The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
| The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Andy Borowitz Susan Borowitz |
| Starring | Will Smith James Avery Janet Hubert-Whitten Alfonso Ribeiro Karyn Parsons Tatyana M. Ali Joseph Marcell Daphne Maxwell Reid Ross Bagley |
| Theme music composer | The Fresh Prince in association with A Touch of Jazz, Inc. |
| Opening theme | "Yo Home to Bel Air", performed by The Fresh Prince |
| Composer(s) | Quincy Jones |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English (1990-1996) |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 148 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Quincy Jones Andy Borowitz Susan Borowitz Kevin Wendle (Season 1) Winifred Hervey (Seasons 2–3) Gary H. Miller (Season 4–5) Cheryl Gard (Mid-Late Season 5) Jeff Pollack Will Smith (Season 6) Benny Medina |
| Producer(s) | Werner Walian Lisa Rosenthal Joel Madison Leilani Downer Joanne Curley-Kerner Joel Markowitz |
| Location(s) | Hollywood Center Studios Hollywood, California (1990–1991) Sunset Gower Studios Hollywood, California (1991–1993) NBC Studios Burbank, California (1993–1996) |
| Camera setup | Videotape; Multi-camera |
| Running time | 23 minutes |
| Production company(s) | The Stuffed Dog Company Quincy Jones Productions (Seasons 1–3) Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment (Seasons 4–6) NBC Productions |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original release | September 10, 1990 – May 20, 1996 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Contents
[hide]Development[edit]
The theme song "Yo Home to Bel Air" was written and performed by Smith under his stage name, The Fresh Prince. The music was composed by Quincy Jones, who is credited with Smith at the end of each episode. The music often used to bridge scenes together during the show is based on a similar chord structure.
Plot[edit]
The theme song and opening sequence set the premise of the show. Will Smith is a street smart teenager, born and raised in West Philadelphia. While playing basketball, Will misses a shot and the ball hits a group of people, causing a confrontation that frightens his mother, who sends him to live with his aunt and uncle in the opulent neighborhood of Bel Air, Los Angeles.Will's working-class background ends up clashing in various humorous ways with the upper class world of the Banks family – Will's uncle Phil and aunt Vivian and their children, Will's cousins: Hilary, Carlton, and Ashley.
Cast and characters[edit]
Main[edit]
Recurring[edit]
Episodes[edit]
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Nielsen ratings[7] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | Rank | Rating | ||||
| 1 | 25 | September 10, 1990 | May 6, 1991 | N/A | N/A | ||
| 2 | 24 | September 9, 1991 | May 4, 1992 | 22 | 14.3[A] | ||
| 3 | 24 | September 14, 1992 | May 10, 1993 | 16 | 14.6[B] | ||
| 4 | 26 | September 20, 1993 | May 23, 1994 | 21 | 13.7[C] | ||
| 5 | 25 | September 19, 1994 | May 15, 1995 | N/A | N/A | ||
| 6 | 24 | September 18, 1995 | May 20, 1996 | N/A | N/A | ||
Crossovers and other appearances[edit]
During the fall 1991–1992 season, NBC gained two hit television shows to anchor their Monday night lineup (Blossom aired immediately after The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). To gain popularity between the two shows, Will Smith appeared in the Blossom episode "I'm with the Band" as himself under his rap stage name, The Fresh Prince. That same season, Karyn Parsons appeared in the Blossom episode "Wake Up Little Suzy" as Hilary Banks. Parsons also appeared in the Patti LaBelle sitcom Out All Night as Hilary.In the House and Fresh Prince were both executive produced by Winifred Hervey, David Salzman and Quincy Jones. During the second season's first episode, Alfonso Ribeiro and Tatyana Ali appeared as their Fresh Prince characters (Carlton and Ashley Banks) in the crossover episode "Dog Catchers". Later that season, James Avery (Phillip Banks) appeared as a mediator in the episode "Love on a One-Way Street".
In the Season 4 episode "My Pest Friend's Wedding", James Avery and Daphne Maxwell Reid (Vivian Banks) guest starred as Dr. Maxwell Stanton's parents (Stanton was played by Ribeiro). Both Avery and Reid portrayed the parents of Ribeiro's Fresh Prince character. Joseph Marcell, who played the wisecracking Geoffrey Butler on Fresh Prince, also appeared as an officiating minister in the same episode.
Syndication[edit]
The series was produced by NBC Productions in association with The Stuffed Dog Company and Quincy Jones Entertainment (later Quincy Jones-David Salzman Entertainment in 1993). After the show was released to syndication in 1994, the series has been distributed by Warner Bros. Television, which continues to distribute the show worldwide (although NBCUniversal does own the series' copyright). WGN America was the first cable channel to acquire the series in 1997, TBS acquired the series a year later in 1998; both channels carried the series until the fall of 2003, though TBS reacquired the series in 2007.The theme song was shown in the original TBS run, but after TBS re-acquired Fresh Prince in 2007, the opening credits were truncated and the theme song removed and replaced with the instrumental version used as the show's closing theme; these versions also re added portions of scenes cut from the original syndicated prints for some episodes, particularly those from Seasons 3 to 6. TBS continues to air the series today, early in the morning. Reruns also aired on WPIX-TV back to back weeknights at 6 pm & 6:30 pm EST from 1994 until 2000, and as a weekday basis at 5 pm from 2000 to 2005, sometimes on weekends until 2007. But, the series was still rerunning on The WB's affiliation WPIX-TV until 2006. While moving The WB to Nick at Nite, it was airing to 2006-2009 and moved to Disney XD.
In July 2009, Disney XD acquired the rights to the series, though it was quickly moved from prime time to late night airings, and only episodes from Seasons 1 to 3 are aired, mainly because those episodes are more appropriate for young viewers and does not contain as many mature themes, sexual content and strong language as later episodes. But in August 2010, Disney XD stopped airing the show. ABC Family (now called Freeform) acquired the series in September 2008, though airing all 148 episodes; originally airing exclusively on Saturday nights, the series was added to ABC Family's weekday line up in late 2009. On September 29, 2014, Disney/ABC rights to the show expired. Viacom Media Networks got the series back.
In October 2014, Viacom Media Networks also gave the series to BET, it also will air on Centric. It was previously aired on MTV's retro block. Also, the series reruns on VH1. On November 2, 2015, the series started airing on the Family Channel in Canada. On January 1, 2017, the series was added to Netflix in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 2014, Fresh Prince Of Bel Air started airing again in Nickelodeon`s block night channel, Nick at Nite. In 2017, the series began from the beginning on the 5* channel in the UK. MeTV will start airing the show in September 2018.
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