The Fresh-Prince of Bel-Air was a lovely show that help propel Will Smith into the mainstream. It was a pretty wholesome show that also managed to touch on some deeper issues from time to time. That said, it was mostly your basic TGIF sort of 90s show.
For years people have wondered if the show would return to air, especially now that Will Smith is closing in on the age of Uncle Phil, his mentor and father-figure on the show. It would have been a nice complete circle that would have seen Smith as the mentor dealing with a modern family with current issues in a fun way.
So, you’ll be happy to know that the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is currently in the works, but not as an extension to the original canon but rather, a dark and gritty reboot going by the title BEL-AIR. The premise is the same as the original show but instead of the comedic vibe and fish out of water jokes we will instead get guns, drugs, yelling, and drama that feels very forced.
I know full well we are in dark times and there are struggles at every turn for all sorts of people, myself included, but television and streaming is just becoming too much for me. You see, I want to turn on the TV to get away and detach from everything. I don’t want to see the world fall apart outside and on scripted television. And it’s not like I don’t think a show like this can work, I just don’t know why it has to be a reboot. It’s like if the next My Little Pony reboot was exactly the same in story but the human ponies got sent to the glue factory every few episodes while dealing with how they will pay rent this month.
Maybe this is why I’ve been turning more and more to really obtuse cartoons that let my brain simply veg out. That said, the concept for BEL-AIR comes from a four-minute clip posted back in 2019 Kansas City filmmaker Morgan Cooper. It blew up to the point that Will Smith himself even posted a video talking about the concept trailer, which I must say, looked super impressive for an indie project.
It struck such a chord that Smith teamed up with the filmmaker to develop the show into a full series. Much of the same producers that worked on the 90s hit are attached to the project to help keep the core of the series intact while it moves into much more realistic stories and puts Carlton and Will against each other. Fingers crossed there’s still a scene where Jazzy Jeff gets rag-dolled out the front door.
The show has already been picked up by HBO Max.
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