The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air

How come he don't want me, man...?

I.. forgot that this was a thing.

edited 21st Oct '17 11:48:54 AM by Soble

"I like keeping a low profile."

Oh God the cringe.

Will Smith is working on... a spin-off of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?

Here's a teaser for the dramatic reboot heading to Peacock in 2022: Bel-Air

Well, points for creative thinking, I guess? Not sure if people will suddenly drop everything just to watch it, though.

I'm pretty sure I saw some folks compare this to drama shows you'd find on The CW.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Nov 25th 2021 at 10:08:23 AM

I bet Will himself will be playing Uncle Phil.

The cast has since been revealed. Phil is being played by Adrian Holmes.

Man it's gonna be weird seeing a skinnier Uncle Phil.

Oh my god what is this I think somebody spiked my drink.

Supposedly this dramatic reboot is happening because Will Smith saw this viral fan film / "faux trailer" and loved it so much he helped the director pitch it as an actual show and offered to help as a producer/creative consultant

Say what you will about the core concept and the idea of a melodramatic remake of a hilarious sitcom, but damn if that isn't really freaking cool of Will Smith.

Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Dec 2nd 2021 at 2:40:07 AM

Another trailer dropped, from Will Smith himself's youtube:

I recently watched the entire series beginning to end. While I saw much of the show when it first aired and in reruns, I hadn't checked out every episode before and was rather surprised at the number I hadn't seen before. One from the second season had Will question himself when Phil mentions that Will has become accustomed to the lifestyle (behaving more like Carlton) and that made Will purposefully try to "re-urbanize" himself by rejecting any benefits from having rich relatives and getting a demeaning job, with Phil telling him at the end there is no shame in accepting help because everyone has had doors opened for them.

I guess one question about a dramatic remake is the idea of a poor kid NOT embracing a rich lifestyle, which the original show sidestepped by being a sitcom. By leaning into it as a dramatic story you risk making Will into a self-sabotaging punk rather than a charismatic charmer.

I think it's weird that the character's name is still Will Smith. It made sense back when Will Smith was playing himself, but since he's not doing that, it feels off.

So if this is a darker, more dramatic version, I guess when Jazz gets thrown out of the mansion, he actually gets hurt and has to go to the hospital afterward.

They'll still use the same clip whenever it happens, of course.

And not a new clip they filmed for this show, they just use the exact same, grainy 90s-quality clip from the original.

A review from the AVclub. Warning for spoilers.

‘Bel-Air’ Sets Peacock Streaming Records, Adds Anthony Sparks As EP For Season 2.

Normally I don't care about box office results/views beyond whether a show gets renewed and I think its a terrible indicator of quality that people and companies over rely on but...

This is unexpected.

Edited by FOFD on May 10th 2022 at 12:17:26 PM

Why would it be? This show has been well received as far as Peacock shows go.

Because before it came out there were was a lot of needless "But who asked for this?" sentiment going around and the thinking that making a darker interpretation of something somehow made it inherently bad.

Plus, Peacock hasn't really been super big compared to other major streaming services.

I only use Peacock for, like, three or four shows and the occasional movie.

I haven't seen this one, but the concept of such a goofy sitcom becoming a straight drama... isn't inherently bad, but I'm pretty sure that while watching it the back of my mind would constantly be going "this is a gritty reboot of Fresh Prince" and take me out of it.

Edited by lbssb on May 10th 2022 at 9:34:18 AM

It's not that I think darker interpretations of things are bad.

It's that they took the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a comedy, and made it focus on drama.

Plus the Will Smith drama is still fresh on people's minds, and that sort of thing tends to affect a shows reception.

Peacock lacking many other big series makes Bel-Air hitting records make sense.

That, or it's just tightly written.

Thing is why would it be? It's a serious, edgy redo of a show from the 90's that had a built in audience. There's precedent for these kinds of projects being lower in quality depending on who you ask.

All of that to say I thought this was going to be a one and done. I'm pleasantly surprised it's apparently being watched.

Edited by FOFD on May 11th 2022 at 4:28:21 AM