The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
File:Freshprincelogo.jpg The Fresh Prince mid-program bumper
Created by	Andy Borowitz Susan Borowitz
Starring	Will Smith Alfonso Ribeiro James Avery Janet Hubert-Whitten (1990-1993) Daphne Maxwell Reid (1993-1996) Karyn Parsons Tatyana Ali Ross Bagley (1994-1996) Joseph Marcell
Theme music composer	The Fresh Prince, in association with A Touch of Jazz, Inc.
Opening theme	"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" by Will Smith
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	148 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Quincy Jones Andy Borowitz Susan Borowitz Kevin Wendle (season 1) Winifred Hervey (seasons 2-3) Gary H. Miller (seasons 4-5) Cheryl Gard (seasons 5) Jeff Pollock Will Smith (season 6)
Production locations	Bel Air, Los Angeles, California (setting) Hollywood Center Studios, Hollywood, California (season 1) Sunset-Gower Studios, Hollywood, California (seasons 2-3) NBC Studios, Burbank, California (seasons 4-6; all taping locations)
Camera setup	Videotape; Multi-camera
Running time	approx. 23 mins (per episode)
Production companies	Quincy Jones Productions (seasons 1-3) Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment (seasons 4-6) The Stuffed Dog Company NBC Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 10, 1990 – May 20, 1996

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show starred Will Smith as a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to live with his wealthy relatives in a Bel Air mansion. His lifestyle often clashes with that of his relatives there. 148 episodes were produced over six seasons.

Conception

As part of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Will Smith was a popular and successful rapper during the late 1980s but, having spent money freely and underpayed his income taxes, was assessed to be $2.8 million in tax debt by the I.R.S., who took many of his possessions, and garnished his income. This left Smith nearly bankrupt when, in 1990, he was approached by the television network NBC who signed him on to a contract and built a sitcom around him.

Theme song and opening sequence

This is the story all about how

my life got flip turned upside down

So if you take a moment and sit right there

I tell you how I became the meme called pedobear.

In west Neverland born and raised

Stalking the playground is how I spent most of my days

Checking out max relaxing all cool

Playing with my balls outside of the school

When a couple of kids who were looking real good

Didn't check the offender registry in their neighborhood.

I touched one little kid and her mom got scared and said, "I'm calling the fbi on you sick pedobears"

So I whistled for a van but when it came near

the license plate said chan and there was a party in the rear

If anything I could say this van was a snare

But I thought, "Nah forget it, you can't catch a running bear"

I pulled out of the girl, who was seven or eight

and I yelled to the moralfags, "Yo homos, sage you later"

Looking at her crotch I got there before the hair

She can sit on my bone cause I'm the pedobear

Cast and characters

Main article: List of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air characters

Recurring settings

The Banks mansion

The mansion is where the Banks family, as well as Will, live; the address was revealed in the fourth season's "For Sale By Owner" as 805 Saint Cloud Road. A majority of the show's scenes take place in the mansion. Originally, most of the family scenes took place in the living room, with less prominence given to the kitchen. The living room set had archways at either end to hallways, and two doorways at the back of the set to the side yard. The right-side hallway was occasionally shot in, and had a staircase upstairs, and the front door. The kitchen set was not attached to the rest of the downstairs set, and was unconventionally laid out compared to many sitcoms: The left side had counters that continued along the fourth wall (where the audience would be), and had a lot of depth (from the audience perspective), with camera angles frequently shooting almost parallel to the fourth wall. The set had two interior doors; one of which, at the right side of the set, led to the hallway left of the living room (though was not attached on set), and an exterior door to the unseen back yard. There was a dining room also off the hallway left of the living room. The upper floor hallway was shown in Season 1, until the mansion sets were completely rebuilt after the season.

In the second season, the kitchen and living room sets were rebuilt much larger with a more contemporary style (as opposed to the much more formal style of the first season), and were connected directly by an archway, allowing scenes to be shot continuously between the sets, which is where most scenes were shot. The staircase upstairs was incorporated into the back of the living room, with only one rarely-used exit to the side yard beside it. An actual television prop was added at the fourth wall, whereas there had only been one implicitly in the first season. The archway to the right still led to a hallway with the front door. The only element that remained from the original set was the kitchen's left-hand wall and island which were rotated ninety degrees to become the back wall at the right of the kitchen, with some modification to the cosmetics. The archway was the only way into the room, other than the exit at the left to the backyard patio, which was now an existing part of the main house set.

In addition, Will's and occasionally other family members', rooms were shown (sometimes changing looks between appearances) during the series. The pool house was shown in one episode of season 3. A different set was used when it became a main location in season 4 until the end of the series, after Will and Carlton moved in.

Despite the changes, the exterior shot of the Banks house, which is an actual house in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California, was constant throughout the series, usually featured in still shots. A running gag, however, featured Jazz being physically thrown out of the front door using the exterior of the house. Every time he is thrown out of the house, he is shown wearing the same shirt although he does not always wear it when he is thrown out (the producers never shot a second sequence with Jazz being thrown out of the house, only adjusting the original scene for time purposes; an exception is in the episode "Community Action", where Jazz was thrown out along with a lifesize cardboard cut-out of Bill Cosby, complete with a blooper showing Jeff Townes reshooting his flying off the house several times).

Bel-Air Prep

Bel-Air Prep is the high school that Will and Carlton attend in Seasons 1-3. Ashley also starts as Freshman in Season 3. The 3 main sets are the classroom, a hallway and the auditorium (the auditorium was only shown in three episodes: "Def Poet's Society", "Courting Disaster" and "Just Say Yo").

Hospital

A hospital in Los Angeles is seen in several episodes which deal with the Banks family's medical problems. The exterior shot of the hospital is a shot of the VA Hospital in nearby Westwood

Jazz's apartment in Compton

Jazz lives with a few friends in a run-down apartment complex in Compton, California called the Chalet Towers. This setting was seen in the first four seasons.

KFPB Channel 8 News station

This setting was seen throughout Season 3 because Hilary was hired as a weather girl and fell in love with Trevor Collins, who died in a bungee accident in Season 4. Due to his death, the setting was written off towards the end of the 4th Season. The setting returned in Season 6 because Hilary's own talk show was produced there.

ULA Student Store

The ULA Student Store, also known as "The Peacock Stop" for the school mascot, is where Will, Carlton, and Will's friend Jackie Ames work. In Season 4, Jackie is the manager, Carlton is the assistant manager, and Will is the cashier. When Jackie leaves ULA in the middle of Season 4, Carlton takes over as manager and Will becomes assistant manager and cashier until Season 5.

Awards and nominations

Awards	Outcome	Recipient(s)	Year
ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards:
Top TV Series	Won	Quincy Jones Will Smith DJ Jazzy Jeff	1994
Emmy Awards:
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Comedy Series	Nominated	Art Busch	1996
Golden Globe Awards:
Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical	Nominated	Will Smith	1994
Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical	Nominated	Will Smith	1993
Image Award:
Outstanding Comedy Series	Nominated		1997
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Won	Alfonso Ribeiro	1996
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	Nominated	Will Smith	1997
Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress	Won	Tatyana Ali	1997
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Nominated	Nia Long	1996
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Nominated	Daphne Maxwell Reid	1996
Kids' Choice Awards:
Favorite Television Actor	Nominated	Will Smith	1996
Favorite Television Show	Nominated		1996
Favorite TV Actress	Won	Tatyana Ali	1996
NCLR Bravo Awards:
Outstanding Television Series Actor in a Crossover Role	Nominated	Alfonso Ribeiro	1996
TP de Oro:
Best Foreign Series (Mejor Serie Extranjera)	Nominated		1996
Best Foreign Series (Mejor Serie Extranjera)	Won		1994
TV Land Awards:
Best Broadcast Butler	Nominated	Joseph Marcell	2004
Favorite "Fish Out of Water"	Nominated	Will Smith	2004
Young Artist Awards:
Best Performance by an Actor Under Ten - Television	Won	Ross Bagley	1996
Best Performance by an Actor Under Ten in a TV Series	Won	Ross Bagley	1995
Best Youth Comedienne	Nominated	Tatyana Ali	1994
Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Television Series	Nominated	Larenz Tate	1993
Best Young Actor Guest Starring or Recurring Role in a TV Series	Nominated	Tevin Campbell	1992
Best New Family Television Comedy Series	Won		1991
YoungStar Award:
Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy TV Series	Won	Tatyana Ali	1997

U.S. television ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on NBC.

Note: U.S. network television seasons generally start in late September and end in late May, which coincides with the completion of the May sweeps.

Season	Episodes	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
1	25	September 10, 1990	May 6, 1991	1990–1991	N/A	N/A
2	24	September 9, 1991	May 4, 1992	1991–1992	#22	13.2
3	24	September 14, 1992	May 10, 1993	1992–1993	#16	13.6
4	26	September 20, 1993	May 23, 1994	1993–1994	#22	12.9
5	25	September 19, 1994	May 15, 1995	1994–1995	#55	10.4
6	24	September 18, 1995	May 20, 1996	1995–1996	#55	9.6

Syndication and DVD releases

The series was originally an NBC production in association with The Stuffed Dog Company and Quincy Jones Productions (later QDE, or Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment). After the show was released to syndication, the rights reverted to Warner Bros. Television, which continues to distribute the show worldwide (although NBC Universal does own the series' copyright). Currently, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air airs on various local television stations around the U.S. including TBS, BET, and ABC Family. It aired on Nick@Nite from 2004 to 2009, as well as The-N (now TeenNick), but was removed in September 2009 after Disney/ABC purchased the rights to the show. It is also currently being aired on the UK digital TV channel Virgin 1 and in Canada on YTV, TVtropolis and Crossroads Television. Disney XD started airing the show on September 19, 2009 and will start airing on Disney Channel in the United States in 2010. Warner Home Video has released the first four seasons of the series on DVD. It is currently unknown whether Seasons 5 and 6 will be released due to conflicts over music rights costs.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release dates			DVD Extras
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
The Complete 1st Season	25	February 8, 2005	February 21, 2005	April 13, 2005	"Back-to-Bel-Air: A Fresh Look" featurette.
The Complete 2nd Season	24	October 11, 2005	November 21, 2005	March 1, 2006	Best Bits of Bel Air and Bloopers from Season 2
The Complete 3rd Season	24	February 14, 2006	June 26, 2006	August 9, 2006	Best of the Upper Bel-Air Crust (Season 3 highlights) and Bloopers from Season 3
The Complete 4th Season	26	August 8, 2006	January 22, 2007	December 6, 2006	No extras are available in the boxed set of season 4.
The Complete 5th Season	25	TBA	TBA	TBA
The Complete 6th Season	24	TBA	TBA	TBA

See also

• List of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episodes

External links

• Official US site
• Official FR site
• WarnerBros. - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air DVD site
• Episode guides archive
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com