Starring: Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro, Karyn Parsons, Tatyana Ali, Daphne Maxwell Reid, James Avery, Joseph Marcell, Nia Long
Written By: Andrea Allen-Wiley, Andy Borowitz, Benny Medina, Casey Maxwell, Dan Cross
Directed By: Chuck Vinson, Maynard C. Virgil I, Shelley Jensen
Studio: Warner Bros
Buy On Amazon.com

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a comedy I’ve loved from the beginning. It was different at the time and just featured a hilarious cast. The 5th season is just as good as the previous seasons and its available on DVD from Warner Brothers!

The 5th season of Fresh Prince left off where the last season ended. Will is back in Philly, but that quickly changes as producers of NBC throw his butt back in the van and head back to Bel-Air to fulfill his contract. A funny & clever way of switching gears. The beginning of the season sees Will trying to manage Ashley’s singing career, but things don’t turn out the way they planned like usual. Other early episodes in the season include Will beating up Nicky’s role model, Will and the rest of the family appear on Soul Train, and Ashley secretly starts to attend public school. One re-occurring story arc this season was Will meeting Lisa (Nia Long), and almost marrying her. I liked Nia Long’s character and wish they pursued it further besides just this season. Other notable episodes in this season include: Will taking a photo of Jay Leno pouring oil in a drain (see, he was a tool back then too!), Will is forced to wear a fat suit to see how Uncle Phil feels, Carlton and Will get robbed at a bank and one of them gets shot, Will gets in a fight with Sherman Hemsley at couples counciling, and Will gets hypnotized and thinks he’s a 4 year old.

I catch Fresh Prince here and there in syndication (on Nick at Nite) but I don’t usually watch it too much. I’m usually sleeping by the time it’s on. I should probably start again because I loved this season. So many funny episodes! At the time, this show was original and you didn’t really see this type of humor and style on TV. Now it’s all over the place. This series was a great stepping stone for Will Smith, because it showed he had the acting chops, plus he was just downright hilarious. I especially liked how Will acted when he finally had a steady girlfriend for awhile. The episode where he wears a fat suit was hysterical, on top of the fat suit he gets jealous of Lisa hanging out with another guy. Typical Will Smith delivery and facial expressions ensue.

I thought the one episode “Bullet Over Bel-Air” should have been left out of the season. Will gets shot from the robber as he’s trying to protect Carlton. It’s got a good meaning but come on, if I wanted to watch stuff like this I’d put on an after school special! Or Full House, which had some crap like that on it every episode. There always seems to be episodes like that in each season. One year it was Will taking speed and then Carlton mistakenly taking them. Saved By The Bell was another TV series that’s guilty of these type of episodes. They mean well but in the end, I want something funny dammit!

All in all, this season has a lot of funny episodes. I remember most of these when they originally aired and always liked the addition of Nia Long. It filled the gap of Tyra Banks leaving the show, and I’m not talking about the annoying and crazy as she is now Tyra Banks. Plus she was just smoking hot back then too. Anyway, if you enjoy the show and want the episodes uninterrupted, then get the DVD!

Features:
None

Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo [CC]

Subtitles:
English, French

Bottom Line: After all these years, The Fresh Prince still holds up as a funny sitcom.
Running Time: 575 mins
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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