In West Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days - no matter who you might be or what television shows you might like, chances are you've heard that particular line from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air more than once. The sitcom that gave Will Smith his breakout role was a staple of the '90s skyrocketed the young star onto the Hollywood scene of A-list actors and helped him land parts in franchise hits like Independence Day and Men in Black. Not only that, but the show easily held its own against other juggernaut sitcoms of the '90s (Seinfeld, Friends) and quickly became a cult classic among the shows' more diehard fans.

Despite only lasting four seasons, it's unquestionable how much Will Smith and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air have had an impact on American society. So, it only makes sense in the era of reboots and remakes that the '90s classic would get revisited in some form or capacity. That said, audiences never expected that they'd see their favorite comedy turned into a full-blown family drama -- and that's exactly what Bel-Air has promised to give the world. While some critics or lifelong fans might disagree with the choice and call it a mistake, it's undeniable that Bel-Air is taking a large swing with this even larger genre swap, and it could pave the way for all future franchise reboots.

Different Genre, Same Concept

bel air future reboots switch genre same concept
Peacock

As already stated, we're currently living in the era of reboots and remakes as studios have made it perfectly clear that they refuse to spend mass quantities of money on original ideas that don't already have established I.P. This has left all the major production companies to scramble through their lists of "owned properties" and try to find something salvageable from the scraps of their prior projects. Either that or studios have become I.P. monsters and continue to buy up every possible established property hoping that it could be turned into a multi-billion dollar film/television franchise to try and compete with extended universes like the MCU and the Wizarding World. This has caused a mass overload of reboots and remakes that are (for lack of a better phrase) nearly identical to their predecessors. And that's the best-case scenario. Worst case scenario is that the reboot or remake doesn't do as well its predecessors, which then runs the risk of said property never getting an on-screen chance again.

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However, all of those examples usually involve reboots or remakes where said projects still reside within the same genre as their counterparts. That's where Bel Air is different and why it sets the stage for all other reboots. As far as audiences can tell, Bel-Air has the exact same premise as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -- a kid from West Philadelphia gets into a fight with some thugs and is forced to move to Bel-Air with his aunt and uncle in order to get his life right. Despite the premise being used as a sitcom in the '90s, it has all the working parts to produce a serious family drama about growing up and respect (two aspects that the original show also explored, just in comedic ways). Thus, Bel-Air does something that no other show has dared to before -- take the exact same premise from a lovable, light-hearted family sitcom and completely flip the script to show the potential darker side of the same situation.

bel air future reboots other shows
AMC

There have been plenty of shows over the past several decades that have been popular and profitable enough to warrant the studios to create spinoffs, sequels, or reboots. Again, almost every one of those scenarios involves the remake being in the same genre as its predecessor. So, with Bel-Air taking a chance by using the premise of a family sitcom and turning it into a family drama, what's to stop other popular properties from trying to do the exact same thing? There is the added threat of Bel-Air still being a new show, so fans and critics haven't had the chance to properly analyze and tear it apart yet.

Nevertheless, it's a method that (in small doses) has already proven to be successful. The MCU took a similar chance in 2021 with their first Disney+ series, WandaVision -- they used established characters. Each episode of the limited series was purposefully shot and directed in a different genre/style (most were comedies, but there were elements of suspense, action, and even horror). As audiences now know, that strategy payed-off handsomely as WandaVision became a massive hit.

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With that in mind, there are plenty of other shows where a reboot would be possible in a different genre while still using the exact same premise. Try Breaking Bad -- a high school chemistry teacher and his former junkie student cook and sell crystal meth out of an RV -- that could easily be reconstructed into a three-camera sitcom. Stranger Things is a sci-fi adventure about a group of kids who discover aliens living in an upside-down dimension parallel to their own. It wouldn't take much reworking to warp that premise into a full-on horror. How about turning another sitcom into a drama, like Friends -- six adults bond and try to navigate the events of their everyday lives -- add a couple of children, and that's basically already the premise of This is Us. Even if Bel-Air doesn't turn out to be the cultural success that its predecessor was, there's no denying that it's opened Pandora's Box on what all future reboots and remakes are capable of.