• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Fresh Prince: New Vivian or Original Vivian?

Shig

Strap on your hooker ...
Janet Hubert as Vivian.

Daphne Reid as a person.
Yeah, pretty much. I like the fire that OG Vivian brought to the show, but it sounds like once the cameras stopped, it kept going and tended to burn the people around her. You gonna be an actor, you need to have an off switch for that sort of intensity.
 

Africanus

Member
New Vivian as a person is amazing. Got a lot of flack back in the day in Chicago for being Northwestern’s first black homecoming queen I believe. Has good morals.

As a character, well ahh.
 

Galang

Banned
Original for sure. They should have just wrote her out the series instead of replacing her. I hate seeing flat out replacements in long-running series. I remember they made an excuse for the mom in That's so Raven for like two seasons saying she was studying in another country or something lol. Annoying, but it works better this way.
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
The OG was a great character, a strong, educated woman but also a great parent with a wry sense of humour. The second version was just a piece of furniture, she was a set dressing and nothing more.
 
This is a question?

The actress being a better person or not is irrelevant if we are talking about the actual onscreen character that is being portrayed. Old Vivian was a strong main character with story arcs and intensity that blended with the other characters beautifully.

New Vivian was unfortunately sidelined as a character not giving the actress a chance to take the helms as the character, which is unfair.
 

TP-DK

Member
Original Aunt Viv had a personality, stated interests and even her own story arcs. She was an educated career woman who chose to stay home, but you saw glimpses of this in her character. It wasn't something that was just said in the dialogue, as shown in one of the most memorable scenes from the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RB7zRhENCw

I can just imagine her doing those snaps with her finger at Will, each time she finished a scene.
 

Davidion

Member
Original Aunt Viv had a personality, stated interests and even her own story arcs. She was an educated career woman who chose to stay home, but you saw glimpses of this in her character. It wasn't something that was just said in the dialogue, as shown in one of the most memorable scenes from the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RB7zRhENCw

I didn't realize that when she starts dancing, the audience actually takes a second to realize what's going on. You can hear a "heh" in the background before people start hollering.

Could be a laugh track signal, but that's great.
 

Eggbok

Member
OH AUNT VIC >>>>

Come on, now
tumblr_n47o7kyu3j1sjqe5go1_250.gif

ICONIC.

giphy.gif
 

PSqueak

Banned
I feel the writing they did for Janet Hubert was much better, the character herself was stronger too, i always wonder why they decided to mellow the character out after the switch, maybe to spite Hubert?
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
New Vivian.

But it's pretty much two shows connected by a title. Once she left the show went full crazy awesome, shattering the fourth wall and going from a solid sitcom to something that was both hilarious and genuinely profound.
 

Faddy

Banned
OG Vivian was great. She made the whole premise make sense, she was a much more political character than uncle Phil and was damn fierce.

With new Viv they took a lot of personality out of the character and made the show more mainstream in appeal.
 
Old Aunt Viv's actress is a Capricorn. And if you know some Capricorns, even when they are wrong, they are still right. She reminds me of an ex.
 
Old Aunt Viv's actress is a Capricorn. And if you know some Capricorns, even when they are wrong, they are still right. She reminds me of an ex.
As a Cap...I cosign this. Took me a long time to learn when to shut the hell up and be "right" by my damn self.

Also, OG Viv is the best Viv, but new Viv was the better person. She was just milquetoast af.
 

PSqueak

Banned
Old Aunt Viv's actress is a Capricorn. And if you know some Capricorns, even when they are wrong, they are still right. She reminds me of an ex.

Can't tell if you're being serious or you're referencing that episode where Will and Uncle Phil are hired by a highly superstitious person.
 

Kyuur

Member
My SO and I started binging through FP on Netflix and quit the season New Vivian showed up, so yeah.
 
Fun fact, the actress who played the "New" Aunt Vivian was Daphne Maxwell Reid. She's married to Tim Reid, who you might know as...

1f7543293f11537f905acdd3911ea73f--sisters-images-lisa-ray.jpg


Ray Campbell from Sister, Sister!
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Old.

Old might've had a little too much sass for Will Smith but new is just milquetoast.
 
New Vivian.

But it's pretty much two shows connected by a title. Once she left the show went full crazy awesome, shattering the fourth wall and going from a solid sitcom to something that was both hilarious and genuinely profound.

They also strengthen the relationship with Will and Uncle Phil a lot too, which was great. Uncle Phil treated Will as his own son and not just as "Uncle Phil".
 

Ferr986

Member
I feel like New Viv problems were more about the writers and not the actress.

At the end yeah, Old Viv was better as a character, but partly because she was better written IMO.
 
Top Bottom