Fresh Prince of Bel Air retrospective

[dead-ced-dead]

Since the gritty reboot is about to come out, I thought this would be a good time to remember when The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was a jolly sitcom that played before The Simpsons that was full of larks and japes.

I think a lot of it holds up. Even the fat jokes aren't so much aggressive as they are juvenile. Even swapping out Vivian isn't too jarring.

A friend of mine pointed out during the trailer of the new gritty version, that all the characters just look like models and are totally interchangeable. The great thing about the original is that you didn't need to wait for the characters to speak before knowing what their personality was, what they were about and what function they had in the show.

A hard trick to pull off, and the show could be often touching. Good stuff.

[Pink Gregory]

The repeated shot of Jazzy Jeff being thrown out of the door feels like it's from a more self-referential show, but that's why it makes me laugh every time.

It's very impressive for such a large cast that there's not a weak character among them.  Maybe Ashley's not that interesting and Hilary can be a bit over-stupid for an adult woman but I think i'd probably revise that opinion if I watched it again.

Quite liked little Nicky in the later episode with the guy in the mascot costume as well.

I feel like the aspect of the contradictions of them being a wealthy black family was a lot more up front early on, that's where James Avery really, really shines.

[idunnosomename]

The fat jokes are fine because they're punching up at an authority figure. It's not like Gervaisian bullying

[Petey Pate]

It's utterly perplexing to me that the 'dramatic reboot' was commissioned based on a fan-made YouTube joke. What's next? Is Disney going to do a full-length cut of 'David Lynch's A Goofy Movie'?

I feel like the aspect of the contradictions of them being a wealthy black family was a lot more up front early on, that's where James Avery really, really shines.

This is the other thing, the original series wasn't exactly devoid of drama and seriousness, even if like most sitcoms it could be a bit preachy and hamfisted. The episode where Will's deadbeat dad comes back is genuinely well-acted and effective.   

[Captain Z]

I rewatched it all last year. Thought I had made a reasonably lengthy post about my thoughts, but perhaps not. Essentially, I really enjoyed it but the last couple of series were a bit of a slog; the whole show became a lot more cartoonish after they replaced Aunt Viv. Uncle Phil becomes a shadow of his former powerful, proud character and is reduced to little more than the butt of fat jokes. Will becomes less likeable, everything magicaly comes up Willhouse and he rarely gets any comeuppance, unlike the earlier series.