Recently, a few members of the cast of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunited at Nobu restaurant in Malibu. Despite the fact that they come together more often than people think (and often document it), it didn’t stop folks from being excited to see the gang all back together, with the exception of James Avery. […]
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Source: NBC / Getty
Daphne Maxwell Reid, better known as the second Aunt Viv or light-skinned Aunt Viv, caught a lot of flack for taking over the role of Janet Hubert when she unceremoniously left “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in 1993. She was different. She wasn’t what we were used to—and to be honest the character of Aunt Viv went from a professional, yet around-the-way career woman to a stay-at-home mother.
We saw a lot less of Aunt Viv when Daphne Reid took over as a character.
One can argue that the change in writing didn’t reflect Reid’s full abilities.
In real life, Reid is a bit more like the original Aunt Viv character. In discussing the show, during its thirtieth anniversary, Reid spoke about the time then-businessman and public figure Donald Trump appeared as a guest on the show.
And unlike many of us in the nineties, Reid had already peeped—or heard about the flaws in his character.
In an interview with the podcast, You Might Know Her From, Reid spoke about about the moment and why she refused to shake Trump’s hand—even when she was in character.
Anne: He who shall not be named had a guest spot on season 4. He and Marla were going to buy the Banks house. And upon watching this episode, I noticed that Phil shook his hand but Viv did not can you please explain that choice?
Daphne: I didn’t like him. I had news from New York. I knew who he was.
Anne: It was so wonderful. I was like, ‘Is she going to?’ Oh, she’s not going to [shake his hand.] And when he leaves, you’re like ready to kick his a$$. It was so good.
Daphne: Yah. And it was so true.
You can listen to Reid’s full interview, in the video below. The portion about Donald Trump begins around the 38 min mark.
Source: Red Table Talk, Facebook Watch / Red Table Talk / Facebook Watch
You’ll be hard-pressed to find people in Hollywood who don’t like Will Smith—or would say so publicly. But for years, Janet Hubert has made it crystal clear that she up until this year, she was not a fan. And apparently, Hubert’s disapproval took a bit of a toll on Smith as well.
In order to address those issues, Will is taking over his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith’s platform of the Red Table Talk to discuss what led to the disconnect between himself and Hubert and what forces in his life made their beef last for so long.
In an episode about resolving conflict, Smith speaks with clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a Red Table regular and who also was there when Hubert and Smith met for the Fresh Prince reunion.
Check out the highlights from the conversation below.
“I brought myself to the Red Table to talk about something that has really troubled me for nearly 30 years…This year was the 30th anniversary of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I had a feud, a war of words that I’ve been in with someone that I never thought would get resolved. I really couldn’t see myself celebrating without dealing with this.”
In the RTT episode, there were clips from Will’s conversation with Hubert that didn’t make it in the reunion special.
Hubert said, “As the oldest woman on that set, there was a respect level that I needed to have as an older woman and a Black woman. I had been banished and they said it was you who banished me because I didn’t laugh at your jokes. Then they ordered me to stay in my room.
Did you know they offered me 10 weeks of work and said you can’t work anywhere else? How do survive with a mortgage and a new baby and a new business and a husband who wasn’t working at the time. So much of what you said just destroyed everywhere I went. Everybody just beat me up. We lost our house. I lost everything.”
Smith said he wasn’t aware of the specific offer but he knew she’d declined it.
Hubert said her leaving the show and the perception that she was on the outs with Will Smith wreaked havoc on her personal and professional life.
“Angry Black woman that’s all I got…Family disowned me. The Black community disowned me. They kept wanting to bring it up. What about Will Smith? It just never goes away. Black people beat my ass. They beat my son’s ass. Somebody smashed a cookie in my son’s face and said, ‘Your mother is a b*tch.’ People send me hateful Instagrams, ‘Aren’t you dead yet? I love Will why don’t you just die?’
You’re the big star. I’m just the little Black b*tch.”
After that, the two of them took a break to walk off set, with both of them with tears in their eyes.
Back during his conversation with Dr. Ramani, she asks Will how he felt rewatching that conversation.
He said, “My father was violent in my house. So a part of the whole creation of Will Smith, the joking, fun, silly was to make sure my father was entertained enough to make sure my father wouldn’t hurt my mother or anyone else in the house. So that plucks a childhood space of inadequacy. I would perform and dance and tell jokes. People laughing and having fun my mechanism.”
Then about Hubert specifically.
“Janet was Julliard trained. She can dance, she sing, she can act. She’s brilliant. And she was in the parental figure. So my little boy desperately needed her approval.”
Dr. Ramani revealed that all of Smith’s wounds were being triggered on that set and Will realized on television, he fell back into his real life family dynamic.
Will also shared that he felt hurt by Janet during the run of “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
“I felt threatened. At that point in my career, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” really saved my life. I had a few years in the music business but I had lost all my money. I didn’t pay taxes. I was in debt to the IRS ($2.8 million to be exact.) I had just flopped an album and “The Fresh Prince” represented life. So on the little boy level with Janet, I needed ‘mommy to think I was great.’ And once I realized that she didn’t my dragon woke up.”
Back in the conversation with Janet, Will said, “I was 21-years-old and as asleep and unconscious as a human being could be. Everything was a threat to me. I had a dream and I was scared little boy. I was so driven by fear and jokes and comedy. In my 21-year-old eyes, I felt like you hated me.”
Janet said, “I just hated what you did. You took my career away of 30-something years. You just went too far when you were younger and you always had to win.”
Will said, “I didn’t realize the power of my words. I didn’t realize it would affect you. I went way too far and said things to people who wouldn’t know how to hold that information. Then once you put it in the machine grabs that information and puts their own spin on it. It was all way too far on my end.”
Back on the Red Table, Will said there was no one on earth who felt as hurt by his actions as Hubert was.
You can watch the full Red Table Talk episode, including more of his conversation with Janet Hubert, in the video below.
Source: NBC / Getty
If you watched “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” reunion, you know that the highlight of the entire show was Will Smith and Janet Hubert finally coming to a resolution after 27 years of not speaking and being at odds with one another.
After the reunion, Will sat down with a therapist on “Red Table Talk,” to continue the conversation where he shared even more insight about his relationship with Hubert, how it mirrored his own dysfunctional family dynamic and the role he played in making her life and career so challenging over the past nearly three decades.
During the Red Table takeover, Smith also showed additional scenes from his conversation with Hubert and it really shed more light on everything that happened. (Because the internet wasn’t sure that Will had done enough, said enough or been apologetic enough during their initial meeting.)
Hubert recently sat down for an interview with KTLA, her first on-screen conversation since the reunion to discuss her feelings toward the Red Table Talk episode, getting to healing and more.
See what she had to say below.
Her reaction to the Red Table Talk
I came home and started to get a little bit nervous about the whole Red Table takeover. And when I saw it, and when I saw what Will did, I was absolutely so moved that I couldn’t watch it. I ended up turning it off and running away from the computer because generally I don’t show that kind of vulnerability. But to see him say what he said about his own pain, what he was going through and what I was going through. We were going through the same thing at different times. I was compelled to finally step back in front of the camera to do an interview. It’s time. It was time.
Accepting Will’s apology
Absolutely. Because all I ever wanted back was my reputation. That’s all I’ve been asking for for 27 years. I didn’t find out about the reunion until the day before I was to fly out and go to the reunion. They had been trying to get in touch with me, to no avail. So when I found out and asked whose idea it was, they said it was Will’s, I had to go. Because I wanted this to be over, desperately wanted this to be over.
Do you feel lighter?
It’s starting to. You can’t give me back 27 years of what was taken away because understand, the time when my son was a baby was taken away from me. All of my thirities, all of my forties, half of my sixties was taken away from me with being labeled a difficult b*tch. It’s hard to let go. But it’s starting. With the outpouring of love and support from people—my own projects, making my own way because there was no one to save me. There was Oprah, no Iyanla, no Dr. Phil. Only Will could do this. It was always he and I. And when I did hug him, I hugged him and he hugged me back for real because we both needed it so desperately from each other. I’m not used to showing that kind of vulnerability unless I’m acting because people have been so cruel. It feels good, it’s starting to feel good.
You can watch Hubert’s full interview with KTLA in the video below.
Source: NBC / Getty
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” reunion did way more than provide us all with a sense of nostalgia. In addition the healing it represented for both Janet Hubert and Will Smith, it also raised awareness for the ways in which darker skinned Black women are often disregarded, ignored and disrespected in the Hollywood space.
In case you missed the conversation between Hubert and Smith, she told him that his words—calling her, a dark skinned Black woman, difficult in Hollywood was the kiss of death. And it negatively impacted the trajectory of her career from that point forward.
Since then, Hubert has said she’s received so much support from fans of the show. Her former cast members have even identified with her in a new way.
Recently, during an interview with SiriusXM’s The Clay Cane Show, Tatyana Ali, who played Ashley Banks, on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” spoke about her own experiences with colorism and how Hubert served as a role model to her on the show.
Ali said, “My journey has been interesting. There’s been colorism, but colorism, it’s funny. You assume that colorism only comes from the white community and that it’s sort of put upon us, but there’s also colorism within the Black community. And so I’ve experienced that…I don’t even know if it’s colorism, or if it’s ‘are you Black enough?’ That kind of stuff. In life and in work for sure, ‘will you just make it a little blacker’? Or this is recent, where a character description said she’s “unapologetically Black” and I’m like, that’s an interesting thing to put in a description. I know what that means when I’m talking with friends or, but how as an actor, what cues are you trying to give me? What does that mean about this character who happened to be like a corporate person? What does that look like to you? What does that sound like? What is that? So, I’ve dealt with those things and my personal beliefs about how I would like to represent, sometimes they don’t match. I’ve come across that.
I heard when Janet said that, I know that other people have said that about her. I’ve seen that in social media, but I didn’t know that she felt that way. When we were working on the show together, I mean, we always talked about how beautiful she was… I hope that she knows it for me as a young girl, I saw her with a spotlight on her, and that’s how I thought she was being represented on the show. She was in terms of beauty and Black beauty and as a young Black child, I thought she was radiant and I thought the spotlight was on her, and that was something that I wasn’t used to seeing. I didn’t get a chance to tell her that at the reunion, but if she hears that, I hope that gives her some comfort that for the things that she went through, she meant a lot to a lot of people, to young people.”
Ali also spoke about the documentaries Dark Skinned Girls and Light Skinned Girls, sharing how disappointed she was to find that Black women were still being divided in the conversation that needs to be had.
“I thought that I could speak on dark-skinned girls or light-skinned girls.. We’re all black women, we’re all women having an experience, what it’s like to be cast into these categories. And yeah, I thought that was disappointing that we were separated in the project itself, and I don’t know who decided what category I was supposed to be sorted into.. My assumption at the time was ‘Oh my gosh, I definitely want to talk about that. I have feelings about it and stories and yes, I really thought that I could speak to both. I had no idea it was going to be sorted.”
“Colorism conversations have been going on for a long time..and they’re very delicate. It’s hard to have that conversation, like out in the open when sisters haven’t had that conversation together. I’ve even been involved kind of unknowingly in projects that they’re going to talk about colorism, but then at the same time, they further divide us, and continue to rank you. I did an interview..where I thought that all of the dark-skinned girls and light-skinned girls, or so-called brown-skinned girls, whatever were going to be in the same project talking about this experience. And what ended up happening was the stories were split and I was put into a light-skinned girl thing..and I was like, Oh my God, this is so hurtful. We’re talking..you’re in a conversation in public about something that’s very personal. My mother would be considered a dark-skinned woman, my youngest sister would be considered light-skinned, I’m somewhere in the middle..like this is real stuff that happens in families. But while talking about it now, we’re going to separate, we’re going to further, we’re going to put the stamp. Make the stamp official while you’re going to break apart my features and the features of other people involved in the storytelling. Are we trying to prove that it really does exist after all? Because the truth is it’s a construct. The truth is it’s not real. It’s not real the judgments that we cast based on appearance, those are false, they’re based on false things. So yeah, it’s very, very sensitive.”
You can listen to this portion of the conversation in the video below.
The Clay Cane Show airs from 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET on SiriusXM Urban View channel 126.
Source: Deborah Feingold / Getty
In a recent interview with Chris Witherspoon’s PopViewers, Janet Hubert shared that she considered taking her life following her traumatic exit from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” In the wake of her departure, Hubert shared that she had mounting financial responsibilities, a new business, and an infant son, which, naturally, resulted in a lot of pressure.
“You’re only as good as the last job you ever did,” she told Witherspoon. “We also know that you can make money and the next day you can have no money. I also had just opened up a studio. I signed a 10-year lease at like $60,000 to $100,000 worth of equipment,” she went on. “I had a franchise to develop. I not only had a house, a mortgage, a husband who wasn’t working at the time, I also had a business and a baby, an infant who needed me desperately.”
As the pressure increased, Hubert shared that there were moments in which she felt that she “wanted to die,” but knowing that her son needed her is what kept her going during dark moments.
“He saved me. He really did. My son. Because I knew I had to take care of that little boy. ‘Fresh Prince’ had not gone into syndication yet, so there was no money for a few years until they did enough episodes to make syndication. I was in the third season negotiating for the fourth season. It was hard. There were moments when I felt so broken. So low. I didn’t know what I could do. There were moments where I wanted to die.”
When asked specifically if she had ever contemplated suicide, Hubert shared that she had, especially when an incident with one of her tenants resulted in her being arrested.
“Absolutely, because I figured I had a life insurance policy that would take care of my son,” she shared before going on to discuss. “Because you figured… I’m not gonna make it. I can’t live through this. This is too much. People would attack. People would say things. People would say hurtful things, but he was an infant. What was I going to do?”
Check out her full interview below
How come a black woman can’t express feelings of frustration, hurt and even disappointment without the fear of being labeled bitter or having an attitude?
Seriously, the stereotypes of Black women and their so-called anger or bitterness are so pervasive that anytime a sista acts out in a way that’s seen as aggressive, she gets attacked by everyone including the white mainstream, Black men and other Black women. Sadly, we have become so accustomed to the bitter Black woman” meme that we even have internalized it as true, although research has proven otherwise. Nevertheless if I see one more person flippantly dismiss the emotional angst of a black woman by saying, “oh she’s just bitter,” I will scream -but not too loud because than folks will assume that I have an attitude problem.
Take for instance Janet Hubert, actress who is best known as the first Aunt Vivian on the hit TV series Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Recently she was asked why she had been missing from the picture of her former cast members at a reunion dinner, which had been posted on Will Smith’s Facebook page and ultimately started rumors of a “Fresh Prince” reunion, she said: “There will never be a reunion … as I will never do anything with an a**hole like Will Smith,” the actress told TMZ this weekend. “He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up. This constant reunion thing will never ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which he doesn’t know the word.” Ouch, that’s kind of harsh.
Once news spread of Hubert’s reaction to the question of a reunion, folk were quick to judge and without much pause, concluded that Hubert is holding on to a grudge. To me it was an honest answer to an honestly invasive question. I mean, what else was she suppose to say? “I was busy,” or “I was washing my hair,” or some other lie to appear graceful to the fickle masses? The same folks wanting her to move on are probably the same folks, who wonder why she wasn’t at the reunion dinner. She told her truth and what is wrong with that?
If you recall, Hubert didn’t leave the show on good terms. As the original Aunt Vivian, Hubert, who was pregnant during the series’ third season sued Will Smith and NBC for breach of contract for offering her a new contract with less air time and less money. After the unsuccessful lawsuit and refusing to sign the new contract, Hubert was replaced on the show by Daphne Reid.
And just like that, the first Aunt Vivian vanished into obscurity, never to be seen – or even thought about – by the public again until last year, when she wrote the book about her experience as a TV Mom. In an interview about the book with BlackAmericaWeb, Hubert said that she was subjected to verbal and mental abuse on the set, hypocrisy, excessive egoism, blatant resentment, racial jokes at the hands of a young Smith. According to Hubert, “I was a dark-skinned, African-American mother, and Will used to tell the you’re-so-black jokes to the audience before the show, and at one point, I came out and stopped him, and the audience went ‘Woooo,'” she remembered. “He didn’t understand how unbelievably disrespectful that was to women like me… ‘Yo mama’s so black, when she looks at her shoes, she thinks she’s looking in the mirror. Ha, ha!'”
It has to be a hard thing for viewers to separate the relationships that actors have on screen with their real life relationships and turmoil back stage, but it happens. Like when John Amos (James Evans Sr.) was fired from the hit series Good Times, he was accused by the show’s producer Norman Lear of being a “disruptive factor.” Of course, Amos would say differently and said countless times that he had been fired because he objected to the negative stereotypes of African Americans that the show constantly presented including the increasing buffooneries of fellow cast mate Jimmie Walker (James Evans Jr.). When Amos sought to clarify rumors and assert his position on his overall feelings about the direction of the show and his fellow cast mate no one accuses him of being a bitter or an angry Black man. We understood it. So why can’t we give Hubert the same benefit of the doubt?
In a previous editorial, Hubert sought to challenge the angry Black woman image she was receiving by recounting candidly what it’s like growing up in a world that constantly subjugates you. “While growing up, only the lighter skinned black women were considered beautiful. The sad thing is that today those standards of beauty are still in effect. I think a better description would be the politics of beauty. I am making the references of physical beauty to make a better point in pursuit of the angry black woman theory. We don’t say the angry light-skinned woman, do we? That in itself is enough to piss me off, so am I angry yet… not quite.”
I think that as Black women we have been so conditioned to being treated with less dignity and having our personal contributions undervalued, that we honestly feel that it is our place to always “just deal” with our emotional well-being without complaining. We readily accept that Black men are targets by racist institutions since slavery and tossed away by society as degenerates and sub humans. However when it comes to understanding how black women are also the targets of those same racist paradigms, and carry the weight of gender oppression on our shoulders, we would rather see a woman suppress those intense angry feelings. After all, being angry is just not considered lady-like.
Putting myself in Hubert’s shoes, I can imagine the stress that might occur every time someone mentions what she perceives as one of the most single traumatic moments of her career. I mean, if I had gotten fired from a job because of some strife with the boss and/or coworker, and they try to invite me to the company’s reunion party that included all the people you had strife with, I would be like, “F that. And here is why” too. I wouldn’t care if it is the Fresh Prince or the Fresh Grocers (supermarket), if it bugs me, I’m going to speak on it.
Charing Ball is the author of the blog People, Places & Things.
Even with the old school dookie braids and the VERY foul mouth in Menace II Society, Larenz Tate knows he was a cutie! And he’s been like that since he first stepped on the scene, showing up on our favorite shows like Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Rescue Me, as well as some of our favorite films: Love Jones, Crash, and Dead Presidents. Spitting smooth poetry, dancing and singing like Frankie Lymon and playing a ruthless killer, Tate has done it all over the years. However, the 36-year-old Chicago native doesn’t look a day over 25 (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating), and for that reason, along with his delicious smile, he’s our throwback arm candy for the day. Take a walk back down the hotness memory lane.
Back in the day, we had some of the best shows on television. The thing about it is that almost no two shows were alike and you could ALWAYS find something to watch. Let’s check out a list of shows we’d love to see back but here’s the twist: Most of the old cast members are old or have passed so…let’s revamp the cast! In the comments, play along and share who you’d like to see in our new and improved tv shows! Oh and keep in mind that this is a starter list of shows and you can feel free to say what other shows you’d like to see come back! Let’s go!
Over many TV years (and some before my time, therefore in reruns) black TV dads and moms have beautifully impacted black family life by teaching black children life lessons and represented how we raise our children. Unfortunately, some of our favorite TV parents passed away over the years and their losses felt as real as our own mothers, fathers and other guardian figures. This list is a celebration for the black TV parents who we’ve lost, but are never forgotten.
James Avery’s, best known as Uncle Phil on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, passing came as shock to many of us. He wasn’t just Will Smith’s Uncle Phil, but he was everyone’s Uncle Phil, and like Smith said, all young men need an Uncle Phil. Uncle Phil was tough, loving, smart, strong and disciplined his three children and nephew. He’s definitely one of the most authentic, relatable TV fathers of all time. Rest in peace, James Avery.
Now, it is no secret that Black moms have been turnin’ up since the dawn of time. OG trill mom Florida Evans may have come through with a mild turn up on Good Times (“Damn, damn, damn!”), but there have been quite a few Black TV moms who revamped the way we looked at motherly figures on-screen.
With fierce personalities, independence, and drive, these mothers kept it all the way real.
As Mother’s Day fast approaches, let’s look at 15 Black TV moms who played no games and are some of our favorites.
