History YMMV / TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir

* CriticalResearchFailure: In "Just Say Yo", Carlton taking amphetamines is meant to symbolize the dangers of medical drug overdose. However, amphetamines are rarely fatal even in really bad situations. Sure, the show is trying to make a point that even medical drugs can be deadly, but amphetamines being lethal really does not square with the facts.

** In Season 6’s “Get a Job”, Will competes against Carlton for a position on Hilary’s talk show, and agrees to take out the sister of a comedian considering appearing on the show. Said comedian and his sister were played by Creator/ChrisRock, who would have a more infamous interaction with Will Smith 27 years later at the 2022 [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], when Smith slapped and cursed out Rock for a joke alluding to wife Creator/JadaPinkettSmith’s alopecia, resulting in his resignation from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and being slapped with a ten-year ban by the awards’ governing body from attending the Oscars.

** In Season 6’s “Get a Job”, Will competes against Carlton for a position on Hilary’s talk show, and agrees to take out the sister of a comedian considering appearing on the show. Said comedian and his sister were played by Creator/ChrisRock, who would have a more infamous interaction with Will Smith 27 years later at the 2022 Academy Awards, when Smith slapped and cursed out Rock for a joke alluding to wife Creator/JadaPinkettSmith’s alopecia, resulting in his resignation from Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and being slapped with a ten-year ban from the awards’ governing body from attending the Oscars.

* HoYay: Will with both Carlton and Jazz. This is not to say that Will (the character) was comfortable with such undertones, as he once had a role on a soap opera, but quit because he was uncomfortable with acting very close between his character and his character's brother.

** The mere fact that Carlton and Will's college mascot was a peacock, as well as their college lounge/cafeteria being called The Peacock, becomes this when [[Series/BelAir a reboot]] was announced for the streaming service Creator/{{Peacock}}. Even then, the peacock serving as the name of (the fictional) [=ULA=]’s student union and as the university’s mascot was a direct nod to the series having aired on and being produced by NBC, which features the peacock in its signature logo.[[note]]NBC initially used the peacock as a secondary logo from 1956 to 1975 for on-air identifications seen at the beginning of programs filmed/recorded in color, before eventually adopting a revised version of the original 11-feather peacock (later pared down to six feathers in 1986) as the network’s official logo in 1979.[[/note]]

** The mere fact that Carlton and Will's college mascot was a peacock, as well as their college lounge/cafeteria being called The Peacock, becomes this when [[Series/BelAir a reboot]] was announced for the streaming service Creator/{{Peacock}}. Even then, the peacock serving as the name of (the fictional) [=ULA=]’s student union and the university’s mascot was a direct nod to the series having aired on and being produced by NBC, which features the peacock in its signature logo.[[note]]NBC initially used the peacock as a secondary logo from 1956 to 1975 for on-air identifications seen at the beginning of programs filmed/recorded in color, before eventually adopting a revised version of the original 11-feather peacock (later pared down to six feathers in 1986) as the network’s official logo in 1979.[[/note]]

** The mere fact that Carlton and Will's college mascot was a peacock, as well as their college lounge/cafeteria being called The Peacock, becomes this when [[Series/BelAir a reboot]] was announced for the streaming service Creator/{{Peacock}}. Even then, the peacock serving as the name of (the fictional) [[=ULA=]]’s student union and the university’s mascot was a direct nod to the series having aired on and being produced by NBC, which uses a peacock for its signature logo.

** The mere fact that Carlton and Will's college mascot was a peacock, as well as their college lounge/cafeteria being called The Peacock, becomes this when [[Series/BelAir a reboot]] was announced for the streaming service Creator/{{Peacock}}. The name was tongue-in-cheek, considering the series aired on and was produced by NBC, which uses a peacock for its signature logo.

** The mere fact that Carlton and Will's college mascot was a peacock, as well as their college lounge/cafeteria being called The Peacock, becomes this when [[Series/BelAir a reboot]] was announced for the streaming service Peacock.

** In Season 6’s “Get a Job”, Will competes against Carlton for a position on Hilary’s talk show, and agrees to take out the sister of a comedian considering appearing on the show. Said comedian and his sister were played by Creator/ChrisRock, who would have a more infamous interaction with Will Smith 27 years later at the 2022 Academy Awards… when Smith slapped and cursed out Rock for a joke alluding to wife Creator/JadaPinkettSmith’s alopecia.

** 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. 27 years after the episode, Will Smith and Chris Rock shared a stage once again at the 2022 Academy Awards… but because Smith infamously slapped Rock for a joke alluding to wife Creator/JadaPinkett’s alopecia.

** In a Season 6 episode, Carlton blasts an "unfunny" comedian's antics as being a "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.

* 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 do many times [[PoorMansPorn for more adult (albeit embarrassing) reasons?]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The reason why Viola Smith sent her son to Bel-Air, after the fight he had with that gang, is because she considered Will to be a troubled teenager and needed to be straightened out, she only sent him as a way to protect him. and he knew that the fight was not his fault, or a combination of both.?

* TheGenerationGap: Particularly noticeable on the topics of race and civil rights between the three generations of the Banks-Smith family:
** Hattie is deeply hurt when Philip appears ashamed of his rural Southern roots, and this isn't so odd, but it's more impactful when one realizes that she and Joe were likely the grandchildren of slaves and, in a deeply segregated South, would have had few opportunities available apart from farming, labour, or housework. They would have been doing the very best they could to provide for their child, only for him to grow up embarrassed by it.
** Vy's anger at her sister Janice marrying a white man is confusing to Will - but interracial marriage would have been illegal in many states in her lifetime, was extremely controversial and stigmatizing for years after that, and was still uncommon in the early 1990s. To Will, who attends an overwhelmingly white school, has white friends, and sees his relatives socializing and networking with white people, Janice marrying Frank is slightly unusual - to Vy, Janice is signing on for a lifetime of exclusion and judgment from both the Black and white communities.
** Phil gets very upset with Will for suggesting that he's "forgotten his roots", and Viv gets upset with Will and Carlton for not taking their Black History class seriously - both were active in the Civil Rights Movement and while they're sincerely glad that life is easier for their children than it was for them, they both resent that Will and Carlton take those struggles for granted and don't care to learn about them.

** In "Geoffrey Cleans Up", Geoffrey makes a huge fuss during a party because he feels he's not upscale enough to date a wealthy heiress and has to apologize to her for how he acted. While he was primarily at fault, Karen did not help matters by trying to glorify Geoffrey's social status at the party such as bragging about his trip to England making it sound like he went because he could not that he was seeing family.

** [[OhCrapSmile The face]] Uncle Phil makes in "A Night at the Oprah" when Will tells Oprah about [[ItMakesSenseInContext how he wasn't allowed to appear on stage of her show with the rest of the family]] is also this on a lesser extent.

* HoYay: Will with both Carlton and Jazz. This is not to say that Will (the character) was comfortable with such undertones, as he once had a role on a soap opera, but quit because he was uncomfortable with acting a very close between his character and his character's brother.

* AlternateAesopInterpretation:
** "Just Say Yo" has a DrugsAreBad aesop that shows Will illicitly getting prescription amphetamines to stay awake as a bad thing. It also has Carlton mistaking the bottle of said amphetamines for vitamins, leading to another aesop of "don't take anything for your body unless you are 100% sure of what it is".

** The reason why Viola Smith sent her son to Bel-Air, after the fight he had with that gang, is because she considered Will to be a troubled teenager and needed to be straightened out, she only sent him as a way to protect him. and he knew that the fight was not his fault, or a combination of both.?

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: "Just Say Yo" has a DrugsAreBad aesop that shows Will illicitly getting prescription amphetamines to stay awake as a bad thing. It also has Carlton mistaking the bottle of said amphetamines for vitamins, leading to another aesop of "don't take anything for your body unless you are 100% sure of what it is".

** Vy's anger at her sister Janice marrying a white man is confusing to Will - but interracial marriage would have been illegal in many states in her lifetime, was extremely controversial and stigmatizing for years after that, and was still uncommon in the early 1990s. To Will, who attends an overwhelmingly white school, has white friends, and sees his relatives socializing and networking with white people, Janice marrying Frank is slightly unusual - to Vy, Janice is signing on for a lifetime of exclusion and judgment from both the black and white communities.

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* {{Adorkable}}: Carlton, a pompous yet lovable geeky goofball, often wearing polo shirts and sweater. And he invented the hilariously dorky Carlton Dance.

** In "M is For the Many Things She Gave Me", Phil's former flame Janice visits and seduces Will for a one-night stand even as he's dating her daughter. The next day, Will confesses the incident to Phil and Janice is quickly shown the door for her lecherous behavior. When Phil pulls Will aside we get this delightfully awkward exchange:

* TheGenerationGap: Particulary noticeable on the topics of race and civil rights between the three generations of the Banks-Smith family:

** Vy's anger at her sister Janice marrying a white man is confusing to Will - but interracial marriage would have been illegal in many states in her lifetime, was extremely controversial and stigmatizing for years after that, and was still uncommon in the early 1990s. To Will, who attends an overwhelmingly white school, has white friends, and sees his relatives socializing and networking with white people, Janice marrying Frank is slightly unusual - to Vy, Janice is signing on for a lifetime of exclusion and judgment from both the Black and white communities.

** A Princeton representative in "The Alma Matter" comments in an unimpressed manner that Will's high school grades "would make an impressive batting average." [[http://mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/batting-average The average professional batting average]] is between 0.250 and 0.275, while anything above .310 is considered to be great and enough to qualify a professional player as one of the best. He's basically just saying that Will's GPA is between 2.8 and 3.1, in other words he has a B average (possibly B-), which [[https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2011/04/19/average-high-school-gpas-increased-since-1990 for the time]] was slightly above average. [[note]] In other words, nowhere close to Princeton's standards. [[/note]]

** It has a strong following in the United Kingdom. [[note]] Evidenced by none other than ''[[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Harry]]'' revealing that he was a fan during a ''Series/TheLateLateShow'' segment that had him reacting like a {{Fangirl}}--complete with singing the theme song!--when he and host Creator/JamesCorden visited the mansion used in exterior shots to debate whether or not he should buy it and become the ''new'' "Fresh Prince".[[/note]]

** Will Smith in several episodes, most notably "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse".

** In a Season 1 episode, Geoffrey says one regret he has is that he never fathered a son. In the last season, [[spoiler: it turns out he does have a long lost son in England, and he moves back home to be with him in the series finale.]]

** One early episode had Will and Hilary at a nightclub, where she pointed out some of the so-called "B-list" people there that included Music/{{Cher}}'s electrologist, Creator/TomCruise's pool guy and [[TakeThat Heather Locklear]]. It would not even be two years later that Locklear would experience a CareerResurrection because her role on ''Series/MelrosePlace''.
** "Just Infatuation" has the family pondering over a gift for Ashley and Carlton commenting, "Shouldn't she be playing with those [[Franchise/MyLittlePony ponies with the pink hair?"]] At the time, the reference was dated as the franchise's popularity had seemingly dying out by then. [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Nowadays, the reference would make perfect sense]].

** For fans of ''Series/FamilyMatters'', Ashley's old boyfriend Derek (played by Creator/JaleelWhite) is pretty much an expy of Stefan Urquelle, serving as an unofficial crossover between two of the most popular Black sitcoms of the era.

* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Jazz and Carlton are both well liked by the fandom. Within the show? Carlton is often the StrawLoser to Will, who's mistreated by his family, while Jazz is constantly kicked out of the Banks' house.

** In the episode where Will and Carlton's school goes co-ed, what they and the other boys do -- lining up to catcall and outright judge the appearances of the girls passing by -- is sexual harassment, plain and simple. Not to mention Carlton's snide comment about a tall and muscular blonde girl--"Let's hear it for the East German team!". (Though he gets his deserved punishment when she forcefully shoves him against the wall.) That being said they weren't exactly portrayed as in the right for their behavior in the episode.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The second season episode "Cased Up" is full of conflicts of interest in the courtroom.

** In "Cased Up", a gag has Jazz refusing to put down his hands to swear on the Bible in court because the white bailiff has a gun and "next thing I know, I have six 'warning shots' on my back". Much like "Mistaken Identity", it's a harsh reminder of how little racist law enforcement in America has changed.