Bel-Air Brings Back Geoffrey’s Saddest Fresh Prince Story

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Bel-Air episode 8.

While Geoffrey was primarily used for humor in Fresh Prince, Bel-Air season 1 sees his saddest storyline returning in the reboot. Bel-Air’s version of Geoffrey is wildly different from Fresh Prince’s butler, beginning with the fact that he’s no longer a “butler” per se. Bel-Air’s Geoffrey is now the Banks’ “house manager,” though the twist on his character makes him more of a fixer for Phil, which oftentimes means bending the law or going on secret missions. The emotional depth and complexity of Geoffrey in Bel-Air are far different from Fresh Prince, so it makes sense that the reboot includes one of the original character’s saddest storylines.

Bel-Air season 1, episode 8 is primarily concerned with the conflict of Will and his father, Lou, whom Will assumed abandoned him when he was 4 years old. It’s revealed that Uncle Phil, Aunt Viv, and his mom Vy did something secretive to keep Lou away, with Phil now asking Geoffrey to do something to Lou that the house manager is morally opposed to. Geoffrey states that he thinks the decision for a father and son to see one another should be their own choice, not Phil’s or anyone else’s. Bel-Air’s Geoffrey then remarks that he thinks about his own son, and what he would feel in Lou’s position.

Geoffrey’s comment about having a son is a callback to a bittersweet Fresh Prince episode in which the character learned he had a child. The majority of the ’90s sitcom left Geoffrey without a family of his own – outside of the Banks – until Fresh Prince season 6. In the original show, Geoffrey’s son, Frederick, comes to America from London under the guise of reconnecting with his father. Geoffrey explains to Frederick that he had no idea he existed, whereafter the two spend Fresh Prince’s episode bonding about butlering. It’s later revealed that Frederick only came to America to scam his father out of money, but later returns to give the money back. Geoffrey is hurt, of course, but understands that Frederick only did so out of anger and confusion.

Bel-Air introducing the storyline of Geoffrey’s son gives the reboot more opportunity to explore the complexities of the character’s backstory, as his conflicts are typically confined to the Banks household. Geoffrey wasn’t given many emotional plotlines in Fresh Prince, but reconnecting with his teenage son was one of the best explorations of his personal struggles. Since Bel-Air’s episode has him compare his relationship with his son to Lou and Will, it’s clear that Geoffrey already has a fairly long history with Frederick in the reboot. While it’s still ambiguous as to whether Geoffrey’s son is back in London – where Geoffrey moved as a child from Jamaica – or came with him to America, his comments to Bel-Air’s Uncle Phil suggest he’s very fond of his son, but may not see him often.

Fresh Prince’s recurring theme of the relationship between fathers and sons has been clearly established within Peacock’s series, which suggests Geoffrey and his son’s storylines will be more prominent in Bel-Air‘s modern reboot than in the original sitcom. Fresh Prince’s season 6 finale saw Geoffrey announce that he was returning to London to be close to his son who needed him, which made for a perfectly fitting end to the butler’s story. Since Bel-Air already shows that Geoffrey is conflicted about his relationship with his son, the reboot is apt to dive deeper into his personal family struggles, which hopefully means an explanation about whether the reboot’s version of Frederick was left back in England when Geoffrey came to America to “escape his troubled past in London.”

New episodes of Bel-Air drop Thursdays on Hulu.

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Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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