Sept. 10, 1990
Many strive to move from music or comedy into television, and many fail. Will Smith — whose “Willennium” album comes out Tuesday — is one who made it, parlaying a popular rap record (“He’s the D.J. I’m the Rapper”) into a starring role in a surprisingly sophisticated sitcom. Rick Kogan reviewed “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” in its first year:
In the same way that the Fonz transformed and diluted motorcycle-jacketed menace into middle-American mirth, so does the star of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” manage to take the sass and strut out of rap music and deliver it to America’s doorstep as neatly packaged as the morning paper.
But this is no “Happy Days” for the ’90s. Rather, for all of its frolic and delight, its social observations and conflict make it the television progeny of such substantive sitcoms as “All in the Family.”
A rap star with no previous acting experience, Will Smith proves a natural in the title role. He’s lanky and loose-limbed, with a putty-face as marvelously malleable as that of the young Dick Van Dyke.
His character is a street-wise kid from Philadelphia’s mean streets. His parents decide that before he finds trouble, or trouble finds him, he should go live with wealthy relatives in the ritzy L.A. enclave of the title.
This fish-out-of-water theme is as old as television, and at first I couldn’t help thinking that the show’s creative team — which includes Quincy Jones — had exercised its imaginations little more than asking, “What if we made Jed Clampett a rapper?”
In fact, the premiere episode flies boldly in the face of “The Beverly Hillbillies” — and in the face of such earlier inner-city-kids-give-their-well-heeled-guardians-headaches romps as “Webster” and “Diff’rent Strokes.”
The show, with admirable courage, is an exploration of black class distinctions, as well as of the clash between older blacks and today’s generation.
There are sure to be those alarmed by what they consider an unfair representation of the black upper class. But to think this way is to exhibit a form of rarefied racism. It is every person’s right, no mater what color, to be pretentious or materialistic or any other damn thing he pleases.