The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Ain't No Business Like Show Business
TV Flash files “Ain't No Business Like Show Business” as hour 71 of 148 in the TV Flash guide — The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996) on NBC, season 3, episode 22, aired 1993-04-12, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E22: listed hour 71 of 148 in the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air guide, hour 22 of 24 in season 3. It aired 1993-04-12 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “You Bet Your Life” (S03E21). Next is “The Way We Were” (S03E23).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Will's friend Keith is in Los Angeles from Philadelphia, looking to break into the stand-up comedy scene. Thinking that it's an easy thing to start, Will decides to go down that career path as well, despite the warnings from both Keith and Uncle Phil. When Will sneaks out of the house to go with Carlton, Hilary, and Keith to an open mic night, he gets heckled off the stage while Keith gets a standing ovation. It's at that moment he realizes it's tough to get started down a certain career path if you don't have the talent and experience.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Ain't No Business Like Show Business sit in the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air guide?
S03E22 is listed hour 71 of 148 — hour 22 of 24 in season 3, season 3 episode 22.
When did The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air S03E22 air?
Ain't No Business Like Show Business aired 1993-04-12 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…