‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ Sets Unscripted Reunion Special at HBO Max

Tyler Hersko
·2 min read

“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” is the latest beloved television show to receive an unscripted reunion special at HBO Max.

The special, which will celebrate the sitcom’s 30-year anniversary, will feature a look back at the series and the cultural impact “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” has had since its debut. The special is set to tape September 10th, which is also the 30th anniversary of the series’ 1990 debut.

The reunion will launch exclusively on HBO Max around Thanksgiving. HBO Max is the exclusive SVOD home of the series in the United States.

The unscripted reunion special news was announced several weeks after a dramatic reboot of the original series was announced. The project is being shopped to multiple outlets, including HBO Max.

Per Westbrook Media, a subsidiary of the media company launched by Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Miguel Melendez, and Ko Yada in 2019, Will Smith will be joined by series regulars Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Joseph Marcell, Daphne Maxwell Reid, and Alfonso Ribeiro as well as the recurring DJ Jazzy Jeff, for a funny and heartfelt night full of music, dancing, and special surprise guests, in honor of the series that ran for six seasons and 148 episodes.

HBO Max’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” unscripted reunion special was announced around a week after the cast and creators of “The West Wing” made headlines for their plans to reunite after two decades on HBO Max. “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote” will hit the streaming service sometime in the fall and will consist of a theatrical staging of the “Hartsfield’s Landing” episode that will be shot at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles in early October. Per Variety, the special will raise awareness for When We All Vote, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization co-chaired by Michelle Obama which was founded to increase participation in every election in America.

HBO Max’s most notable reunion special is the upcoming unscripted “Friends” project, which was slated to premiere on HBO Max when the streaming service launched in late May. The special has been repeatedly delayed due to Hollywood’s ongoing production challenges and still does not have a release date.

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