The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Mother of All Battles
TV Flash files “The Mother of All Battles” as hour 27 of 148 in the TV Flash guide — The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996) on NBC, season 2, episode 2, aired 1991-09-16, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E02: listed hour 27 of 148 in the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air guide, hour 2 of 24 in season 2. It aired 1991-09-16 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Did the Earth Move for You?” (S02E01). Next is “Will Gets a Job” (S02E03).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Ashley is being bullied by Paula Hoover at her school and turns to Will and Carlton for help. Will attempts to teach her how to fight while Carlton tries to teach her how to bribe. Paula and her parents visit Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv and the two sets of parents also clash. The two girls are sitting in the kitchen when they realize that Paula hated Ashley because she bumped into her while she was slow dancing with a boy she liked. Paula thought Ashley did this on purpose, but Ashley says it was because the boy she was dancing with liked Paula and wanted to get closer to her. They then become friends. After a Yo Momma joke directed at Uncle Phil that takes things too far, Uncle Phil punches Paula's father. Philip talks to Ashley about fighting.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Mother of All Battles sit in the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air guide?
S02E02 is listed hour 27 of 148 — hour 2 of 24 in season 2, season 2 episode 2.
When did The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air S02E02 air?
The Mother of All Battles aired 1991-09-16 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Is this only a Will Smith star vehicle?
It is a star vehicle that learned to be a family sitcom. Smith is the launchpad. James Avery's Uncle Phil is the gravity. The hours that last are the ones where the mansion has to hold both.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Not just the theme song you already know: a star being minted in public, a recast the internet still litigates, and the rare network sitcom that could stop dancing long enough to land a father-wound heard around the mansion.
Flash: the theme song was a red carpet you could rap. September 10, 1990, a kid from West Philadelphia lands in Bel-Air and the country learns a zip code as a punchline. Will Smith did not walk into a sitcom. He walked into a launchpad wearing a baseball cap, and NBC treated the arrival like a premiere even when the set was a mansion with a laugh track. Someone's publicist called it fish-out-of-water. The afterparty called it a star being minted in public.
Filed against
- Will Smith as Will Smith
Will Smith turned The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air into a language — West Philadelphia to Bel-Air, a star vehicle minted in public, theme-song ubiquity, and an Aunt Viv recast the internet never forgave. The hours that dropped the smile still…
- James Avery as Philip Banks
James Avery’s Philip Banks is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s gravity in a three-piece — Uncle Phil as the mansion’s law, laugh, and landing pad. Will Smith walked into a launchpad; Avery was the house that launchpad needed. On TV Flash he…
- Janet Hubert as Vivian Banks
Janet Hubert’s Vivian Banks is the original Aunt Viv — The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s first mansion matriarch, and the recast discourse that still behaves like a family argument. Will Smith’s launchpad needed a wife who could match Uncle…
- Daphne Maxwell Reid as Vivian Banks
Daphne Maxwell Reid walked into The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for season four as Vivian Banks — a recast the internet never forgave and a mansion sitcom that could still drop the smile. Theme-song ubiquity around a household that had to…
- Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks
Alfonso Ribeiro’s Carlton Banks made The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air a dance-floor language — Tom Jones, khakis, and brotherly friction as sitcom soft power. The Carlton dance outlived the original run and still owns reunions. TV Flash files…
- Karyn Parsons as Hilary Banks
Karyn Parsons’s Hilary Banks is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a look book — mansion photocalls, star-vehicle heat, a cousin who photographs like a premiere. NBC’s zip-code punchline with fashion as character. On TV Flash she is 1990s…