November 02, 2006 @ 5:14 pm

Karyn Parsons: The Fresh Princess of Bel-Air

Tanisha Blakely

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The Hilary Banks that we know from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would have never agreed to work on the weekend, especially not on her birthday [October 8]. Unlike her TV character, a socialite preoccupied with living the good life off of daddy’s riches, Karyn Parsons willingly offered her celebratory Sunday afternoon to talk about the lost episodes of The Fresh Prince and surprisingly, African-American slavery. In between laughs about raising her daughter, scary TV auditions, and Quincy Jones, Parsons opened up about a story that many haven’t heard before: “The Journey of Henry Box Brown,” the true tale about a 19th century slave who mailed himself to freedom in a wooden box from Richmond to Philadelphia. The Bel-Air actress, currently living in New York with her husband and daughter, recently released an illustrated and entertaining historical account for children on DVD, under her company Sweet Blackberry. Although Parsons staunchly denies being a history lover, she plans to write and produce many more African-American tales [like Garrett A. Morgan’s] on DVD that most kids won’t learn in their history books. Here, she talks to Vibe.com about everything from black history to pop culture trivia. Vibe.com: Before now, I hadn’t heard the story of Henry “Box” Brown. How did you learn about it? left Karyn Parsons: My mother was the head of the Black Research Center in Los Angeles. About thirteen years ago she told me this story of Henry “Box” Brown and I had never heard it before. I was shocked. I would tell friends about it and they had never heard about it. I thought: ‘This is crazy that people don’t know this story and are not taught this in school.’ I thought that it would be a great line of books, but I was working at ‘Fresh Prince’ at the time, so I got caught up at work and forgot about it. Many years later I found myself pregnant and thinking about my responsibility of teaching my daughter about history and about black history and supplementing her education. Are there talks of having a ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ reunion show? Karyn Parsons: I haven’t heard any since the show ended. We used to joke about it when we were shooting the show. Because of those scary ‘Brady Bunch’ reunions, I pitched Will [Smith] a couple of different episodes where the cast dies on the last episode, that way we could avoid having to all come back and put on gowns and do some dance number together. Everyone would have to put on gowns, except for Geoffrey, he would still have to wear his butler clothes. Remember how Alice [from ‘The Brady Bunch’] would still have on her uniform, and everybody else would be in gowns? I was like, ‘We have to avoid that.’ So I wrote two episodes where everyone died. If you had to write a reunion episode of ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ what would Hilary be doing right now? Karyn Parsons: You would totally have to make a change for her, because with the Paris Hilton’s of the world it’s no big deal. They cancel out Hilary’s whole effect. You couldn’t do a ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ with Hilary right now, because people would be like ‘So, what?’ You see girls acting like that all the time. Instead of making fun of them, we’re sort of watching them - whereas with Hilary, we were making fun of her. I don’t think that she would have joined the Peace Corps or anything like that. It would be kind of funny if Hilary had children. Just having kids adds comedy to your life. If someone had a camera on you, you’d be like ‘Oh my God I didn’t know I was this funny and stupid.’ Hilary with children would definitely be an opportunity for comedy. How did you get the role of Hilary Banks on the sitcom “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?” Karyn Parsons: I auditioned and auditioned and auditioned. I auditioned for a casting assistant. Then I auditioned for the casting director, and then I auditioned for the shows creators, Andy and Susan Borowitz. Then I had the audition that flipped me out more than anything. I auditioned for Quincy Jones. I was so nervous. Quincy is a great audience. He slaps the table and laughs really loud, which you want when you’re auditioning for a comedy. He was laughing loud at my jokes, so that was nice. Speaking of Quicny Jones, I read that the cab driver in the opening credits of “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” was Quincy. Is that true? Karyn Parsons: If he was, no one ever told me that. This is the first I ever heard of that. I’ve seen the beginning, that’s not Quincy! I think I would have caught that by now. That’s a cute piece of bullshit trivia. You have Henry “Box” Brown out now and Garrett A. Morgan [who invented the traffic signal] as your next DVD. What African-American woman do you plan to do a DVD about? Karyn Parsons: I want to do William and Ellen Craft, which is another incredible slave escape story. That won’t come out for a little while, since we did Henry “Box” Brown’s slave escape story. But, that’s an incredible story. William and Ellen Craft were a couple. Ellen disguised herself as a white slave owner. She was light skin. She pretended to be William’s slave owner, and that’s how they escaped together. For more info on Karyn Parsons and Sweet Blackberry, go to sweetblackberry.com. Read more vibe.com online exclusives.

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