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The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air - General Discussion

Meredith Quill
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Miss Dee

Miss Dee

As much as I love this show, I'll never forgive the 180-degree turn they did with Aunt Viv. Nothing against Daphne Maxwell-Reid, but her version of Aunt Viv wasn't a tenth as awesome as the original character. Original Aunt Viv had a job, projects, dreams... did the revamp do anything except lunch with ladies and the odd charity thing and (mostly) prop up Uncle Phil? It was like she lost all her mojo, and I think that's a shame.

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ShadowSixx

ShadowSixx

I loved that scene when Aunt Viv shows up those two bitches who snarked about her age.

 

Here are some of my favorite scenes:

 

 

 

 

When Hilary was blackmailed by Will and Carlton another favorite scene of mine is when Hilary was reading Spiderman to Will and when she was describing the picture she described Spiderman's spidey senses as him being hot or his head smelling LMAO just love Hilary. It's why she's my favorite character on the show followed by Carlton.

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Ms Blue Jay

Ms Blue Jay

1.  Knowledge is Power - Will and Carlton blackmail Hilary, culminating in the dinner table scene  (posted by ShadowSixx)

2.  Eyes on the Prize - Will and Carlton compete with Jazz and Trey on a game show

3.  Will goes a Courtin'  - Will and Phil remember a fight over air conditioning and rent in totally different ways, Rashomon style

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paulvdb

paulvdb

‘Bel-Air’: Drama Series Take On ‘The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’ From Morgan Cooper & Westbrook Studios Heats Up Streaming Marketplace
 

Quote

 

The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air is making a dark return with Bel-Air, an hourlong series based on Morgan Cooper’s popular fan film that reenvisions the 1990s Will Smith sitcom as a drama. The project, from Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Universal Television, is currently being pitched to streamers, drawing strong interest and big commitments, including multiple straight-to-series orders, to set up a bidding war, I hear.

Cooper will direct and co-executive produce the potential series, which he is co-writing with Chris Collins (The Man in the High Castle, The Wire). Collins is an executive producer and showrunner.

Bel-Air is a one-hour, dramatic retelling of the beloved sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that leans into the original premise of Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air. With a reimagined vision, Bel-Air will dive deeper into the inherent conflicts, emotions and biases of what it means to be a Black man in America today, while still delivering the swagger and fun nods to the original show.

Westbrook Studios, a division of Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Inc., and Universal TV, which owns copyright to the original series, will serve as the studios.

The short film by cinematographer Cooper took the Internet by storm when it was released in March 2019. Described by Cooper as “a reinterpretation” that brings the story “into modern-day life in 2019,” it has amassed more than 7.5 million views to date in two official YouTune posts alone.

The four-minute spec trailer has received a lot of praise, including  from Will Smith who appeared in a video with Cooper, telling the filmmaker, “That’s an idea that is brilliant.”

 

 

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txhorns79

txhorns79

The tribute the did during the reunion for James Avery was very touching.  They all clearly loved the guy. 

I'm not sure how I feel about the original Aunt Viv/Will reunion.  I felt like Will was being incredibly careful with his words, and it was very awkward at points, almost like they thought she was unstable and they expected some kind of meltdown.  I'm glad they appear to have resolved their feud. 

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MaggieG

MaggieG

On 11/19/2020 at 12:01 AM, txhorns79 said:

The tribute the did during the reunion for James Avery was very touching.  They all clearly loved the guy. 

I'm not sure how I feel about the original Aunt Viv/Will reunion.  I felt like Will was being incredibly careful with his words, and it was very awkward at points, almost like they thought she was unstable and they expected some kind of meltdown.  I'm glad they appear to have resolved their feud. 

I didn't think I would cry so much at a Fresh Prince reunion but yet I did. I loved the story Will told about him and James during the "how come he don't love me man?" scene. 

What I liked about the Will/OG Aunt Viv reunion is that he let her tell her side and didn't make excuses for whatever his part was in it. He mentioned being 21. The show was a success and he was the star, so it could be that he was throwing his weight around. It seemed like she was going through a really rough time in her personal life and didn't speak about it. I'm sure things happened back then that they both didn't handle well but it seems that with all this time that has gone by (27 years!!) they both have gained perspective. Sometimes you just have to let it go and move on and it seems they both did.  

I loved Janet and Daphne meeting for the first time. I also laughed at Jazz telling the story about how he did all these takes being thrown out of the house and they didn't want to make him do that all the time so that's why they used the same take every time. Watching this show as a kid, I knew what it meant when Jazz showed up wearing that shirt.

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luckyroll3

luckyroll3

5 hours ago, MaggieG said:

I didn't think I would cry so much at a Fresh Prince reunion but yet I did.

Me either!  I was fucking wreck by the end of the episode.  I started to lose it after the Uncle Phil montage when the camera cut back to the cast and it was dead silent in the room, and every single person was silently weeping.  I was like: 
giphy.gif

And then I started bawling again during the Will and OG Aunt Viv reconciliation because it felt so real and honest.  

The entire show was very well done and enjoyable.  And as someone who watched this show live as a kid, I can't believe it's been 30 fricken years!

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Traveller519

Traveller519

This was one of the best "reunions" I've seen, which I'm sure is no small part due to wanting to have control of the discussion, and giving it a proper run time, rather than outsourcing it to Entertainment Weekly or a network producer. Will doubling as a panelist and moderator helped keep the focus on the cast, but I felt like it also meant we were without a conduit. It would have been fun to have Rashida Jones or Benny Medina moderate the discussion and provide some more insight into the production. I thought the part where they talked about how white the writing room was in trying to convey black experience was incredibly intriguing, but they didn't get that deep into it.

Joseph Marcell breaking the silence after the James Avery tribute was touching, almost acknowledging just how much of the heart and glue of the series James was, while also saying... "I know I'm not him, but I'm here if you need me"

I'm glad they broke the unwritten reunion rule of "Don't talk about the elephants in the room." I think the Janet Hubert stuff was incredibly touching given everything that's gone on. I can't believe what they filmed was truly their first time speaking (though it may have been the first time without representation for all parties... 🙂), but it felt authentic, and that matters. Janet has been shit-talked by more of the cast than just Will, so I'm sure everyone was treading lightly. While I won't pretend to know the whole story, NPR has a nice write-up on how if you break down some of her concerns they were typical of women in the workplace, no matter the workplace, and especially black women.

Well done everyone, now I'm really looking forward to Bel-Air (god....I really hope they don't get Jaden to play Will)

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Virtual

Virtual

That reunion went better than I could have ever expected any reunion for this show to go. 😊

One thing that I thought about just now, I remembered all of Carlton's shows of strength in words (he was the only one to stand up to Janet, and he told off that fraternity leader who didn't want him simply because his parents were rich). I don't remember Ashley or Hilary having any of those moments specifically; they seemed to make people feel worse most of the time. Vivian was enraged when Will and Carlton were arrested because they were black, and she took Will to task when he didn't take the black history class seriously. Phil had MANY, getting Will and Carlton out of jail and later getting himself and Will out of jail, his rant towards that woman who told him he was selling out because he was a successful lawyer and more... And even Geoffrey pulled Hilary together when she was embarrassed her friends would see her serving food.

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

Some comments on social media about the Bel-Air reboot expressed the opinion that they were fine with the new evil version of Carlton because they never liked the original one to begin with. One comment was particularly hard on him regarding the episode when he and Will were profiled and he remained bullishly convinced that it was just a misunderstanding, up until Phil revealed he’d been pulled over when he was younger.

Honestly, I think that person was being a little harsh. Yes, Carlton was pompous and ignorant, but he had a privileged and sheltered upbringing, which left him naive about many things in the world. For all his arrogance, there really wasn’t a genuinely mean bone in his body (unlike New Carlton). That episode was a rude awakening for him, and that’s why my heart hurt for him at the end of the episode.

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