Will Smith staged a 'Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air' reunion and it was fly

The reunions keep coming in the wake of worldwide physical distancing and the latest cast to jump on a Zoom call together came all the way from Bel Air. The cast of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunited this week on Will Smith’s SnapChat series, Will From Home. Alfonso Ribeiro, Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Daphne Maxwell Reid, Joseph Marcell and DJ Jazzy Jeff took part and sharee some of their favourite memories from the groundbreaking sitcom and remembered the late James Avery.The emotional two-part reunion was a fitting tribute to The Fresh Prince, with the actors and friends spending equal time laughing and crying. “I loved that man,” said Reid following a collection of clips showing Avery, who played Philip Banks for all six seasons of The Fresh Prince. Avery died in 2013 at the age of 68 as a result of complications from heart surgery. Commenting on the emotional look back at his work as Uncle Phil, Marcell added “As James would say, 'Solid.'”

 

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Reunited and it feels so… AHHHHHH! It’s been 30 years since the first season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air so I thought we should have ourselves a lil Zoom reunion!! Check us out, link in bio. #WillFromHome

A post shared by Will Smith (@willsmith) on Apr 29, 2020 at 10:50am PDT

Crediting the show for shaping him, Smith remembered walking onto set as an inexperienced actor and finding his best friends and mentors. “When I look back, the best times in my life have been on that set.” Ali, who was only 11 when she began her role as Ashley Banks on the series, said it was Smith who opened her world to music and helped her make the decision to put her music career on hold to go to Harvard. In a touching moment, Smith said that his insecurity over not attending college was lessened knowing that Ali was educated on the set of his show and got into the Ivy League school. “Tatyana will also be 11 to me,” joked Smith during the touching exchange.[video_embed id='1875819']RELATED: Will Smith admits he was jealous of Jada Pinkett and Tupac[/video_embed]The reunion also included the surprising reveal that it was Ribeiro who suggested that Smith use his real name for his character. “It was such a deep insight that you had," said Smith. "You said because people are going to call you that for the rest of your life.”September will mark 30 years since the pilot for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was filmed, but DJ Jazzy Jeff says that he still has people approaching him in public and asking to do the ‘secret’ handshake. “You would see in people’s eyes when they were about to sneak the handshake, and I would just grab their hand and hold it,” laughed Jeff. “Besides that, I’m good!”The reunion aired as two parts and the second episode ended with Smith throwing’ Jeff out of the Zoom meeting as an ode to his character's typical exit from the Banks’ house. Smith and Jeff have already reunited once during quarantine to perform a song for fans. Wearing one of the sweaters from Smith’s Fresh Prince of Bel-Air athleisure wear collection, DJ Jazzy Jeff provided the music for a ‘quarantine concert,’ with Smith on the mic and wife Jada Pinkett Smith showed off her dance moves as the stand-in fly girl.Before getting into the music, Smith and Jazzy Jeff talked about the DJ’s recent health scare. Although he was unable to get a COVID-19 test, Jeff says all the signs were there that he was suffering from coronavirus. Suffering from a 103-degree temperature, experiencing the chills and having lost his sense of smell, Jeff eventually got a chest X-ray and learned he had pneumonia in both lungs. “That was scary,” says Smith, who added that Jeff’s wife Lynette called in a panicked state. “Lynette doesn’t panic and she called me with the panic vibe,” added Smith. “That was one of the scariest things in my adult life,” said Jeff.The cast reunion comes only a few weeks after Smith invited former co-star Tyra Banks on his Will From Home series. The pair reenacted one of their famous scenes from the series, which Banks remembered word for word. We can't wait to see who else shows up for his series.[video_embed id='1818994']BEFORE YOU GO: Jennifer Aniston reveals why morning shows are so popular[/video_embed]