Hit drama Bel-Air is taking its serious reboot of Will Smith’s 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air into a fourth and final season with both critics and audiences still lapping it up. While the remake's follow-up seasons, in particular, move the story of Will and his Uncle Phil’s family in different directions, without the depth of its source material, these innovative plotlines just wouldn’t work, nor would they without original creator and filmmaker Morgan Cooper.

When interviewed Morgan Cooper, he told us that it was ultimately the “iconic characters” of Fresh Prince that inspired him to develop the drama series via his initial short fan-fiction movie:"It's the iconic characters, man. That family and the moments that they were able to bring to the small screen so many years ago is so inspiring, and all of the conversations that they had that were underneath the humor, you know what I mean? They were able to have really difficult dramatic conversations and explore those types of themes..." It's those dramatic conversations of Bel-Air that offer a fresh, retrospective appreciation of the original.

Bel-Air’s Serious Tone Makes You Appreciate How Great Fresh Prince Was

It Laid The Foundations For A Drama Series With Longer Episodes

Although characters like the wisecracking Will, his preposterously pompous cousin Carlton, and shopaholic Hillary are a recipe for comedy gold, they gave Fresh Prince its own share of serious moments too. The hardest-hitting of these Fresh Prince moments have been adapted and drawn out into broader narrative arcs for Bel-Air.

By expanding these Fresh Prince storylines into something bigger and heavier, Bel-Air reminds us that its progenitor was more than a comedy.

For example, The Fresh Prince episode in which Will’s father Lou turns up at the Banks' house unexpectedly to visit his son, only to abandon him again, becomes the extended finale to Bel-Air’s first season. What’s more, Lou is a recurring character in Bel-Air, reappearing in season 3. Meanwhile, a Fresh Prince storyline about Carlton accidentally taking some pills Will had bought from a dealer at school is turned into a multi-episode plot in which Will is framed for cocaine possession in Bel-Air.

By expanding these Fresh Prince storylines into something bigger and heavier, Bel-Air reminds us that its progenitor was more than a comedy. The show famously ended episodes with a serious point to make in silence, minus a punchline of any kind – something almost unheard of among sitcoms at the time. When Will’s father leaves him again in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he cries out, "How come he don't want me, man?" and sobs into Uncle Phil’s shoulder, as the audience providing the show’s laughing track sits in stunned silence and credits roll. The episode "Just Say Yo" ends the same way, once Will has itted he bought the drugs that almost killed Carlton.

Bel-Air Would Not Have Worked If Fresh Prince Wasn’t Already A Deep Show

Will Smith’s Sitcom Featured Personal Tragedy And Social Commentary

It isn’t just in singular moments of heightened dramatic tension that Fresh Prince's serious scenes go beyond the limits of a typical ‘90s sitcom. The premise of the entire show offers multi-layered perspectives on weighty social issues like race and class, as well as on Will’s personal struggle to stay on track in the absence of both his parents.

Lou’s neglect of his son underpins Will’s desire to challenge the show’s main authority figure, Uncle Phil. Carlton, on the other hand, looks up to his father and tries to be the model son. Their class backgrounds are also contrasted, with Will adopting the mannerisms and language of his real-life day job as a rapper, while Carlton dresses and acts as rich as his family. These themes provide Bel-Air with plenty of combustible material – not least for the drama’s very first episode, which addresses Will’s escape from Philly ganglands more directly than the sitcom.

In addition, portrayals of police brutality and racial discrimination are at the heart of profoundly moving scenes in both series, with Bel-Air's differences from the original Fresh Prince being more tonal than fundamental ones; both grappled with the same topics in different ways. In Fresh Prince, Carlton is made to question his belief that the police are “just doing their job” by Will and Uncle Phil following a stop-and-search. In Bel-Air, Will argues with Uncle Phil about whether his arrest was the result of a “broken” judicial system or one “designed” to be racist. In both cases, the audience is compelled to reexamine society in a way few other shows could achieve.