‘Bel-Air,’ created by Will Smith and Morgan Cooper, is a drama series about Will Smith (Jabari Banks), a West Philly native who is forced to migrate to Los Angeles’ Bel Air neighborhood after being jailed with a gun and threatened by a notorious drug dealer. His maternal aunt and her family live in Bel Air. Will is initially taken aback by how drastically life in Bel Air differs from his own. He tries to fit in while maintaining his innate identity.
‘Bel-Air’ has a ‘All American’ vibe to it, but it isn’t strictly a sports drama like that program. Will’s relationship with his aunt, uncles, and cousins is more significant than basketball in his life. We’ve got you covered if its gritty and grounded tale has you wondering if it’s based on a true story.
Is Bel-Air a True Story?
‘Bel Air’ is, in fact, based on a true story. That story, however, has been substantially embellished and dramatized. It’s a remake of the wildly popular 1990s sitcom ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ which aired on NBC from 1990 to 1996 and is today regarded as a pop cultural phenomenon and one of America’s most important entries in the history of black entertainment. For quite some time, rumors of a possible reboot had been circulating. Will Smith, the original series’ lead, has said for a long time that a reboot would only happen when “hell freezes over.”
After seeing Cooper’s 2019 fan-made teaser for an edgy and exaggerated version of the show on YouTube, he changed his mind. The show is simply dubbed “Bel-Air” in Cooper’s short, which the producers decided to call the reboot. The original show and the reboot have a lot of changes. For example, Will is a top-tier student-athlete in ‘Bel-Air,’ yet the lead in ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ although being as intelligent as his cousin Carlton, is academically sluggish. In the reboot, Uncle Phil is younger and suaver, Hilary is an influencer, and Carlton is a top-tier student-athlete.
The concerns of racism and class that the redesigned version chooses to explore are appropriate for a 2020s America. The original show was based on the life of Benny Medina, a record executive and talent manager. He and his associate Jeff Pollack worked on it together. There were significant differences between what happened to Medina in real life and what was presented on film even in the 1990s. Medina was up in the underprivileged East Los Angeles neighborhood before moving to Beverly Hills to live with an affluent white friend’s family.
There have been various TV shows with the premise of black characters moving in with white families over the years. Medina and his associates wanted to try something new, so they switched the hosting family from a wealthy white to an affluent black family. Medina noted in a 1991 interview with Ebony magazine that this allowed them to “examine black-on-black racism as well as black class inequalities.”
When Will Smith, better known by his stage moniker The Fresh Prince, joined the show, it became a dramatized portrayal of his life. Will’s cousins were inspired by Quincy Jones’ daughters, who were one of the show’s executive producers. Meanwhile, Carlton is named after Carlton Cuse, a filmmaker and personal friend of Andy Borowitz, the show’s co-creator.
During a video chat in mid-2021, Smith informed newcomer Banks that he had been cast as Will in ‘Bel Air.’ “You got a tremendous path ahead of you,” he said, adding, “and I am looking forward to being an asset for you in this process as you build out your life and build out your career.” ‘Bel Air’ has clearly been based on a factual story that has been heavily fictionalized.
