This setup is a microcosm of all coming-of-age experiences. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is about a young man from the east coast coming to the west coast and trying to navigate a foreign environment. He tells them they all died for stupid reasons then he realizes how close he was to a similar story. He talks to three misguided ghosts who stand by their terrible, fatal decisions. After drinking to excess and claiming that he is fine to drive, Will wakes up in a graveyard. The conceit of the episode is a rendezvous with the departed. But in typical Fresh Prince fashion, old is made new again. The lesson in this episode is not particularly groundbreaking: don’t succumb to peer pressure and don’t drink and drive. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE A FOOTBALL HERO" SEASON 4 EPISODE 12 Will is a tourist in a rich lifestyle and even though he can imagine that he’s part of that world by proxy, when he considers his future he’s forced to realize his reality is world’s different than that of his cousins’.Ĩ. In order to get back to Bel-Air and stay there, Will has to make his own way on his own terms and he has a hard time overcoming his pride and accepting help. But Will’s stint in Bel-Air is a temporary visa. He has the luxury of self-selecting out of the real world when it proves to be too inconvenient (“I’ll send Geoffrey for my things,” he says as he abandons Will). Hilary moves back into the pool house whenever she feels like it and Carlton moves back home immediately after getting evicted. Carlton, Ashley, and Hilary always have a safety net. Even though Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil treat Will like a son, there’s a major difference between Will and his cousins. Will and Carlton are evicted from their apartment and Will tries to avoid moving back home. "WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY (PART II)" SEASON 4, EPISODE 2Ĭaveat: I think I may be partial to this episode more for what it says symbolically than what happens in the episode itself. Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv are the parents you wish you had not because they’re idealized and unrealistic and not because their lives are difficulty-free, but because they’re willing to undergo those difficult phases together.ĩ. In the last scene, she sits down with her parents to have a frank discussion. But as the episode progresses, Will’s own inexperience deems him unfit to counsel Ashley.
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Will tries to tell Ashley she should talk to her mom and Ashley says it’s too uncomfortable. Will has a short-lived moment of self-reckoning but the crux of the episode is more focused on what a healthy relationship looks like between parents and teenagers. You don’t want to be that kind of girl.” Ashley replies, “You mean the kind that you like?” Ashley forces Will to confront his own hypocrisy when she reminds him that he never calls the girls who don’t get physical. Will says, “I want you to stop having these feelings. When Ashley asks Will about sex, he freaks out because he can’t fathom his younger cousin coming into her own sexuality. Their relationship is one of the most well-crafted bonds in the show and it shows a side of Will that complicates his womanizer image. "BE MY BABY TONIGHT" SEASON 2, EPISODE 23Īnything with Will and Ashley is heart-warming. The cast of "Fresh Prince" takes a break from filming, October 1990 - Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Imagesġ0. The Fresh Prince’s greatest legacy is that it helped facilitate discourse about what it means to be a minority by making the issue a primetime one. The show packs so much heart and manages to teach without feeling didactic. The show addresses a spectrum of issues that range from standard suburban teenager problems like bullying and peer pressure (“Not With My Cousin You Don’t” and “She Ain’t Heavy”) to much more nuanced societal problems like interracial marriage (see #5) and what it means to be a single mom (“Vying for Attention”). There are so many quality episodes that didn’t make the list that address serious subject matter: classism (“Geoffrey Cleans Up”), sex (“The Best Laid Plans”), bribery (“To Thine Own Self Be Blue…and Gold”), drugs (“Just Say Yo”). The beauty of the show is how it balances darkness with levity (did anyone actually think Trevor’s death was tragic?). The class commentary is sophisticated and brutally honest, especially for a comedy.
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Will’s antics brought to light issues like racial profiling and representation (“ Father Knows Best”) when they weren’t part of mainstream discussion. James Avery’s Uncle Phil was such a powerful father figure that he gave a young J. The show may be anchored by Will Smith’s once-in-a-generation charisma- but the rest of the cast are no slouches.