‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ had a ‘West Philly Homeboy Consultant’ and more hidden details from behind the scenes
A new book by Chris Palmer goes through just about everything you could possibly want to know about the series. And Philly's role in shaping it.
“In West Philadelphia born and raised / On the playground was where I spent most of my days.”
That line from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme is so culturally ubiquitous that it’s likely the first thing most people who aren’t from the area think of when West Philadelphia is mentioned. A new book tells the complete story of the TV series and the extraordinary lengths it went to make sure it was getting Philly culture right. It is, after all, the only TV show in history that credited a “West Philly Homeboy Consultant.”
The book, The Fresh Prince Project: How the Fresh Prince of Bel Air Remixed America, is by Chris Palmer, and it releases today.
The Inquirer spoke to Palmer about the book and his process of writing it. The interview has been edited for clarity.
Tell me a little bit about how this project originated.
I’m kind of hugely into books about pop culture, especially as far as they relate to nostalgia from the ‘80s or the ‘90s, whether it’s movies, TV shows, or fashion or anything music … And I was [thinking] I want to read a book about The Fresh Prince. I found that one didn’t exist. So I wrote one.
The stuff about the dynamics of the writers’ room (on ‘Fresh Prince’) was absolutely fascinating, I thought.
Back then writers’ rooms were not diverse, [but] Fresh Prince was a little bit different. You had all these different kinds of people, coming up with different ideas, from different backgrounds. And that was very, very atypical for a prime time network sitcom in the 1990s.
The show took great pains to be authentic about how a person from West Philadelphia would speak. How important was Philly to the show and the book?
It had a huge impact on the show, because Will [Smith] was so incredibly loyal to Philly. Back in those days, everything he did had to have a Philly stamp. He wanted to really remain authentic, and the way he could do that most easily was representing Philly, and just being about Philly.
On off weeks, him and his crew would go back to Philly, and they would hang out ... just get back to the neighborhood and find out what the new slang was and the new words. And they would get back to L.A. and they’d be in the writers’ room. Will would be suggesting these new terms — It wasn’t even East Coast/West Coast or even regional — they were very specific to certain neighborhoods.
I have to ask about Bennie Richburg, who was credited on the show as the West Philly Homeboy Consultant.’ How did it happen?
He was one of the guys from Philly. He hung out with him, and he had kind of an undefined role. He wasn’t an employee of the show but was really smart and knew the culture and knew Philly. [He] would help Will maintain his authenticity, because Bennie Richburg was a real dude. He would contribute so often that they wanted to give him a role, so they came up with “West Philly Homeboy Consultant” because that was his strong suit. Anything related to Philadelphia, he was an ace.
“The Fresh Prince Project” arrives in bookstores Jan. 31.