Theme song and opening sequence

The opening credits and theme song explain the context of the show. Will Smith is revealed as a street-smart teenager, born and raised on the mean streets of West Philadelphia. The plot of the story is shown and rapped in the theme song.

The theme song was written and performed by The Fresh Prince (Will Smith). Contrary to popular belief, DJ Jazzy Jeff did not compose the music for the opening credits. The music was composed by Quincy Jones III, who is credited at the end of each episode. An additional credit at the end of episodes also reads "Theme song written and performed by Will Smith", in regard to the lyrics, with no reference to DJ Jazzy Jeff. The music often used to bridge scenes together during the show is also based on a similar chord structure as the theme song. This too is the work of Quincy Jones III. The full version of the theme song was only used on the first three episodes of the show, although Will Smith did record it as an unreleased B-side. The full-length version, which is 2:52", was included on Will Smith's Greatest Hits album and attributed to himself only. A 3:23" version was released in the Netherlands in 1992, and reached #3 on the charts.

For the first few episodes of the show stanzas one to three and stanzas six and seven were used. Beginning with Episode #9 (titled "Someday Your Prince Will Be in Effect (2)"), only the first two and the last two stanzas of the song were used. The change to the theme song allowed for longer episodes to be created.

Seasons 1, 2, 5, and 6 featured an instrumental version of the theme and still photographs from the episode for the closing credits. In Season 2, the music and stills were dropped and closing credits would almost always appear over bloopers and outtakes from the episode. This continued until the end of Season 4. The closing theme over episode clips returned for Season 5 reruns, due to NBC's change from traditional credits to the split screen credits that are currently employed by the network.

When The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air airs on TBS, instead of using the original opening theme, they use an instrumental version of the theme song with little clips of the opening sequence.

Cast and characters

Will Smith (Will Smith) - The main character of the show

• Philip Banks (James Avery) - Will's uncle and father of Hilary, Carlton, Ashley, and Nicky
• Vivian Banks (Janet Hubert-Whitten/Daphne Maxwell Reid) - Will's aunt (sister to Will's mother) and mother of Hilary, Carlton, Ashley, and Nicky
• Carlton Banks (Alfonso Ribeiro) - Hilary, Ashley, and Nicky's brother and Will's cousin
• Hilary Violet Banks (Karyn Parsons) - Carlton, Ashley, and Nicky's sister and Will's cousin
• Ashley Banks (Tatyana Ali) - Hilary, Carlton, and Nicky's sister and Will's cousin
• Nicolas "Nicky" Andrew Banks (Ross Bagley) - Hilary, Carlton, and Ashley's brother and Will's cousin
• Geoffrey Butler (Joseph Marcell) - Family butler
• Jazz (DJ Jazzy Jeff)- Will's best friend after he moves to Bel-Air

Other characters

• Beulah "Lisa" Wilkes (Nia Long) - Will's girlfriend/fiancee/step-sister
• Jackie Ames (Tyra Banks) - Will's childhood friend whom he re-encounters when he enters college.
• Viola "Vy" Smith (Vernee Watson-Johnson) - Will's mother and Vivian's sister.

Aunt helen Jenifer lewis- Will's Aunt and sister of Vy and vivian

Settings

• The Banks Mansion - full series:

The mansion is where the Banks family, as well as Will, live. Most of the show's scenes occur in the mansion. The upper floor hallway was shown in Season 1, but did not appear in later seasons. The living room has been seen in all seasons. The kitchen appeared infrequently in Season 1, but became the most prominent set on the show in Seasons 2-6. Both the living room and the kitchen looked quite different after season 1 (different wallpaper, furniture, etc). Will's room was seen in Seasons 1-3, and the back of the house with a patio was seen in Season 2 onward. The exterior of the Banks house is often used in still-shots, although the doorway is used for a running gag that occurs whenever Uncle Phil is displeased with Jazz: Phil glares at him, and the picture is replaced by a shot of Jazz screaming and literally being thrown out of the house (see running gags). The actual house can be seen in Bel-Air, California. In the final episode, the house is seen fully empty, as everyone has moved on to a new life.

• Bel-Air Prep - Seasons 1-3:

Bel-Air Prep is the high school that Will and Carlton attend in Seasons 1-3.The 3 main settings in Bel-Air Prep is The Classroom, The Hallway, and The auditorium, the Auditorium was only shown in two episodes, Courting Disaster and Just Say Yo.

• ULA Student Store, "The Peacock Stop" - Seasons 4 and 5:

The ULA Student Store, known as "The Peacock Stop" because the school mascot is a peacock, 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.

• Will and Carlton's temporary apartment - Season 4

The apartment was shown in the first two episodes of Season four. It was eventually vacated after Jazz (Will's best friend) got them kicked out for behavior.

• ULA Upper Floor Hallway - Season 4:

The ULA Hallway was shown once in Season 4; it was where Will's classes were located.

• The Pool House - Seasons 3-6:

The pool house is shown in one episode of Season 3, because Hilary decides to give it to Will and Carlton for a night; and it is a main setting for Seasons 4-6. When Hilary wants her boyfriend Trevor to make a wedding proposal, Trevor decides to bungee-jump off a bridge and lands on the ground, hitting his head. He dies from the injury. Hilary wants to move out of the pool house because Will tricks her into thinking that she'll be miserable because of the memories they had. Will and Carlton move into the pool house in Season 4 and stay there until the end of the series. When they move in, it has a different interior than in Season 3.

• Hospital - Seasons 2-6:

A hospital in Los Angeles is seen in certain episodes which deal with the Banks family's medical problems, including the episode in which Will spends the night at the hospital waiting for a tonsil operation, as well when Carlton overdoses on the drug speed (mistaken for Vitamin E). It is also seen in the next episode, "The Baby Comes Out", when Vivian gives birth to Nicky. The hospital appears in the Season 4 episode "Home is Where the Heart Attack Is" because Phil has a heart attack, is treated, and fortunately survives. It is seen in twice in Season 5 as well, including "Bullets Over Bel-Air" when Will is shot, and it is seen in the first five minutes of the next episode, "A Decent Proposal", when Will proposes to Lisa after being shot. In "I, Ooh, Ooh, Baby", the hospital is seen when an acquaintance of Hilary gets pregnant in the studio of Hilary's show and spends a few days there.

• Jazz's apartment in Compton - Seasons 1,3-5:

Jazz lives with a few friends in a run-down apartment in Compton. It is featured in an episode when Will bets Carlton that he can't last a weekend in the ghetto. It is also seen in "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" although this time it is only the hallway, and it looked a lot nicer than in Season 1. Will also plans to sleep there after he and Philip get into an argument and he runs away from home. It is also seen in Season 4 in episode "Where There's a Will There's a Way (Part 2) when Will is going to beat Jazz up for getting him and Carlton evicted from their apartment. It is seen in the season 5 episode "Slum Like It... Not!" where Will convinces Phillip to buy the whole building as an easy money scheme, this setting was seen in every season except Seasons 2 and 6.

• UCLA - Season 1:

UCLA only appears in one episode, episode 1.13, "Knowledge Is Power". Will goes to the UCLA campus to find out what Hilary was really up to instead of studying; he finds out Hilary has dropped out of UCLA. This Setting was eventually adapted for the season 4 episode "All Guts, No Glory".

• KFPB Channel 8 Newsstation - Seasons 3,4,6:

This setting was seen throughout Season 3 because Hilary got a Job as a weathergirl and fell in love with Trevor Collins, who seemingly 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 show was produced there, until moving production to New York at the end of the series.

• The Classroom - Seasons 1-4:

The Classroom was shown in the first 4 seasons because it was where Will and Carlton's classes were taught. The Classroom appeared infrequently in Seasons 1-2, because of Bel-Air Prep appearing infrequently, it was shown more often in Season 3, as well as Bel-Air Prep, After the Season 3 Finale, the setting was adapted for one Season 4 episode "All Guts, No Glory", after that episode, it was never seen again.

• Hollingsworth Prepatory Institute Hallway - Season 2:

Holingsworth Prep was only seen in one episode, "The Mother of all Battles", and was mentioned in "The Big Four-Oh", Ashley's school wasn't mentioned or seen in Season 1, but it was mentioned in Season 2 as Hollingsworth Prepatory Institute, and was seen too. It was seen in "The Mother of All Battles" because Will and Carlton came to see Ashley's fight with a bully, which apparently didn't happen because of Will and Carlton interrupting Ashley, and its name was mentioned in "The Big Four-Oh". Eventually, Ashley starts attending Bel-Air Prep (as it becomes co-ed) in Season 3. In another season Ashley realized she didn't want to attend a private school, and began attending public school without her family's knowledge. She attended the public school until the end of the series.

Running gags

• Will's ears: There have been a few jokes about the size of Will's ears. In one episode, Will goes to a barber shop, and the barber remarks, "Now you know I'm gonna have to charge you extra for cuttin' around these ears?" Lisa makes a joke about them being "cute" in another episode. In another episode a group of girls (Blue Birds) call Will "Big ears". In the episode where Geoffery quits, Uncle Phil calls Will a "big-eared free loader"

• Carlton's stature: Will frequently makes jabs at Carlton's slight stature, square head, and virginity. In one episode, Will says "Come see the amazing runt Dwarfski, the world's shortest square-headed Negro". In another episode, Will and Carlton trick Geoffrey into thinking he won the lottery. Humiliated and resentful, Geoffrey quits as the Banks' butler and takes a job as a waiter. At Geoffrey's new restaurant, Will and Carlton pretend to be his sons to get him fired. Will announces to the people eating at the restaurant that Carlton is short because they can't afford more clothes, so he simply refuses to grow. Rather than getting angry, like he usually does, Carlton stays in character and cries "I want to grow!" Earlier in the episode Uncle Phil refers to Carlton as "Will's square headed cousin".

• Carlton's love for Tom Jones: A running gag throughout the series was Carlton's enthusiastic love of singer Tom Jones and a gyrating dance he would perform to Jones' song "It's Not Unusual". (Alfonso Ribeiro has recently admitted that, true to popular belief, his dance was taken from the moves Courteney Cox does in the Bruce Springsteen music video for "Dancing in the Dark.") Eventually, Tom Jones guest-starred as himself as Carlton's guardian angel, showing Carlton what the Banks family would be like if he had never been born, a la It's a Wonderful Life. In the final episode, Will and Carlton sing along together to the song, as the penultimate scene.

• Uncle Phil's fake happiness: Uncle Phil pretends to be happy while allowing Will and Carlton to explain their mess, only to suddenly explode in extreme anger. In one episode when Will and Carlton caused Geoffrey to quit, he ordered them to get him back, "OR THEY'LL NEVER FIND YOUR BODIES. AND I'M A JUDGE, I CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN". Another episode featured Will and Carlton telling Uncle Phil he can reward them with their honesty (something they saw on Leave it to Beaver). After a short laugh, he said "DO I LOOK LIKE A WHITE GUY NAMED WARD".

• Jazz's being thrown out: A favorite gag involves Will or his friend Jazz flying out the front door after saying something offensive to a member of the Banks family (usually Philip) and being physically ejected from the house. The shot of Jazz flying through the front door was only filmed once (for Season 1, Episode 2, "Bang the Drum, Ashley"), when Phil told him to turn up a classical music record, and Jazz scratched it like a DJ. The same footage was re-used each time; He is always wearing the same shirt. In the Season 2 episode "Cased Up", there was a small twist on this gag: when Jazz offends Phillip outside on the Banks' driveway, then boasts, "You can't throw me out because I'm already outside!", Phillip proceeds to pick him up and throw him into the house via the kitchen door. Another twist is in the Halloween episode in a dream of Will's, where Hilary and Jazz fall in love. Philip tries to throw him out, but ends up being thrown out himself. Will was once thrown out of the house in the same manner as Jazz for making changes to Uncle Phil's political campaign tape. In the Season 2 episode "Community Action", Jazz is thrown out the kitchen door,and after he is thrown out,his life-size cardboard stand-in of Bill Cosby is thrown out. Also in the episode involving Geoffrey's birthday, Will gets thrown out of Jazz's club after dancing with Geoffrey's date. In the season 3 premiere "How I Spent My Summer Vacation", Will is thrown out of the back door of Jazz's apartment in Compton.

• The Will and Carlton Dance: In order to win money in a contest, Will and Carlton do a dance to the Sugarhill Gang's "Apache." The dance starts with by thrusting the hips to the front, then to the left, then to the back, and lastly to the side, and then dancing around in a circle while lassoing your arms.

• Uncle Phil's weight: The family, most often Will and Geoffrey, constantly makes quick jokes about Uncle Phil's size and weight. For example, Vivian, while upset at Phillip, says to Geoffrey "Geoffrey, that man is skating on thin ice." Geoffrey quips "I'll alert the fish!" Another is when Philip and Geoffrey are hunting a cricket in the house. Philip says, "Now I know how Ahab felt when he tried to capture Moby Dick". Geoffrey responds "I'm confused, between the two of you, the cricket is the whale?" In "Burnin' Down The House", after Will burns down the kitchen while trying to cook flambé, Geoffrey laughs hysterically and says, "Of all the rooms to burn down in your Uncle's house, the kitchen!" An example of Will's trademark fat jokes involves calling Phil "an eclipse" (as apposed to a shadow), yelling "EARTHQUAAAKE" when Phil dances, and pretending that the act of hugging Phil is a difficult task. Examples of the show itself ridiculing Phil's weight are present in almost every episode in which he is on a diet or exercises, or at other random moments, such as an instance where he sits on a bed under which Will, Carlton, and Hilary are hiding, after which they scream and writhe under the bed until he gets up. Another incidence, is when Will disguises at a restaurant as a waiter, and serves their own family dinner. He recommends Phil to drink Slim Fast. In another episode, Phil explains "I weigh the same as I did in high school" to which Will quickly replies "Yea, if you add up all four years". A final example is when Vivian says "I'm tired of serving that fat, disgusting, cholesterol-ridden mess" (talking about the food). Then Geoffrey, who pretends that he thought she was talking about Phil, responds "say what you will, but he is a good provider" in a shocked tone.

• Cheap cologne and fried chicken: Another running joke is that of Jazz smelling like cheap cologne and fried chicken. In the episode where Will and Carlton go on a tour of the university, Jazz tags along inside the trunk. After he jumps out, Will and Carlton mention how the trunk smells like "cheap cologne and fried chicken". In another episode, Will and Jazz are watching TV, and hear Uncle Phil coming downstairs. Will tells Jazz to get out of sight, and while Jazz in hiding, Uncle Phil detects the smell of "cheap cologne and fried chicken".

• Carlton being black: Will jokes about Carlton being less "black" than Will and Jazz. One example is when Will joins a poetry club and says to Carlton: "Roses are red / Violets are blue / Jazz and I are black / but Carlton, what are you?" Another example is when Carlton comes into the kitchen after a workout and begins to show off his muscles and Will calls him "Arnold Sportsanegro". For the most part it is played for comedy, but in one or two episodes the racial issues are addressed more seriously.

• Annoying civil service worker: An occasional gag is the appearance of a character played by Darryl Sivad in several different situations acting as a civil service worker of some sort. He is shown to be fairly incompetent at his job, and is tactless, lacking deference when speaking to other distressed characters, seeming as if he doesn't even care about the situation and only making those worried even more frustrated. He appeared in "Burnin' Down The House" as a fireman, calling Will stupid for trying to cook flambe because he is a black person. He appeared in "Home Is Where The Heart Attack Is" as part of an EMT, telling Will, "If I tell you he's gonna be all right and he croaks, you gonna be mad, right?". He also made an appearance in "The Harder They Fall" as a park ranger. In that episode, Will's girlfriend tells him that her father and boyfriend are lost out in the wilderness, to which he replies, "So you're gonna be twice as upset if they're dead, right?". He appeared as a member of the L.A. "Crisis Intervention Unit" in the episode "Not, I Barbecue" when Will and Carlton were trapped in two girls' apartment by their huge boyfriend, and while trying to escape through a window several feet above the ground, attempted to come to their rescue. Thinking that they wanted to commit suicide, he awkwardly read off a card that they "have everything to live for," and then nonsensically says "Now hand me the baby!" In the same episode, Will remarks on how easy those civil service exams must be.

Trivia

• Sherman Hemsley played two different characters. Appearing multiple times as Judge Robertson, Philip's mentor and political opponent who died of a heart attack shortly after beating Philip in a landslide, and another reprising his old The Jeffersons character George Jefferson with Isabel Sanford and Marla Gibbs also reprising their old roles (Louise Jefferson a.k.a. "Weezy" and maid Florence, respectively) from the same show. It was the Jeffersons who bought the Banks mansion in the series finale.

• When Will and Carlton perform at a strip club the song playing is Billie Jean.

• Richard Roundtree had an appearance on an early season 1 episode as a doctor and father of a girl who Will liked but had to impress him. Richard Roundtree is the actor who played Shaft in Will's favorite movie (which he had brought up many times in the series as his all time favorite movie).

Issues addressed

While largely a comedy, this show commonly addressed African-American issues and various topics all people could relate to.

• In the first episode, for instance, Will accused his uncle of having forgotten "where he came from", or having forgotten that he came from the streets. His uncle was furious, and pointed out Will's frequently-mentioned belief in the philosophy of Malcolm X. "I heard the brother speak", Philip angrily informed his nephew.

• In the episode, "Mistaken Identity," where the Banks head to Palm Springs along with Henry Furth, Philip's legal partner, Carlton and Will were pulled over in Mr. Furth's lent car, a Mercedes, because the police suspected them of car theft. Carlton futilely says that he lives in Bel-Air, has a butler, a 3.95 GPA in Bel-Air Academy, and other acclaimed "credentials" that are not seen in the African-American stereotype. They are later detained, and Will's clever plan of a bogus confession via a T.V. news bulletin brought Philip and Vivian to the biased police station to explain everything Carlton said earlier, with Philip blasting the cops with the threat of a lawsuit. This addresses the issue of "driving while black," i.e., that African-Americans are often pulled over by the police not for any real offense, but because the police think they committed a crime, such as having stolen an expensive car, because the police could not believe that a black person would be able to afford such a car, and thus must have stolen it.

• In a later episode, Will and one of his old school friends, Ice Tray, reminisce about how Ice Tray frequently had to save Will from bullies who attacked him because he tried to be a good student. When Vivian confronts Will about Ice Tray's lack of drive in himself and challenges the assumption by Will that he and Ice Tray are alike, Will mentions that Ice Tray never had anyone to stick up for him, and by having Will's back kept him from spiraling down the wrong path.

• In another episode, Will and Carlton try to join a fraternity, but Carlton is singled out for being a "sell-out", because his family is wealthy and "acts" stuck-up, which enrages Will causing him to attempt to hide this from Carlton. When he finds out, Carlton then makes a speech about how he's jumping the same hurdles and facing the same struggles as those who accused him of being a sell-out, and that those who refuse to consider others due to their different standing are the real sell-outs. Upon hearing the situation, Phil laments about how black people continue to separate themselves in such a way, and asks "when are we going to stop doing this to each other?

• The issue of alcohol abuse is explored as well. While at a party, Will and a rival drink shots to see who can drink the most. When Will passes out from drinking so much, some bullies drop him off at a graveyard and Will meets the other dead spirits who are stuck playing an eternal game of poker. While the poker sequence is shown humorously, the mood gets somber when a ghost child tells Will that he wanted to be a shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers but no longer can because a car, being driven by a drunk driver, hit him and he was killed. Upon hearing this, Will remembers the car keys he still has with him, and he looks at them sadly.

• The issue of absent fathers was touched upon when Will finally meets his father Lou in one of the series' more emotional episodes. When Will was four years old, his jobless father had one day walked out to "get a pack of smokes" and just never came home. Years later he returned now employed as a trucker but by then Will was going to college. Vivian and Philip gave him the cold shoulder for abandoning Will and his mother, Philip going so far as to say to him accusingly, "How dare you set foot in my house." Will tried to remain conciliatory towards his father since this was his chance of meeting him, but the episode concluded with Will having to confront his grief when his father abandons him a second time. Lou left Will once more and ended off saying "Good-bye son." In which Will answered "Good-bye Lou." instead of saying "Good-bye Dad," stating that he doesn't consider Lou his father. Symbolically, Will accepts the fact that his Uncle Philip is the closest thing to a dad that he has ever had.

• Drug use is addressed in an episode where Will, busy with finals, basketball, and his girlfriend, is having trouble staying awake. When one of Will's classmates gives him some amphetamines to help him stay up, Carlton takes the pills, which he presumes to be vitamin E pills, and had to be taken to the hospital following a near-fatal overdose. In a final emotional scene, Will, upon being offered Clippers basketball tickets, confessed to Philip that the drugs were his and not Carlton's. An angry Philip called the whole family into the living room, insisting that Will owed them all an apology. Will explained, eventually breaking down into tears, with a now sympathetic Philip consoling him.

• In an episode where Will is shot in the back during a robbery attempt at a bank ATM and then hospitalized, Carlton found himself pondering the idea of carrying a gun for self-defense. Later that episode, Carlton appears at Will's hospital bed and shows him a pistol tucked in his jacket. An emotional moment occurs when Will orders Carlton to hand over the gun, and he does. After Carlton leaves, Will opens up the gun and discovers that it was fully loaded. He lets the bullets fall onto his lap and starts to cry.

• The issue of teenage pregnancy was brought up in one episode in which Ashley was curious about it. Will and Carlton, determined to find a way to talk to Ashley about it, go down to the local clinic and find out about the issues.

• The issue of black people being stereotyped as rappers and gang members is addressed in the episode when Will appeared on the news trying to save the Los Angeles recreation center, and the only black person they put on the newscast is a rapper; Will goes to the news station to complain.