Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but it's a gritty drama now

[Huxleys Babkins]

Was half expecting "And Guest Starring Jenna Maroney as Aunt Vyv" by the end of it. Who the fuck asked for this to be made?

[Proactive]

Fuck off is that real?

[Alberon]

Apparently someone made a mock trailer a couple years back and someone else liked it so much they commisioned two seasons of it!

[Ferris]

That trailer can't have been cheap so you have to respect Mr Smith's commitment to a hypothetical 6 post thread in HS Art.

[Ferris]

I had to watch it a second time to be sure I wasn't dreaming.

The solemnly-intoned lyrics of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air over the top of someone in a swimming pool is what made it for me, Clive.

[dissolute ocelot]

It's just The OC or Beverly Hills 90120 but with a black lead. Working-class kid goes to posh Californian place and experiences mild drama is hardly original TV.

[Ferris]

It's just The OC or Beverly Hills 90120 but with a black lead. Working-class kid goes to posh Californian place and experiences mild drama is hardly original TV.

Yeah but the fact it's likely banal isn't what I find bizarre and fascinating, it's the references to the original wacky TV show.

Will uncle Phil still throw Jazzy Jeff out the house? Will the Carlton character do his dance while Geoffrey the snide butler makes a face? It's all to play for!

[A Hat Like That]

Now?

Always was.

"How come he don't want me, man"

[Huxleys Babkins]

"You know how people love the 'How come he don't he want me, man?' scene? Well, why don't we make a show that's 24 episodes of nothing but that? It'll be the most popular show in TV history!"

*DOES MASSIVE LINE OFF THE TABLE*

[JamesTC]

Bel End more like.

[JamesTC]

Who would have thought making a TV show based on a fake trailer which (from memory) is based on a YouTube re-edit would be a bad idea.

[Mister Six]

Genuinely astonished.

[Butchers Blind]

They'll all be that special episode where Carlton took those pills but this time the focus will be on the drug dealers.

[up_the_hampipe]

This is a hall of fame bad idea. Love it.

[up_the_hampipe]

There's a proper trailer for this now:

I am baffled. I thought it would be loosely based, but it's literally the sitcom plot but all serious now with a very unremarkable cast? Geoffrey's gritty accent in particular made me laugh.

This feels like that Charlie Brooker joke where he proposes a Dark Knight style reimagining of Papa Smurf called The Blue Patriarch.

[Mister Six]

Can't believe there's a Jazzy Jeff. Is he going to die of brain trauma after Phil throws him through the front door?

[Fambo Number Mive]

Wonder what other sitcoms would benefit from a modern reboot in a serious way. Imagine Seinfeld but it was a straightforward drama about an actor living in an apartment in New York. Or Are You Being Served as a straightforward drama in a failing department store.

[Mister Six]

Father Ted as a depressed and frustrated priest, living with a sex offender and a mentally disabled boy. Sad piano music in the trailer as Ted glimpses Mary leaving her shop with a poorly disguised black eye. Tears well in his eyes as he pleads, "The money was just resting in my account!" while his skin is bleached to oblivion by the flashbulbs of the ravenous press. A terrorist bomb hidden in a milk float kills Dougal in season three. Bishop Brennan develops arse cancer.

[up_the_hampipe]

Can't believe there's a Jazzy Jeff. Is he going to die of brain trauma after Phil throws him through the front door?

Can't wait to see their version of Hillary's boyfriend dying from a failed bungee jump.

Conversely, does this mean the "how come he don't want me, man?" and the Carlton's got a gun scenes will be played for laughs?

[Mister Six]

Carlton driven to suicidal thoughts following years of mockery about his dancing, which is caused by dyspraxia.

I dunno, the basic idea seems like it could actually have some dramatic promise. What does it mean to be black in America? How does wealth intersect with that? How does the class divide affect people?

But it's the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, FFS.

[up_the_hampipe]

I dunno, the basic idea seems like it could actually have some dramatic promise. What does it mean to be black in America? How does wealth intersect with that? How does the class divide affect people?

Didn't the sitcom already deal with those subjects? It wasn't very often, but their approach was surely more effective than this heavy-handed looking drama will be.

[Mister Six]

I don't think the execution will be any good, but a dramatic series that takes those topics seriously and makes them central could be worthwhile. Very hypothetically.

What I'm saying is that there's much more compelling dramatic potential in Fresh Prince than most other sitcoms.

[Mr Trumpet]

Original Aunt Viv gets murdered, replaced with identity thief

[sevendaughters]

bad remember this shit for content gobblers

[idunnosomename]

It's so funny watching this when all you can think of is the intro song and will  making fat jokes.

I mean aalso redundant to cast it with "real" actors when Will Smith's gone on to do serious roles, Joseph Marcell is a really good stage actor, and I suppose James Avery was only ever really a comic actor and voice over guy but he was Shredder in the TMNT cartoon and thats better than this horse shit

[George White]

Yes, but Geoffrey is now Jimmy AKingbola, who I know mainly as a comic actor from CBBC's Stupid (also ITV's Kate and Koji, his doing Bel Air has meant Koji has been recast for s2),

[Ja'moke]

Didn't the sitcom already deal with those subjects? It wasn't very often, but their approach was surely more effective than this heavy-handed looking drama will be.

Yeah it did and was pretty effective. There was the episode where Will and Carlton are racially profiled and arrested.

[thecuriousorange]

At least Donald Trump probably won't have a cameo.

Seriously, the basic premise could, in theory, work for a decent drama. Has a comedy ever been successfully remade as a completely serious piece?  I'm not going to watch this, but it'll be interesting to see how it does.

[idunnosomename]

Not sure if we have a CaB consensus about Bel-Air but it was quite funny wasn't it? Remember it kicking around the BBC2 6pm slot.

Funny what family sitcoms made it over here and what didn't. For instance things like Full House are a total mystery to us. Probably for the best, tbh

[Mr Trumpet]

Yes, but Geoffrey is now Jimmy AKingbola, who I know mainly as a comic actor from CBBC's Stupid (also ITV's Kate and Koji, his doing Bel Air has meant Koji has been recast for s2),

Wasn't he the smackhead in Rev?