A Night at the Oprah is the ninth episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's third season which was first broadcast on November 9, 1992.
Summary
After humiliating Uncle Phil with strange video recording, Will gets thrown out of the house. Later when the Banks family traveled to Chicago to be on Oprah, Philip and Vivian try to get Will to understand that he cannot go with them on stage.
Plot
The Banks family is invited to Oprah's show by Alexus, Trevor's ex-girlfriend which extremely excites Will. However, Trevor informs them that only immediately family is allowed on stage and Will does not count since he is a nephew. Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian cannot bring themselves to break the news to Will but eventually do at the last minute when they are called onto the stage.
Will is allowed onto the stage by Oprah when she realizes that Will was hurt when his family wouldn't let him be on stage. Family drama soon erupts on the stage when it is revealed Phillip kicked Hilary out and into the pool house, changing all the locks on the door. Will defends Phillip by saying how honorable he is and taking in a kid from Philadelphia to have a better life. Will gets into a fight with another audience member who insults Vy and calling her crazy for letting him live with a dysfunctional family. Will apologizes to Oprah for his behavior and she gives him two tickets to Donahue.
Later that night on the news, the family finds that the appearance on Oprah has caused Phil to plummet in the polls by 8% while Robertson takes in 12 kids from the ghetto in order to boost his campaign and compete with Phillip taking in Will.
Trivia
- Syndication cuts the scene where Will goes backstage to apologize to Oprah.
- This is the first and only appearence of Trevors old girlfriend, Alexus.
- Irony: Will thinks his family didn't want on the show with him, but the real reason he couldn't be on the show was because there wasn't enough room for him. Although, they never bothered to try to get him on, as
Uncle Phil said that it was good anyway that he wasn't coming on the show, as he already ruined Uncle Phil's campaign. Ironically, him getting onto the show made it even worse for Uncle Phil.
- Running Gag: Will asking the same question over and over again.
- Carlton's dance is shortened when aired in syndication.
- This episode's title is an allusion to the 1935 movie, A Night at the Opera, starring Groucho Marx.
- When Will answers the phone, he says "Home of the Whopper. What's your beef?" "Home of the Whopper" is the tag line for the Burger King fast food chain. "Where's the beef?" was used in one of the restaurant's ads.
- Senator Howard's line "I love your Leslie Uggams." is a reference to the actress and singer, Leslie Uggams.
- This episode continues Phil's running campaign story arc following from the episode "Here comes the Judge".
Goofs
- When Will first comes into the audience for the Oprah Winfrey Show, he takes an outside seat, but later on when he was asked again for a question, he is sitting in the middle of a group of chairs in the front row. He probably must've moved there, however.
Credits
Director
- Shelly Jensen
Writers
- Leslie Ray & David Steven Simon