Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. You all know it. Shooting some b-ball outside of the school.
But let's talk about Vivian. The Matriarch of the Banks estate. For the first three seasons of this award-winning sit-com, Vivian Banks was played by actress Janet Hubert-Whitten.
And then something happened. Vivian....just....changed. At the start of season 4 and onward, Vivian was played by a different actress - Daphne Maxwell Reid. No heads up. No reason. No explanation.
This was quite confusing to me as a growing adolescent. Metaphysically, this makes no sense. Here is a completely different woman - yet her identity is the exact same. Everyone refers to her as "mom" and "Vivian." Uncle Phil seems to have equal affection for the new Vivian as he did for the old (and he doesn't seem to miss the old Vivian at all either). She dresses like Vivian, acts like Vivian....but is she Vivian? You can see how these philosophical puzzles plagued my young mind.
What attributes or characteristic elements are essential for identity? Obviously not physicality. Identity must extend to how others relate to you. But wait....your identity is solely contingent on others? If the other characters in the Banks' household treated New Vivian differently - she would be a different character??
And why did the NBC producers think they could just slip this one by us? Like we wouldn't notice or something? Come on. And whatever happened to Old Vivian? Why did she leave just 3 seasons in?
I miss Old Vivian. I never really quite got used to New Vivian. It disrupted my show. I'm glad this was the only show I know of that didn't pull the switch-a-roo with other characters. Imagine there being a New Mona. Things just wouldn't have been the same.
4 comments:
Former Vivian is chillin' with the "old" Becky on Roseanne.
ya, they told us that it was because she gained weight from her real-life pregnancy, but it was because she didn't think the show was fair. she said "I've been in this business for 10 years, and this snot-nosed punk (referring to smith)
gets the lead role. Smith said in her opinion, it should have been called "Aunt Vivian of Bel Air" and i like new vivian better
aparently it was this:
"
The first mom, actress Janet Hubert-Whitten was fired because she violated her contract by becoming pregnant during the season - They had to rework the script and invent Nikki the baby because of her pregnancy. NBC than fired her for breach of contract
"
Good words.
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