The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mistake picture

Bang the Drum, Ashley - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: When Phil is telling Geoffrey about his day at work he takes an aspirin and drinks the water. The glass of water is almost gone. But if you look closely a couple of shots later the glass is full of water again.

72 Hours - S1-E23

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Will tells Vivian and Phil that Carlton is in Compton, Vivian takes off her earring from her right ear. A few shots of Will pass and when she goes to take off her other earring, the left ear doesn't have one, and the earring is on the right ear again.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mistake picture

Fresh Prince After Dark - S4-E9

Visible crew/equipment: In the episode where Hilary poses for Playboy, Hilary's strap-on mic is visible on the back of her red dress when she, Will, and Carlton first enter the Playboy party. It is gone in subsequent scenes.

Bang the Drum, Ashley - S1-E2

Plot hole: Ashley says she is 9; later in that season, in "Just Infatuation," Phil says she is almost 12. Will is 17 for the first two seasons, and 18 in season three. Nicky Banks grows from baby to preschooler between seasons four and five (though this was humorously addressed).

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It's not uncommon for TV shows to do this, especially with kids. In this exact show they had a baby Nicky who the following season suddenly was like 5 or 6 years old. Other shows like Family Ties and Growing Pains did the same thing. Shows are not always shown in real time when it comes to episodes. They can each take place days, weeks, months or years from previous episodes.

This isn't a valid correction. Just because shows do it or it's common doesn't invalidate the mistake. And while shows don't always have to be shown "in real time", all the other characters would have to make the same jump in age, otherwise it's a mistake.

Bishop73

As Bishop73 said, it's a legitimate mistake because the other characters did not age by four years. There was no time jump. Changing her age does not make sense within the "world" of the show.

Azalea

Mommy Nearest - S3-E13

Other mistake: When Will confronts his mother about not wanting to move back to Philadelphia, she mentions she can't afford to send him to an out of state school. However, in season 2 it's already been established that Uncle Phil is Will's legal guardian, and he's a resident of California. Will's mother has it backwards. Going to school in Pennsylvania would be an out of state school and staying in California would be in state.

Def Poet's Society - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: A member of the poetry club responds to Will's "You're a poet and you don't know it!" with a sassy "I -AM - a poet and I -DO - know it" in a close-up. In said close-up, she is holding her hand on a book, while in the shots before and after, her arm is in a different position. (00:06:30)

Sammo

Not With My Pig, You Don't - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: During the award dinner, when Hattie says the line about "Zeke sprung from the ground like a big ol eggplant," watch the table in the back, next to the door. The man sitting there wipes his mouth raising a napkin 3 times in 3 separate shots. (00:19:00)

Sammo

Bang the Drum, Ashley - S1-E2

Character mistake: When Geoffrey serves tea after his sassy cough at Vivian's sentence about High Tea not being a sacred institution, the actor messes up when it's time to actually serve tea, with a napkin getting caught in the teacup saucer. Granted, accidents do happen, but it's quite uncharacteristic for the perfect butler Geoffrey is portrayed to be, and simply a flub by Joseph Marcell. (00:17:45)

Sammo

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mistake picture

The Fresh Prince Project - S1-E1

Revealing mistake: When Will screams in front of the mirror, imagining himself turned into Carlton, something went wrong making the composite shot and not only you can actually see the line of separation between the two frames, but the superimposed one exposes a bit of the mirror woodframe before it wiggles into the correct position and covers it up. (00:11:30)

Sammo

The Fresh Prince Project - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Will puts the last of his wall-shaking staples on the Malcolm X poster before the butler's interruption, the poster is almost perfectly flat. When Geoffrey walks to the poster, a bottom corner is noticeably raised. When Carlton walks to it, it's flat again, and raised when Will freaks out at the mirror. (00:07:40 - 00:10:00)

Sammo

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mistake picture

Clubba Hubba - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: As Carlton and Will battle out with their "I bet he won't", "I bet he will", Will is holding his drink with his left hand. When he breaks the fourth wall with a joke in a new shot, the glass switches hands. (00:05:00)

Sammo

Mistaken Identity - S1-E6

Will Smith: Yo, Carlton.
Carlton Banks: Yeah?
Will Smith: Those cops were just doing their jobs?
Carlton Banks: Will, don't get all bent out of shape.
Will Smith: Man, you ain't learn nothing this weekend, did you?
Carlton Banks: I most certainly did. Always bring a map.
Will Smith: What?
Carlton Banks: If we would have had a map, we wouldn't have had to drive two miles an hour trying to find a freeway entrance and we wouldn't have been stopped.
Will Smith: Oh, OK, OK. I get it now. We were stopped because we were driving too slow. Yeah, we were breaking the slowness limit. Oh, OK, well you see, I've never heard of that law before, but I did hear this other law. It's called the "if you see a black guy driving anything but a burnt-out Pinto, you better stop him because he stole it" law. Yeah, I've heard that one. Oh, but see, I thought it was the black guy law when in actuality, it was the slowness limit law. Oh, thank you for sharing that with me, Carlton. Good night.

More quotes from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
More trivia for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know why Janet Hubert-Witten was replaced? I've heard rumours that she didn't get along with the rest of the cast, is this true?

Answer: Yes. It's very true. Janet quit at the end of the third season because she claims that Will acted horribly, bullied cast and crew on the set and got her fired for no reason. Alfonso Ribeiro however has called her "cuckoo" and stated that her claims were baseless. He also stated that she was very difficult to work with on set. Even James Avery agreed and often had to remind her that the show was called "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and not "Philip and Vivian of Bel-Air."

Answer: To avoid the confusion, I mentioned "Good Times" only in response to a former submission on here that she was on Good Times at one point (that submission was deleted shortly afterwards, but my Good Times response somehow stayed on here causing the confusion.

Answer: She was never on Good Times. She didn't start acting until the early 80s. Good Times ended in 1979.

This question isn't about Janet being on Good Times. It's about her being replaced.

To avoid the confusion, I mentioned about "Good Times" only in response to a former submission on here that she was on Good Times at one point (that submission was deleted shortly afterwards, but my Good Times response somehow stayed on here causing the confusion).

Answer: She became pregnant in real life, which would have messed up the story line. They would have had to add a fifth kid.

They did add a fifth kid.

More questions & answers from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.