11 Grim TV Moments You Won't Watch Again

It's easy to forget that, even early in career, Will Smith was taking his acting career seriously. The young, charismatic kind-of rapper spent the first half of the 90s headling the hit sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, playing the West Philadelphia teen shaking up the rhythm of his upscale, wealthy relatives.

Concurrently, however, Smith was gaining critical accolades for his performance in Fred Schepisi's adaptation of the play Six Degrees of Separation as a homosexual con man who takes in the likes of Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing. To be playing against talent like that, it was clear the young actor had his sights set on higher goals.

But like any 90s sitcom, Fresh Prince had its "very special episodes" where characters took a laugh break to confront real issues. Typically, given the ethnic-angle not present in after-school shows, many of them dealt with racial-profiling conflicts and other problems the African American community faced(s).

Other episodes, however, were universal, and Smith brought the same sincerity and heart to the Fresh Prince that would later garner him two Oscar nominations when he realizes his birth father doesn't want to be a part of his life, crumbling into the arms of his uncle. It's a brutal realization, uncharacteristic of Smith's wiseass, making it all the more hard to watch.