The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

CTL-E-5444 · Work · other · 1990–1996

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, created by Andy Borowitz and Susan Borowitz, aired on NBC from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996 — six seasons, 148 episodes that carried Will Smith from rap stardom into the center of American television. The premise inverted the era's migration story: a teenager from West Philadelphia is sent to live with wealthy relatives in Bel-Air, and the comedy runs on the friction between the two Black Americas the household contains. Smith and James Avery, as Uncle Phil, are the only actors to appear in every episode, and the series' dramatic episodes — Avery's gravitas against Smith's improvisation — are the ones that entered the canon. It won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993 and is widely ranked among the greatest sitcoms of its era; its afterlife has been as durable as its run, with a cast reunion special in 2020 and a dramatic reimagining, Bel-Air, premiering on Peacock in 2022. The graph's television shelf takes the series as the hinge between the Cosby decade and the Fox decade: the moment the Black sitcom's center of gravity moved to a younger generation's voice.

The record

• Also known as: The Fresh Prince

Notes

Statistics: NBC, 1990–1996; 148 episodes (Wikipedia). Will Smith holds a graph record (CTL-E-1837) but no edge is staged: the schema offers no performer edge for Works, and authored_by belongs to creators, not stars. Filed as Work/other: schema v0.2.6 carries no television subtype, and none was invented inside this merge (schema changes are a separate, reviewed step). · Curator's Judgment: DRAFT — for founder review: A sitcom about class inside Black America, disguised as a fish-out-of-water comedy. Its record belongs beside the decade it closed: the theme song alone is a primary source for how the nineties introduced themselves. · Photo slot: HELD — poster/key art and production stills for this title are copyrighted studio material and were NOT pulled (per CTL-PHOTO-001 and the wave brief: never force non-free key art); no cleared Commons image was verified for this title in this run. Slot honestly HELD pending a cleared visual.

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' — supports: creators, NBC run (September 10, 1990 – May 20, 1996), 6 seasons / 148 episodes, the Smith/Avery every-episode distinction, the reunion and Bel-Air reimagining — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fresh_Prince_of_Bel-Air
• Wikipedia, 'Susan Borowitz' — supports: the 1993 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Comedy Series — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Borowitz

Record CTL-E-5444 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 2 sources · CTL research: MEDIA-001.
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