’90s Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was one of my first real crushes: there was something about the way he lit up a room wearing baggy shorts and a ridiculous pattern that somehow looked good, and the way booming voice made everyone, including my parents, genuinely laugh.

The show was iconic for many reasons—incredible comedic writing and acting being two of them—but there were deeper facets of the sitcom that made it memorable and has kept it relevant 30 years later.

In the November reunion episode, the actors gathered in the unforgettable Banks house to reminisce on the magic of the show. Rather than spending time analyzing their favourite episodes, the actors focused more on the bond between them, forged through the unique experience of creating a show that shaped millions of viewers.

It felt unscripted; they have the kind of chemistry you can’t force, nor can you replicate. As I watched the actors sit on that familiar couch and candidly discuss the weight of having a show in the ’90s with nuanced, whole, and wealthy Black characters, I was able to reflect on how important the show really was on a societal level.

Caricatures of Black stories are still somehow making their way on to screens. The Fresh Prince was the opposite of this—it was Black Excellence not just in monetary wealth, but in the ideal of a family bound together with laughter, support, and real unconditional love. Uncle Phil was the father figure we all needed to see, the one we felt truly connected to through our screens. 

Moments of intense emotion were layered throughout the hour-long special and were palpable when the cast reminisced on the memory of James Avery, who played Uncle Phil and passed away in 2013.

The incredibly articulate Tatianna Ali, who played Ashley Banks, shared the emotional bonds built between the cast and Avery, who was a very real father figure behind the scenes to all the actors. Her words only solidified the feeling that the cast was a family, regardless of whether they were filming or not.

However, the most surprising moment was a tearful reconciliation between Smith and Janet Hubert-Whitten, who played the original Aunt Viv, after years of animosity. When Hubert-Whitten left the show, press coverage of the actress being hostile, difficult to work with, and causing unmanageable tension between the cast emerged. Many of these allegations were credited to Smith himself, which he apologized for in the episode.

After leaving The Fresh Prince, I never saw Hubert-Whitten on another show.

The intimate discussion between Smith and Hubert-Whitten, which felt very much like a conversation between Will and Aunt Viv, revealed the actress’ hidden struggles and the colourist reality of the ’90s Hollywood industry.

Hubert-Whitten shed light on the fact that during her last season of the show, she was struggling with a difficult pregnancy and was stuck in an abusive relationship. Her rocky home life mirrored her relationship with NBC, which refused to increase her salary and opted to replace the actress instead.

“Calling a dark skin black woman ‘difficult’ is the kiss of death,” she told Smith.

At the end of the reunion, there was a poignant moment where the two women who played Aunt Viv embraced, catalyzing tears from the rest of the cast.

The special was a touching reflection on how exceptional the show was, even behind the scenes. I was left with the impression of a deep bond of loyalty and family between actors that could never be broken—a bond that honed in on their creation of a cultural movement, a powerful depiction of Black Excellence and family, one that lives on every time we watch the show.