Everything goes awry, though, when his stubborn pride leads him to challenge a local drug dealer to a pickup game that ends with our hero pinned to the asphalt by local cops and thrown in jail on a gun possession charge. This new Will (newcomer Jabari Banks) wanders actual Philadelphia streets, uses the utilitarian Philly slang word “jawn” in every third sentence or so, has a great relationship with his mother April (Viola “Vy” Smith), and is a top student on the verge of getting a basketball scholarship offer from a good out-of-state school. After a dream sequence meant to evoke the imagery of Will Smith on a throne from the sitcom’s opening credits, Team Bel-Air quickly moves to ground their story in a grittier reality. But once you take away the nostalgic link to a beloved series from decades past, the end result is just a decent approximation of a CW drama like All-American, which has a very similar culture-clash premise.Ĭooper directs the premiere episode, and co-writes it with Bel-Air showrunners TJ Brady and Rasheed Newson, plus Falcon and the Winter Soldier lead writer Malcolm Spellman. The reality of Bel-Air has its moments, especially whenever it stops trying to draw attention to the story’s sitcom roots. The thing about trailers, though, is that it’s easy to make an idea look exciting as a highlight reel, and far harder to make the thing that it’s promising be good. It’s not surprising that the video blew up so quickly, nor that Smith himself eventually got attached to this new version as one of many credited producers. This is famously how Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s video Christmas card for a Hollywood executive became South Park, and now it’s how Morgan Cooper’s fake trailer for a dramatic reimagining of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Airhas become an actual series, debuting this weekend on Peacock.Ĭooper (no relation to Sarah) crafted his trailer based on a terribly clever hook, observing that the premise of Will Smith’s Nineties hit - a West Philly teen has to move in with his wealthy aunt and uncle to escape some trouble back in his old neighborhood - was arguably better fodder for a drama than a multicam sitcom. It’s far rarer, though, for the viral video to simply be adapted into a real product for a legacy media company. From time to time, a video will go so viral that it helps its creator get a job in the TV or movie business, like when Sarah Cooper’s Trump impressions on social media landed her a Netflix comedy special.
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