https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/fresh-prince-bel-air-drama-reboot-works-1306799

Will Smith loved (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Will-Smith-loved-the-fan-made-dramatic-Fresh-Prince-of-Bel-Air-trailer-lRSEar) cinematographer Morgan Cooper's 2019 Fresh Prince viral video Bel-Air (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAfJpyBgcgA) that reimagines the hit sitcom as a drama series so much that he's on board to turn it into a full-blown TV series. Smith is reteaming with Fresh Prince creators Andy and Susan Borowitz and original executive producers Quincy Jones and Benny Medina on Bel-Air, which will be shopped to streaming services. The Hollywood Reporter reports that HBO Max, Peacock and Netflix are among the streaming services bidding on the potential series. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg, "the new Bel-Air has been in the works for more than a year after the four-minute clip went viral when it was posted in March 2019 and caught Smith's attention. Cooper, a Fresh Prince super-fan, created and directed the trailer that reimagined the series as if it were a drama. He will co-write the script, direct and be credited as a co-EP." This is not the only Fresh Prince revival. Last year, Smith announced he was rebooting his character for a Fresh Princess children's book series (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Will-Smith-to-revive-his-Fresh-Prince-character-for-a-Fresh-Princess-childrens-book-series-JWSBXa).

Will Smith is undercutting the value of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with his gritty drama reboot (https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/dark-fresh-prince-reboot-1043224/)

There's a "desperate undertone to the prospect of Bel-Air becoming a reality," Charles Holmes says of Will Smith's plan to turn cinematographer Morgan Cooper's Fresh Prince viral trailer Bel-Air (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAfJpyBgcgA) into a full-blown TV series (https://www.primetimer.com/item/The-Fresh-Prince-of-Bel-Air-is-being-rebooted-as-a-drama-series-0GSXRB). Holmes points out that Fresh Prince "already had layers of tension and complexity in its best episodes," which paved the way for Smith having one of the most successful acting careers of his generation. Holmes adds: "Reinventing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a realistic, gritty drama not only suggests that merely existing as a beloved sitcom is no longer enough — it also fails to acknowledge that the show was always part drama operating within the structure of a family-friendly sitcom. Fresh Prince thrived during a boom time for lack television. In the Nineties, your average black sitcom (Martin, A Different World, The Jamie Foxx Show) was concerned with blue-collar anxieties or the mundane reality of a middle-class existence. These shows were colorful and jagged disrupters at a time when network TV advertisers had finally realized that black people had disposable income like their white peers. One crucial outcome of having so many black shows to choose from is that very few of those shows had to build their runs around justifying a singular vision of blackness. Instead, they gave a new generation of characters the chance to occupy a space where their trauma was often implicit, but not the first or even most important trait about them. (Kenan & Kel, to take just one example, would have been a lot less funny if it included a crushing season-long arc about the ways multinational soft-drink companies market to black communities.) Many of the most remembered and critically adored moments from the original Fresh Prince — Will and Carlton getting racially profiled by the police, Carlton overdosing on amphetamines, Will getting shot — were also the most intense. Will’s tearful monologue about his in-show father abandoning him in 'Papa’s Got a Brand New Excuse' was so effective that fans believed Smith’s real dad was a deadbeat. Part of what made Will defiantly sobbing on Uncle Phil’s shoulder (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI4Mv8R0mE0) so visceral was the way that scene played against the context of those two characters roasting each other season after season. The comedy that defined The Fresh Prince made its moments of drama more real, and those moments of drama made the jokes around them funnier. All of it was rooted in Smith’s preternatural ability to inspire intense joy and deep pain in his audience. As his subsequent career has shown, we’re as eager to believe he can save the world from fast-talking aliens as we are to see him embody the greatest boxer of all time."

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"Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" Peacock Drama Reboot Changes Showrunners
by Denise Petski
August 3, 2021


There’s a change at the helm of "Bel-Air". Chris Collins has stepped down as showrunner and executive producer of Peacock’s drama reboot of the 1990s Will Smith sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", and T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson, whose credits include "The Chi" and "The 100", will take over as co-showrunners, Deadline has confirmed.

The hourlong series, based on Morgan Cooper’s popular fan film that re-envisions the original series, hails from Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Universal Television.

It received a two-season order in September 2020.

https://deadline.com/2021/08/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-peacock-reboot-changes-showrunners-1234808570/

People need to stop.

Will Smith tells newcomer Jabari Banks he'll play Will in Peacock's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air drama reboot (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Will-Smith-tells-newcomer-Jabari-Banks-hell-play-Will-in-Peacocks-Fresh-Prince-of-Bel-Air-drama-reboot-XDS05x)

Banks, who has a blank IMDb page (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12053278/), will star in the dark, gritty drama reboot of the classic sitcom, titled Bel-Air. Banks currently lives in West Philadelphia, where his and Smith's character was born and raised before moving to Bel-Air. According to Variety, Banks graduated from University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2020. In addition to acting, he is a songwriter, singer, rapper and basketball player (https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-drama-reboot-peacock-cast-jabari-banks-1235052847/).

Will Smith tells newcomer Jabari Banks he'll play Will in Peacock's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air drama reboot (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Will-Smith-tells-newcomer-Jabari-Banks-hell-play-Will-in-Peacocks-Fresh-Prince-of-Bel-Air-drama-reboot-XDS05x)

Banks, who has a blank IMDb page (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12053278/), will star in the dark, gritty drama reboot of the classic sitcom, titled Bel-Air. Banks currently lives in West Philadelphia, where his and Smith's character was born and raised before moving to Bel-Air. According to Variety, Banks graduated from University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2020. In addition to acting, he is a songwriter, singer, rapper and basketball player (https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-drama-reboot-peacock-cast-jabari-banks-1235052847/).

This should be a positive time for Will's character to finish college and return to the east right now.

Making this tv series into a drama might just backfire...should keep it lighthearted with teachable moments-episodes like the original version or just call it something else altogether in my mind. Time will tell.


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TODAY: The 1990s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which made Will Smith a household name, is getting a reboot, but in a surprising way: as a drama. The idea was inspired by this fan-made trailer.


https://www.esquireme.com/public/styles/full_img/public/images/2020/08/12/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-reboot-will-smith-morgan-cooper-esquire.jpg?itok=ROLyTkOe

Peacock's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot Bel-Air announces its full cast, including a new Uncle Phil and the third Aunt Viv (https://tvline.com/lists/the-fresh-prince-of-bel-air-reboot-cast-uncle-phil-carlton-photos/)

Joining Jabari Banks as the new Will are Adrian Holmes as Phillip Banks, Cassandra Freeman as Vivian Banks, Olly Sholotan as Carlton Banks, Coco Jones as Hilary Banks and Akira Akbar Ashley Banks. Meanwhile, Jimmy Akingbola will take on the role of butler Geoffrey, while Jordan L. Jones will play Will's best friend Jazz.

No live audience, that's why.

Fresh Prince reboot's Uncle Phil actor involved in a fatal freeway accident (https://www.tmz.com/2021/10/19/fresh-prince-reboot-uncle-phil-actor-adrian-holmes-fatal-accident/)

Peacock Bel-Air star Adrian Holmes was traveling on a Los Angeles freeway Monday night when he hit a man lying down in his lane. TMZ reports Holmes and two other cars were unable to avoid hitting the unidentified man, who died of his injuries.

Fresh Prince reboot's Uncle Phil actor involved in a fatal freeway accident (https://www.tmz.com/2021/10/19/fresh-prince-reboot-uncle-phil-actor-adrian-holmes-fatal-accident/)

Peacock Bel-Air star Adrian Holmes was traveling on a Los Angeles freeway Monday night when he hit a man lying down in his lane. TMZ reports Holmes and two other cars were unable to avoid hitting the unidentified man, who died of his injuries.

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Bel-Air unveils its full trailer (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Bel-Air-unveils-its-full-trailer-YESWB4)

Premiering Feb. 13, Bel-Air reimagines classic sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air through a new, dramatic take on Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air.

they definitely have a bigger budget, i give them that.. this seems more like a movie than a tv show.

unlike the original, i didn't see any distinguishing features about the characters based on appearance. it was difficult to tell who was who. i never would have known that this was an interpretation of 'the fresh prince of bel-air' unless i was told.

not everything needs to be dark and gritty. there's enough of that in the real world as it is. yes, the original show tackled issues from time to time, but it was primarily a comedy about family.

i'm worried that this will affect the legacy of the show.

This is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard.

Judging from the trailer, it looks like it could be a series that relies on gimmicks. I'm gonna give it a chance, so I certainly hope that won't be the case ALL the time.

Bel-Air casts Karrueche Tran, Duane Martin, Joe Holt and four other actors (https://deadline.com/2022/01/bel-air-karrueche-tran-duane-martin-joe-holt-cast-peacocks-fresh-prince-drama-reboot-1234915899/)

They'll recur on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Peacock drama reboot along with April Parker Jones, SteVonté Hart, Scottie Thompson and Charlie Hall.

Judging from the trailer, it looks like it could be a series that relies on gimmicks. I'm gonna give it a chance, so I certainly hope that won't be the case ALL the time.

Peacock's Bel-Air looks good, but it needs to get out of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's shadow first (https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/peacocks-bel-air-fights-to-take-the-tv-throne)

"If the writing can lean into the characters and let them breathe, Bel-Air will work," says Brian Tallerico, who says the first two episodes are overly reliant on over-written messaging and nostalgia for the original series. "Bel-Air, the newest drama on the streaming service Peacock, has one of the most unusual origin stories in the history of television," says Tallerico. "Perhaps because of this odd history, it struggles to develop its own identity in the first two episodes, too content to mimic what people have liked before instead of creating something new. However, the third episode hints at what Bel-Air could, and likely will, end up being once it gets the nostalgia out of the way, and I wished I could see more episodes before coming to a conclusion on this unique project. For two hours, I was ready to write it off as a misfire, and there are still some writing issues that hamper all three chapters, but you start to see how Bel-Air could eventually ascend to a television throne of its own, not supplanting its inspiration but ruling a different empire altogether."

ALSO:


Bel-Air doesn’t feel distinct enough from TV’s many rich-people soaps to become a classic (https://time.com/6144732/bel-air-review-peacock): "The dialogue can sound stiff, and constant references to both the original show and (Morgan) Cooper’s video get tiresome," says Judy Berman. "Yet it does have all the makings of a solid drama. True, he’s no Will Smith—there’s only one of those—but Jabari Banks makes a magnetic lead in his own right, wisely toning down the character’s exuberance for a genre without laugh tracks. And as the season progresses, story lines that touch on Black fraternities, the community obligations of wealthy Black families and intergenerational disagreements over calling out racism raise an intriguing question: Three decades after The Fresh Prince, what does Black excellence look like now?"
As teen-oriented soaps go, Bel-Air is too often competent and not much more (https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/bel-air-review-1294283/): "Once you take away the nostalgic link to a beloved series from decades past, the end result is just a decent approximation of a CW drama like All-American, which has a very similar culture-clash premise," says Alan Sepinwall, adding: "On the whole though, Bel-Air doesn’t live up to the thrill of (Morgan) Cooper’s original trailer. It’s one thing to ask whether it would be great if the Fresh Prince premise was used in service of a grittier, more dramatic take on the story; it’s another to make that twist work over the long haul. Not every piece of IP needs to be dusted off and given a new coat of paint, even if it seems that way with the current state of pop culture."
Too much of Bel-Air is just too much, representing that old rebooting instinct to make everything extra something (https://ew.com/tv/tv-reviews/bel-air-review-peacock-fresh-prince/): " Do we really need a cool Carlton, a sexy Uncle Phil, or a sad Will?" says Darren Franich. "Bel-Air wants to modernize its source material, but I worry the main appeal for the post-Super Bowl crowd will be posting side-eye social memes. It's the opposite of fresh: Nostalgia from hell."
Bel-Air thoughtfully and delicately fills in the gaps that its precursor, a ’90s network sitcom created by two white writers, left behind (https://www.ign.com/articles/bel-air-premiere-review-dreams-and-nightmares): "One of Bel-Air’s best innovations is meeting Will in his own environment before he’s whisked away to California," says Kellee Terrell. "Will still reps for his city and has that jokester charm, but this time around, he’s more focused: A straight-A student and basketball star being recruited by out-of-state D1 schools. But we learn that he doesn’t want to leave the city he calls home, the only city he knows. The series subtly ensures we understand his struggle as he straddles the old world he misses and the strange new one he’s being forced to navigate. We also get a clearer understanding of how much danger he’s in, even if it’s from afar. Most importantly, Banks isn’t imitating Smith’s Will. The 23-year-old has captured a similar spark, but confidently steps into his own lovable creation, commanding your attention the second he hits the screen."
Bel-Air would be better off if it cut down on The Fresh Prince Easter eggs (https://www.ign.com/articles/bel-air-premiere-review-dreams-and-nightmares): The Easter Eggs "never allow this show to disconnect from the past and find its own groove," says Tara Bennett. "Truly, there was no need for Bel-Air to tether itself so deeply to the Fresh Prince’s sandbox. If it instead was lightly inspired by its predecessor and bravely subverted expectations by changing things up immediately, the show would have only benefited from that distance. Instead, everything is constrained by the past, from Phil still being bald to Geoffrey’s (Jimmy Akingbola) slight upgrade to house manager with an exotic accent, and there’s nothing organic about this drama trying to force a sitcom square peg into its dramatic round hole. If Bel-Air has any hope of succeeding on its own merits, it needs to become its own thing sooner than later and tell the past to 'smell ya later.'"
Bel-Air is better than it has any right to be (https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/entertainment/bel-air-review/index.html): "Already the recipient of a two-season order, no one can accuse the new series of moving too slowly; rather, the writers race through soap-opera-ish plot developments in the first three episodes, provoking skepticism about whether the producers have frontloaded the action a little too much," says Brian Lowry, adding: "Promoting the show during the Super Bowl might not be the ideal juxtaposition for a dark drama, but in terms of percentages, if the series can hook a tiny fraction of those viewers the bet will pay off for Peacock. While it's possible to second-guess that strategy, in terms of delivering a show improbably worthy of such pricey TV real estate, Bel-Air has held up its end of the bargain."
Whenever Jabari Banks is able to break free of Bel-Air's many plot machinations, he nails it (https://variety.com/2022/tv/reviews/bel-air-fresh-prince-reboot-review-1235169374/): "In the first three episodes, the culture shock of going from Philly to Bel-Air overwhelms Will to the point where the show rarely lets his core personality shine through," says Caroline Framke. "But the moments in which he can let loose — like when he asks a catering chef if he can get a Philly cheesesteak, hangs out with hustler Jazz (Jordan L. Jones) or shrugs that he’s 'not a thug, (but) a smartass' — are the ones that keep Bel-Air from sinking too deep into its own gravitas. The rest of the show’s funhouse mirror versions of the Fresh Prince characters are disorienting for anyone who watched the comedy, but they nonetheless make perfect sense for the contemporary melodrama of shifting dynasties that Bel-Air is going for."
Bel-Air struggles to balance dramatizing, satirizing and being its own thing (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/bel-air-review-1235088391/): "Without the Fresh Prince references, Bel-Air is almost entirely humorless, a chilly act of over-compensation," says Daniel Fienberg. "This is what happens when you attempt to call the bluff of a mock trailer that felt like it was intended to show (Morgan) Cooper’s clever vision as a director, but not really as a proof-of-concept anybody wanted to see as an ongoing series. Because the concept here, comfortably in TV’s history of outhouse-to-penthouse storytelling, ends up bearing less resemblance to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and more to The CW’s All American, which already felt like a more racially conscious version of The OC, which already felt like a grittier version of Beverly Hills, 90210. It’s probably the most 2022 thing imaginable to take one adored show and reboot it in a way that feels derivative of at least a half-dozen other shows."
Bel-Air sucks all the joy out of Fresh Prince (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2022/02/09/bel-air-review-miserable-reboot-sucks-joy-will-smiths-fresh): "Bel-Air is not funny. It doesn’t even try. Instead, it takes every aspect of the original show and sucks out the joy," says Anita Singh, adding: "Anyone looking for a hit of nostalgia, then, will be very disappointed indeed. But this show is presumably aimed at a young audience with little knowledge of the original. Does it succeed on its own terms? Not really. The programme-makers, including Smith as executive producer, aren’t sure where to pitch it. It doesn’t have Euphoria levels of hard-hitting content, but it doesn’t have any fun either."
Bel-Air brilliantly reimagines a comedy classic (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-02-10/bel-air-peacock-morgan-cooper-jabari-banks-review): "Not every situation comedy would work equally well reimagined this way — Gilligan’s Island, you could refit as a Pirandello play, maybe, but it’s hard to imagine milking an ongoing drama out of that unlikely crew," says Robert Lloyd. "(Then again, Lost.) But The Fresh Prince provides Bel-Air a solid foundation that manages at once to honor the original — and not just in the way that Will wears a ball cap sideways and his Academy jacket lining out — while taking it somewhere new; it’s more exploration than exploitation."
Bel-Air had to race to be completed after showrunners Rasheed Newson and T.J. Brady were tapped to replace the original showrunners over creative differences (https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/peacock-will-smith-bel-air-super-bowl-1235178405/): “Ultimately, the studio and the network made the decision to ask us to give it a try,” Brady says. “And we had not a lot of time because it was either going to air on this Super Bowl Sunday” or they were likely going to stop production and “take the time to develop it,” he says. “So it all happened very fast.”
Morgan Cooper, whose viral video resulted in the Bel-Air reboot, wanted the series to subvert expectations (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-02-09/bel-air-peacock-fresh-prince-will-smith-morgan-cooper-jabari-banks): “I’m not typically a fan of reboots either, so I don’t take offense to people who might be a little bit hesitant about this show,” says the 30-year-old Bel-Air creator, a self-taught independent filmmaker. “But creatively, I approached Bel-Air like any other fully original idea I’ve had, and I would have never tried to make it if I didn’t have anything to say. This take came from a very pure and honest place. So it’s exciting to subvert people’s expectations. That’s all that any of us want from a story: to be surprised, in a positive way.”
The character of Will is a part that Jabari Banks has been unknowingly preparing for his entire life (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/bel-air-reboot-jabari-banks-will-smith-peacock-1235087960/): Banks, who grew up with a Fresh Prince box set, says of weekly gatherings around his hometown of Philadelphia: “I remember hearing stories about how The Fresh Prince would air and everything would shut down. Everybody just watched the episode and the next day were talking about it.”
Banks finds parallels between his and Will Smith's lives (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/feb/04/this-show-basically-raised-me-meet-jabari-banks-the-new-fresh-prince-of-bel-air): It's like art imitating life, says Banks. “My life parallels Will’s life in the show so specifically, it’s really crazy," he says. "To be in front of the camera, and to play on this level is so beautiful.”

Bel-Air casts Karrueche Tran, Duane Martin, Joe Holt and four other actors (https://deadline.com/2022/01/bel-air-karrueche-tran-duane-martin-joe-holt-cast-peacocks-fresh-prince-drama-reboot-1234915899/)

They'll recur on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Peacock drama reboot along with April Parker Jones, SteVonté Hart, Scottie Thompson and Charlie Hall.

So this show isn't even on TV but ONLY online??

What a JOKE!!

I watched the first episode (I have to buy a Peacock membership to see the other episodes, which I don't want to do just to watch one show).

I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. Even though Will seems different here than he did on the original, he still has some of those same mannerisms. It makes sense Hilary would get sucked into the whole social media craze, and that Carlton would feel threatened by Will (pushing him in the pool was too far and he deserved to get punched for it).