It represents a turning point for Black people on television after the minstrel era, which often resulted in Black stereotypes without positive imagery. One of the things I always admired during the Golden Age of Black sitcoms was the rise of good role models for Black kids. As a woman who has experienced street harassment, having a young Will bark at me while I’m trying to leave an elevator, or bothering me to get my number as I attempt to order a coffee at The Peacock Stop, is far from appealing.
His catcalls and harassment of women throughout all six seasons did not age well after the #MeToo movement. As a charming ladies’ man, Will Smith’s character turned out to be pretty cringe. Today, hanging with the Fresh Prince would be an absolute nightmare. But during my rewatch, the answer became clear: as a culture, we’ve evolved. For years it had bewildered me why these Golden Age sitcoms hadn’t made a comeback. (Netflix streamed Friends for five years before having a single Black sitcom on the platform it finally acquired seven in August of 2020.) When HBO Max premiered in May of 2020, I was overjoyed to finally binge my favorite Fresh Prince episodes. Fresh Prince sells the idea that with a couple of tweaks to your identity, and the proper upbringing, the American Dream for poor Black Americans is attainable.Īs the call for more diverse media grew loud during the summer of 2020, popular Black sitcoms of the 1990s and 2000s were finally added to streaming services. It’s a Cinderella story about a boy from the hood surrounded by the freedom that money can buy. I can understand why Fresh Prince was such a staple for six seasons during the Golden Age of Black Sitcoms. The smash hit was syndicated on Nick at Nite from 2004 through 2009, a cycle that became common with other favorite ’90s Black sitcoms like The Cosby Show and Family Matters. I was born in 1997, so I wasn’t alive when the show aired its final episode in 1996. I could not have been more than nine years old when I fell in love with Will Smith on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
What was the world like when you first considered this piece of culture, and what’s changed? Does it hold up as timeless, or is it better left to the past? Pitch us at.
#The fresh prince of bel air season 1 episode 16 series#
Hits Different is a new series that takes a second look at a TV show, song, album, episode, movie, scene, or clip from the past that, in our current context, just hits different.
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