, she seemed to look back on her role with pride, as she posted various fan-created memes claiming her to be "the true Aunt Viv" on her social media accounts. This would change in November 2020 when she and Smith reconciled.

** Another common story is that Smith ad-libbed his ending monologue. This hasn't been independently verified by anyone connected with the show, although many cite James Avery's clearly blindsided reaction as evidence of this. What ''is'' known is that Avery was greatly impressed by the raw emotion of Smith's performance, complimenting his acting skills after the scene had concluded. Karyn Parsons (who could be heard crying backstage in the aired episode) also stated that while the monologue was scripted, Smith had done it another way in the rehearsals. He didn't go in the dramatic route it took until the day it was taped.

* StarMakingRole: Creator/WillSmith was already a platinum-selling rapper, but this show made him a household name and kickstarted his career as one of the most successful actors of all time.

* UnCanceled: The show was actually cancelled during Season 4, with "The Philadelphia Story" serving as the GrandFinale. The overwhelming response, with viewers writing in by the truckload to NBC and Will Smith, as well as demands by NBC affiliates to make more episodes so that they could have a more decent rerun syndication package, convinced the network to go back on this decision, allowing it to run for what became two more seasons.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The show is laden with contemporary pop culture references, especially in the earlier seasons, which not only had many late 1980s fashion lingering around, but also had frequent references to early 1990s politics such as Operation Desert Storm and UsefulNotes/DanQuayle, and celebrity scandals such as Creator/ZsaZsaGabor's slapping of a police and evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's arrest for solicitation. This reaches the point that a gag in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' mocking the worst excesses of the decade used the typeface of the show's title card.

** According to Will Smith himself, the show's now-famous ThemeTuneRap almost didn't happen. The show was going to use a Quincy Jones composition, until Smith's musical partner DJ Jazzy Jeff showed him a beat, and convinced him to record the show's theme song over it.

* NamesTheSame:
** Both of Will's parents have the surname "Smith" - his father is Lou Smith and his mother Vy is one of the Smith sisters (along with Vivian Banks nee Smith, Helen Smith-Lewis, and Janice Smith). Smith is the most common surname in the United States (about 1% of all Americans have the name) so it does make some sense, though it's still unusual (statistically the odds are 1 in 10,000).
** Will had two love interests named Lisa. The first one was Lisa Adams who appeared in "The Harder They Fall" who was played by Creator/CreeSummer. The second was the more memorable Lisa Wilkes who was played by Creator/NiaLong.
** Will's deadbeat dad was named Lou and according to "Ain't No Business Like Show Business", Will has an uncle who is also named Lou.
** In "When You Hit Upon a Star", Carlton buys an expensive ice cream cake called "Sonny the Seal" for Will's birthday. It ended up melting and the remains subsequently poured on Will's head during the credits. In real life, Milton Bradley produced a ring toss game named "Sonny the Seal".

* DiedDuringProduction: Creator/AlfonsoRibero has stated that any hope of a The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion/reboot died with Creator/JamesAvery on December 31st, 2013. Nonetheless, that didn't stop Creator/WillSmith from announcing in 2020 that there would indeed be a reboot (albeit DarkerAndEdgier) and a reunion special.

** Sherman Hemsley made multiple appearances as Philip's mentor, Judge Carl Robertson. After Robertson's death, Hemsley later went on to make two more appearances as [[Series/TheJeffersons some guy named George, with Isabel Sanford as his wife, whom he calls "Wheezy"]].
** Nia Long once played a one-shot role as Will's rather airheaded prom date, Claudia, before coming back three seasons later to play Lisa, his long time girlfriend.

* YouLookFamiliar: There were several examples of this in the series:
** Richard Roundtree appeared in two episodes playing two different characters, once as the father of one of Will's crushes, Mimi Mumford, named Dr. Mumford in "Clubba Hubba", and as the family's church pastor, Reverend Gordon Sims, in "Hare Today."

* DoingItForTheArt: Will Smith gave 60% of his salary to getting the first three seasons off the ground.
* DuelingWorks: With ''Series/FamilyMatters''. Both shows made occasional mention of the fact that James Avery and Reginald [=VelJohnson=] looked similar; Avery himself appeared in the closing of one ''Family Matters'' episode that lampshaded the similarities. In a later ''Fresh Prince'' episode, Jaleel White guest-starred as one of Ashley's boyfriends.

** At the start of the show Will Smith was not a trained actor but simply had loads of energy and charisma. His immaturity and ego was rampant early on, which made it more difficult for the other actors who were more afraid of losing their job if they didn't perform. Karyn Parsons and Tatyana Ali admitted to being frustrated with his unprofessional behavior, messing up his own lines while also mouthing their lines to himself during their performance ([[{{Blooper}} sometimes seen on camera]]). They all credited James Avery stepping in as TeamDad to get Will to clean up and take it more serious.

** Janet Hubert-Whitten being fired from the show was known information at the time it happened, but it took some time to reveal what happened. James Avery and Alfonso Ribeiro confirmed that the whole cast was like one big family, except for Janet Hubert-Whitten, who was being difficult to work with and toxic to be around, and really killed the mood on set. In particular she was upset at how Will Smith dominated the show, seeing him as an immature kid who didn't take the job very seriously and she felt the show should be more about Phil and Vivian. [[https://ew.com/tv/fresh-prince-bel-air-reunion-highlights/ It wouldn't be until November 2020]] when Smith and Hubert-Whitten reconciled where more information came to light about Hubert-Whitten dealing with a troubled marriage at the time and finding little relief from her castmates on top of that. Smith expressed regret for his behavior, better understanding now the professionalism of acting, the struggles of divorce as well as juggling a career and a family.
** Tatyana Ali is said to have been very doubtful of Smith's acting potential during the earliest episodes of the show, saying that he constantly messed up his lines. Because of this, there was slight tension between them while on set.

** Alfonso Ribeiro was 18 when he began playing Carlton, who's stated a year younger than Will.[[note]]A Season 1 episode establishes Will as having been born in 1973, and Carlton in 1974.[[/note]]

* WrittenInInfirmity: Janet Hubert-Whitten unexpectedly got pregnant before Season 3 was to be filmed. As a result, Vivian was written to also be pregnant and most of the reason revolved around her pregnancy.

** In "The Script Formerly Known As", Will's over-the-top lip-synching "performance" of "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" was improvised by Will Smith.