Lessons from the Fresh Prince
Ok, so bear with me here...
I found myself watching a couple of episodes of "The Fresh Prince of BelAir" tonight. (And, sadly, I still know the entire theme song. What might I have learned or done as a kid, if I hadn't been busy doing things like this? But, I digress...)
The two episodes I caught both had some serious life lessons wrapped in all that humor. We simply don't have shows like this anymore. The first episode involved Will and Carlton trying to join a black fraternity, and Carlton being rejected because he "wasn't enough of a 'brother' to be a brother." Uncle Phil then gave us the moral of the story by saying how hard he had worked to get where he was, and how things will never change until people learn to stop putting each other down for stupid reasons like that. Of course, the speech was more pointed and better written than my little recap, but you get the point. (Side note: thought of Hillsdale at that point, and our problem of getting minority students because we aren't minority enough. This has always struck me as very silly, as we were also the first college in the country to have completely open enrollment, regardless of race, gender, religion, etc. Anyhoo...)
The second episode involved Uncle Phil being unhealthy and ultimately having a heart attack. He learned he needed to take better care of himself, and Carlton confronted his fear of seeing his father in the hospital, just in time to show up for a visit.
One little part of me thought of South Park and the "I learned something today" speech that often appears. But Fresh Prince didn't smack people over the head with the moral of the story; it was part of the plot, and serious matters were bundled into the same fluffy plots involving Hillary going sky diving. We are almost completely without shows like this now. Instead, we get CIA agents and doctors who learn things about themselves and their fellow men, or ridiculous domestic comedies about poopy diapers and inlaws. I miss the Cosby-influenced family dramedies of the 90s. Especially since they also involved Hammer pants and giant bangs... :)
I found myself watching a couple of episodes of "The Fresh Prince of BelAir" tonight. (And, sadly, I still know the entire theme song. What might I have learned or done as a kid, if I hadn't been busy doing things like this? But, I digress...)
The two episodes I caught both had some serious life lessons wrapped in all that humor. We simply don't have shows like this anymore. The first episode involved Will and Carlton trying to join a black fraternity, and Carlton being rejected because he "wasn't enough of a 'brother' to be a brother." Uncle Phil then gave us the moral of the story by saying how hard he had worked to get where he was, and how things will never change until people learn to stop putting each other down for stupid reasons like that. Of course, the speech was more pointed and better written than my little recap, but you get the point. (Side note: thought of Hillsdale at that point, and our problem of getting minority students because we aren't minority enough. This has always struck me as very silly, as we were also the first college in the country to have completely open enrollment, regardless of race, gender, religion, etc. Anyhoo...)
The second episode involved Uncle Phil being unhealthy and ultimately having a heart attack. He learned he needed to take better care of himself, and Carlton confronted his fear of seeing his father in the hospital, just in time to show up for a visit.
One little part of me thought of South Park and the "I learned something today" speech that often appears. But Fresh Prince didn't smack people over the head with the moral of the story; it was part of the plot, and serious matters were bundled into the same fluffy plots involving Hillary going sky diving. We are almost completely without shows like this now. Instead, we get CIA agents and doctors who learn things about themselves and their fellow men, or ridiculous domestic comedies about poopy diapers and inlaws. I miss the Cosby-influenced family dramedies of the 90s. Especially since they also involved Hammer pants and giant bangs... :)