20 Facts About The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Donald Glover’s show about fame and friendship heads into its third season after burning down every screen in sight by subverting expectations for what a TV series can be.

“Genius” gets tossed around a lot, but Glover has crafted a show that’s trippy and grounded, yet silly and brutal. It’s a show that defies a singular label and demands a seat at the VIP table. One of the best of the best.

Eat or be eaten, here are 10 facts about the Emmy-nominated series.

1. DONALD GLOVER TRICKED FX INTO ORDERING THE SHOW.

FX Networks

The concept of Trojan Horse-ing your way onto TV is something a few creators (including Jenji Kohan of Orange is the New Black) have talked about. Either selling the studio or your audience one familiar thing while introducing them to the real, innovative story hiding inside it. According to Glover, Atlanta followed in that grand tradition by telling FX the series would be more of a traditional hang-out show than it is. “I just Trojan Horsed it,” Glover told Vulture. “I told FX the show was something it wasn’t until we got there and then hoped it would be enjoyable.”

2. THEY MADE A CHICKEN WING ORDER SO POPULAR, A CHAIN ADDED IT TO THEIR MENU.

If you don’t know Atlanta, this can get a little confusing: J.R. Crickets is a real restaurant depicted in the show, but the Lemon Pepper Wet chicken wing order that Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) and Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) get wasn’t on its menu in real life until the show’s depiction of it made a bunch of people order it and J.R. Cricket’s decided to place it on the menu. Which kinda kills the joke. Glover based it on an item on American Deli’s menu, finding it funny that someone could treat Paper Boi to something at J.R. Cricket’s that wasn’t actually on the menu. This is what happens when you inject real restaurants into your fictional show.

3. IT’S CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM FOR RAPPERS.

FX Networks

Along with surrealism, the show trades in wry humor that would make Larry David proud. Glover describes Atlanta as “Curb Your Enthusiasm for rappers." "Being a rapper is super awkward,” Glover told Stephen Colbert earlier this year. "You’re in a video and you got, like, champagne and butts close to your face ... and then you have go to Whole Foods and the person is like, 'Hey, you’re that dude!' and you’re like, ‘Please I really want to buy this ice cream.'" Cue the theme music and the deadpan stare.

4. SINCE HE'S A RAPPER IN REAL LIFE, GLOVER DIDN’T WANT TO PLAY ONE ON TV.

There are plenty of TV stars who echo their real careers in the fictional world. Jerry Seinfeld playing an increasingly successful comedian, Lena Dunham playing an increasingly successful aspiring writer, and Adrian Grenier playing an increasingly successful Hollywood actor. Glover didn’t want to go that route. “That would have been wack to me,” Glover said. “I don’t think people want to see a show of someone actually making it.”

5. THE GLOVERS COMPARE THE SEASONS TO KANYE WEST ALBUMS.

"We’ve kind of been comparing the season to a sophomore record from a new artist," director Hiro Murai told Rolling Stone when Atlanta: Robbin’ Season came out. "Internally, we’ve drawn Kanye parallels: if the first season is College Dropout, this one is Late Registration.” It’s a sentiment from Donald and his brother, Stephen Glover, who is a writer and executive producer on the show. So it’s no surprise that they view the upcoming third season like Kanye’s Graduation. What does that mean, exactly? “This is probably our most accessible but also the realest—an honest version of it—and I feel like the most enjoyable,” Donald Glover explained.

6. BRIAN TYREE HENRY DIDN’T WANT TO STUDY OTHER RAPPERS TO CREATE HIS CHARACTER.

FX Networks

Donald and Stephen Glover write Paper Boi’s raps, and Stephen performs them, but Brian Tyree Henry embodies Alfred and his rap persona "Paper Boi." Yet in crafting the character, Henry didn’t go the conventional route. “I wanted to be so far removed from [studying other rappers] because I think that every rapper, even their names are ways that they want you to know them,” Henry told NPR. “Rappers make personas or names. I felt like it was a way of protection, you know what I mean? So, I didn’t really want to study any rappers per se because I wanted to get to know who [Alfred] really was and where he came from before I could even go to where he was going. Like, Paper Boi is where he’s going.”

7. THEY NEEDED A “WHITE TRANSLATOR” TO USE THE N-WORD ON THE SHOW.

FX initially told Glover not to use the N-word in the pilot, which would have been a dilution of natural speech. “I’m black, making a very black show, and they’re telling me I can’t use the N-word," Glover told The New Yorker. "Only in a world run by white people would that happen." To solve the problem, the creative team brought in white executive producer Paul Simms (known as the “White Translator” to several black showrunners) to make the case for why FX should allow the show to use the word. If you watch the show, you know who won that argument.

8. ZAZIE BEETZ IS CAUTIOUS ABOUT HOW HER CHARACTER IS VIEWED.

As an actress, Zazie Beetz is in a precarious position playing Van, a version of black womanhood not usually seen on TV. Van is representative, but, of course, not wholly so. “I think it is important to see intelligent black women who are also struggling with their partners. You know what I mean?” Beetz told GQ. “That’s all part of this larger narrative of what’s going on in the media and in film and television in generally. But her story isn’t everybody’s story. I don’t want executives in studios to be like, ‘Oh, we have to do more exactly like Van.’”

9. THERE’S A NOD TO CHILDISH GAMBINO IN THE “JUNETEENTH” EPISODE.

Donald's album was in Atlanta and we didn't even know pic.twitter.com/ywZBTDdwx5

— Sam (@SamRea14) November 10, 2016

When Glover’s (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) third studio album, “Awaken, My Love!”, dropped on December 2, 2016, sharp-eyed internet denizens realized he’d already hidden its album art in an October 25, 2016 episode of Atlanta where Glover's Earn and Beetz's Van go to a Juneteenth party. That’s next level Easter egging.

10. MARIJUANA INSPIRES THE SHOW'S CHAOTIC STRUCTURE.

It’s hardly surprising that marijuana is the muse for much of a show marked by disorientation and disconnection. “We do everything high,” Glover told The New Yorker. “The effortless chaos of Atlanta—the moments of enlightenment followed by an abrupt return to reality—is definitely shaped by weed. When sh*t is actually going on, no one knows what the f*** is happening.”

Whether because of a dispute with the studio or just a plethora of unused material, a director often feels the need to re-release a classic (or not-so-classic) film. Often these directors’ cuts or extended editions are just more bloated versions of the original, but on occasion they represent a departure from the entire original. Here are 11 movies that look a lot different when you watch the version the director intended.

1. BLADE RUNNER (1982)

Blade Runner has actually gone through many iterations. There was the theatrical cut released in 1982 with a “happy ending” shoehorned in by the studio. Both director Ridley Scott and star Harrison Ford hated it, and Ford has even confessed that he wasn’t giving it his all when recording a voiceover that he called “not an organic part of the film.” Then came the “directors cut” in 1992 that Scott also disowned.

Finally, Warner Bros. worked with Scott in 2007 to release the Final Cut of Blade Runner, the only version over which Scott had complete control. It contained several changes (particularly to the score) and new scenes, but perhaps the most significant was the confirmation—or close to it—that Ford’s character Deckard actually was a replicant. Instead of the “happy ending” that shows Deckard and Rachel driving through a beautiful landscape, Scott’s ending is more ambiguous and simply shows them leaving Deckard's apartment. Plus the appearance of an origami unicorn in front of Deckard’s door hints that he is, in fact, a replicant (a similar calling card had been used earlier in the film to denote replicants). In interviews about the new release, Scott confirmed that Deckard was a replicant in his version, although Ford said he believed the character was human.

2. DONNIE DARKO (2001)

Despite the cult success of the mind-bending film, Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly repeatedly apologized for the theatrical release of the movie, stating it was not his original film. To make up for it, he convinced 20th Century Fox to release a directors cut in 2004 that he felt would be more cohesive and easier for viewers to understand. The most notable change he made was literally adding in text from the fictional The Philosophy of Time Travel, which had previously been a DVD extra. Fans were split: some loved the explanations that filled in previous plot holes, others hated the notion that they needed to be spoon-fed the story.

3. METROPOLIS (1927)

Although it’s considered a masterpiece of cinema, the plot of Metropolis can still be a bit difficult for some viewers to understand. But a recent extended version that uses footage from prints discovered after some 80 years in Argentina and New Zealand helps remedy that—by filling in plot details as director Fritz Lang had intended. Film historians had long been looking for the extended footage from Metropolis, which was cut before its original release to ensure a 90-minute running time.

Mostly, the new footage (which is intercut with title cards and still images to fill in for damaged or missing frames) serves to smooth out plot details, including a crucial scene in which the sorcerer Rotwang explains his plan to use robots to stir a labor revolt. But historians said it also helped them learn about how the legendary film was made, including the fact that it had been tinted by hand.

4. SALT (2010)

There sure are a lot of different versions of this film floating around. On the DVD release, director Phillip Noyce included an extended version and a director's cut that adds more intrigue to the film. In the original, a Russian sleeper agent played by Liev Schreiber follows the U.S. President to his secure bunker, then knocks him unconscious. But in the director’s cut, Schreiber’s character goes even farther and assassinates the president. In a voiceover on the director's cut, it is revealed that the new president is also a Russian agent waiting to be activated, which would make a sequel a serious bummer.

5. PAYBACK (1999)

In the theatrical release of this Mel Gibson film, almost the entire third act differs from director Brian Helgeland’s original vision, which was unresolved until the release of a 2006 director's cut. The most notable change, however, comes at the very end of the movie. In the theatrical release, Gibson’s character kills two top mob figures, then drives off happily with the female lead, Rosie, and his dog. In Helgeland’s version, Gibson is shot in a train station showdown. Rather than driving off happily with Rosie, she picks him up while he is bleeding and his fate is left up in the air.

6. LÉON: THE PROFESSIONAL (1994)

In the original film, the relationship between the hitman Léon and his 12-year-old neighbor Mathilda was already a little dicey, what with the two of them collaborating on a series of murders. But the directors cut adds a whole new level of discomfort. In it, Mathilda—played by Natalie Portman in her film debut—is shown to be far more involved in the assassinations of a crew of drug dealers. She also sexually propositions Léon and plays a game of Russian roulette to force Léon to say that he loves her. Those scenes were in the original European release, but were cut because producers were concerned about how American audiences would react.

7. SUPERMAN II (1980)

Due to a number of disputes between him and the film’s producers, director Richard Donner left the set of Superman II without completing filming (he had been filming both the original and the sequel simultaneously). Notably, the producers refused to include any footage of Marlon Brando as Jor-El in the sequel because of the massive cut of the box office gross he was requesting. The studio then brought in Richard Lester to replace Donner, forcing him to reshoot some scenes, rewrite others, and edit out most of Donner’s work. That left a movie with roughly 25 percent of Donner’s footage and 75 percent new work (and zero percent Brando).

The 2006 “Richard Donner Cut” brought back the director’s original vision, although the editing was choppy and Donner had to use some unfinished test footage to fill in the holes. But fans generally agree it makes more sense. For example, the theatrical release never fully explains how Superman gets his powers back after voluntarily giving them up, but the Donner cut shows that Jor-El “dies” again to restore the powers. The new version of the sequel also ends with Superman flying around the world to undo the damage of the supervillains and purge Lois Lane’s memory of the fact that he is Clark Kent. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that scene was written into the end of the original once it became clear it wouldn’t be used in the sequel.

8. ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (2001)

A 2003 “special edition” release of the much-lampooned Kevin Costner vehicle doesn’t contain many earth-shattering changes. But it does introduce a new backstory for the Sheriff of Nottingham by revealing that he is, in fact, the son of the evil witch Mortianna (who murdered the real son of the original sheriff and replaced him with her own). Sadly, the special edition doesn’t do anything to fix Costner’s uneven English accent.

9. KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (2005)

By adding some 50 minutes of footage, director Ridley Scott said his new cut of Kingdom of Heaven also adds a whole heap of context for the violence in his Crusades epic. For example, a priest that the blacksmith Balian kills at the beginning is revealed to be his half-brother, making their feud more about family relations than religion. The new cut also introduces an entirely new character, Baldwin V, who even becomes king before his family discovers that he has leprosy. Although the director’s cut was widely praised (unlike the theatrical release), at three-and-a-half hours, it never really took off with viewers who already hated the original release.

10. AND 11. EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING (2004) AND DOMINION: PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST (2005)

These aren’t directors cuts per se, so much as two directors using the same script and lead actor to make the different movies. Paul Schrader was hired to direct Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and managed to finish a final cut of the film. But producers at Morgan Creek weren’t happy with the result—too much religion, not enough blood—and decided to scrap that cut. But rather than get rid of the investment, they hired on Renny Harlin to retool the script and film a new version with star Stellan Skarsgård staying on board as Father Merrin.

Harlin’s version was released in theaters as Exorcist: The Beginning. But Schrader soon won the rights to release his own version, leaving audiences with two Exorcist prequels that both starred Skarsgård. Neither was well-received and both followed the same basic plot. But critics looked slightly more favorably on Schrader’s, which includes a love interest (that does not get possessed by a demon) and deals more with Merrin’s loss of faith.

An earlier version of this article appeared in 2011.