The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)

18 mistakes in season 1 - chronological order

(5 votes)

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

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

Bang the Drum, Ashley - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: When Ashley shows Will her weekly schedule, her hand is towards the middle of the upper roll of the parchment, but in the reverse shot where the calendar can be read, her hand is at the top right corner. (00:03:30)

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

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.

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).

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

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

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mistake picture

Mistaken Identity - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: When the family kisses Will goodbye and when he sits bummed out on the couch, the pool float around his arm switches position, going under his left arm, then under his right, then left again. (00:02:50)

Sammo

Mistaken Identity - S1-E6

Audio problem: When Jerry goes over to open the jail cell door, the sound effect of jingling keys can be heard, however the actor isn't holding any keys. The jail cell door doesn't even have a keyhole.

EyeCatcher

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

Suggested correction: When the Sergeant tells Jerry to open the cell (00:18:20), Jerry reaches to his left side to retrieve keys from his duty belt (there is no "sound effect of jingling keys"). And keys were visible dangling from Jerry's duty belt when he told Philip to calm his wife (00:17:10). Secondly, the jail cell door does indeed have an old-style keyhole (00:18:30).

Super Grover

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

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.

Bang the Drum, Ashley - S1-E2

Vivian: Philip, when I met you, you were into James Brown.
Will: He liked James Brown?
Vivian: Even wore his hair like him.
Will: He had hair?

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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.

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