In his new book, Will Smith says that he knew when it was time to end his reign as sitcom royalty as the star of NBC's hit sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Entertainment Weekly has released an excerpt from Smith's memoir Will, in which he describes the process behind the decision to end the series.
Smith says that the show was starting to decline in quality during its fifth season, as the episodes' storylines were becoming more "hokey." "Anyone who has ever been on a sitcom can tell you the episode in which their show jumped the shark," Smith said. "Ours was season 5, episode 15, 'Bullets Over Bel-Air,' the one in which I got shot and Carlton started carrying a gun."
Smith and the rest of the cast had contracts for the show that lasted for six seasons, and had to decide if he was going to continue with the show after his contract deal ended. At the same time, Smith was being offered opportunities to appear in films and knew that having a successful movie career outside of the television series was a possibility for the actor.
One person who Smith says was a big influence on his decision to end the show was John Amos, who appeared in three episodes of the series as the character Fred Wilkes. Smith said that Amos knew the problem he was facing, and told him that it was his responsibility to make sure that his co-stars were able to end their time on the show "with some dignity."
Amos, who played James Evans on Good Times, had his character killed off after a contract dispute. Smith recalled watching Good Times and feeling insulted over the way that Amos' character was written out of the series. "I even sensed John's pain," Smith said, "that maybe he had failed his TV family." The following week, Smith told the cast that he had decided the sixth season would be the show's final, and the series concluded on May 20, 1996.
Although Smith's time as the star of the hit series is over, he will be a producer for the upcoming dramatic reboot being developed for Peacock starring Jabari Banks. A retrospective reunion special featuring the show's surviving cast was released on HBO Max in November 2020.